Group Accommodation Cottages in Lake-District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Fiona - Verified booking

  Myself and friends rented the cottage over Christmas this year.

  There were 5 adults and 1 child and overall we have rated the cottage 3/5 stars. The location in the centre of Windermere is the property’s best asset - a 2 minute walk to the shops, cafes and 5 mins to the nearest bar. Windermere itself was charming and the people in shops/ bars very friendly. We were contacted by the company as we were driving to Windermere to let us know that the cleaners would be later than check in time and we were ok with that. However, the cottage was left without some bedding being changed and other bedding left over the bannister for us to make up our own… All the bathrooms were clean and tidy with towels left. Unfortunately, the outside bin was not emptied and was left full to the point that we could not fit in any of our rubbish bags and had to leave them in the garden, which was not ideal. The facilities in the cottage were not as good as we had expected - the kitchen/diner was less spacious than it looked on the photographs and the fridge was small for the number of people it catered for, with only an inbuilt ice box and as we were there over Christmas, we had a lot of food !! There were also only 5 dining chairs provided,so we had to use a chair from the garden. We felt that a washing machine would have been handy, especially if you were staying longer than a few days. There were 2 lounge areas, one at ground level and one on the basement level next to the kitchen. Unfortunately, none of these rooms provided enough seating for 5 adults and a child to sit together and again we ended up using a garden chair / footstool. The 2 double bedrooms benefitted from having en-suite facilities, though the heating was temperamental with one of the radiators not working. The room with the bunk beds was very small with no furniture apart from a small shelf on the wall under the mirror. This room had been described as potentially having one adult on the bottom bunk and a child on top - the room was definitely not big enough for an adult to share with nowhere to store clothes etc. The main bathroom was spacious,but unfortunately the shower was temperamental to the point that we could not use it; it went from scalding hot to cold several times in the course of a shower and no amount of adjusting controls made any difference. The flusher in the main toilet was not efficient and required many flushes to clear even toilet paper. The company were very helpful and friendly any time we had dealings with them and got back to us promptly when needed. In summary, although we enjoyed our stay, we felt that the cottage was too small for a group of 5 adults and a child

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• Nicola - Verified booking

  Generally, a great lace up stay.

  Very close to the main town and in walking distance of amazing bars and restaurants. Some beautiful small shops snd convenient stores - Coop snd Sainsbury’s open late. The place is very well set out. However we couldn’t sit in the upper lounge in the evening as no curtain on the all glass door. Though this was a lovely room. The bedrooms are basic but the bunk room lacks any clothes or any storage of any sort and the 2 double rooms have a small wardrobe - sufficient for a weeks holiday. However barely enough hangers for the use of 6 people let alone 6. I ended up buying some. The upper shower at the bank worked very well and was very powerful. The hot tub, a welcome extra (though paid for in the rental price) was a disappointment as is was powerless even within jets opened to the max, the bubbles were lacking ! Though great to see that the hot tub is regularly checked, it would have been nice to know when he was coming as it was a surprise to see him appear each time. The kitchen, I found to have generally all the facilities snd equipment I needed. Though missing a couple of things - scissors and a bread cutting knife! The fridge was just about big enough for us and we took advantage of putting some items in the wine fridge. Generally the place is quite grubby, especially the lower floor. The floors were dirty, no vacuuming had been done in a long time under the sofa - the fluff and dirt under was awful. I think you need to reconsider your cleaners seriously. The glass tables and mirrors were dreadful as if wiped with a dirty cloth and the skirting boards and other surfaces has clearing not been touched in s long time. The bin was dreadful, the previous guest had clearly had fish and the bin absolutely stunk! I’d actually question whether it is cleaned between guests. Which leads me to another thing, the lack of any cleaning products in the property. I would not have expected to go out snd but cloths, washing up liquid, dishwasher tablets, disinfectant, cleaner sprays and bleach!

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• Lisa - Verified booking

  The property was perfect, location, facilities and cleanliness.

  Decor was very tasteful and the use of space in the bathrooms very cleverly thought out. The only things that let the property down were when we arrived the heating was very low and the house was extremely cold. We tried to adjust the heating and found when it hadn’t warmed up a number of the radiators had been turned off and in fact the boiler was running under pressure. We reset the boiler and the house quickly warmed up. If we hadn’t had prior knowledge of this particular boiler I think it would have been difficult to sort. The other problem was the hot tub. When we arrived we checked it and it was turned on and showing a temperature of 38 degrees. We cooked a meal and then went to use the hot tub only to find that it wasn’t working. The jets weren’t working and the temperature had dropped. We tried contacting the person named in the folder, Pete but there was no reply. We tried a few of the numbers in the folder but with no joy unfortunately. We book a property because we enjoy going in the hot tub after a meal on the Friday night. We feel that this has taken away some of amazing assets if this property. We finally got through to Sykes( the number used was the one on their email confirming the property details) and they were very good at communicating with myself. A couple of local hot tub contractors managed to fix the hot tub at 6pm on Saturday and we looked forward to using it on the Sunday. We checked it on Sunday and things seemed to be ok but when we came to use the hot tub on Sunday afternoon we found that a few of the jets were not working and the temperature quickly dropped. We presume that some of the motors may not be working. We were again disappointed as this is a highlight of our stay. We wouldn’t want this to affect further bookings for the owners as it was a lovely cottage. We would like you to consider a refund of a small amount due the inconvenience of contacting Sykes, the workmen and the hot tub not working properly. Thank you

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• John - Verified booking

  This was our 3rd time at Mrs Puddleducks as it was always a favourite.

  We hadn’t been back for a few years due to having a little one but now he can do stairs we decided to return. It was disheartening to see how they had let the place go. Mrs Puddleducks was far from the enchanting, magical cottage it used to be. The lack of care and attention to detail were evident. The outside pipe was disconnected, pouring water on anyone below. There is a leak in the downstairs living room, likely caused by water damage from the disconnected pipe, leading to water dripping in the lounge. The shower in the middle bathroom does not work properly and the screens are hanging off the runners. The shower in the top back bathroom keeps coming off its runners. There is a missing remote meaning you have to share a remote control between the downstairs and middle lounges. Some of the plates, bowls and mugs are chipped. The sofa cushions were covered in dog hairs so had clearly not been cleaned. There was I’m assuming a missing mirror on the middle landing which isn’t a problem but the unsightly hangers and glue left on the wall show a lack of care. The top bedrooms had their charming door plaques still in place of Jemima and Mrs Tiggywinkle, however, the plaque from the children’s room was missing, to which the children were not pleased about. The location of Mrs Puddleducks is wonderful and it is just a very very short walk to the centre of the town but the lack of care and attention have let it down massively. What is also sad is that many of the issues I have mentioned, have also been mentioned in previous reviews, some from several months ago, and whilst the responses to these reviews offer assurances that the issues would be dealt with, they clearly have not and the responses were just meaningless words as a tick box activity to show they have read them.

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• Amit - Verified booking

  We were a group of 5 and found that the house was very well equipped to deal with this many.

  There were no space, bathroom etc issues. We found everything very comfortable. The biggest issue we had was the cleanliness of the property. When we arrived, there were dirty plates in the cupboard, plenty of dust under sofas, and food/crumbs left on some surfaces (e.g. nest coffee tables). I appreciate that some of this is the previous guests fault, but it would be nice if there were some basic checks in place. The dust under the sofas, for instance, is not down to guests to clean up. In the en-suite bedroom, we found dirt, plaster backing peel and chocolate wrapper on the dressing table, as well as what looked like glass and dirt in the second drawer in the dresser. And there was lots of dust on all surfaces. In the front patio/garden, there was a bag of dog poo left behind, which didn't add to the otherwise quite nice and peaceful area as much as one would hope. That being said, the other 2 bedrooms and bathrooms were/appeared to be clean! In the grand scheme of things, the issues above were easy enough to resolve ourselves and didn't detract from the quality of the rest of our stay, but it isn't really acceptable. Even though a parking permit is listed as included, it is not. I called Kate up right away about this and she explained that Sykes haven't removed this from the listing even though she has requested this. In any case, there were some on-the-road free parking places not far from the property that Kate told us about and these served us well. Some other small details: the hob is an induction hob, but some pans don't work on this hob, so could just be removed to save hassle; there is only one front door key, which is a little inconvenient (a couple of keys with keyfobs would save having to go in and out of the keybox each time)

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