Dog Friendly Cottages York

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Katharine - Verified booking

  Overall we enjoyed our stay at Bracken Cottage.

  Everything was spotlessly clean, high spec and we found the cottage to be well equipped which made our stay very comfortable. We arrived to find a hamper of treats, milk and orange juice in the fridge and fluffy robes and slippers for each of us - off to a great start! The cottage is situated in a very quiet spot of countryside and we were undisturbed. There are three TVs, one in the living room, and one in each bedroom which made life easier as the kids could watch what they wanted. Unfortunately, I hadn’t realised until arriving at the cottage and reading the manual, that dogs are not allowed to be left unattended in the cottage. When I had booked Bracken Cottage it was listed as dog friendly and there was no mention of this rule. Thinking it wouldn’t be a problem (because our dog is well behaved, house trained and rarely barks unless someone’s at the door) we left the dog in the cottage so we could take the kids to York’s Chocolate Story (highly recommend, do pre-book) and York Minster (incredible) and go to The Shambles for some Harry Potter shopping! Whilst out, the owner reported me to Sykes and I received an emailing stating I needed to return to the dog and that I could be asked to leave if I did this again! Shocked by the threatening email, I contacted Sykes who advised me they always recommend owners implement this rule and they couldn’t help me any further, so I contacted the owner directly who advised me the dog had been barking and she was sitting on the sofa where she is not allowed to sit. Eventually the owner agreed to let it go and wished us a nice day, so we didn’t have to miss out on what we’d already booked, but this restricted the majority of our holiday from then on as we couldn’t leave the dog for any length of time if we didn’t want to risk being evicted! By the way, Sykes confirmed later, in another strongly worded email, that this rule is in the small print within the terms and conditions that you accept as you complete the booking. I didn’t read those and I’m pretty sure no one ever does, so beware. The hot tub is eco friendly and runs from a wood burner. This takes quite a long time to get going - 4 hours or so when it’s cold. We got better at using it as the week went on but it was a faff and very time consuming and you need to keep going outside every 10-15 minutes to check it and throw some wood/kindling on it. Once it’s his 38 degrees it’s lovely, but there are no bubbles. We would definitely have preferred an electric hot tub and to have paid more for it, so now we know. We went to the RAF museum (dog friendly) about 18 min drive from the cottage and enjoyed that, we also spent a day at Whitby which was fantastic and the kids and dog loved it. The Abbey is dog friendly as are the beaches, off peak.

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• Julian - Verified booking

  Bathroom unusable due to extreme heat.

  Radiator could not be turned off. Shower was inside bath, so inaccessible for us both as disabled people. We washed in the kitchen sink. Many problems getting TV to work. Table and chairs in small back garden adjacent to gas extractor fan making it impossible to sit outside. Floors creaky and noisy. Steps up into and out from property steep and with no hand rails, difficult to manage. External ground mix of gravel and irregular paving slabs made getting to and from the car very difficult. The cottage appeared from the published description to be cosy and ideal for our needs, but on arrival it was apparent that the owner was not fully conversant with how things worked and had not properly prepared for our arrival. We were told, for instance, that radio was available throughout, but the owner could not explain how it worked, so we did not use it. We kept the central heating switched on throughout, as it was unclear how it could be turned on again if we turned it off. The thermostats in every room were difficult to regulate, so were either boiled alive or had no warmth at all. There was scant guidance provided on most things in the folder provided. There was very little storage space for our dry groceries, so they were mostly left on tables and work surfaces. We never went upstairs ourselves, but we gather from a friend who did so, that it was like an oven with no windows and the sun burning through the roof light. The cottage was well equipped and decorated, but more attention should have been given to detail and thought given to the overall holiday experience. When we hire a cottage, we expect not to have to keep asking for help and for the owner to have got everything working so that our holiday experience is stress free and without complication. The location was ideal for us, but I'm afraid we would neither wish to use the cottage again or recommend it to friends.

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• Rachel - Verified booking

  This was our second stay at this lovely and luxuriously appointed apartment and we were pleased to see that our review from our previous visit (May 2023) had been acted on - kettle and pillow issues now resolved.

  There remain however several irritations in this luxury and not inexpensive apartment. There were 5 guests staying in an apartment accommodating 6 people. Only 4 towels, 4 bowls and no bedding provided for the sofa bed (this happened last time so we were prepared with our own bedding). Not equipping the apartment with basic crockery, utensils and linen for the maximum number of guests it accommodates is however inexcusable. We have been in the holiday letting business ourselves for over 20 years and always over supply on cutlery, crockery and glasses to accommodate the inevitable breakages. We also missed the following kitchen basics - bread board, bread knife, grater & chopping board. The Internet was non existent - we couldn't get the TV or anything to work without hot spotting to our phones. I see this has been raised in other reviews but remains an issue and difficulty for anyone needing to work whilst away. We also had the same experience as other guests in relation to parking. On arrival we parked our two cars in tandem in space 6 to unload. We did not use the other apartment vacant spaces, we were not blocking anything but within half an hour we had a nasty and passive aggressive sticker on our windscreen. Not the owners fault but I think the listing could be more explicit about the parking challenges on site, near the apartment and in the town generally. Had we not tandem parked temporarily unloading with a child and elderly parent would have been impossible. A suggestion perhaps would be to provide a disc for town parking for the use of guests - we have had this in the past in other properties we have rented and it certainly alleviated the parking stress on arrival.

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• Emma - Verified booking

  We’ve stayed at Sykes cottages many times, this corkage was not of the standard of others so I’m unsure how Sykes work out their ratings.

  We chose this cottage as my mum can’t manage stairs so had the downstairs bedroom. This only has a bath which she couldn’t use. It would have made more sense to have a shower with this room to suit a disabled person. It was a good location for exploring by car, but too remote to go anywhere on foot. Main B road at end of the long drive had no footpaths, Stamford Bridge about 1.5 miles away. Property was adequate for our needs. Not as well equipped as others we have stayed in. As it sleeps 6 I’d expect to find at least 6 of everything in the kitchen, but I think there have been some loses over the years that haven’t been replaced. Tea towels, dishwasher tabs & toilet rolls etc were all available. Hand towels in the bathrooms would be appreciated as once we’d packed to leave we had nothing to dry hands on. Our phone’s data allowances saw us through for internet access which is often needed on holiday to book tickets etc. we were glad there was good signal after reading no WiFi at the property. Beds are not very comfy (hard) and pillows as flat as pancakes! No spares in the wardrobes. No trouser hangers either amongst the collection of free plastic shop hangers!. That made the place feel cheap! Upstairs bedrooms are compact & don’t have much, if any windows to the outside, so can feel stuffy. No fans provided, glad we weren’t staying in very hot weather. Generally clean, some dusty spots where you can’t see!

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• Danielle - Verified booking

  Sykes Staff have been nothing but friendly and accommodating, they were not to fault for our unsatisfactory stay.

  The property however had dust webs left in corners (despite cleaners) and offered no QR code/Covid guidelines, no antibacterial hand wash or sanitiser (good job we took our own). We were greeted by a wasps nest by the front door obviously using the property’s roof. The door with its large double glass windows offered no privacy from passers by using the shared drive and communal laundry room given the fact the shower and toilet were right behind it which resulted in us having to hang a towel over the door. The pictures of the garden were misleading. It clearly shows a grass area which had been cordoned off and belonged to another property which only left the stoned area you see in the pictures which would have been fantastic if it weren’t for the fact they are not friendly to the paws of our fury friends which meant our pet friendly get away wasn’t in fact so pet friendly at all and his off lead play time went out the window. The directions to the property are not clear, even using ‘what four words’ we had difficulty. In the end we were forced to contact Sykes which then had to contact the owners who added another couple of steps to the directions. Frankly if it weren’t for the fact we had to rely on a family member for travel and our signal was so spotty we never would have stayed.

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