Christmas Bed And Breakfasts In Devon

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• James - Verified booking

  My wife and I stayed at the Old Kennels Cottage Accommodation for 6 nights at the end of July 2023.

  We payed over £1300 for our stay. One of the main reasons we chose this cottage, was because it had a washing machine. We had traveled from Switzerland via France and had already been on the road for 9 days. Upon our arrival, and to our surprise, there was no washing machine. The booklet in the cottage said it had a washing machine as well as on the Website of Sykes Cottages, who we booked through. After contacting the Site Manager, we were informed that the washing machine was broken. The Site Manager said that they would return the next day to discuss the matter. We never saw that person again for the duration of our stay and no message was left for us to say that they had stopped by and that we should contact them. Had we had not contacted the Site Manager, no one would have told us that there was no washing machine available. There was ZERO communication prior to our arrival that the washing machine was broken and not available at the property. This was a huge inconvenience to us and certainly was not the nicest experience to start our holiday with. We were offered to have our washing done by the site manger at the farm. Which was a nice gesture. But after seeing how dirty (particular the bed sheets and towels) the cottage was when we arrived, we did not accept this offer. Also, this was certainly not a sufficient solution to having no washing machine at the property. We certainly did not pay £1300 for a stranger to do our washing on another property. On our departure day, we asked the owner that we be refunded accordingly as they did not provide us with a washing machine that we could use, at our own convenience, in the cottage. The owner refused to refund us. In addition, upon our arrival, the property was not cleaned properly, not even to a minimal standard of cleanliness. In the Kitchen all the door handles and appliances were sticky and dirty to touch. The drawers where the cutlery and toaster were kept had not been cleaned. There were still ALOT of left over crumbs in the toaster from the previous week. The tea towel provided had a huge stain on it, and the dish sponge was black and smelly. It certainly didn’t give us much confidence that the rest of the utensils and kitchen were cleaned properly?! In the Bathroom the bath mat had stains on it and didn’t look clean. There were a number (more than should be tolerated) of hairs around the toilet, sink, floor and shower area. In the main double bedroom the sheets had a stain in the middle of the bed, and the mattress protector was covered in stains, and looked liked it hadn’t been washed in a long time. It was disgusting! There were cobwebs everywhere and no sign that any had tried to be cleaned. Dog hairs were also evident on the sofa and floor of the lounge area. There were left over pieces of litter in the small bin of the main bedroom. The bin had not been emptied. The Hoover (a Dyson) had not been emptied, it was full and we had to empty it our selves to use it the first night, because there were dead insects everywhere. Therefore, I would highly recommend that you DO NOT BOOK AND STAY HERE. For the price you pay, it does not equate to the the service and quality you expect to receive. You will find much better accommodations and hotels with a much higher level of cleanliness and standard of service in the nearby area. Lastly, there are similar feedback comments on the Sykes website dating from Oct 2022. Therefore, the owner has not dealt with these issues sufficiently and the management of this property has some serious problems.

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• Elaine - Verified booking

  I’ve just got back from a few days away at Widmouth Farm Cottages and can truthfully say this is one of the nicest, cleanest and most peaceful places I’ve ever stayed.

  The cottages are all laid out within a large courtyard area, with picnic benches and private gardens. I booked Robin but was very kindly upgraded to Swallow and when I walked in, I was not disappointed. First impression was that it was beautifully decorated with modern furniture and soft furnishings. It was spotlessly clean from top to bottom and very welcoming. The kitchen area is very well stocked and the bathroom is well appointed with a nice big walk in shower. The bedrooms were again spotlessly clean with crisp, fresh sheets and lovely soft furnishings, throws and cushions. Walking out of the cottage into my own front garden with furniture, out into the larger courtyard towards the animal enclosure, I didn’t see much of them while I was here, but I took a walk down the field, on the mowed path to the private beach. It’s quite steep and a little rocky but that’s the Devon coast for you. The beach is lovely and quiet and I could see Watermouth bay from where I stood on the shore. I have nothing negative or neutral to say about this place, it’s all positive. Turning right out of the cottages and a couple of miles later, you come across Hele Bay, which is a lovely little inlet cove. I had a pasty and coffee at the cafe there and found a comfy place to soak up the sun and read. I spent several days at Woolacombe, and visited my favourite food outlet, S&P Fish Shop in Ilfracombe harbour, where I bought a delicious crab sandwich, which I took to Woolacombe and sat on the beach watching the tide come in. Widmouth Farm is beautifully kept outside too, grass neatly mowed, planters full and the courtyards all swept and clean. The helpful utility room gives you washing machine and dryer, and there’s also a basket full of bagged animal feed, at 40p/bag and there’s an honesty box next to it to pay for these. There’s also a boot wash area for ramblers. Just lovely. Thank you, Bethany and family for this wonderful and peaceful little haven. I very much hope to return!

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• Miss Thornton - Verified booking

  Really lovely pod, perfect for the two of us and our dog. We loved the hot tub and found the whole pod absolutely lovely to stay in. However there are some things that we were slightly disappointed with. The pod is dog friendly and we loved the little box of treats and dog bowls, however there is not security for the dog, no gate to the cabin area mean that the dog could very easily get out into the field and subsequently the road, we were lucky that we bought something to block the entry way, so might be something to note for future stays. We would have also liked some more information on arrival, there is an info pack, but it seemed to miss out things such as recycling, how to use the hot tub etc. We also arrived to some sort of meat item which was half frozen in the fridge, we were so unsure as to what this was to begin with, as it was just in a sandwich bag and we thought that it had just been left by previous guests. Although there were some negatives, the positives really outweighed them. The pod is beautiful, don’t up to a great standard, beautiful location and was just perfect for what we needed. We will thoroughly looking to book another trip here later in the year, and would recommend to anyone.

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• Sue - Verified booking

  The setting was lovely but spoilt by a few niggles.

  The keycode safe was very fiddly and hard to open. The listed fridge/freezer was anything but as was only a very small fridge with an ice box that wouldnt even hold a small tub of icecream. The village shop was closed each day just after lunch due to staff shortages and had hardly any stock so we had to travel to the larger stores further away and then had no space to store items so had to do a limited shop each time. The salad box was only big enough for 2 items! We tried to use the dishwasher on day 3 when we had built up enough crockery to make it worthwhile using but unfortunately it did not work due to no salt and there was none in the cupboard! There was no control on the hot tub to turn the water temperature down as it was too hot for us to use. The area around the building needed a good tidy up, lots of weeds growing and a very dirty door mat to greet you. The TV only worked on a few of the days holiday as it kept saying no signal and as we dont subscribe to NETFLIX it was a little disappointing. The area around the house was lovely and we enjoyed going for long walks each day. All in all we enjoyed our holiday but a shame it was spoilt by a few small niggles.

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• Emma - Verified booking

  We stayed at the Old Kennels in August 2023 as a family group of 4 adults and our dog and couldn’t have had a better holiday.

  Accurate listing, very clean, beautiful setting and really well equipped holiday home. Having stayed in a few holiday cottages like this over the years we were really impressed by the range of kitchen equipment available, enough to cook a big roast and multiple barbecues for a group of 4. Tea and coffee also provided, which was not expected and above and beyond. Lots of parking. Fast, friendly responses from owners when needed - really lovely people. The hot tub and garden furniture were brilliant as we happened to be lucky with the weather after a very wet July! Location was beautiful and secluded which was wonderful, lots of space for the dog to safely run around, walking distance from the byes, lovely pubs and sidmouth - perfect for a relaxed and pooch-friendly holiday. Would 100% recommend to anyone and my partner and I are coming back in November with the pooch for another week! Couldn’t have asked for any more. Had a really lovely week of quality time with family.

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