Dog Friendly Pickering Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Catherine - Verified booking

  We alerted the property owner and booking.

  Com of the time of arrival . Received an email suggesting they would be there to hand over the key.I had no other information given to me at this time. When we arrived at the property there was no one there. We hung about for an hour then went to the local pub to try and phone for help as we had no signal on our phones. We waited on the phone to Booking.com on the pubs land line for nearly an hour with no answer. At this point we were very hungry and tired (also aware of using the pubs phone)and went to another local pub to get some food. I did go on chat at booking .com for advise and also emailed sykes holidays , booking.com several times. I could not get a signal. On chat they said they would get back to me within half and hour. I had told them that I had no signal. At 9pm we went back to the property hoping someone would have come or left a note etc. On looking around outside we realised there was a key in the key lock but at no point have I been given a code. My son tried for nearly an hour to get into the code and eventually cracked the code and got the key. I am unsure what we would have done as I expect everywhere was booked. We would probably have had to drive all the way home. You can check the emails and chat and at no point did anyone give us the code. When I eventually got in we had access to wifi and noticed that Booking .com had tried to phone us at 8:30pm. This was useless as we had no signal and I had clearly told them that on the chat . Very stressful and annoying start to the holiday. We were not expecting to go out for a meal due to covid and had brought all our meals to cook. I would like some compensation for this awful start to our holiday!

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• Pam - Verified booking

  The cottage is in a lovely position with wonderful views across Rosedale and a very pleasant garden.

  There was, however, an issue around space. The ground floor open-plan living/dining/kitchen area was tiny and smaller than it appeared in the photographs. Even with only two guests and a dog, we were cramped for space and we certainly wouldn't have wanted to be in a party of four. We felt that we would have had more room to move on a narrowboat. There are some small inaccuracies in the cottage description. The first floor bedroom does not contain a standard sized double bed and fuel for the wood-burning stove is not included as implied. There was enough for the first night but the expectation was that guests would provide the rest. Most cottages state this explicitly but this cottage did not. It is also not made clear that neighbours have access through the garden. The cottage was clean and well presented but evidence of a previous canine visitor was clearly evident on the lawn when we arrived and had not been cleaned up. We do not have satnav and were concerned that directions to the cottage were very poor, being both confusing and contradictory and bearing no relation to either a standard road atlas or an OS map. Sadly, the two requests made for further clarification from the owners went unanswered. We were greatly helped by the Phillips Street Guide to North Yorkshire which enabled us to make some sense of otherwise incoherent instructions.

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• Jeremy - Verified booking

  The "roadside parking" was a real issue.

  We were only given some clarity on this by email on 29th September, 3 days before we were due to leave for our holiday. This email spoke of off road parking at the bottom of the steps to the row of cottages. When we arrived we found the off road parking was occupied by a deep fenced-off excavation, seemingly work in progress by the water company, and a large heap of hard core, presumably left by the water company to back fill the excavation when work is completed. All of which made it extremely difficult to park with any sense of security. This situation soured our holiday and I believe Sykes/owner should have informed us of the full facts about the condition of the off road parking, allowing us time to change the date of our visit or Sykes/owner to make alternative arrangements for parking, in what is a very tight location under normal circumstance. Also I don't understand why there is no thought given to mentioning, that due to the steps that have to be used to exit and access the cottage on each occasion, that these steps might be difficult the older person or anyone with a walking difficulty. It sounds as if we have nothing good to say about Ghyll Cottage, which is not correct. The cottage was comfortable and with great views, but this experience leads us to think twice about ever using Sykes in future.

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• Adam - Verified booking

  Never left a review before but this cottage really exceeded our expectations.

  Firstly, really grateful for having a decent king sized mattress so we could get comfortable night's rest. A basic requirement that for the sake of an extra couple of £100, baffles me as to why owners in other properties don't get right (I would never return to a holiday cottage with a rubbish mattress no matter how nice everything else was). If I was really picky, twin beds rather than a double in the second room would have suited us better though my teenaged son enjoyed hogging the double and our youngest was happy to sleep into the very comfy guest bed in the master bedroom with us. My wife was very taken by how tastefully decorated it was, l loved the woodburner and the owner has obviously put a lot of thought into the practicalities of the stay. Kids were happy with the WiFi and smart TV plus other little extras. It was in a fantastic location with easy access to lovely walks, Dalby Forest and the coast. The local pub was lovely and had really nice pub grub. You could buy all you needed from either the local shop or the camp/ caravan site. We got a last minute deal to make the stay even sweeter. It really was the best holiday we've had in a while! Couldn't fault this cottage and would happily recommend to anyone.

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• John - Verified booking

  We had a lovely stay at Castle Cottage in early May 2023.

  It is ideally located being walking distance from the shops, heritage train station (not main line) and right by the castle. We stayed with our three-year-old who loved the garden and the gentle sounds of the steam trains during the day. There are some nice walks you can take from the front door across the fields or beside the river and the train track. A short drive away are other beauty spots and market towns. Tracey and Ashley gave us some great recommendations beforehand for trips, walks and food. The cottage is compact but very comfortable and the kitchen is well-equipped. Space-wise it was perfect for two adults and one child and could easily fit another child. I think it would be workable, but a bit cosy, with more than two adults in the dining/living space. We had a brief problem with the hot water, which Ashley and Tracey had fixed within just a few hours, despite being out of the country on a holiday of their own (and in a different time zone). All in all we had a great time and would definitely recommend Castle Cottage.

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