Dog Friendly Cottages In Ambleside

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• James M - Verified booking

  I am awaiting a call back from Sykes Customer services relating to our booking at High Ridge this weekend.

  Upon arriving at the property at 7.30pm Friday evening we found the property looked like someone else was staying there. There was open food in the fridge, dirty plates/pans/crockery on the side and in the sink, wet towels on the floor, no toilet roll. The beds had been slept-in so were obviously dirty and unmade. After trying with difficulty to get an emergency number for Sykes', it took an hour and a half before we were finally offered any alternative solution to this situation, one of which was to move to a caravan(!!!) at 9pm at night in a different village 15 mins away and the other was for a property at the top of a steep hill away from the centre of the village. I had a child with me that needed to eat immediately as well as an elderly parent - both options were completely unsuitable. We had travelled nearly 4 hours in traffic to get to Ambleside and despite this unpleasant situation, we had absolutely no option but to stay and try to make-do. We had to go out and purchase a load of cleaning products, cloths and toilet roll and we had to make-up beds with the least dirty sheets we could find. We spent the rest of the evening cleaning up someone else's mess to try to make the place as habitable as possible. There were no cleaning products in the apartment for us to clean up their mess, no toilet roll, and the "spare" sheets that we were advised to use were in a pile inside the filthy over-loaded store cupboard that was a complete dumping ground full of personal junk, mould, dust/dirt and peeling paint flakes, dirty brushes & mop-heads etc. To top it off, a stack of dirty old paint cans and decorating materials were stored in there immediately next to the pile of bed linen - highly flammable and illegal to keep in a rental/communal property I do believe. (BTW, we were instructed to make-up our own beds with these sheets!!) This is all hugely concerning. This property is in an extremely poor un-loved condition. It is very dirty throughout and has large areas of mould and damp stains in every room. There is also peeling paint and wallpaper throughout. There are no mattress protectors on the beds with vile dark stains on the mattress, pillows and duvet covers. And despite feedback/reviews on this matter I see there are still no curtains or blinds to shut out the light in either bedroom or to give privacy in the bathroom. (I hesitate to imagine what kind of state the carpet and cushions are in). Sykes "emergency" procedures are clearly pretty much non-existent. Basically it's tough, deal with it! - Unfortunately, we were unable to return home the following day due to another commitment however we departed the property as soon as we could at 7am the following morning. You will see from your records that the last time we booked with Sykes Cottages in April, we had very similar experience arriving at another filthy property with used sex toys and lube left on the bedroom cabinet for my children to find and handle! We are frequent visitors to the area and repeat customers who have booked your properties for years without issue. Are we wrong to assume proper service levels these days from Sykes or is this the way it is now for customers? These are some serious and unpleasant situations we have faced at the hands of your company and it is extremely disappointing to see that once again, Sykes cottages takes customers for granted with absolutely zero quality control and is happy to place them in filthy, run-down properties that are not fit or safe to stay in. As discussed with Christine from HO, we expect a 100% refund on this booking as well as reimbursement for costs due to yet another weekend being ruined at the hands of your company. (Photographic evidence available on request) I look forward to hearing from you.

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• Carl - Verified booking

  We enjoyed our stay and won't hesitate to come again.

  The property is very well placed in Ambleside at the top of the high street. It's the second floor in a building that houses the Co-op on the ground. It has a unique layout which gives it character. The property is slightly split-level having a small flight of stairs from the entrance/kitchen/bathroom level, up to the dining area/living room/bedroom level. The living room and bedrooms are extremely spacious. The living room has a large bay window which I enjoyed sitting in to watch the street life below. The kitchen feels modern, and the velux windows give it plenty of light. It has a small bar area for two to sit at. The kitchen facilities and utensils are plentiful. The bathroom also feels modern, there's a wash basin and bath and shower. Plenty of bath towels were provided. A small cloakroom area allows for coats and shoes. The tv has good reception and the wifi extends throughout the property. The property is very clean. We didn't hear any noise from the shop or it's morning deliveries; there was some noise from road traffic but nothing untoward. Parking is plentiful, the permit covers the whole of the Millans Park street which is immediately to the rear and is a long street. The decor is good but a fresh coat of paint wouldn't go amiss in some places. The blinds in the spare room aren't affective at keeping out the morning sun. It wasn't immediately obvious which gated entrance led to the property as there was no signage (except for #1 Redbanks next door). The shower feels "average", although probably depends on what you have at home :) Overall we were pleased and happy we got value for money.

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• Brian - Verified booking

  Great location with good-sized rooms apart from the bathroom which is poorly laid out.

  Maybe lose the bath and make room for decent sink and toilet space. The toilet is very close to a frosted window with a flimsy/see-through bamboo blind so it felt like we could be seen from outside. The mattresses were pretty hard and the beds squeaked, which made for a poor night's sleep. The double room has a 3-sided dormer window with a single blind so be prepared to wake at sunrise. Well equipped kitchen with a full range of pots, pans, cups, plates, glasses etc. The frying pan lost its 'non-stick' many breakfasts ago so we had to buy one from the shop downstairs. The entire flat is in need of redecorating, as there are damp stains on the walls in all rooms. The WiFi didn't work and there were no instructions so we didn't know which network to connect to and had no password either. The phone signal is pretty poor in the Lakes so WiFi is essential. The biggest issue was the 'free parking permit', we arrived to find two parking 'Discs' so I felt like we had been duped. We had to move our car every 60 minutes between the hours of 10:00 to 18:00 every day, which was a real pain. On the last day, I spoke to the cleaner from downstairs who said that there should have been a yellow disc left for us. Did the last guest forget to leave it? Ideally, a welcome pack informing us about the parking permit and WiFi would be welcome.

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• Roger - Verified booking

  My wife and I greatly enjoyed our week at High Ridge, a very neat and well-appointed holiday flat, and hope to return there some time in the future.

  However, there are a few things which I should perhaps bring to your attention. Would you please forward this message to owner of High Ridge, Ambleside (ref. 933760):- * In both of the single beds, several of the wooden slats across the bottom of the frame (on which the mattress rests) are completely missing. This naturally makes the beds rather less secure and comfortable than they should be. * The remote control for the DVD player is missing. It is still possible to play DVDs, but without a remote it is not possible to access the extra features on them, such as episode selection, scene selection, subtitles, etc. A couple of other things are less important: * A light bulb in the bathroom needs replacing. * As you already know, a hinge on one of the kitchen cupboards still needs to be replaced. And I should like to make a couple of suggestions, which could help to make High Ridge even better: * A non-slip rubber mat for the bath when the shower is being used. (At the moment, the bath gets very slippery with soapy water from the shower. * A shaver point by the mirror in the bathroom. But, as I have said, we enjoyed our stay, and hope to return. Regards. Roger Harris.

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• Sandra - Verified booking

  We go to the Lakes a lot, and always around bonfire night to get our dogs away from all the madness.

  We have always stayed in cottages, so this was our first time in a lodge. I have to say this is the best accommodation we've ever stayed at, and I'd always look fo book a lodge first in future. It really did feel like a home from home and because there are only a small number of lodges it feels really private. The beds and bedding are top hotel quality, absolutely gorgeous. Everything worked like a dream and it was equipped to the best standard, you really couldn't ask for more. Really cosy and the wood burner was really efficient and we didn't use as much wood as we do back home. It's really spacious and the pictures just don't do it justice, we absolutely loved everything about this lodge. Some kind of bucket or something would be helpful to clean muddy paws, but we cobbled something together to make it work. Definitely get a supermarket delivery if you can, there were a number of deliveries around us while we were there. Access is really easy. I wouldn't hesitate in recommending this gorgeous lodge to anyone and we'd definitely come again. Thank you for letting us stay in your gorgeous home from home.

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