Dog Friendly Cottages in Lowestoft

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Matthew - Verified booking

  Dear Sir/Madam We are emailing you to register a complaint in relation to our recent stay at Sea Pearl in Pakefield (25 August-1 September).

  When we arrived on the evening of 25 September, it was immediately clear that the house had not been cleaned and that the property had not been made ready for our arrival. The bed linen from the previous guests was still in heaps on the bedroom floor (and the beds bare of any linen), the bins were still full (and the kitchen ones smelling), the bathrooms had no towels and were dirty, and it was clear that no one had visited the house since the previous guests had departed. After contacting the emergency contact number, a representative from the housekeeping company arrived at around 11.30pm, and made up the double bed for us, and provided us with towels, the makings of a welcome pack (and an additional bottle of wine). Unfortunately, they brought the wrong size duvet cover, so they folded the kingsize duvet up a little, to fit it into the double duvet cover they had. They were very apologetic about the state of the house, and indicated they would call us back around 10am the following day, to let us know what time a full clean could take place. We didn't hear from the housekeeping company as expected, but after chasing them we finally got a text from them around 11.45am on the Saturday, letting us know that a full clean would be carried out between 2-4pm that afternoon. This all dictated our plans for the day; knowing the property hadn't been cleaned we avoided using the shower or bath, and also didn't feel able to unpack. We also had to leave the property on the Saturday afternoon, to allow the cleaners to do their work, not ideal when we'd travelled for 12 hours to get there on the Friday. After the clean had supposedly been completed we returned to find the main bin and recycling bin had not been emptied, and were still smelling strongly. The bins in two of the bedrooms were also still full of used tissues. We emptied all of these bins ourselves. In addition, none of the other beds had been made up (there are 3 other beds in the house). We had said that wasn't necessary on the Friday night (it was close to midnight by that point), but had expected they would be made up on the Saturday. As you can imagine, when we returned on late Saturday afternoon we were very unhappy about all of this, but anxious not to have another night disrupted because of the lack of housekeeping we decided to empty the bins ourselves, and try to ignore that the two other bedrooms hadn't been made up. We just couldn't face yet more of our holiday being taken up with housekeeping admin and disruption. There's no doubt that having 2 days of disruption really wasn't a good start to our much needed holiday, or that it continued to have a negative impact on how we felt about the property across the week. In fact, we ended up leaving 2 days early, having never quite managed to feel at ease in it. I'm sure you'll agree that this level of service falls considerably short of what any paying customer should expect from Sykes and any property it rents (although we've since noted that the property has received several negative reviews in terms of its cleanliness). Our experience means that we are extremely unlikely to ever rent another property through Sykes. As such, we would very much appreciate some financial compensation in response to the disruption we experienced and the impact this had across the whole of our holiday. I look forward to hearing from you, and to achieving a positive resolution to this matter. I can be contacted via linleymatt@gmail.com. Matthew Linley

  Read more less >

• Matthew - Verified booking

  Dear Sir/Madam We are emailing you to register a complaint in relation to our recent stay at Sea Pearl in Pakefield (25 August-1 September).

  When we arrived on the evening of 25 September, it was immediately clear that the house had not been cleaned and that the property had not been made ready for our arrival. The bed linen from the previous guests was still in heaps on the bedroom floor (and the beds bare of any linen), the bins were still full (and the kitchen ones smelling), the bathrooms had no towels and were dirty, and it was clear that no one had visited the house since the previous guests had departed. After contacting the emergency contact number, a representative from the housekeeping company arrived at around 11.30pm, and made up the double bed for us, and provided us with towels, the makings of a welcome pack (and an additional bottle of wine). Unfortunately, they brought the wrong size duvet cover, so they folded the kingsize duvet up a little, to fit it into the double duvet cover they had. They were very apologetic about the state of the house, and indicated they would call us back around 10am the following day, to let us know what time a full clean could take place. We didn't hear from the housekeeping company as expected, but after chasing them we finally got a text from them around 11.45am on the Saturday, letting us know that a full clean would be carried out between 2-4pm that afternoon. This all dictated our plans for the day; knowing the property hadn't been cleaned we avoided using the shower or bath, and also didn't feel able to unpack. We also had to leave the property on the Saturday afternoon, to allow the cleaners to do their work, not ideal when we'd travelled for 12 hours to get there on the Friday. After the clean had supposedly been completed we returned to find the main bin and recycling bin had not been emptied, and were still smelling strongly. The bins in two of the bedrooms were also still full of used tissues. We emptied all of these bins ourselves. In addition, none of the other beds had been made up (there are 3 other beds in the house). We had said that wasn't necessary on the Friday night (it was close to midnight by that point), but had expected they would be made up on the Saturday. As you can imagine, when we returned on late Saturday afternoon we were very unhappy about all of this, but anxious not to have another night disrupted because of the lack of housekeeping we decided to empty the bins ourselves, and try to ignore that the two other bedrooms hadn't been made up. We just couldn't face yet more of our holiday being taken up with housekeeping admin and disruption. There's no doubt that having 2 days of disruption really wasn't a good start to our much needed holiday, or that it continued to have a negative impact on how we felt about the property across the week. In fact, we ended up leaving 2 days early, having never quite managed to feel at ease in it. I'm sure you'll agree that this level of service falls considerably short of what any paying customer should expect from Sykes and any property it rents (although we've since noted that the property has received several negative reviews in terms of its cleanliness). Our experience means that we are extremely unlikely to ever rent another property through Sykes. As such, we would very much appreciate some financial compensation in response to the disruption we experienced and the impact this had across the whole of our holiday. I look forward to hearing from you, and to achieving a positive resolution to this matter.

  Read more less >

• Janette - Verified booking

  Overall we enjoyed our stay.

  Pros: Great quiet location close to pub, shops, beach and only a 2.5k walk to the South Pier. Large well equipped kitchen with all essentials provided. 2 good sized bathrooms with a great waterfall shower in the downstairs shower room. We didn’t use the upstairs shower so can’t comment on that one. Large living/ dining room which opens out onto the private rear garden which isn’t overlooked. Good quality mattresses and bedding and the bedrooms are decorated nicely with plenty of wardrobe and drawer space. Overall the property was clean and tidy, and was nice and warm. Cons: The downstairs carpets were in need of a good clean, we couldn’t walk around in bare feet/ socks because of this. The property is advertised as 1 double, and three single beds. The double is not a full sized double it is queen size and there is hardly any room to get down the side of the bed. The 2nd bedroom was much larger with 2 single beds in. This would have been better used as the master bedroom so a full sized double bed could be provided. Luckily we are only small, but the size of the bed still affected our sleep. The upstairs bathroom has a macerator which is so noisy when the toilet is flushed or taps run that you couldn’t use it at night as you would wake everyone up. The downstairs lounge layout was very odd. The furniture didn’t really fit properly and felt cramped. The tv was hidden in a corner of the room and was not easy to see from where the sofas were. As there were only 2 of us, we were able to reposition the tv and sofa and make it work for us, but if there were 5 people I could see it being an issue. The light switches in the lounge were temperamental, with one not working at all. The garden, though large and south facing, was a bit overgrown and generally tired and unloved. The garden furniture was rusted in parts and not very comfortable. There were only small spaces in the garden and I can’t see how 5 people would socialise in it (when property is at max capacity). That said we enjoyed our stay and loved the area. Overall, with a bit of TLC and some minor adjustments such as rearranging / replacing the downstairs furniture and tv, updating the garden and furniture and providing a full sized double bedroom this property would be worthy of 5 stars.

  Read more less >

• Hazel - Verified booking

  Another excellent cottage found via your website.

  Good communication for directions etc from owner, which was just as well as the cottage is sort of back to front i.e. Accessed from garden, with no apparent front door. Very pleasing nautical decor particularly the 2 bedrooms and comfy bed. The Kitchen had plenty of accessories including some basic condiments, even washing machine and dish washer tablets. Living area well laid out with pleasant suite, TV and DVD player and selection of books, if needed. Our dog was also very happy with the fenced garden and we were happy with the stair gate keeping her downstairs knowing she was not allowed upstairs saved us from nagging her all the time ! The location was also good for us, short walk away from garden gate to a brilliant beach of shingle and dunes which was dog friendly, our dog just ran and ran. There is a very friendly Pub off the beach with good basic pub food and dogs accepted inside plus choice of fish shops if you didn't want to travel far but the cottage is sited about half way between Southwold and Lowestoft, both good places to visit In all a good week's holiday - home from home and an extra touch was a welcome card. Chocolates, biscuits, bag of sweets and biscuits for our dog left for us - very thoughtful.

  Read more less >

• P - Verified booking

  After reading reviews I was slightly worried about doggy smell but walking into property it was a relief, no smell what so ever.

  The property is really spacious and very homely. Looked like brand new bathrooms up and downstairs. The only criticism I have is there are quite a few photos dotted around, so needs making less personal and one sofa, more like a wooden bench was neither use nor ornament as like sitting on garden bench so we didn't use that. Dont be worrying over what kitchen utensils to take as it has litterly everything, it even had needles and thread. The property has a small very well maintained sercure secure garden that's full of cottage flowers that looks very pretty and a lockable gate leading out to the beach just a few yards away. We did have a very disappointing start to our week away tho, we was instructed where to find key but was unable to locate it, so after ringing 2 numbers provided on email , no one answered the phone, after an hour of waiting around, luckly Sykes sorted it and a lady rang me and told me a key safe had been installed. Overall we had a lovely stay at sea pearl and would highly recommend.

  Read more less >