Dog Friendly Cottages Yorkshire

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Karen - Verified booking

  Well Sykes we feel very let down by you this time!

  We have always been satisfied in the main by the standards of service but this booking was extremely disappointing. I had called a few weeks before the holiday to check that points raised in previous reviews would be dealt with before I paid the balance. I was assured that the owner would be asked to rectify the issues but sadly they had not been rectified and it got worse!! On the first evening after emptying the bath, the water flooded the ground floor hallway, coming through a light switch. The owners came and helped up mop up and said they could come back the next day to try to resolve the issue but that night we were unable to operate several lights downstairs for fear of electrocution. We were also unable to use either bath. Added to that were soaking walls which were the same for most of the stay. The owner advised us to seek compensation from Sykes which we intend to do and asked if there was anything else they could do without offering anything. We felt the least they could do was to offer us money for a meal out the next day as our evening meal had been ruined! Sadly in addition there were many other things wrong with the property, some already mentioned in previous reviews. The shower curtain was fitted too far into the shower this making it difficult to move comfortably in the cubicle without wet curtain on your body, the shower curtain stank... I washed it. It was also too short which meant water escaping. This added to the fact that the shower tray leaked despite the owner putting more silicone on when he came to repair the bath meant for an unpleasant showering experience. The leaking shower has caused the door to swell making it difficult to open and close. It was dangerous, especially for a small child or frail person. Again we raised this with the owner who had ample time to rectify this whilst we were out all day on the Sunday, which they knew we planned to do but to no avail! There were also no shelves or hooks to hang anything in the shower or in the bathrooms generally. There were very few rails to dry towels so these we hung on the backs of dining chairs. The kitchen tap is too low to put the kettle comfortably under to fill up therefore this has caused the tap to become loose. It only needs an alternative design kettle to remedy this once the tap has been repaired. There was poor lighting at all doors, and as there are two steps at the front door and very uneven ground in the back garden it was very hazardous returning home in the dark. The back gate was difficult to open and close and even more so with no lighting! The freezer door is hanging off making it difficult to open, the kitchen cupboard doors are shabby, one of the sofas and one bed very uncomfortable. The double beds have been fitted with mattress toppers now so they were okay. There was plenty of hot water which was necessary as showering was so disastrous! The stairs to the family room were dangerous in our opinion especially as the landing light was unreliable. If you remain interested in visiting this property then we highly recommend the RSPB at Bempton Cliffs, Sewerby Hall (amazing value for money!) for a fabulous day out, and the village pub for friendly hosts. We were a little disappointed with The Ship Inn at Sewerby although the pies were good. Sadly Sykes we will be seeking an alternative company when we next book our cottage holiday, you need to buck your ideas up.... You have a lot of competition.......

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• Vicki - Verified booking

  Alma House is really lovely, spacious and comfortable.

  Reeth and the surrounding area is just beautiful. A few issues with the house that, for me, makes it a little below expectations of a holiday cottage charging over £1000 per week. 1. My first gripe is the check in time of 5pm. I realise all places are doing this at the moment and using covid and cleaning as an excuse, which is fine if you get there and the place is spotless when you do, sadly this wasn't the case. Yes we had comfortable beds with clean bedding and towels (although the towels are tiny) but dust and cobwebs needed seeing to and there are a number of clothes moths in one bedroom especially. I just think we paid for a day in the cottage which we couldn't use it for it to be clean and while it wasn't horrendous it certainly wasn't perfect, the kitchen cupboards are in need of a good clean especially. 3pm check in would be much nicer and if you are making people leave by 10am and asking them to do half of the cleaners job (stripping and bagging into separate bags all bedding, protectors, towels and kitchen towels) before they go then 3 pm should really be manageable. 2. The cooker! We got there at 5pm on arrival day and at 6pm turned the oven on to warm through a lasagne that had been made at home before our departure. This should have been edible by 7 we thought, but at 8 we were still waiting for it to warm through to the middle. Over the course of the week we tried all of the options on the cooker but none worked very well at all. 3. The Macerator drainage system upstairs is horrendous and super noisy. 4. We were asked to only use the washing machine on a 600 spin. This to me is not acceptable, apparently its something to do with the spin effecting the electrics of the flat below, I'm afraid my opinion on that is if its causing electrical issues the electrics need looking at and it's not the fault of the washing machine or people using it. It would be better to take the washing machine out rather than expecting holiday makers to wash on a spin where a tumble dryer can't be used leaving it taking ages to drip dry and ends up smelling worse than it did before it was washed. On the subject of the grumpy neighbour mentioned in other reviews, we had no issues whatsoever, he was polite and chatted each time we saw him. The parking on the green is just a short walk from the cottage, there is an honesty box for optional payments with a recommendation of £2 for a full day. I had no problem with paying this as it goes towards the upkeep of the beautiful village green. All in all it's a nice house in a lovely area, but I probably wouldn't rush to book it again. We had left our dogs at home, so the lack of outdoor space wasn't a problem for us, but I personally wouldn't recommend it for people taking dogs with them even though it is a dog friendly place.

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• Chantelle - Verified booking

  Unable to park 3 cars on the driveway as advertised and had to park one car on the grassed area.

  Garden was full of dog muck - picked up 8 very large piles. (Fully agree this is not owners issue but the holiday maker before) Bins were overflowing with rubbish on arrival-unable to shut. Used sanitary products and food waste were falling from the bins and onto the pavement at the side of the property and open to public. Leg missing from the sofa in the lounge- Informed owners by text along with the issue with bins- was told this would be sorted. Had to put our own rubbish in public waste bins for 2 days before making contact with owners again - they then did collect the bin. However the issue with the sofa was not resolved at all. I resorted in placing a large rock i found in the garden to enable us to use the seating. The gas oven was not at all usable- attempted both compartments of the oven and was not able to alter the temperature of the oven. We were unable to cook any food in the oven- in fact it even struggled to keep the food even warm. Thankfully I had taken my own air fryer to the property and was able to use this and the gas hob to manage for the week. The fridge freezer needs replacing- all door shelves were broken and unable to hold any items-this had been attempted to be fixed with cellotape previously as this was insitu on arrival. I removed all tape and attempted to strengthen the trays with heavy duty tape which enable us to store minimal light items in the shelves. The mattress for the trundle bed in the family room needs replacing- it was awful, we had to use several blankets to pad this out underneath the sheet to enable anyone to be able to sleep on it. The whole property needs some attention due to things being worn/broken. I found this disappointing as the property has so much potential. Its in a stunning location and with some attention could be beautiful. All in all we managed for the period of time we spent there- my biggest concern would be oven- without my air fryer we would have been without means of cooking.

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• Elaine - Verified booking

  On arriving in the middle of September we had no heating and we could not get the thermostat to work – any attempts to increase the temperature resulting in it reverting back to its lower preset.

  The owner’s manual states we ‘must’ get in touch with any issues within the first 24 hours, so I made numerous calls to both mobile numbers listed, one of which rang briefly before cutting off and the other which rang constantly with no reply and no option to leave a voicemail. The next day we rang Sykes who were very helpful and attempted to call the owners on our behalf and had the same response – they couldn’t be contacted over the next two days and they starting to make arrangements to look into alternative properties for us. On the third day the owner turned up and asserted that the information we need can all be found in the manual, so I hand it to her for her to let us know some pages were missing. She then proceeded to school us on the thermostat which she couldn’t get working, before she then figured out how to get the boiler working on the control panel and that “the cleaner must have turned it off” and that the batteries in the thermostat were nearly dead. Explaining that we had two very cold night and my husband has terminal cancer and a very weekend immune system, she proclaimed that it “wasn’t that cold” and that she had dialysis before slamming the door behind her. Beyond this the cottage was not in a good condition. The garden was clearly not maintained on a weekly basis per the description; we even found dog poo covered in white mould. Upon opening the fridge after stocking it, milk fell out of the door as it was then apparent the shelf was broken, and it spilled everywhere. Floor tiles were broken both inside and out and my husband kept tripping on them. Bedding was not changed after a week and nor was it ironed. The welcome pack a few teabags and cheap pack chocolate rolls which we left for the next person as it wasn’t worth using. Apart from the location the property good but I certainly wouldn’t stay there again.

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• Nigel - Verified booking

  Disappointing.

  We have stayed in many Sykes properties and this was not up to Sykes standards. Specifically: 1. Heating had to be controlled manually getting up early to put on. Boiler developed a fault early in our stay and gas engineer called. He turned up very quickly indeed and fixed the problem. Please note that we did call Sykes leaving a message on the emergency number and nobody got back to us, hence our having to call an engineer ourselves. 2. Bare minimum of crockery and cutlery - had to run dishwasher after every meal. 3. One wine glass! We had to go out and purchase our own. 4. No cable to connect DVD to TV so children couldn't watch DVD's. 5. Poor selection of pans and poor quality of of teflon coating worn off. 6. Very small fridge with broken door shelves - not adequate size for a property that sleeps eight. 7. Poor quality of towels and only one each. 8. Inadequate lighting in family bedroom and only one small electric heater. 9. No overhead lighting in lobby by downstairs bathroom and dangerous step down. One of our party had a fall. 10. Advertised as having an enclosed garden but wouldn't be able to use this feature with cars parked as insufficient clearance with doors closed. 11. Shabby decor. 12. There was a poor review in August stating many of these points but nothing has been done to improve matters. In summary, we have stayed in many Sykes properties but have never had such a poor experience. This is well below the standard we expect from Sykes. Especially disappointing was the total lack of response to the boiler problem. We will be pleased to have a reply to this review.

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