Dog Friendly Bed And Breakfasts In England

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• John - Verified booking

  I really don't want to sound negative about Poppy Cottage as regular users of Sykes cottages this was the lowest quality one we have stayed in, I will explain my reasoning around this though.

  The good points are its a lovely location and lovely and quiet and the accommodation is spacious. However this really needs some TLC and a bit more effort on the cleaning front we only used the ground floor double bedroom and found the following issues. Lamp shade above the bed covered in dust and lots of cobwebs, the bed linin whilst clean was of poor quality and and sounded like you were lying on a plastic bag which made it difficult to sleep because of the noise everytime one of you moved. The adjacent bathroom is in need of some maintenance its dated and at the head of the bath it looks like the shower screen is leaking and water has leaking down the wall and has had poor attempts at fixing so smells of damp and signs of mildew, cleaning not great either again lots of cobwebs. Kitchen area whilst reasonably well appointed the fridge cabinet is clearly broken as the door doesn't fit flush with the rest of the cabinets and feels like its falling forward, other cupboard doors do not shut properly either some of the upstands around the worktops are loose and not secured.Kick plinths do't fit properly. Oven not as clean as it could be and would benifit from a deep clean, the dishwasher basket is broken and rusty in places and needs some attention. The wall behind the hob could do with a much larger cleanable splashback as there is lots of cooking stains on the wall. There are under cabinet lights either side of the cooker hob we never did find out how to turn them on. The General living area was comfortable but again attention to detail lots of cobwebs not very well cleaned. There were DVD's on the shelf but NO dvd player. No visitors book or instruction manuals for any appliances. Very little information of where to go or local attractions no information about local restaurants or pubs etc. No hand soap in any bathrooms or kitchen space. All other sykes cottages we have stayed at have also included a small welcome pack ie milk, teabags, possibly some bread etc but there was nothing here. Limited cleaning products available. Also on the day of our arrival we had a thunder storm and the rain was hammering against the front of the property so we closed the window in the ground floor bedroom and the water flooded through the frame onto the windowsill opening the window allowed the water to run down the inside of the frame but not into the interior of the property which I feel is a bit counter intuitive. My personal opinion is that all these issues could be easily resolved with a bit more attention to detail and better maintenance between clients.

  Read more less >

• Sasha - Verified booking

  Poppy Cottage is set in beautiful surroundings.

  On arrival we went to look where the cottage was and saw the owner by chance who said the cottage would be ready slightly earlier than we anticipated which was fantastic so we popped into Lancaster which is only a short drive away for some supplies and headed back. The cottage is so well equipped with everything you would need, we requested 3 double beds and the 2 downstairs are huge! The views from the living room area and garden are lovely and we were welcomed each morning by the 2 lovely Shetland ponies who were in the paddock at the back next to the garden. We went in March so couldn't sit out in the garden but I'd imagine it would be lovely in the summer with the large doors opening from the living area into the garden. Being fond real ale and food lovers we of course were keen to find the nearest pub, on our drive in we saw The Stork so decided to walk there one afternoon. There is a lovely track that runs along the river that is easily accessible from the cottage albeit you have to descend down the side of a bridge to get on to it but it's pretty easy, although I wouldn't want my 80 year old grandmother attempting it! The Stork is a 20 minute walk away and the track is ideal for dogs to be off the lead, the pub is friendly and welcoming with a large open fire and I was told they kept a very good pint, can I can vouch for the good wine list! We even returned the following day for lunch and the food was outstanding! Real home made food, which you don't find very often these days! The lakes are about an hours away, we drove to Windermere one morning for a walk and not having been to that part of the world before it was outstandingly beautiful. The garden centre on site was lovely to mooch around, lots of lovely locally made bits and bobs, the cafe was being refurbed and it had limited seating when we got there so didn't stay however if was completely full on a Tuesday afternoon which is always a good sign on a week day I say! All in all our trip to poppy cottage was fantastic, great surroundings, lots of places to walk and discover, our 2 night stay was just not long enough!

  Read more less >

• Julie - Verified booking

  For a cottage for 6 adults there was one shower that was either stone cold or scalding hot, and dribbled out.

  When we spoke to the landlords they did come to try to fix the problem but admitted that they are always booked up so haven’t done any maintenance on the cottage for a long time. Again, for 6 adults staying for a week the kitchen was not appropriate, there was not enough cupboard space and the fridge was a built in one so was way too small. We had to clean the kitchen cupboards and run all the dishes through the dishwasher before we could use them as they hadn’t been left in a clean enough state. We also had to go out and buy dishwasher salt and rinse aid and filled up the dishwasher, something that I would not expect to have to do as i believe this should be something that the owners do for basic maintenance. There was dog poo all over the garden and the rug was full of dog hairs. The dining table chairs kept coming apart when you sat on them (the dowels kept coming out making them unstable) so clearly need gluing back together. Visiting in October we put the heating on and it just kept switching off so our towels didn’t dry properly. The tv was too small for the size of the room. There was no recycling facilities available. The listing says it is near a pub but you cannot walk to the pub as there is a main road that is 50 mph but there is no footpath, and you have to walk through fields to get to a footpath which would not be appropriate to walk to in the dark. Some positives to finish with: the log burner and main room was nice and spacious. When we alerted the owners to the shower problem they were quick to respond (although they didn’t have a clue how to fix it and we spent the rest of the week putting up with the shower.

  Read more less >

• Nanette - Verified booking

  We were only staying at the cottage for a few days as we were attending a wedding.

  Whilst the cottage did its job for somewhere to stay, the rooms were large and the cottage well laid out. However I feel like some love and care needs to be given back to these cottages, they could be beautiful and a real asset to the owners but instead they are out of date, run down and not looked after. They need a good facelift, proper garden furniture with a garden that isn't over grown. There was no welcome hamper, or even just a few tea bags, coffee etc. No logs were provided for the fire, even though it said on the information that there would be. No information booklet on the area, said there were woodland walks but these were blocked off with pallets so we couldn't take our dog into the woods. My husband was told he couldn't go down the road past the caravan park as it was private but there were no signs to say this, in fact there was no sinage at all. If you are allowing people to bring dogs, then they need to be informed of where they can be walked around the area to avoid any issues. As I said, such a shame as these could be lovely properties, they need to up their game

  Read more less >

• Caroline - Verified booking

  The downstairs bathroom has an awful smell, assume its the drains.

  An air fresher would have helped alleviate some of the odour. The toilet flush needs attention, 2 or more flushes needed to clear the bowl. The photos must be years old, the garden is definitely not as shown with mature tress on either side instead of the open views we expected to see. The upstairs bed and downstairs twin next to the window are very uncomfortable, 2 of our party did not sleep well at all, pleased we were there only 3 nights. If we had known what the 2nd bathroom was like we would not have booked, now I know why there are no pictures of this or the other bathroom. Towels were rough. The access road and the cottages need better signage, walked from the long barn cottages to find Poppy, up a private road with tight turn on left which is easily driven past. Would be very difficult to find in dark. We were very disappointed and Poppy Cottage is not in our opinion 4 star accommodation. Dishwasher shelves starting to rust. It was not worth the amount we paid. On a positive the bedding was clean and comfortable.

  Read more less >