Last Minute Cottages in Grasmere

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Mr Steve Bennett - Verified booking

  The cottage was a good place to stay for a few days, BUT, the toilet seat was broken and needs re-fixing, the front and kitchen door locks may need replacing as both were difficult to work and the blind over the window in the lounge once down, would not pull back up. I would have expected all of these issues to have been corrected before our stay. We were also surprised that the main "bedroom" is in fact an open mezzanine floor with a severely sloping roof making it uncomfortable to use and making it difficult to have any quiet from the lounge below, if someone wants to watch TV etc ... Finally, the cottage information suggests a "full Sky package" which is not true as it was not possible to access Sky Sports ... Please also be aware that we had to cut short our stay by 24 hours as "ElectricityNW" arrived on Tuesday morning, woke us up and advised that "the power was being switched off for the rest of the day. As the bathroom is an enclosed space needing electricity to light the room, it would not have been possible to use the kettle, electric hob, TV or WiFI we chose to leave on Tuesday lunchtime rather than stay until our planned departure on Wednesday morning. It is true that I received 2 voice messages (one left on Monday late afternoon and a second on Tuesday morning) to advise about this, but as Toffee Cottage is in an area with NO phone signal, these messages were not received until we got home on Tuesday afternoon! Surely it would have been good customer service to send WhatsApp messages and/or emails to advise this situation as I can only assume that your local staff would be aware that a phone message would not be received ... I will look forward to your reply and comments, but hope that you will consider some degree of refund / compensation for the situations described above. Many thanks, Steve

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• Hannah - Verified booking

  Double bed- needs to be king size as its so small myself and my husband struggled to stay in it.

  I slept one night in another room to get more space. Would gladly have had smaller bedside tables to accommodate. Needs mattress topper in all the rooms. The mattresses are so uncomfortable we didnt sleep the entire stay. Downstairs lights dont turn off on three nearest the window. No heating in kitchen or downstairs toilet working. In winter it is freezing and not enjoyable to use. Downstairs shower doesnt drain quick enough to be able to use, almost flooded hallway, took 2 hrs to drain. Mirror rusty in downstairs toilet. All directions on oven and hob rubbed off had to google for settings. This is very dangerous with a gas hob. One ring dial on gas hob doesnt work properly/dial sticks. Again very dangerous. Taps on bath move about/loose. Clocks not set to the right time (1 hr ahead) and unable to change some of them. Steak knives need updating very blunt. Could do with a measuring jug Could do with more than one baking tray for the oven. Signal on the tv goes out regularly. We have stayed at Thompson Cottage a few times over the years and previously enjoyed our stays. Unfortunately the property needs now some updating and money spending on it go bring it back to annacceptable standard. Unfortunately we would not be booking again unless the above could be accomodated. The bed situation being the most critical in my opinion.

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• Valerie - Verified booking

  The photos are misleading as this cottage is a lot smaller than it appears.

  The large windows in the main living area don't open, so there's no ventilation or air flow, making it stuffy and unpleasant in hot weather. It's also dangerous as if there was a fire in the kitchen, there's no way to escape without going through it. The shower overshoots the tiny shower screen, so water sprays over the side and soaks the bathmat and floor. The oversized grab rail also means you can only get under the shower sideways. Water pressure is good, which means lots of water on the floor. Temperature control is variable, so it's just as well it's hard to get under it. The bath wasn't draining, which added to the unpleasantness. The biggest issue that we had, however, was that the kitchen was dirty. Surfaces, dishes, and utensils needed a thorough clean when we arrived and this unfortunately led us to question the cleanliness of the entire place. It was also poorly appointed in the kitchen, making it virtually impossible to actually self cater. There was only one tiny pan that couldn't even poach two eggs at the same time. Overall it was such an unpleasant experience that we abandoned our holiday and left after two days.

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• Clare - Verified booking

  This was a truly lovely cottage.

  We spent four days here in a very snowy February. Convenient for the whole of the Lake District and some lovely walks around the local area. We have used Sykes regularly and have never been disappointed. The cottage was lovely and clean, bedding and towels were lovely and fresh. The only negative was the starter kit for the log burner. We've stayed in a few cottages with log burners and there is always a basket with logs, kindling etc on the hearth to start you off. There was nothing when we arrived so we looked in the information booklet again nothing. Eventually we found a key in the utility room for the shed and in there we found a box with 3 logs and some tongs and a couple of brushes and little shovels. It's just as well that we had taken note of the weather and brought some extra logs and kindling with us otherwise we would have struggled to light the logs that had been left for us. It wasn't the end of the world as there is central heating but if its included in your price then it should be there. Apart from this everything else was excellent.

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• Rita - Verified booking

  We cannot recommend this cottage as it had not been cleaned to a satisfactory standard, especially bearing in mind Covid-19.

  Four adults from our group spent the first two hours remedying the situation. The following points are just some of the problems we encountered. The kitchen lacked the expected cleanliness; the fridge had food remnants on the shelves and there was mould growing on one of them, the microwave had food splatters on the inside, there were food crumbs, etc. on work tops and the oven was covered in burnt food residues. Both the wet room and shower had pink and black moulds growing on the shower heads and in several other areas. The child’s cot was stained and dirty. Many contact surfaces (e.g. the bannisters) felt sticky and grimy and there was clumps of hair on the lounge carpet. Although the cottage sleeps five, there are only four dining chairs. We numbered five adults, plus a toddler using a booster seat. The TV was not connected to the outside Freeview cable. Following the thunderstorm, the Wifi did not work and a password was not provided to remedy the problem.

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