"Visited National Trust Waddesdon Manor…"

National Trust- Waddesdon manor - pricing very confusing for people - to access house you have to pay for the grounds and house separately. The website is deliberately obscure as it does not make clear that the grounds does not include the house - it would be a simple change on the website to have ticket options A) grounds or B) house and grounds. Whilst outside waiting to go in - we personally witness 6 groups get turned away as they did not realise grounds did not include the house. The grounds are not worth the money they were charging. What was disturbing was the ticket collector told me yes this happens often - and they do nothing about it. , except collect money

"Poor Covid response"

I have been a member of the national trust for about 5 years until now as a young member. I had known for a few years that 2020 would’ve been my last year at the young member rate. Unfortunately the past year meant that I was not able to use my membership at all, not even for car parks as we couldn’t travel.

My membership expired end of April and I was quite disappointed to see that despite the pandemic stopping members from making use of their funding, the Trust still want another years membership payment which is now at the higher rate for myself. All that we received were 2x free entry when entering with existing members - which is no use when I don’t know any others with memberships.

For a charity who I believed appreciated their members, this is just a bit of a kick in the teeth that they collected the money and have given very little back in return. I understand that the trust is a charity with estate to maintain, but this experience has made me reluctant to join again in future.

"NT Wokey parker = gone …"

Good to see the NT commissar wokey parker loose his position as the big woke cheif. Of to Siberia with you ! Other ignorant wokey goons will also be removed from the NT soon. Their ignorance about history is laughable and dangerous. Where are the woke stars going to spread their muck next ? Wokey parker and Co need to be re-educatedone. NT is about preserving History not perverting history.

"Visiting Greys Court outside Henley on…"

Visiting Greys Court outside Henley on Thames.

Not a single useful sign and no Maps available.

Do they care about their members?

"I joined our NT Our Place hoping to…"

I joined our NT Our Place hoping to write some critical reviews of the NT. Seems they don't like this. When my wife tried to join, she was asked if she had any journalistic associations. She did. Registered this and was then told she didn't qualify for membership.
What a nasty little organisation.

"National Trust Member"

National Trust Member
Me and my wife recently joined a joint membership, and we received a national trust card each , But unfortunately my wife had realised she had forgotten to bring it with her and left it at home. And Unsure on what we needed to do about this , And arriving at Barrington court Somerset, Maggie at the reception Was most helpful & pleasant and arranged a temporary card for my wife to use untill we returned home .
So we continued with our trips. And was impressed with all staff .with the knowledge and helpfulness, about the venue's , it was excellent

"Visit to Nostell Priory"

Had a lovely day at Nostell Priory yesterday. Booked parking through the system (Eventbrite) last Friday although we probably wouldn't have needed to because there was plenty of space in the car park. Had a walk around the estate and had a picnic. After that went into the house which was fully open, unlike last year when you could only go around the ground floor. The staff and volunteers were very welcoming, in fact one volunteer said how nice it was to welcome visitors again. We then took a stroll around the gardens which had been kept immaculate. Rounded of the visit with coffee and cake in the courtyard cafe, a wander around the gift shop then home. This was my experience of a National Trust property who seem to have got their act together after the difficulties of last year.

"Holiday cottage disgrace."

Coming out of lockdown we booked a stay at Little Milford Farmhouse in Pembrokeshire. We arrived to find the cottage to be in a terrible state of repair. The cottage was damp and cold with rotten woodwork. The property was dirty with lots of black mold and the outdoor furniture was severely burnt by a careless barbecue user. There were also numerous deviations from the advertised specifications. We have had a small refund on our £800 stay but have been continuously ignored by customer services. Please ask for an assurance of a full refund before you book. The national trust don’t seem show reviews for each property, so please be careful before booking. Sadly you can no longer trust the national trust.

"After 19 years of joint membership we…"

After 19 years of joint membership we have reluctantly decided to give up our membership. What has driven this:-
1. Politicking by the Trust and disregarding their fundamental obligations
2. Overly restricting access to their properties by a burdensome booking process and other constraints
3. Turning the Trust into a 'Disney World' venue
The management have a lot of questions to answer and unfortunately Covid provided the perfect excuse to hide away and cancel the last AGM. We may rejoin when the present management have been 'cleared away'

"Very upset they won’t extend our memberships due to COVID"

We received our memberships as a couples present, to start March 2020 until March 2021, but of course COVID struck. They changed our membership so it’s started June 2020 until June 2021, but nothing much was open last year, only non-local gardens far away. We asked to change our membership to autumn 2021 until autumn 2022 because we hadn’t used our membership at all, but were told no, because it had been changed already at the start of the 1st lockdown. So far, we have been to 1 garden in the Cotswolds at Hidcote last month April 2021 (we live in Leamington Spa). Complete waste of money. I was hoping to keep purchasing the memberships each year to use around the country, to actually go inside the grand houses, but won’t now. Once it ends I’m never going to a National Trust place again. Complete rip off. We even got ripped off by £1 in the Hidcote gift shop, by a wrongly labelled tea towel, after spending nearly £10 each on a coffee and sausage roll. Lesson learnt! I’ll stick to the free public parks and beauty of the hills, lakes, and mountains anyone can access all over the UK, like the Peake and Lake Districts, New Forest, Dassett Hills, Draycote Water, etc.