Dog Friendly Villas In Devon

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Helena - Verified booking

  The house is on a slope, in the middle of the forest and in the middle of nowhere.

  Next to it is an empty old hotel. There is no mobile phone, only WiFi and a landline phone that was blocked for outgoing calls, only emergency calls were possible. Making calls via WiFi is only possible if the provider allows it. This was possible for me, but not for my wife. This means that if your provider doesn't allow this, you will be completely isolated in the apartment. It is important to note that emergency calls CANNOT be made via WiFi! A high outside staircase leads to the apartment, which, thanks to the waterfalls, is always damp to wet and therefore very slippery. Now in the fall, when the leaves are on the stairs, they are as slippery as soap. Our repeated requests to clean the stairs and ensure sure-footedness were ignored by the owner. The request for a broom so we could sweep the stairs ourselves was also ignored. At first glance the apartment seems good, the view is beautiful, the furniture is solid and not worn out, it looks comfortable, but at second glance the deficiencies become apparent. In both bathrooms there is a strong smell of mold. There are no mixer taps, just two taps for cold and warm water. Either you wash with cold or hot water. The shower head is permanently installed, there is no flexible shower hose. The bathtub also has two separate taps. This is all very old-fashioned and impractical. In the room with the washer-dryer and therefore in the hallway there is a strong smell of oil that is used to operate the heating. There are no fly screens on the windows, which is downright irresponsible given the huge number of mosquitoes, black flies, all other kinds of flies, wasps and hornets, especially since there is a wasp's nest under the roof right by the window in the master bedroom. We had a fly invasion one afternoon and around 40 flies in the apartment. The mattress protector was missing on the mattress in the master bedroom, you could see all the ugly, brown and yellow stains on the mattress through the thin sheet, which suggests that the mattress is very old and has never been cleaned or had a mattress protector. In addition, the mattresses were very uncomfortable. We washed the bed linen in between and then saw that the pillows and blankets also had stains. Large pots, pans and pan/pot covers were missing in the kitchen. We had to buy a large pot with a lid and a wok/large pan ourselves and left them in the apartment. The wardrobe in the master bedroom is tiny, but at least it has doors, in the second bedroom it is just a small open wardrobe, this means that all of your clothing will definitely collect dust. There are not enough clothes hangers overall. There is no wardrobe in the hallway or at least a few hooks for street clothes. Also there's no shoe rack. The owner has put a box for street shoes outside the door and obviously believes that you should keep your shoes there. Since the entrance to the apartment is at the back of the house and therefore on a constantly damp to dripping wet slope (waterfalls!), the street shoes in this box remain damp, or will definitely be so if they weren't already damp. In the morning you can put on your damp, clammy, completely cool shoes. There are no hooks for towels and/or bathrobes in either bathroom. Not even in the two bedrooms. There are also no towel hooks in the kitchen. The apartment is dog-friendly, which is very nice, but has very light (!) carpeted floors throughout. The dog owners should clean the dogs outside with the hose and cold water provided before the dogs go into the apartment, because the carpet in the hallway is also white and there is only a dark doormat. You can't really go for a walk with your dog anywhere, there's no garden or a meadow nearby but only narrow, busy road right next to the house that you can walk along, but since it leads directly to the slope on one side and to the steep precipice on the other, the walks are no pleasure. For a nice walk you have to drive a bit before you can safely walk with the dog. In the evening/night the street is completely unlit, it is then extremely dark and it is downright life-threatening to walk along the street. Since the house is really lonely, in the middle of nowhere, you don't feel very safe, especially since the other two apartments in the house were not visible most of the time. We stayed in the apartment for almost three weeks and would never book it again.

  Read more less >

• Sylvia - Verified booking

  To start with, directions were sketchy and the place was badly signed from the road, and could only be seen coming from the opposite direction.

  It was trying after a long drive. The cottage was comfortable but space was very limited. There was no room for a dog bed, and nowhere to stow our suitcases except on the spare beds. The facilities were pretty OK. Not so keen on the bathroom being just a sliding door away from the kitchen, not sure if that is legal, but shower was good. There was no room to do things like drawing, jigsaw puzzles etc for when it was raining, which happened a lot during the week we were away, NOT your fault! Furniture and beds were comfortable and the electric heating worked well, but some of the decor was 'tired'. The walls to the neighbouring cottages were thin so a bit noisy at times. Outside space for the dog was excellent. In the end we came home a day early because the cottage was so cramped and there was no room for pastimes to occupy us when it was raining, also no phone signal was a big disadvantage when my husband needed to be contacted by his Clinical Nurse Specialist during treatment for cancer and the builder working on our house while we were away could not contact us. Neither could we contact them unless we drove out of the village and the whole point of this particular holiday was to relax and not have to go anywhere much while we were there. All in all, the holiday did not meet our expectations of a relaxing week by the sea, exacerabated of course by Covid restrictions so we couldn't go out for a meal, but that also is NOT your fault.

  Read more less >

• Nickola - Verified booking

  We have used Sykes cottages many times before and this was the first time we have had cause for complaint.

  First impressions of the cleanliness of the cottage were good but we soon realised it had not been cleaned properly and there was a lot of dog hairs. Underneath the furniture had not been cleaned and we also found a used tissue under one of the sofas. There was a lot of dust and hairs underneath them and this could have easily cleaned by just pulling the sofa out. Also when we lifted the rug we found that the floor around it wasn’t as clean as underneath it. We realised that my husband was having a reaction to the pet hairs as he kept getting a tickley cough whenever we were in the property and especially at night, which even though he has never had any reaction to pets before it has totally disappeared since we have been home. The cooker instructions were a bit confusing and the grill came on with the oven and burnt the outside while the inside was still raw, hence we didn’t cook in the property. An iron was provided but no ironing board. Previous properties we have stayed in with Sykes have been let by the owners but this one we noticed was looked after by a letting company so you didn’t get the personal touches to the stay and it will definitely be something I make sure of next time.

  Read more less >

• Madeleine - Verified booking

  We love Hope Cove and have visited every year for the past 10 years.

  Our experience with your company was excellent and we can’t fault that however, Whilst the property was in a great location it isn’t really suitable for more than two people. We came as a three with our dog and struggled with the space. For example, We had to store all our beach stuff outside (thank goodness it was sunny), other items in our car, and it was impossible to find space to extend the dining table - it’s almost pointless having it there taking up much needed space. We also had issues with parking and quite often we didn’t manage to get a space which was very frustrating as it meant we had to pay additional costs to park in the town car park when the property is advertised with car parking. The shower also didn’t drain - we bought sink unblocker - there was an old hot cross bun in the cupboard on arrival and we generally felt the pictures used to advertise the property were misleading. When we return to Hope Cove in the future we would not book Thornlea Mews again and would not recommend it to anyone travelling in a party bigger than a couple.

  Read more less >

• Michael - Verified booking

  The cottage is located in the lovely village of Winckley.

  Winckley is a quiet village with all the amenities you require including a post office, a general store, two pubs and various pop up eateries throughout the week. We arrived on a Saturday to find a Thai kitchen set up in the nearby community centre car park. This was lovely and the food was very tasty. Parking was not a problem and we managed to park near the cottage all week without any hassle. The cottage has everything you need including a utility room with a washer & drier. The master bedroom is spacious and the second bedroom was loved by our son who enjoyed the bunk beds ! There are lots of nice touches around the cottage and we would recommend it to couples and a family with one or two young children. We used it as a base and travelled to all parts of Devon from the cottage. Saunton Sands was a favourite of ours and it took about 45 mins to get there. It took us about 90 mins to get to Salcombe from the cottage too. We loved it. We wouldn’t hesitate on visiting again. My 3 year old son said he loved his holiday home !! Thank you.

  Read more less >