Aylworth Manor

Sarah, an employee was the greeter and wonderful. Becky, her weekend replacement was snitty. The owners were off at some social wedding on the continent. We were to be in a garden view. Sorry but all we could see was the parking lot. We had to share the floor with family, { and uncle and his son) very awkward, and did not have an en suite but a "private bath" in the hall. You have to vacate the property at 10:00 AM and not permitted back until 4:00PM. Not great if one is wet from walking in the rain etc. No guest lounge and the breakfast was unimaginative and just dumped on the plate. Beautiful grounds but you did not feel you could explore and also a long way to get dinner.

Aylworth is a peaceful haven of friendliness. The hosts, Jo and John Ireland are welcoming and generous - as well as having a memorable sense of humour. Our bed was large with beautiful linen, bathroom full of lotions and fluffy towels. Breakfast was epic. A real find. We will return.

We arrived 20 minutes before 4pm and were greeted by the nice gardener who showed us into the house, allowing us to put our luggage inside and noted the owners would be back soon. We waited in our car. The owners got back in just a few minutes. The woman immediately acted as though we were trespassers and aggressively accused us of treading mud into the home. I have it on video, there was a small piece of mud, measuring about 1 inch on her carpet on the stairs, easily removable and for the record was not caused by us. She then cursed at us with words I would never use at anyone let alone paying guests. We were asked to go and come back at 4pm which was about ten minutes away. 2 minutes past 4pm, we knocked on the door and said we were just getting our luggage and would not be staying. Once we left, they gave us trouble in returning our money. This is all during what is supposed to be a pleasure (i.e., non-working non-stressful) trip. Upon reflection the most egregious part was how unwelcome and hostile she was towards us. No matter what time rules she strictly sets for her B&B, we paid and were expecting to be staying as guests. The gardener could have told us to come back at 4pm. Rather than be upset with the gardener, she was upset with us. We didn't have another place to stay. We are from the US and had to quickly figure out where we could go. Luckily it was in March which is not a heavy tourist season so we found several places in near by towns we could stay in. We ended up finding the best place ever with such welcoming and accommodating people. After requesting and fighting for a refund, it took a few days to receive our money back. At first I was so grateful our trip was salvaged I wasn't going to write any reviews. But upon reflection, I found Aylworth Manor on a YouTube channel and I thought if I had read a review such as this one, I would not have booked it and it would have saved us a lot of time, energy and stress. So, this is why I wanted to write this review. I hope I can help prevent someone else from going through what we went through. Btw, I did find a review after returning from our trip which described an eerily similar scenario occurring at Alyworth Manor when that person arrived a few minutes before 4pm as well. So, I think the main issue with the owner is the 4pm arrival. I can't speak for an actual stay there since we left and did not stay. But if you read this review and still want to say there, please be forewarned, do not get there before 4pm. I have also read a lot of reviews saying the owner is strict regarding guests not being in the house between the hours of 10:30am and 4pm during their stay. That rule seems really odd. I can tell you we stayed in Stow-on-the-wold and paid less for a fantastic stay with no restrictions on when we were there, when we were not there. They were very liberal on when we checked out and also provided a fantastic full English breakfast with fresh juices, wonderful toast choices, jams and f