Dog Friendly Swanage Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Graham - Verified booking

  This was a 3 generation family trip.

  ...with various combinations of numbers through the week from 5 adults and 2 children up to 8 adults, 2 children and 2 dogs...so this is a collective review.... On Arrival 1st impressions were great.... Rooms were allocated according to relationships, and age.... However, due to boiler failure and emersion failure we had almost 2 days without hot water, which for a full house was an issue..... It started Saturday evening, reported on Sunday and fixed late Monday afternoon. The boiler remained broken for the remainder of the stay and the emersion was 'hard wired' as a permanent source of water heating. The Utilities for a large group are excellent.....washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, oven, hob, 2 fridge freezers and plenty of crockery, cutlery and glasses etc. The lounge / kitchen is ideal for a large group. The 'Utility room' (single garage conversion), was a super store for two paddle board, a beach truck, body boards and fishing gear... Subtle attractive decoration throughout, bright and airy..... So lots of Pros...... As the week went on there were a few things that might be considered Cons by some..... - Each of the 3 bathrooms had a towel radiator, but as they were all sourced from the central heating, they were never on. - The ground floor shared bathroom, had a hand shower but no curtain. - The ground floor ensuite is located under the stairs. It had a great shower, but the shower rail bracket needs attention..and any male over 5 feet tall would find themselves leaning backward to have a pee due to the restriction of stairs. - Not sure what the cleaning company use for a vacuum, but having found the Henry, we used it mid week and when in use the smell coming from it was awful...On investigation there was no bag inside it and it was rammed full of dust, hair etc...... Rubber gloved hands, careful cleaning and finding the last bag in the Utility room, solved the problem..... - The stickiness around the kitchen sink (a bit like a pub's sticky table), is apparently due to the cleaning fluid being used rather than not being clean.... - The Shower head in the upstairs shared bathroom needs a descale as half the head wasn't effective. - The outdoor area for the waste bins needs a jet wash and perhaps disinfecting. (Also it seems that the bin collection schedule is different from the what actually happen) So perhaps our Cons are insignificant ...who knows...everyone would have their own perception as to their perception of 'value for money'. Ours was mixed.... That's about it.....

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• Karen - Verified booking

  This property is beautifully decorated and furnished and is in a central location with close access to shops and beach.

  However, there isn’t a large enough outside space for everyone staying in the house to sit and gather together, and there was no parking. The garage is used as a utility room. The bedroom on the first floor is large but there is no bathroom/en-suite on this floor so we had to use the 2nd floor bathroom because the ground floor one has no shower. As it is in the attic, it’s sloping ceiling meant my son and husband who are over 6ft tall had to tilt their head every time they used the toilet. The sink is very small and it was difficult to have a wet shave in it. Plus there was no shelf or cabinet for toiletries so they had to be left on the floor under the sink. It would however be suitable for children. The property would benefit from a shower over the bath in the ground floor bathroom, especially as it is the largest bathroom. We couldn’t fault the ground floor king size bedroom with en-suite and patio area. The kitchen didn’t have any pint glasses for a pint of beer or squash. There wasn’t a sharp knife or set of knives so we had to use the only knife there which wasn’t very sharp. We wanted to tenderise some meat for a meal and there wasn’t anything to do this with, no tenderising mallet or rolling pin. The property had only one clothes airer which wasn’t enough for the amount of people using the property, and the internet also kept dropping. The open plan kitchen/dining/living room is a nice large space. The property is more suited to two families with young children and not teenagers.

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• Anna - Verified booking

  Lovely large property for families to use together, lovely kitchen dining & living area for all to use.

  High standard of facilities & equipment through out & fantastic massive utility room for storage. A big bonus is that it is in the middle of the town for access to the beach & all eateries & shops & play areas. Beds are comfy & even the bedrooms on the roof area are spacious & room to move with nice large single beds. Great that there are three toilets, so each of our family claimed one to use each. Very clean, our Grandchildren said it was the best property they had ever stayed in. The only set backs we had, was that the star gates are quite antiquated & hard to fit to allocated walls & when pushed against easily came loose, so we had to manage by keeping our toddler in the living room with the door shut. We also did have a problem with the heating & hot water on the first day/night & after reading previous reviews expected not to have this, we also didn’t get any response from the emergency number given until the next day. Obviously this was a set back with the number of adults & kids that needed these facilities but it was resolved the next day & everyone was very polite regarding the issue. If we didn’t have the set backs we would have rated this property a five.

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• Ashley - Verified booking

  Driftwood is an excellent property - we had a great time and would certainly return.

  It was very comfortable and well equipped - and particularly nice in our case that the owners had thought of families and children, with some lovely children’s toys, children’s plates and cups and a good high chair etc. There are a three minor points which may be helpful for future visitors: 1) The garage is really not suitable for storing a car unless your car is very tiny. It would be good to make clear on the details that the parking for one small car is in fact an internal garage. As it happens, the long stay car park 2 mins walk around the corner is good value (we paid £33 for the week), and the garage is then a very useful space for pushchair, coats, shoes and general family clobber. 2) The Delonghi kettle is very stylish but is possibly the slowest pouring kettle in the universe! We got the old spare plastic one out from under the sink and used that instead! 3) The information booklet in the property doesn’t say anything about recycling, only about what to do with the black general waste bin. We filled up the recycling wheelie bin and glass container, but didn’t know what - if anything - to do with it. Many thanks for an excellent stay.

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• Philip - Verified booking

  This "cottage" was more like a house.

  To access it, it was necessary for us to drive carefully up and down the steep hill, and, steer carefully in and out of the narrow parking bays which we found to be stressful, yet bays were always available for us. The cottage was modern, spacious, well-furnished, and, clean. Excellent modern full-length wardrobes, very comfortable beds, and, an extremely quiet area at night. However, the bedroom blinds do not block out the light so this aspect was disappointing to our sleep. Wonderful views of the hills from the master bedroom. On occasion, we dined in the patio back garden along with usual noises from a residential estate. The kitchen spotlights flicker erratically, however this is a minor point. We enjoyed visits to Swanage, the Steam Railway was fab as was Corfe Castle, Studland Bay, and Durlston Castle. The Pier Head restaurant in Swanage served us superb seafood dishes.

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