Dog Friendly Cottages in Dorset

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Shaun - Verified booking

  The instructions from Sykes were excellent and we found The Boat House easily.

  It’s a short walk from the allocated car parking space but you can reverse your car to offload outside the property. The location is fantastic just feet from the harbour wall, with excellent views up and down the harbour and a short stroll into town, with many pubs and cafes just minutes away and the main shopping area just a little further. The Boat House is very spacious and easily accommodated our party of 8. It is well equipped, with a decent sized kitchen on the ground floor and a lovely lounge on the first floor which overlooks the harbour, and is a great spot for watching the boats. The Boat House is very good for multiple families with bedrooms on the ground, first and second floor. All of the bedrooms are a good size, with bathrooms next door or on suite. Two of the bedrooms have televisions and there is a large smart TV in the lounge, so you can access Netflix etc. WiFi speed is very good. Overall the property is nicely decorated and very comfortable. We didn’t use the garden, but it’s a lovely little enclosed space. Sykes advertise the property as refurbished throughout and I’m sure that was the case on first listing. Unfortunately, damp has taken hold of the rear of the property downstairs and the walls are badly stained in areas, with paint flaking off, I left a blue bag in the hallway which was covered in white paint dust by the time we packed to leave. The mold/mildew/moisture has led to The Boat House having a horrible musty smell downstairs, especially in the bedroom, to the extent my Wife couldn’t sleep in that room (not great for Asthma). That’s the reason I’ve marked down my ratings on accuracy of rating and cleanliness. It’s a beautiful house, in a lovely spot and highly recommend Weymouth for a weekend. We’d definitely use again, if the damp problem can be addressed.

  Read more less >

• Lucy - Verified booking

  We were happy with the location of the Boat House while we were in Weymouth for an event.

  The living room, dining room & master bedroom on top floor at front of the property were lovely rooms. However, there were multiple issues with the property. These are outlined below: - Wifi/broadband was extremely poor quality. A friend trying to work from the property was not able to. Owner was aware of this issue but it should definitely be made clear that the property cannot support working from home. - Intermittent flashing light bulb in 1st floor bathroom. - Toilet seat in 1st floor bathroom had completely come off the basin. - Blind in back bedroom on top floor broken. - Cupboard doors throughout the property don't shut once opened or are very difficult to open. We're aware this may be to do with the damp but some could be fixed or adjusted to be easier to use. - Floorboards in hallway were lifted & causing a trip hazard. Owner Mile did try to attend to this while we were staying but it remained a hazard & we were unable to shut inner door. - The damp throughout property was extensive, particularly on the ground floor & in the back bedroom on ground floor. This is a health hazard. - There was no door covering the boiler in the 1st floor twin room which made the noise of the boiler in the bedroom loud & disturbed sleep. - There were several occasions when there was a very strong sewage smell throughout the ground floor. This may be to do with the tides but this was particularly unpleasant. - Moldy coffee grounds left in the stove top coffee caffitiere. - Bins in the kitchen were dirty on arrival. Some of these issues, we recognise, may not be easily fixed due to the location on the harbour front. Mike did respond & explain what had been done to try and fix some of the problems when we raised these at the time.

  Read more less >

• Mark - Verified booking

  As great a position as the house is in, that wasn’t enough to make the property one to recommend.

  It looked and felt dirty - floors & skirting boards, blinds, showers, kitchen utensils, under sofa……all dirty, looked like it had a quick surface clean. Odorous smells of damp, filthy windows that look like they haven’t been cleaned in months. Garden - get the tree cut back so seats not covered in branches, leaves, bird poo - needed big clean every day we were there, also no parasol?? Many cupboard doors didn’t fit properly, and hard ti close, esp fridge freezer. Broken window pane in lounge. Not enough toilet rolls left, no kitchen roll, not enough dishwasher tablets, no salt and pepper, the basics that we expect to find in a self catering property, especially at this price. Only one set of house keys - key safe not easy for elderly parents who can’t see the digits and use small buttons easily, as well as remembering code. A number of lights didn’t work. The smell of damp still strong. Coasters and placemats in dining room filthy. One double mattress the springs have gone, massive dip, causing bad back each morning. Walls dirty, marked, paint peeling off in at least one of main bedrooms, really needs urgent redecoration, a handyman and a thorough deep clean. Summary - great location, let down by lack of cleanliness and attention to detail. Very evident that this is a popular house that gets booked regularly due to location and brochure photos, and it never gets the time to be fixed and cleaned properly. Had we not had the 30% discount due to a bedroom and bathroom not being able to be used because of damp, we would have been very unhappy at paying full price for this property - the brochure photos mask the reality.

  Read more less >

• Andrew - Verified booking

  Unfortunately we were really disappointed with the property and the experience offered.

  It’s a beautiful house, in a great location but that’s where the praise stops - as there has been no care or attention put into the house in recent years. Large sections of the house are affected by damp - of course we understand that with houses by the seaside this may occur, but it seems the owners have given up on the issue. The ground floor is plagued by a really strong damp smell, while all the bedrooms upstairs have quite visible staining and peeling on the walls. In one room they’ve painted over a damp section in what I can assume is stain block but then not finished/ decorated over. It’s just made the bedrooms look quite shabby when I imagine they were very thoughtfully decorated at some point. For a premium listing we were also very unimpressed with the very cheap motel-style synthetic bedding and linen. There were also no amenities that you would usually expect - shower gel, olive oil, salt and pepper etc. All the instructions need to be updated - the symbols have all rubbed off the oven so we had to guess at the settings! Plus the thermostat instructions are out of date - we spent a huge amount of time hunting round for the thermostat on a cold day. Finally for the huge price we paid (and in fact it was meant to cost more but we received a last minute deal) we would have expected more of a welcome - a bunch of flowers, a bottle of wine? Just small and inexpensive gesture of thanks for booking….There were vases everywhere and no flowers, it was so strange. Overall a beautiful house but more care and attention need to be applied.

  Read more less >

• Pamela - Verified booking

  The property overall was surprisingly good.

  I say that because I have had experience of booking a holiday home through a company rather than a private hire before and they haven’t been too good. Firstly the cleanliness was superb. Beds were clean and fresh everywhere indoors was lovely. There was a lovely little welcome pack of tea, jam and biscuits. And we felt very at home. There were only two let downs. Firstly the bathroom on the ground floor had a few issues. The tap on the huge bath was wobbly from what looked like broken tiles around it. Also there was a bit of mould on the walls that needs attention and the skylight above the bath could have been lovely had it been clean and free of bird poo. Secondly both the BBQ’s hadn’t been cleaned by the previous users and we couldn’t use either of them, which was a shame as we had a lovely evening weatherwise when a BBQ would have been nice . I understand both these issues were not the responsibility of the cleaners so no criticism to them. On the whole though we have a lovely stay and would recommend this house to everyone.

  Read more less >