Dog Friendly Cottages in Cumbria

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Colin - Verified booking

  Unfortunately the problem started before we even arrived.

  We were called en-route to say that the heating and hot water were not working, that they had left some portable heaters in the house and to leave the hot water immersion on during our stay. This was fine considering it was summer but would have been a problem in winter, and the water was so boiling because the immersion was constantly on that it actually became dangerous. Having looked back at previous reviews I can see that the heating has been an issue for well over a year. Why has this not been addressed? Additionally, the cleanliness of the property is poor. It was very dusty everywhere including areas like the top of picture frames and radiators and bedside tables etc. The major problem is the finish of the decor. There was mould on the bathroom ceiling and blinds, and actual moss growing on the inside of the conservatory windows. The sealant round the bath and kitchen sink was completely black with mould and we all avoided taking baths the whole week as it was really off putting The wallpaper in the kitchen ceiling was hanging off (again, mentioned in the reviews months ago) and in general, the house just needs re-decorated completely due to dirty walls and chipped paintwork etc. It is unfortunate that this review does not allow photographs because I documented all of these problems to show where work needs done. The house only has one lavatory, and there is no hand sink in the room with the toilet so you have to come out of the toilet to go into the other room to wash your hands, which is not really convenient. The other room only has a bath with shower attachment, and a sink, no toilet. While we knew there was only one bathroom, we did expect there to be a small sink to wash your hands in the room with the toilet. The kitchen is pretty well equipped, though tired, and there was everything we needed in there for the week. The beds are very comfortable which was a plus. The location of the cottage is nice but be aware that, even though it is described as being within "walking" distance to a lot of places, this is actually pretty impossible and dangerous as there are no pavements! We were unable to walk anywhere with our dog as there was no safe way to do this. The grounds of the cottage could be spectacular, but again, they have been left to go into disrepair and the garden needs a good overhaul and general tidy. There were two wasps nests (one at the garage and one under a tree as you enter the property) so we did not spend much time in the garden. If this cottage was redecorated and cleaned, and the grounds tidied up, it would be a really nice holiday home, but as is currently presented, we do not feel it is suitable for a future holiday. It really needs a lot of money spent on it, and considering it costs well in excess of £2K to rent in some summer months, this should be invested in bringing the home up to standard.

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• Angela - Verified booking

  It's with deep regret that I feel I need to leave such negative feedback but there's so many problems with the property.

  Some were mentioned prior to my stay and was given assurances that they'd been sorted. The central wasn't working on arrival but on Monday morning the heating engineer turned up unannounced as we were getting ready to go out. We waited whilst he fixed the heating. We were shown an override giving us just 3 hours of constant heating. That being said it still didn't work properly and was hit and miss whether it would come on or not. Some days we needed a warm house to return back to after being out in the pouring rain and wind for hours. There's black mould on the bathroom ceiling and green mould on the shower screen plastic seal. The property has a musty damp smell. And due to their being no central heating the rooms felt damp too. Outside of the property the seating areas are dirty and untidy so we didn't take advantage of this during our stay and we had a few nice evenings but had to spend indoors. The decked area outside of the living room was extremely slippy so again it made it difficult for us use this. There's no lights outside and when it went dark you couldn't see without the use of a torch. No personal touches by the owner. We've stayed in cottages before were the owners have left tea, milk and biscuits, bottles of wine as a welcome and thank you gift along with a thank you note. The location isn't as described either as the local pub was more than just a few minutes away, not as stated in the listing. The only benefit to us is that we could visit other areas of the lake district and the lake cruise and train was great. I've taken photos of the property should you need anything further. I've also emailed your CEO as we want to raise a complaint about the state of the property we rented out in good faith according to the rave reviews and the listing. We were ready to come home after 2 days but the fact we had spent £800 on our holiday we decided to use it as a base for us to explore the lakes, and ate out every evening. The crockery is all chipped and damaged too. Conservatory is cold and damp, smells too and there's a window which has a broken seal so the glass is steamed up. Windows are dirty inside the window frames and the glass needs a clean too.

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• Ray - Verified booking

  The very good news first : The Hare and Hounds opened it,s doors again on the 23rd September with new owners.

  Drinks only presently, with food to commence mid October. We had concerns after booking much earlier in the year and later seeing a couple of worrying reviews. There was a much better review left after those so that reassured us some what. We contacted Sykes with our concerns and were told the owners had been to provide some maintenance. Not all our concerns were answered. Another issue was that the agency were still advertising Bowland Bridge as having a small shop and The Hare and Hounds Pub within a few yards of the cottage. We found out that the shop has been closed well over two years and the pub had also been closed at least since early 2020. Not Covid related. However, agencies continued to promote these facilities. The cottage itself is set in a lovely Hamlet and area. The garden is huge and wonderful for Children and pets. ( Shame we lost our dog two weeks prior to visiting ) There is access through a wall to the small river and a determined dog would get across this. We found the cottage to be a quaint period country house, the main lounge for us was comfortable. There seems to have been a new settee provided since previous reviews identified issues. The kitchen is small, units slightly dated now but very adequate for our holiday , well equipped. The beds were comfortable although the bedrooms a little tight but that is to be expected in an old house such as this. The single room is smaller but has good space. There were some minor issues that we reported to the maintenance man ( later the owners ) we agreed we were happy for those issues to wait until change over day as they were not spoiling our holiday. Perhaps the thing that did annoy us slightly was that the back bedroom door would not shut and swung back open hence no privacy. Maybe not a problem with family but we were with friends. Would we go back to The Smithy's Cottage ? Now that the pub is open again, Certainly.

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• Pam - Verified booking

  Lovely gem of a cottage.

  We loved our stay here and would definitely stay again. There’s just a few hiccups that the owners can do before someone arrives! When we arrived, given the time of year, it was freezing cold. There was a notice up asking us to not ‘mess with’ the central heating so we set it on boost. The house was lovely and warm in a couple of hours but we had to keep putting it on boost for the whole of our stay. When we rang Lakelovers they told us the cleaners had probably put the house in holiday mode (and it was because we checked) but I know that there was someone in the week before us so they probably had the same problem! When the cleaners clean the house for who ever is arriving they central heating should be set up to run so it runs properly. We didn’t appreciate a cold house every day when we woke up because the heating had come off boost and was set at 6 degrees! The only other thing is we couldn’t get into the garage to access the washing machine and freezer because the garage door lock is broken. We had to ring the maintenance man, who then rang the owner. She told him the lock was ‘dicky’. He eventually got it to open but it meant we couldn’t lock the garage when we left which we informed Lakelovers about as we checked out. The lock needs fixing. Anything could be taken or broken that’s in there! All said though. We had a lovely stay. Slept well and enjoyed the wood burner when we managed to buy some wood for it. The kitchen is well stocked - tea, coffee, milk sachets and sugar were provided but salt, pepper etc were missing. We left the ones we purchased behind to rectify this. Only qualms - the garage door and the central heating issue. Both of which can easily be rectified.

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• Hazel - Verified booking

  This holiday cottage was described as being located in a village with both a pub and shop, however both of these facilities closed over two years ago.

  It was a considerable drive to the nearest shop which was annoying because on arrival we saw a sign which advised to drink bottled water only. We couldn’t get the hot water to work and the heating was on full (in July) and it wouldn’t turn off. There was a phone number displayed to call in the event of maintenance problems but the man couldn’t come until the next day! Sofas were extremely old and uncomfortable as they lacked any support whatsoever. There was a sign saying the fire didn’t work as waiting for a part and I am not sure if this contributed to the musky, smoky smell throughout the house There was lots of hair in the bath plug when we arrived and the dial knobs on the cooker were grimy. Therefore, instead of relaxing on the first day of our holiday, we were trying to sort out hot water/ heating issues and phoning maintenance men, giving everything a good clean, driving some distance for bottled water and food as there was no pub in the village and the other nearest pub was booked up for dinner all week ! The area surrounding the cottage is beautiful, the garden is impressive, great for dogs however, I do feel that Sykes need to re-write the description for this property so people are aware of what to expect.

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