Holiday Cottages In Bishop Auckland

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Deborah - Verified booking

  I wrote to Sykes Cottages and the property owner reporting the concerns I had about the property regarding the level of dampness in the cave area.

  My complaint to Sykes is below, which was also copied direct to the owner. "Whilst we understand the cottage is part of the castle, the tunnel area is very damp and smells mouldy. There are three air fresheners in place in the tunnel to try to hide the bad smell which is overwhelming. There is a dehumidifier in what should have been the wardrobe space and the whole cupboard smelled mouldy. Therefore you had nowhere to put your clothes. I have respiratory problems having had pneumonia in the past. The dampness would be leading to spores in the air affecting my health. Each day I had to empty the dehumidifier which was full demonstrating how damp the place is. We did speak to the owner and he admitted there was no airflow in the tunnel area. He said he had tried to drill this previously but failed to get all of the way through. This needs to be fixed or people to be warned. The lack of airflow has exacerbated the issue. People should be pre warned that the place is damp. This should be in the property description. This is a health hazard. Particularly if you have any respiratory problems. We ultimately decided to leave after only 3 nights as I could not put my health at more risk. The place needs air flow to make this safe. This trip was for our honeymoon. If the advert had stated that there was a problem with air flow and damp in the old part of the cottage then we would have gone elsewhere". As noted above I would not have booked the cottage had I been aware of the dampness issues as I was hospitalised when I previously had pneumonia. This break was for our honeymoon. So even more disappointing. I have been in discussion with the property owner about reimbursement as we left the property early. He had agreed to make a refund on 11 September and despite having chased this up no refund has been made. I think it is important that other potential guests are aware of the issue up front and in the listing it needs to say that the cave area is damp. Having looked on line to see if anyone else reported any issues I have now found two similar complaints on Trip Advisor made in March 2024 and August 2024 about the level of dampness in the property. This is a health issue and Sykes Cottages have never responded to the complaint I made either, which I also feel is inadequate. I will be chasing the owner for a full refund, but felt that sufficient time has passed that it was important for me to put the review on line. I will also be putting the same review on Trip Advisor so others are alerted to the issue.

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• Aman - Verified booking

  When we got to Cosy Cave, the first thing that we noticed was that the garden is not enclosed, what looked like a fence dividing the 3rd property in the photos of Cosy Cave were now a set of planters.

  The grass area is not really accessible as there are no stairs or ramp to get to it. But thankfully as the property sharing the courtyard/garden (of which we were unaware of before booking) was vacant for our stay we were able to make some use of the courtyard. When entering Cosy Cave it presented well, was clean overall but there were a few things that could do with a clean (kettle was extremely limescaled and bed sheets had a couple of small patches of dried blood on them). Getting into the evening, it was getting rather cold so I searched for a heating controller but could not find anything, I changed the heaters from 0s to 5s but no luck in warming the property up. I emailed stanhope castle and they sent someone round really quickly to give us the heating controller. The issue with the controller was that in Cosy Cave it is very hard for it to get a signal to actually turn the heat on or up. We tried searching online and found that someone else also had heating issues here as the heating controller is kept in the property above Cosy Cave. Again we were lucky no one was booked in upstairs! There is a dehumidifier in Cosy Cave that is next to the TV room. After 1 night this gets full and needs emptying other wise will not be running. Whilst it is off you can really feel a difference in your chest when sitting in the TV room. The damp/moisture is a real problem in that room. We also found that our clothes from our suitcase felt damp as we kept our suitcase in the walk through section to the tv room. What also doesn't help is that the heater in that room does not warm up much at all (even when on 5). If those 2 issues were fixed it would make that room so much more enjoyable because the TV is great and the surround sound was amazing. The bathroom was really nice and clean. The pressure in the shower was great! The hot tub was really nice! We did notice however there were some bits at the bottom of the hot tub, not sure if these fell in from the cover or if it wasnt thoroughly cleaned. The cover is a bit worse for wear but with use that happens. We did clean the cover and the gazeebo as it was covered in spider webs etc. If we had known that the courtyard/garden is shared, not really enclosed and that the grass area is not really accessible then we would not have booked Cosy Cave. With the moisture issue in the TV room it feels unsafe for us to stay the full length of our stay so will be leaving on Thursday.

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• Vincent - Verified booking

  Poor communication and lack of support with any issues.

  First night arrived hot tub wasn’t ready so couldn’t use until second night. The next afternoon the loo stop flushing and we didn’t have anyone respond to us. Had to go 2.5 days and night with no working loo which was really disappointing, we used the local cafe and pub toilets when we could. This ruined our time away, if this got sorted then I would easily recommend the place as it was a lovely place, nice and comfy however no response to reporting issues was a big let down. A week later and not even had any acknowledgment regarding this. A loo is one of the things you can’t go without, there was a sign saying only toilet roll to go in so not sure if they knew it was broken, I’m past the age of needing anything apart from loo roll but toilet wouldn’t flush. Extremely disappointed in the service from the owners leaving us without a loo for this length of time.

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• Jim - Verified booking

  The property was fantastic - the only thing we found was a blocked sink which we dealt with using a bottle of Mr Muscle.

  ..! If I was being really picky then I'd suggest a little more help with the TV would be good and for the life of me I never managed to fathom the DVD player but that was a very minor issue. What was a more of an issue was the £100 bond which was not a problem but we never received an email with details of how to pay it. We tried to contact the property owners who initially did not respond, we then tried to contact Sykes who to be honest ignored us and we ended up talking to a computer. We did try to telephone SYKES but this just ended up with a 2024 typical disconnect and bugger off. That's not good enough..! Why? If we'd of been travelling we would not have had email access. In our case, this wasn't the problem but for goodness sake pick up your phones.

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• Rosemary - Verified booking

  This was a very easy experience.

  The photos were accurate. Once booked the host contacted me which was a nice touch. A warm welcome was given by the lovely scones with milk and tea and coffee and eggs being provided. I also enjoyed the lovely posy of fresh flowers. The property was lovely, great log burner and one of the comfiest sofas I've ever sat on! The bedroom was a good size and the bed was also very comfortable. A few steps away from the cottage the lovely small town of Stanhope which had a healthy buzz about it and a few nice wee shops and places to eat and drink. Everything had been thought of when equipping this cottage and I appreciated it a lot. I would recommend to anyone thinking of going to this area and thank you to my host, Mark, good job! :-)

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