Kendal Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Gill - Verified booking

  There are lovely views from this cottage.

  Walk up on a nice day to take in the panorama (public footpath goes very close) but DON’T STAY HERE. The cottage is shabby, neglected and in dire need of some maintenance, sprucing up, replacement of many internal items and a deep clean. Some of contents appear to have come from a skip – you could get better on freegle or from a jumble sale/pound shop. Coupled with an apparent absence of even superficial cleaning before my arrival was the fact that much of the dirt was ingrained, not just recent. The utility/porch, in particular, was in an appallingly filthy state. (& light bulb didn’t work). The kitchen sink was dirty brown, embedded grime in kitchen caddy and washing up bowl. Empty soap container in kitchen. Food debris in kitchen cupboards. Filthy stained lampshades. Mould on bathroom ceiling, bathroom blind and a snail on the bathroom wall. Hairs on basin and on bath. Toilet brush bristles and holder had excrement in. Bedroom blind covered in mould. Dirty stained bedroom stool upholstery. Tatty threadbare ‘decorative’ cushions on bed. Accumulation of dirt along edges and in corners. Mass cobwebs throughout (not just an odd wispy recent one, clearly not been attended to in weeks/months). Sweet wrappers & other debris down side of sofa cushion. Of the three remotes for TV/DVD/VCR, one had no batteries, one had dead batteries, the other took a different size. No spare batteries in cottage. (unable to use TV until owner brought some batteries - he declined to leave any spares in the property). Told him there were corroded batteries in kitchen cupboard & queried why hadn’t cleaner removed them. Also relayed poor cleaning standard to him. He said you would know better than me what’s in here and said he’d ‘have a word’. He moaned about contract cleaners, difficulty getting seasonal staff. Made no apology and seemed pretty indifferent despite being told about various issues, including the snail in bathroom (which the cleaner could not have failed to see if they’d even gone in there). Other oddities/omissions/small gripes: No dustpan and brush. No bleach. “Bath” towels were small, thin & rough. Just 3 teaspoons yet over 30 side plates?! Provision of foil/cling film would have been useful, and has been in previous s/c I have stayed in. Apart from the dirt & neglect of the place, there was the issue of vehicles from the 4 adjoining lets; one a large building divided in 3 cottages, the other a large house taking around 16 people (that I counted). There was a minimum of 10 cars/vans during my entire stay, which turned round on, passed across and sometimes parked on, the area of tarmac directly in front of the cottage, meaning there was limited privacy and frequent engine noise/fumes. The cottage is anything but the idyllic, peaceful retreat it is made out to be. Having paid around £1,300 I made the best of my stay, but I was disgusted with it & to say it was disappointing is understatement of the century. I don’t think this property should even be let out again until cleanliness issues addressed & certain items replaced.

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• Lesley - Verified booking

  Gyll bank - The Barn, 9 - 16 Sep 2022 We have had a good stay here.

  We know that most people dont bother to tell you what needs attention, but we think it is important. Overall the accommodation is adequate but needs some help. The kitchen tap is dripping relentlessly and it is really annoying. The kitchen is poorly equipped. I know it is the end of the season but surely the cleaning staff run an inventory? All the four saucepans are the same size!! 8 inches ish. Do the other apartments have all the big pans??? There is a knife block, all the knives are blunt. Two other knives in the drawer are blunt, including 3 inch knife that is not useful other than to deal with an apple. Luckily I read a comment from a previous holiday maker that there were no sharp knives, so I brought three of my own. I also bought a wok which we used instead of their small frying pans. The baking trays in the oven were burnt and unusable, which we saw immediately and the owners sorted that out as they were here for a short period. There are no black bags and very little cleaning materials. The top of the cooker is severely stained. There is no hob cleaner which would help the burnt on stains. And the washing up liquid is provided in tiny plastic containers. Would a whole bottle of washing up liquid break the bank? The settees don’t appear to have been hoovered recently. There were wrappers etc under the three piece and we were looking for something down the back of the sofa and it is full of crumbs etc. The downstair toilet door needs oiling. Because the floor is tiled downstairs with hard kitchen surfaces and there is very little soft furnishings, the whole place is very echoey. So dripping taps, creaky doors, they really have an effect. The cupboard doors in the cupboard need soft closing stops as again they bang away. The ad says that there is super broadband here. Thats as may be but it suggests that signal and connection would be good, but we have had long periods of no connectivity. It seems to be connected to how many people are using it during the day . I know you can’t do anything about that but do say that signal is still patchy despite super broadband. These comments are offered in the spirit of helping people that come here to enjoy this property after us. Lesley Dike

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• Ashley - Verified booking

  Lovely little cottage which worked well for us for our week.

  Perfect for a family of 4 for a holiday. Cottage itself was as described. We didn’t appreciate at the time of booking that there were 3 properties in this building. We had the central section which worked well for us but would have possibly booked elsewhere if we had been aware as more stressful with a young puppy with dogs either side and two boisterous boys. We were constantly worried about noise from the kids annoying the neighbours or the dog barking. The cottage doesn’t have a garden, more surrounding fields with sheep. Not ideal for our dog who is used to roaming an enclosed garden. For both the kids and dog, watching out for sheep and sheep poo was an issue. Although they were lovely to see and hear, especially when they were in the patio area!!! The cottage itself has most of the necessary items but lacked a few of the basics to allow you get going without having to head back to the shops. Our neighbours had supermarket deliveries which, if timed right, would be ideal. Also of note, there is Wifi downstairs but it doesn’t extent to the upstairs and the TV doesn’t have any smart features - easily overcome with a firestick bought at the Argos in Kendal. Also, very dusty throughout and need of a bit of a deep clean. Not too much of a problem but I had to wash alot of the kitchen items and sinks before use as I wasn’t convinced they were clean on arrival. The cottage is in an idyllic spot at the top of a hill just outside Staveley. We walked down to the village in 30mins with two 9 year olds. Bit of a trek back up again in the sun. Also, the drive up isn’t for the faint hearted as it is a tight, single track road with minimal passing places however, it does make the area very quiet. Staveley itself was perfect. Everything you need for a holiday and in close proximity to Windermere and Kendal. The owners of the cottage came to check on us and make sure we were getting in fine which was a lovely personal touch and very much appreciated. Overall, a lovely place to spend a week provided you are aware of the surroundings before booking.

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• Sally - Verified booking

  The property is shown entirely on its own and we booked it because of that as we wanted to be isolated.

  In fact there are 2 large properties adjacent and there were children running around and dogs, one of which barked a lot. This wasn't what we'd expected or what we wanted. There should be a different photo. The property is listed as having TV, however this did not work during the whole week. The picture was so pixelated that it was impossible to watch on any channel. We rang the owner who did come and have a look at it and re-tuned it (which I had done already) but the picture was just as bad. We were looking forward to relaxing evenings watching our favourite programmes but this was impossible and spoiled much of the holiday for us. We did tell the owner (by text) that the TV still didn't work but nothing more was done. Additionally we had taken some DVDs but were unable to watch these as, although it worked fine, there was no remote control and so it was impossible to use subtitles which we need as my husband is hearing impaired. On the day we left, we found the remote which had been put (by previous occupants?) in a corner of the main bedroom - we hardly thought to look there! Perhaps the cleaner could ensure that all remotes are in the right place. There were no instructions for TV or DVD which would have been useful. A small point - but there was no bath mat. This would be useful. There was no casserole type dish (apart from a really tiny one) which would also have been useful. The screen for the shower round the side of the bath didn't stay put very well - could that be looked at? There were many good points, however: excellent supply of hot water; comfy beds and good decoration throughout.

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• Mark - Verified booking

  The good bits!

  Absolutely beautiful views, while the photos of Ghyll Bank are as has previously been stated misleading in that it’s very much sandwiched between two other large dwellings, nevertheless when we stayed we were not encroached by this with both properties being empty. With a full complement of guests present on site this would be far from isolated (I’d imagine) everything one would need is present though some attention to detail would help. It’s location offers easy access to a good proportion of beautiful lake land, without the need to travel vast distances & the local village of Staveley is well appointed with eating & shopping facilities. Ghyll Bank is certainly warm & dry & overall provides a lovely base. Not so good are the niggles. Attention to detail would have left us with the means to light the wood burner which, we felt we needed by the evening as the storage heat drops away a little by then & the electric bar fire is broken. The wood store leaks leaving a good proportion of wood soaking wet but there was enough dry to be able to cope. The shower screen is abysmal, it needs to be manually wedged in order to use it, but there is plenty of hot water. A drainer on the sink draining board would be useful too. Be warned clothes storage in the second bedroom is limited!

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