Dog Friendly Cottages in Merseyside

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Donna - Verified booking

  Unfortunately our stay at Penllan Cottages proved to be disappointing as we encountered a number of issues.

  This is such a shame as the cottage has such potential. Positives: Sea views are amazing. Bedrooms are beautifully decorated with a sea view from your bed from both front bedrooms. Lovely modern bathrooms. Everyone said how comfy the beds were. Negatives (and unfortunately there are a fair few): Finding it - Sat Nav sent us to a totally different place and the directions from Sykes were so vague that we spent 45 mins driving around Axton before we stumbled on the cottage. People who know how 'What Three Words' works may not have the same problem. Cleanliness - Fridge, although not awful, had jam marks around the door and bits of dried veg under the paper towels in the vegetable drawers. Table cloth had bits of goodness knows what, dried and stuck firmly on. A lot of the drinks glasses and a fair few pieces of cutlery needed rewashing. One of the pans was just filthy and looked like it had merely been shown some soapy water. The two handtowels provided had stains on them (looked like make-up). There were opened packets of food in a drawer clearly from previous holiday makers. General facilities - Toilet seat in downstairs bathroom broken and not useable. No bath towels, bath mat or tea towels provided. (although it clearly says towels provided in Sykes' description).The cleaning sponges provided in kitchen were not new and clearly been used a few times. Toaster did not work. One of bulbs in kitchen not working. Tin opener useless. No soap in upstairs bathroom. Heating - The cottage was cold when we got there. Lovely, large vintage style radiators falsely promised that we would soon be warm and cosy - not to be, as trying to work out the heating controls was like an episode of the Krypton Factor. Absolutely NO instructions were available to help us. Neither could we use the fire as kindling and logs had not been provided. Most places (and we have stayed in many, many different cottages) at least provide a starter set. My husband had to set out at 9pm to get some logs. Luckily we have family who live 5 mins away so we could borrow tea towels and towels from them We had to buy cleaning supplies ourselves. We later found the cottage tea towels soaking wet in the washing machine, along with a used mop cover, looking like they had all been washed together. (That little discovery actually made me grateful that we had had to source our own!). Admittedly, we did not contact the owner about these issues during our stay. We did not want to be disturbed on our long awaited holiday. We could cope with the broken toilet by using the upstairs one, we washed everything that needed it, bought or borrowed what we needed and lit a fire most evenings. We did, however, contact Sykes once we returned home and informed them of our issues, along with photo evidence. They have made the owner aware and also chased for a response and, to date, none has been forthcoming. I think we have been fair and given enough time for the owner to respond (we are not unreasonable people and wanted to give them opportunity to explain as we understand that there could be a very genuine reason that some of these issues arose). Penllan has the potential to be a totally outstanding holiday cottage but really let itself down due to above points. At just over 1k for the week we expected a much higher standard. Needless to say, we shan't be staying again. Just for information, the road outside the cottage is quite busy for a rural road and we were surprised by the speed of the cars going past. We had to be extra careful that the dogs did not get out. The gardens are secure but the driveway is not. Just something to be mindful of. Also, at the time of our stay, we could see no safety catches on the windows, and they are big windows that open wide, so just another thing to be mindful of.

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• Jenny - Verified booking

  Modestly priced and well located for outdoor pursuits.

  Outside seating was comfortable and it had a nice aspect for morning sun. Dog-wise, it seemed very secure, being fenced all the way around. Plenty of secure, off-road parking. Bathroom, shower and bath were good when the hot water was working. And the towels were of a heavy weight and good quality. The beds were comfortable. However, some things need addressing: ACCURACY OF LISTING: I couldn’t see a lake from the garden, the garage was locked so there was no bike storage as described, the view from the patio doors was of a red brick outhouse and the line about alfresco dining with pretty lake views as your backdrop is just plain mis-selling. CLEANLINESS: It looked and felt clean on arrival. However, the bathroom bin, with no bin liner in it, hadn’t been emptied and contained previous occupant’s rubbish, including waste from feminine sanitary products. A smell from the kitchen cupboard under the stairs when investigated revealed a filthy and wet cleaning mop. The freezer drawers contained split bags of ice and split bags of frozen veg and ice lollies from a previous occupant. The tiny vacuum was over-full and filthy. There was no simple dust-pan and brush. Nor hot ash box/bucket for waste from the wood burner. COMFORT: Beds had not been set up as requested (twin rather than double). The house felt very cool at all times. Drying anything wet or damp was a challenge. FACILITIES & MAINTENANCE: Towels had been laundered, rolled nicely and placed on the beds, but we discovered one was still wet and the other three were still damp. Hot water run out several times. Reporting it, we did get a speedy response and the next day it was better. Sadly, the day after, on our leaving day, the showers once again were cooler. The only information in the welcome folder relating to the property was the wi-fi, which did work well. There were no instruction manuals for any of the equipment or white goods. For someone not familiar with the Hive system, attempting to operate the heating/hot water would have been impossible. The contact numbers (including emergency) were for the cleaner/housekeeping company with a request to call during business hours. The air-source heat pump heating system was completely ineffectual, and we had to resort to the electric-oil filled radiators provided. Personally, a little more information about the heating, hot-water and change over expectations would have been useful.

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• Kevin - Verified booking

  We had a lovely week at Golf Links, it was great to be able to cross over the road and walk in the forest, especially after snow, as we did not need to drive and the forest looked so pretty.

  Also lunch and breakfast at the Visitor Centre were excellent. The cottage itself is great with a lovely new kitchen and bathroom, an excellent shower, big luxurious bath and comfy bed. WiFi coverage is excellent. Our biggest disappointment was how cold the cottage was to start with, the central heating does not seem capable in cold winter weather. However from Tuesday it warmed up and was very cosy thereafter. I don't know whether this was because the weather had warmed a little, or whether the cottage had been empty and unheated before our arrival and takes 4 days to warm up? Certainly we were very grateful for the provision of stand alone electric radiators, even though these were filthy. A shame as the cleanliness of the cottage was generally good, except for these and the sofa, which needed a good hoover on arrival, as mentioned by a previous visitor. We were also surprised that the log burner was not laid ready for use (or even cleaned out from its last use) as in other cottages we have stayed in. Finally, we have definitely been spoiled by the generosity of welcome baskets in cottages lately, so were rather surprised to receive nothing here, even though other visitors had left thanks for goodies. We will try not to take this personally!

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• Linsey - Verified booking

  Great cottage and location, it looked like it had just been renovated and everything was new, the plates still had paper between them .

  .. beds and pillows so Comfy and lovely bedding that smelt amazing, great towels and well equipped. So new the dishwasher wasn't plugged in and the water supply was not turned on, luckily we were able to sort this. As its new we found the door locks very stiff, and the back door lock easier to operate then the front. It's a warm house with a lovely big bathroom , 20 mins from chester zoo, and 10 mins from Blakemere shopping village which is worth a visit! Just over the road from delamere forest / the train station and go ape. We left a few recommendations, like coasters to be left to protect tables, and good instructions for what to do with towels and bedding on departure day etc We would also recommend better clothes hanging space if there for a week, space is limited a hanging rail or rail in the cupboard would be great. Also in every cottage we have stayed in, we always have loo roll left, so was surprised on arrival that there was none in the Downstairs loo and not a full one upstairs, Overall lovely stay and would definitely return , just a few tweaks for us would make it even better. Also be aware, as not advertised , large housing building development over the road, can be noisy at time too.

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• Ronnie - Verified booking

  This is a loverly cottage in a great rural location with the added bonus of an enclosed garden for our dog to sit out and enjoy.

  The property is only a quick drive away from the main town for all your shopping needs and close to the main highways so you don’t have to travel that far to get going when you want venture out and about. There are also some lovely walks you can take straight from your doorstep which was very handy. We had a couple of minor gripes - the water pressure in the main bathroom was not the greatest and some work is required in regard to the wash basin taps as they were loose and moved when you turned them on and off. The other main issue was the WiFi, it was very good in the kitchen, and in the up stairs bedroom (directly above the kitchen) but awful on the other side of the house where the main front room and TV is located. I would recommend to the owner to install some WiFi boosters around the house as this would definitely help. Overall though our stay was great and we would definitely stay again in the future.

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