Dog Friendly Cottages in Windermere

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Deena - Verified booking

  Firstly the cottage has not been cleaned on arrival.

  With two children and after a 4 hour drive we had to them sit in a local pub for 2 hours whilst it was cleaned. (Sykes did give us some compensation however 6 days later have still not received). On arrival back at the cottage it was still not cleaned to a suitable standard. There was hair stuck to the carpets upstairs and fat splatted at the back of the cooker. The hob has residue left on it and the bathroom has marks on the floor. The parking situation outside of the cottage caused havoc. The advert stated roadside parking opposite the cottage. This is not true. There are double white lines painted therefor you cannot park opposite them, which when we were loading and unloading we were told by numerous ‘locals’ who would go out of their way to tell us we can’t park. There is also a parking warden issuing £35 fines. To find somewhere to park in a village of this size with no parking available was an absolute nightmare. I was baffled on arrival at the front patio which is actually the door step… you would also never want to sit out there on a main road through the village? To watch tv we tried using the sky box which asked us to insert our viewing card. Firstly it’s 2023, who still has these type of devices and secondly, if we did, why would we bring the viewing card on holiday?? Wifi is chargeable, we had to buy this daily at quite a significant cost. There are no instructions for the cottage left out we had to search cupboards but this was minimal. As there is no garden, there was also no access to an outside bin so the kitchen bin became very full and we had to start taking rubbish out with us to find a bin? The welcome we received was the most unwelcome I have had in any cottage I have stayed in over the years. There wasn’t as much as half a toilet roll in the bathroom… The whole experience left us baffled, frustrated and put off from ever staying with Sykes again. It was an inaccurate listing of a property. That said, the village itself had 2 nice pubs with very friendly staff.

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• Graham - Verified booking

  This is a first for us we have always been very satisfied with our previous bookings with sykes, however on this occasion, we were dissatisfied with the misleading description of the property.

  The location very good but the property would not be our first choice of booking due to having a young dog who is still in training, there was no mention of stairs & upstairs bedrooms, leather furniture is not practical with a young dog and the enclosed patio was misleading as it gives the impression that it's behind or adjacent to the property & it is not, the property photos does not reflect the actual cottage we were staying in, in fact the photos appear to be of the next door property which is attached to another 3 cottages, there is also a request on the back of the main door no dogs allowed in the bedrooms but it is open plan & no provision for the dog to NOT go upstairs ,( i.e stair gate ) we had to block the stairway with chairs to avoid him following us into the bedrooms which may have caused some disturbance for neighbours as he is only 1 year old and has a loud voice. Some of the kitchenware was not to the usual standard of previous sykes bookings, acceptable, however previously we overpacked, in this case we underpacked. We do not normally complete your customers surveys as our previous bookings have always been satisfactory, but we felt it necessary to voice our opinion on this property, we have to stress the property itself would be ideal for a couple however our booking priorities are for our dog which means back yard/garden enclosed area where he can have toilet breaks without having to put a leader on him and walking him outside late at night and early morning, we believed the patio would give us this provision, the stairs are a no go as its very impractical for a young dog, no means to stop him adventuring upstairs, it was very difficult trying to keep him down on the first couple of nights, it was a lovely cottage but we felt a little mislead and disappointed Previous skyes bookings have fulfilled our expectations but on this occasion, unfortunately we didn't feel we could relax as much as we had hoped

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• Karen - Verified booking

  I stayed at the property with my husband and small dog.

  The property was perfectly situated to get around the Lake District and it had a beautiful country view. Although the property had two bedrooms it was very compact I would say that it is not suitable for four adults, maybe two adults and two children. The sofa wasn’t very comfortable and there was only one other armchair so if you were having an evening in there would be three people squashed on the sofa and one on the chair. The TV was small and the remote control had lost the battery cover so you had to hold the batteries in when you wanted to change channels. There were a couple of issues the shower worked for the first morning but then ran cold this was reported but didn’t get fixed we had to report it again after which it was rectified. The other problems were that the extractor fan over the cooker wasn’t working the on off switch was completely missing this was reported but never fixed. The radiator in the downstairs bathroom didn’t work, this was reported but never fixed. The thermostat on the radiator in the upstairs toilet didn’t switch the radiator off and it remained on full blast the toilet was like a sauna, this was reported it was turned off when the shower was fixed but it only lasted for one day and the rest of our stay blasted out at full blast and couldn’t be switched off. There was an area on the kitchen work surface that the Formica had blown and the mdf underneath was visible. The work surface needs to be replaced. This cottage was very pretty but is in need of some repairs and refurbishment. If you have a dog there isn’t an enclosed space to let them out for a wee every time your dog needs to go out you have to put it on its lead and take it out.

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• Chris - Verified booking

  Nice central location for exploring the Lake District.

  Parking the car and getting off the drive again is a nightmare, puts you off going again. Was very noisy in the accompanying flat, we were glad that the lady moved out on the Wednesday but loads of noise till late at night from the removal men also, spoilt the evening, although a lady from Skye’s had called to warn us beforehand. Nice bedroom, but no plug sockets any where near the mirror so I had to buy an extension lead so my wife could plug her hairdryer in. Bed not very comfortable, it’s like sleeping on a slope. Also to appeal to families there could be a sofa bed in the lounge. Kitchen facilities good, strange choice of crockery and cutlery though. Washing machine you need a degree in nuclear science to be able to use it, we eventually sussed out the microwave and cooker bit our washing got stuck in the machine for three days before we could figure out how to open the door! Would be brilliant for an elderly couple as bus stops are very close by, and they could use the free OAP bus passes to explore the Lakes. Car parking charges around the Lake District are extortionate and it costs 40p to use the toilets in many towns!

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• Joanna - Verified booking

  The annexe was fine for what we wanted, somewhere to crash after long hard days in the mountains.

  It was all immaculately clean on arrival. The bed was super comfortable and the shower good and hot. There was a problem with the toilet as it took 30 minutes for the cistern to fill, so we had to both go, then flush. The kitchen facilities were fine for us as we'd chosen very easy meals rather than cooking up a storm. I could envisage problems should you want more than 2 saucepans on the go and a casserole or similar in the oven all at the same time, as there was not much available in that respect. There was a lot of furniture scraping noise from upstairs at times and you could hear them moving around, it didn't bother us, but if you want complete silence you won't get it. The property looks a little tired, quite a bit of damp on the walls in the kitchen and peeling paint in places. We could not hear the main road from the annex which was good, it is set back from the road a good way. The gentleman upstairs did come to check we were warm enough which was very thoughtful.

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