Dog Friendly Cottages on the Isle of Wight

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Peter - Verified booking

  1/ The track up to the parking space is very overgrown and looks as if it has never been maintained.

  There is a crater on the left-hand track which would damage any normal car. I have a medium SUV and the front and back scuff plates touched the ground when dropping into the hole. The track isn't wide enough to avoid it. Once at the top there is enough room to park, but turning is limited especially if a car is parked in the space next door. 2/ On arrival we first noticed that the furnishings in the first floor lounge were very tatty, there was a large tear in the centre cushion of the leather settee and the other two, white cloth settees, were stained and marked. 3/ We found that the WiFi password provided in the welcome book would not work for any of our devices. I phoned Liz (the contact for any issues), she could only suggest that we switch the WiFi off then on again. This resolved the problem but the Nest thermostat in the lower lounge disconnected from the Internet. 4/ My 8yr old granddaughter was looking forward to playing in the children's room under the stairs. The fairy lights in that room did not work. I found that the batteries in the control box had leaked acid and the contacts had been eaten away so they could not be fixed. It was too dark in there for her to play. 5/ On Monday the boiler on the first floor floor stopped working so there was no hot water to the upper floors once again phone Liz and she got an engineer out who played with the Nest thermostat and those on the boiler and eventually got the hot water working. There was no hot water again on Thursday. I managed to get the boiler working again by repeating the actions of the maintenance man. 6/ It rained Tuesday evening and we found a slug on the downstairs bathroom wall. Had no idea where it came from until Friday when it rained again. The down stairs back door is not used because of the steep steps up to the patio. The wall around the door is very wet and the plaster and paint work are bubbling and stained. At the base of the door was another slug so I assume they come in via the wall or a failed door seal. 7/ We used the washing machine once and although it washed OK there was a leak from inside which flooded the floor. We dried it up as best we could. The fan in that room does not work which would have helped dry it out quicker but the machine needs to be fixed or replaced. 8/ Finally, our daughter her husband and granddaughter had the upstairs bedroom and we had the ground floor one. The ground floor bedroom is cramped and too close to the boiler cupboard. The boiler fires up at varying times through the night even when the heating is turned down. If you are a light sleeper this will keep you awake. The mains water feed also seems to route through this cupboard and if anyone upstairs uses the taps or toilets the noise of the water rushing through the pipe is horrendous, just like standing next to a jet washer. We were woken several times with a jump. It was most disconcerting and we never got a good nights sleep. The boiler cupboard also has an amount of black mould on the wall so this is worrying for anyone who may have a lung condition. I honestly do not believe that this room should be allocated as a bedroom. The welcome pack was nice and the kitchen was OK. The location is good, just up the road from the beach, the weather was good and my daughter and granddaughter had a good time so the holiday was not a complete loss. As the rental costs are always inflated for the holiday period my wife and I found the condition of the house for the price extremely disappointing and would not recommend it to anyone. It definitely does not live up to the pictures on the Sykes website. and we cannot see how Sykes rate this at 4.4 stars.

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• Martin - Verified booking

  The property is excellent.

  The best equipped holiday home, in terms of items in the kitchen, for home cooking in all those we have previously stayed in on the IOW over the years. The house itself is very comfortable and it is situated very close to the seafront and the shops in Shanklin. All easy to walk to. Off road parking is really only for 1 medium size to large car. 2 cars on the parking area would be a bit of a squeeze. The track at the rear could do with a little bit of maintenance due to a large hole staring to appear on the track which needs filling. In the house information booklet, it states Friday is rubbish collection day. Its not, it is Thursday. This needs amending and it was only by luck that i heard the rubbish collection being made on Thursday morning, so managed to get the rubbish out. A couple of things though:- 1/ The downstairs heating (from the boiler in the bedroom) is very difficult to operate. It needs to be much simpler to operate to turn on and off when required, especially in cold weather. 2/ The steps to the rear parking area are very slippery in wet weather and need to be cleaned and scrubbed. I did slip over myself at one time going up the steps in the wet, but luckily no harm was done. 3/ One of the radiators in the downstairs rooms was not working at all. This had the radiator cover in front of it. It was cold in the house when we arrived as the heating had not been put on or come on automatically and could do with being on in the winter months if guests are expected. 4/ I did notice the distinct lack of fire/smoke alarms in the property. As it is such a big property on 3 levels, you might not be aware that there is an issue in another part of the house. This needs immediately addressing for safety reasons being a holiday let. 5/ A few more cups, plates, etc would be good, as with a dishwasher, you tend to fill this up before you put it on. The house itself was spotlessly clean and a very pleasant place to stay for a week on the IOW. There were only 4 adults and 1 small dog staying but we very pleased we stayed in this property. It is tastefully decorated and has a very homely feel. Overall, a lovely property..............

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• Stephen - Verified booking

  Ifficult review to write as there was good and not so good, I'll start with the good.

  Great location, 5 minutes walk to seafront with parking at the rear of property. Kitchen was great, everything you could want and more and a lovely gas range cooker, towels and bedding good quality, showers very powerful, and a washer dryer which worked well. Living room, dining room and bedrooms on 1st and 2nd floor well decorated and furnished. Not so good. The outside appearance is shocking, at the front the decorative cornice between the ground and 1st floor has a big chunk missing 4 foot or so, which has fell into the front garden and has been left there with numerous weeds (I have taken some photos if you're interested). The back garden is very weedy with some 2 feet high and also 3 large hanging rose briars from the hedge are hanging to the ground, they must be 12 feet long! (again I have some photos). In all the information given online and at the property a lot was made of how unsafe the steps are at the side of the property so I was disappointed to find the gate that accesses them from the back garden swinging open in the breeze despite there being 2 bolts available to keep it closed. On closer inspection the gate has dropped so they didn't align, with a bit of persuasion I managed to get one to align and the gate is now secured. Similarly the top gate was also open with no means to keep it closed except a couple of broken paving slabs to wedge it shut, a couple of quid spent at B & Q on a bolt would rectify this. The ground floor has a very damp and musty smell, as there was only 2 of us we stayed upstairs apart from showering and using the washer dryer. The stairs and hallways could do with smartening up as the wallpaper is starting to come away in several places. Overall we had a very pleasant stay and most of the property met our needs, it's just a shame about the other things I've mentioned. Stephen Downing

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• Amy - Verified booking

  This was my second visit to bishops retreat, having been there in April 2023 for a girly weekend.

  This time I have brought the hubby and kids to show them the delightful property as well as the delights of both the Isle of Wight and ventnor itself! The island has so much to offer. We highly recommend west wight alpacas and llama walking, off the rails cafe just outside Yarmouth, the needles landmark attraction, donkey sanctuary (free entry but donations warmly welcomed), garlic farm, the gin distillery (has good grub), Besty and spinky’s, the spyglass inn for its amazing views, masala bay has amazing Indian food and my personal favourite a walk along the coastal path to steep hill cove and the botanical gardens. We have had two fabulous days on the beach in the glorious sunshine (rather different to my rather wet 2023 experience!). And now to the host Holly, what can I say, exceptional hospitality, helpfulness and from Prosecco on arrival (and milk!!) to donkey sanctuary biscuits and leaving body boards, buckets and spades out, to treating us to an icecream from the amazing crave (opposite tescos) for being return guests, we have been made to feel so welcome and I feel like I have know Holly for years!! The kids also were thrilled to have access to the Disney channel for a movie night and throughly enjoyed the big nickel bath tub, as did I with a glass of bubbles! Some people might be put off by having no dedicated parking but I’ve easily found a spot on both of my trips and the bus is the best way to travel around and see the sites anyway! Totally 5* thank you and see you again next time!

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• Paul - Verified booking

  I have to say that we were very disappointed with some aspects of cleanliness at the property, the kitchen and bathrooms in particular.

  I had to clean the ensuite shower tiles before we could use it, picture attached. The pink residue is a build-up of bacteria and skin cells, if this is not cleaned then mould will develop, which it had. The kitchen cupboards were all dirty with grease covering the shelves where the pans are stored, I have cleaned these out as well. Some pans are not fit to be used, (pictures attached) and need to be replaced. The oven was filthy and had not been cleaned for some time, I cleaned this as well, before and after picture attached. The oven trays provided were not fit to use so I purchased 2 new ones which I have left at the property. Also, several pans need to be replaced as they are not fit to be used. There are only 2 dinner forks and 3 small forks, the property sleeps 6 people so there is not enough cutlery, I ate my dinner with a spoon on the evenings we had guests. We found one cupboard full of food, which I presumed perhaps belonged to the owner, so moved it around in order to accommodate our own shopping items. To then receive an email the day prior to departure, reminding us to leave the property clean, tidy, in the same condition we found it and to remove all food from cupboards and fridge, just added insult to injury. We did not remove the food we found in the cupboard. This is not the standard of cleanliness one expects in a holiday rental property. I have more photographs should it be necessary. I look forward to hearing from you. Regards Paul Heath Have pic's to back this up

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