Characterful 3 bed cottage in the Cotswolds with separate annexe

I had a wonderful stay at Rose Cottage! The facilities were excellent, and everything was well-maintained. The cozy decoration added a warm and welcoming touch, making it feel like a home away from home. Overall, I was very happy with my experience and would highly recommend it to others.

We stayed in Rose Cottage Freeland for a week in December, it was a mixed experience. The good: Character property, good bed and good (we think 'new' as it was different on the photos) shower, good location to explore both Oxford and the Cotswolds. The bad: On arrival the house was pitch black and stone cold. Not the warm, Christmassy welcome we expected after a 12-hour journey. And very different from other holiday lets we stayed in. There was a 'Merry Christmas' door mat and a X-Mas wreath outside, but that's very the experience stopped. The thermostat was set to 7 degrees C on a programme we could not change so we had to contact the agent/owner. They remotely changed it to manual, which made it possible for us to use the heating, although this meant waking up to a cold house every morning, as we turned the heating down for the night to save energy. The bathroom and bedroom were clean, the kitchen had a lot of cobwebs in it, clearly older than a week. We cleaned the ones above the kitchen food prep surfaces ourselves. Also there were no hand or dish towels in the kitchen. When we contacted the agent again about these findings, he arranged to send someone with some paper towels and cleaning spray (and a bottle of wine and some chocolates as an apology). He also said the cleaner would contact us for a 'mid-stay-clean'. We never got a message from the cleaner. The (frying)pans (only five of them in a house for six people) were dirty and old, with the non-stick surface clearly damaged. We sent some photos of them to the agent, the reply: "OK, thank you for letting me know." No attempt was made to rectify it. There was a Nespresso coffee machine, not cleaned, which took special pods There were no pods provided. We went to several shops in Oxford before finding out that these were only available online or as a subscription. After contacting the agent again, he told where to find them in the house. The wifi extender in the bedroom was not properly connected to the main router, luckily we had the knowledge to fix this ourselves. The welcome instructions lacked important information e.g. about nearest medical facilities / GP. And it was our very first holiday let in thirty years without a 'guestbook' and some kind of welcome note or package. All in all not what we expected for this price. Recommended? No. The house is let down by a lack of real care, both for details and for the guests.

We had a great few days in this very nice part of the country. Very traditional feel to this wonderful little cottage with a church and pub just up the road with so much to do in the surrounding areas. Blenheim Palace is a must when visiting.