East Sussex Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Nadir - Verified booking

  The cottage has suffered from a prolonged lack of care and maintenance and is not as shown in your website.

  To start with the fridge freezer was too small to cater for a family of five. Insufficient space for freezer food and a very dated fridge freezer indeed. The cooker, well what can i say, very outdated indeed and stopped working after one use. Then two days later it suddenly started working. The first-floor bathroom was again dated, the sink was blocked during the entire holiday and the toilet could not be flushed by us all and you have to repeatedly pull the dated chain system of the toilet for it to then work. The bathroom facilities need updating. Soaps were left where it was used by previous holidayers or guest which i found absolutely disgusting. The bedrooms were dusty and cobwebs every corner of the bedrooms seems to me that it has not had a deep clean since for ages. My children all suffer from dust allergies and they all became unwell and we were all sneezing every day with red itchy eyes. The house had sudden power cuts on many occasions which scared us all, especially during the nights. The lamp shades keep falling down and my son try to grab it and burned his little finger created a blister. The upstairs toilet mirror had no lights. There was no guidance on the bins. However, the gardens were beautiful and well maintained and we all loved it, but we heard a lot of gun shots and people walking in the woods adjacent to the garden that made us feel concerned about our children's safety. I think the woods are used for hunting, but we were not told. Also, we were not told that the woods belong to next door neighbour, and we were approached by her very aggressively and in a very judgemental way. We had explained our position so politely and apologised to her, but she was still aggressive. That evening we were called by the owner at around 8.30- 9.00pm regarding this matter which i found quiet insulting and quite rude to be exact as it ruined our pleasant evening. We felt so uneasy that we lost the mood of our holiday and we cut it short and left three days early. We also had problems parking our car off street and parking the car in the space provided was tremendously difficult and i had scratched my car from the fence post when going into the parking space. the fence closing off the parking space was ridiculously awkward and annoying needs major improvements. This property did not meet my standards and I suggest you inspect the property immediately as I am sure it would not meet yours. This is the first time I have used Sykes Cottages and unfortunately it may be the last.

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• Carolyn - Verified booking

  Had a very pleasant short-stay at Gun Hill.

  A super Cottage with a lovely Garden. Perfect base for exploring a lovely part of the country. A couple of minor complaints in that the downstairs loo wasn't working (Flush Broken) & that I had to get the hoover out at one point to sort out the well-established spider population. Appreciate that you can't stop them getting into an old house but some of the webs looked as if they'd been there for a while. Lots of plus-points however : the overall cleanliness, the welcome bottle of wine, comfortable beds, pretty much everything we needed (iron/ironing board & even a Smart-TV) The traffic using the road outside, whilst not at all busy, was fast & made manoeuvring out of the driveway a little dangerous. The pub, one minute's drive away, was superb, so handy to have a good local when you are staying away. A water filter would be useful as the tap water was a little 'metallic', again minor, as the pub supplied us with bottled water. The surrounding area was peaceful & quiet, lots of trees & country lanes, several NT places nearby that are well worth a visit.

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• Annabel - Verified booking

  We had a lovely stay.

  Chris had been very responsive by email prior to the stay so I had no questions once we were there. There was also a useful folder relating to the cottage and area and notes left in strategic places. However on getting ready for departure we could not find instructions for what to do with the recycling other than to take glass to the nearby pub, which we did. It was just before we left the house and I am afraid I forgot to mention it to Chris and left it there. My friend found the third bedroom a bit cold, but she really does feel the cold. It’s an old house of traditional construction so hardly eco and easy to heat. The garden is great. We took my dog and did lots of walking. I know the area, but still nearly lost my Wellington boot in very deep mud on one walk. I would advise people to avoid bridleways, which are extra muddy when it’s been wet, and stick to footpaths as horses aren’t allowed in them. Anyway we loved the cottage and would like to return in the spring.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  The cottage is quaint and has a lovely garden (probably the best we have had at a cottage) and outside seating area which we used alot.

  It has most of the things you would expect to need for a week away. The pub was a five minute walk and had very good food, the cottage location is great, there are so many beautiful places to visit within half an hour drive in all directions. The disappointing thing was the cleanliness in some areas, there were dusty surfaces in the living room, spider webs in a lot of places and dead woodlice in the dolls house and toy horse box which I wiped down so my daughter could play....we get these in our house too, it's an old house. It's hard to believe a thorough clean happened just before we arrived though, which would be expected at the best of times, but especially this year. The other thing we felt needed attention was the oven door which doesn't close properly and perhaps some new placemats that aren't peeling. Overall an enjoyable holiday, thank you.

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• Tony - Verified booking

  We had a most enjoyable two weeks at Gun Hill Cottage.

  The house and gardens were very pleasant with lots of local walks from the house and two excellent pubs nearby. Would certainly visit again. The only downside was our communication with Sykes in Chester before the holiday. Despite several calls in the week before, they failed to answer our queries and would not give us a direct line to their 'local office' (?) or the owner. The result was that we arrived to find the beds not made up to our requirements and no information on a mid-stay change of linen. Fortunately the owner Chris was most helpful and sorted things out to our satisfaction - no thanks to Sykes. To be fair, it's the first time we have ever had this communication problem after dozens of visits over the last 20 years.

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