4 bed Georgian/Victorian former coaching inn in Castle Cary.

It was awful.

Awful. We were going to avoid leaving a review. However, in light of Johns rudeness,I felt future sitters should be prepared for the ‘experience’. So in reply to his rubbish of a review I left the following.

In our initial telephone conversation in May, John said if we wanted to visit the cows it was a lovely area for dog walks but as mentioned in his listing, he had someone else caring for them.

9pm the night before John contacted us to say his female dog was in heat.

We arrived just after 2:30pm on the 8th July and were greeted by their child. We were then just left standing in the kitchen for half an hour until the lovely A (his wife) arrived and gave me a welcoming hug.

She was lovely but said she couldn’t tell us anything about the sit as it would upset John, he was in control.

She showed us a two page list of daily jobs he had for us.

John then arrived and said he had to pack the cars for their holiday, not welcoming at all, no smiles, very brusque. Once again we were left standing in the kitchen so yes, I turned the television on as it was very awkward just standing there.

What did John want us to do? Stand to attention and watch the family pack? THREE HOURS later after being ignored & no refreshments offered to us John said he would quickly show us around the garden.

John asked if we wanted to see his orchard and cows. As it was now the evening and we hadn’t had anything to eat or drink, we declined the tour. He said it wasn’t an issue as he had a “professional cow man” looking after them but it was a nice place for walks.

We DID go to see them and very pretty they were too.

Monday morning chaos ensued. Builders arrived daily to drill, loud radio & banging. A painter walked in and out the house opening windows, paint stripping and painting the windows with the worlds most awful smelling paint which filled the house up and even caused the holiday makers in the AirBnB to complain.

Cleaners from the AirBnB walking into the house shouting “Hello hello we need milk and bread! Hello!” even though I said we work from home and are often in telephone calls/meetings, neighbours walking into the back of the house to complain loudly about the builders van blocking their access, their poor, poor dog now in full frantic heat charging about barking and all this while we were trying to work!

John had booked all this to go on knowing they would be away and not have to endure it. More fool us for accepting the sit. We fed, loved and watered the animals that we had agreed to (2 pigs, 2 cats, a hen and the dog).

We watered and tended to their small allotment and greenhouse, cleaned up their dog poo, cleaned up their dogs vomit. Cleaned the bath daily as they feed the cats there and they make a meaty smelly mess.

We left the house spotless and took our usual photos before leaving. It was the most stressful two weeks we have ever experienced in our many years of house/animal-sitting & the first one we didn’t enjoy. I really don’t think THS is for John, he needs to pay for a house and landkeeper if he thinks THS isn’t about being on a relaxing holiday with plant/animal chores, which this should have been. Avoid