“Always book my holiday cottages through sykes as never had a bad experience and reviews are accurate and the whole booking process is straightforward and self explanatory”
“This is a beautiful cottage in a great position. The three bedrooms are great and comfortable and the upstairs living room kitchen was enjoyed by all. The view out to Helm Crag and up the Easedale valley a delight.
We would very much like to stay again (4 adults and 2 children).
I do think that in a property of this high quality, and cost, that in the well equipped kitchen, there should be sharp knives, some washing up liquid provided (2 virtually empty bottles)and a dishwasher which works (it did after buying dishwasher salt and rinse aid).”
“Three words describe our enjoyable break in Martingale - comfy, clean and quiet. It was a joy to sleep peacefully every night. Thank you Darryl and Lisa.”
“Highly recommend this lovely place. Everything you need for a great stay, clean and very well equipped. Warm central heated, cosy, very comfortable beds and lashings of hot water.”
“The initial booking process was fine but when I later needed to contact Sykes for a pre-arrival question it was a nightmare. Their virtual chat assistant/ bot said the 'service' was busy and because of this, it was not working, it took three days for them to answer a text message (which they encourage you to use) and I had to wait over 30 minutes on the phone before being answered.”
“This was our 3rd stay at this fabulous holidsy home. It’s beautifully decorated, well appointed, comfortable beds, warm, cosy, lots of hot water and plenty of books and games provided. The hot tub is a bonus and was great to use after long walks. Everything you need is in Ambleside with lots of shops including a wonderful butcher’s. There are plenty of walks from the house, short and long. This is our favourite holiday house.”
“A well designed house which needs a little tlc. Cobwebs and dust around window frames, food stained pot in cupboard and wooden floors and doors would benefit from oil or varnish. Main pluses are excellent quality bedding and towels. Really luxurious. Heating good and lots of hot water. Garden also needs a thorough spruce up.”
“The cottage was in a lovely setting, would have given it 5 stars except one of the double beds was very poor mattress and towels were very old and only left us 1 towel each for the whole week. Positives were very quirky , great l9cation for vidtong Glastonbury Wells Clarks Village lovely gardens.”
“We loved our stay at Maggie's barn. It was comfy and cozy and in such a beautiful, peaceful location. It was very dog friendly and lots of walks right on the doorstep.”
“The accommodation far exceeded our expectations. The position of the lodge was excellent. The lodge had everything you would expect and more high-quality and extremely clean. The only negative comment we could make is that floor Mat would’ve been useful in the bathroom as after showering the floor became very wet. We could not use the cushions for the outside furniture as it was locked away and no key was provided. Overall i I would highly recommend this lodge and its location”
“Not happy with key collection and leaving . Had issues with keysafes and not satisfactory for elderly and partially sighted people ! Also sofas too low for infirm ! Very comfortable but had to use garden furniture cushions on top ! Fridge leaking - had to leave a cloth to catch drips and couldn't use door milk holder . Dropped and broke bottle before I read note - mop inadaqate to clean up ! But overall a fabulous house with everything clean and we had a great holiday ! Would return . Thank you”
“We enjoyed our time at Llwyncadfor Farm as a group of 10 (three generations) and a dog. It was a quirky, spacious property, and one of the very few we had been able to locate that would suit our needs with all grown-up children. Set in a beautifully peaceful part of Wales, there was so much to do on our doorstep and we never much strayed more than 40 minutes from the property because it was close enough to the coastline and many interesting towns and villages.
It was unfortunate that we came across some key issues with the property before we have even arrived. The directions sent to us were useless; 'Turn Right', 'Turn Left', with no proper distance, directives or landmarks. The final 'Turn Left' took all three cars down a very poor one-way track, leading us to a private property. Do not go down this road. All passengers had to vacate the cars for fear of getting stuck in the tire indentations. The owner of the lane disclosed their upset that all last summer they had to turn around cars meant for the holiday property just one lane over. She even said some holidaymakers had entered her 'PRIVATE PROPERTY'. A simple instruction such as 'Turn down the lane with the blue bins. If you have reached the Chapel you have gone too far.' Would have made our arrival so much smoother and welcoming.
When we finally reached the property we discovered an issue with the hot water (which was later rectified by a phone call with the property owner), and confusion with the oven- which was going to be needed by a group so large. There were no instructions on how to operate any appliances, except the dishwasher.
Issues, unfortunatly, didn't stop there. We had no WiFi for the whole stay. We managed using data from our abundance of phones, and luckily the weather was especially warm and sunny, that we did not require the internet on a rainy day. But, because the WiFi was not working, nor did the Smart TV, or the DVD player for that matter. Again, it was no issue, we're a techy family and we hooked up a laptop managed to watch movies as a family.
The fire in the TV room was used almost every night. It became a competition during the week to see who could manage to get it going. The (adult) kids especially enjoyed cutting the wood for said fire out in the log store.
There were a lot of small issues that felt overlooked, such as three badly broken chairs were left at the dining table, which would have been dangerous to sit on. Cleaning was not up to the highest standard- we understand it's an old house, but there were multiple large cobwebs on the stairs and bathroom windows. The bins were especially hard to decipher, and took us until about half way through the holiday to comprehend because it looked like there was no option to recycle.
The dryer would not tumble, and there was no airer or washing line, which was a shame, so we could not dry clothes outside in the sun. Some lightbulbs had blown, and so some bedrooms either had no bedside or main light.
One large thing, was that the garden was advertised as 'enclosed', but when we arrived this was not entirely the case. A dog small enough could quite easily squeeze under the gates into fields of sheep, or farming equiptment. We also were not aware that the house was on a working farm, and for most days the farmer came into the garden and opened the gates to a large storage area to collect machinery. The area was then left open, to which our rather curious dog was free to roam.
Even with all these issues, we had a rather enjoyable time, and the dog especially loved having the wrap- around garden to run circles in. The space was large enough for our family of 10 with plenty of places to sit together. We can recommend the Three Horseshoes Inn at Cenarth, and the beach at New Quay.”
“I’ve used Sykes together with other companies to book our Staycations over the years, but l keep returning to Sykes. I very much like the accommodation listed on the site, the accuracy of information provided and the simplicity of booking. Directions to the accommodation are accurate, the
check - in process is good as is the reassurance given that someone is at hand to assist with queries should they arise. I wouldn’t hesitate to book with Sykes again.”
“Very comfortable, clean and great location for all amenities.
Saturday night a bit noisy with revellers but tbf it was a bank holiday weekend and was fine for the rest of the week.”
