Dog Friendly Cottages In Ambleside

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Matthew - Verified booking

  We had slight misgivings when we arrived in the dark, having taken a side-turning recommended by the SatNav before we got to Grasmere.

  However, up we climbed, eventually finding White Moss. First impressions were that it felt very remote - not filling us with confidence given we wanted to eat out and use Grasmere as our base! BUT.... As it turns out, White Moss is only a 10 minute (downhill) walk from Grasmere centre - though a slightly longer uphill trek back :) This has the major advantage of White Moss being quiet, tranquil and blessed with the best views from any self-catering apartment we've booked. White Moss is the basement apartment in what was obviously at one time a huge and very beautifully appointed traditional slate walled house overlooking Grasmere and the fells beyond. Huge sash windows make some of the rooms full of light, with incredible views over the terrace. The bedrooms vary considerably in space - the twin relatively small (though fine), with one of the doubles absolutely enormous. The high ceilings give the place a real sense of space, which is good. The kitchen is very well appointed for self-catering, and the open plan dining room (part of the same large room) is great for a meal with friends or family. The decor is fine, if a bit tired in places (the bathroom could do with some modernisation for example, though is very adequate), but it's clean and certainly not something to put off visitors unless you want a perfect boutique hotel-type experience. For a good sized group of walkers wanting a comfortable, quiet and well-positioned retreat, it's perfect. Other amenities include wi-fi and a well-stocked cupboard full of board games - as well as the normal TV and DVD player (which we didn't use!) Our only two very small negatives were that we didn't have any hot water (from the taps) for washing up or hand-washing (the shower was electric thank goodness) and one of the twin beds had popped a slat (which I fixed). Otherwise, we were all very happy with White Moss and would happily book again.

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• Janice - Verified booking

  The exterior aesthetic of the cottage is truly beautiful and it is perfectly located with lovely walks from the door and a short drive to Ambleside & Hawkshead.

  The garden is lovely, although it's use was restricted due to lack of funiture (4 old plastic chairs). The linen was clean, water hot, heating adequate & kitchen well-equipped (although no order to storage & not everything was clean). Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives including large areas of black mould on the window frames throughout the cottage, on the shower room walls & the utility room walls & doors; ingrained dirt in the grouting in the shower room; thd lounge windows were difficult to close & the secondary glazing trims kept falling off; filthy floor, sink & resources (mops, sweeping brushes, hoovers) in the utility room; 2 hoovers available but both dirty and don't pick up dirt so unusable; cupboard interiors dirty; cobwebs around ceilings; broken hinge on kitchen cabinet above the sink - BEWARE if you don't hold it open, it falls down on you; 2 broken dining chairs; water stain & large crack on the bedroom ceiling; electric socket hanging off the wall & 5 of 8 lights not working in lounge; broken kitchen bin; red marks in the bath; dirty laundry in the laundry basket; info folder has incorrect info about bin day (so bin doesn't get emptied because no-one knows to put it out on Wednesday, not Thursday); no key to 'games' cupboard or door from utility room into garage. The maintenance team sorted the lights & socket, removed the broken chairs & banged the windows to close them. The cleaners did a re-clean (it felt very reluctant) but we still had to buy cleaning materials & clean the shower room, bath & utility room ourselves to make them useable. Sadly, the cottage is in dire need of some maintenance work & a thorough deep clean. So many issues have been raised in previous reviews; a shame no-one appears to be responding. Such a shame because it has the potential to be stunning. We left feeling massively disappointed & needless to say, wont be returning.

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• Nicola - Verified booking

  The heating was pre-set and we were unable to control the temperature in the house.

  it was 19 degrees outside and the heating was on with no way of turning down or off. We contacted Heart of the Lakes and we were told somebody would look into this for us. Nobody came back to us. we had to put up with it and on an evening it was horrendous. The whole time we had builders working next door and each day they would start chasing the walls from 8am. You have the videos so you know what I am talking about. At one point the builder actually came through the adjoining wall. The kids were not able to sleep past 8am and the dog was terrified. We had no privacy as builders were wondering into our garden, we have teenage girls so this was completely unacceptable. At one point when we were sitting out in the front one of the builders went behind rather than into the portaloo to urinate right in front of us. I reported some of this to your company and sent pictures and videos. Again somebody was supposed to do something about this but nothing was done and nobody got back to us. Our holiday was completely compromised by the intrusive building work. We could tell by the comments left in the visitor book that we were not the only customers that were very dissatisfied and upset that they were not made aware of building works. This email is a formal complaint. I would like somebody to come back to me to let me know if my complaint has been received and is being reviewed / processed. I appreciate you can’t be responsible for the actions of the builders but I do believe we should have been made aware that there was building work taking place over the duration of our stay and this was you companies responsibility to do so. Please note other than the heating issue (that must be resolved) there is no blame on the owner of this property. My issue is with the company that manage the property. Heating issue aside the property was good.

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• Amit - Verified booking

  We were a group of 5 and found that the house was very well equipped to deal with this many.

  There were no space, bathroom etc issues. We found everything very comfortable. The biggest issue we had was the cleanliness of the property. When we arrived, there were dirty plates in the cupboard, plenty of dust under sofas, and food/crumbs left on some surfaces (e.g. nest coffee tables). I appreciate that some of this is the previous guests fault, but it would be nice if there were some basic checks in place. The dust under the sofas, for instance, is not down to guests to clean up. In the en-suite bedroom, we found dirt, plaster backing peel and chocolate wrapper on the dressing table, as well as what looked like glass and dirt in the second drawer in the dresser. And there was lots of dust on all surfaces. In the front patio/garden, there was a bag of dog poo left behind, which didn't add to the otherwise quite nice and peaceful area as much as one would hope. That being said, the other 2 bedrooms and bathrooms were/appeared to be clean! In the grand scheme of things, the issues above were easy enough to resolve ourselves and didn't detract from the quality of the rest of our stay, but it isn't really acceptable. Even though a parking permit is listed as included, it is not. I called Kate up right away about this and she explained that Sykes haven't removed this from the listing even though she has requested this. In any case, there were some on-the-road free parking places not far from the property that Kate told us about and these served us well. Some other small details: the hob is an induction hob, but some pans don't work on this hob, so could just be removed to save hassle; there is only one front door key, which is a little inconvenient (a couple of keys with keyfobs would save having to go in and out of the keybox each time)

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• Janis - Verified booking

  First the good: the location of the cottage and the cottage itself are wonderful.

  We loved how quiet and remote the area is. The age of the cottage is OK, as long as the amenities, cleaning, and other items are kept up to date, it is clear it is not a priority The bad: it was clear the cottage had not been cleaned. This is similar to other reviews we read in the guest book and online. If this is up to the management company then fire them and hire someone else. There were dirty dishes in the dishwasher, an old tea bag in the teapot, cobwebs in every corner, really quite disappointing. We needed to wash all dishes, we would have anyway but with the state of the cottage it made it even more necessary. The mop is DISGUSTING - we are happy to clean up after ourselves, and we know we left the cottage cleaner than when we arrived, but for heaven's sake - provide tools for your tenants to use! The alarm in the kitchen was ridiculous, we tried every which way to prevent that alarm from sounding, I think we were successful 1 day, and this was just with regular toast preparation, nothing was burned, nothing was smoking, and the alarm still sounded, highly recommend changing the location or finding a solution. When using the upstairs shower it leaks down onto the teapot area The key for the cabinet was no where to be found The refrigerator is a bit small, for a group of 5 (or 6 as advertised) it was crammed full. The directions for trash disposal need updating, one said Wednesday, another said Thursday Would we stay there again, most likely not, in the area yes, at the cottage, no

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