Holiday Cottages In Kielder

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Stacey - Verified booking

  And the properly layout is perfect for a family.

  The garden is gorgeous. The house is spacious and the location is gorgeous. That bath in the main bathroom is the size of a small pool and it’s beautiful. However… there are some basic issues that should be sorted and one or two things that should be made clear on the listings. The main things that need resolving… 1. Dirty hot tub. We arrived to water with a green tinge in it, not heated up, with a layer of scum on the top and debris in the bottom. I’d have been tempted to think this was just unlucky… but there’s comments in the guest book going back months complaining of the same thing, which just makes me think the water is never changed. There was a real smell in the little hut the hot tub was in too. So, despite this being one of the main reasons I booked the property, I just couldn’t bring myself to get in it personally 2. Cleanliness in the kitchen. There’s a fly problem to start with, but I appreciate it isn’t easy to resolve. However, if you know you have a load of flies, then cleanliness, in my view, should be one of the key things. We took dishes out that were dirty and needed rewashing. And when we took the air fryer out it was absolutely filthy… so again we just decided not to bother using it 3. Loads of the lights just don’t work. Again, I saw this had been mentioned previously in the guest book. But it wasn’t resolved. The main lights in the master bedroom don’t work. The wall lights in the living room don’t work. The lights in the second bedroom didn’t work. 4. The couch was very lumpy, bumpy and old…not comfortable to sit on at all. When we were shaking the cushions up to try and make it more comfortable it was also clear it hadn't been cleaned in a REALLY long time. Things that need highlighting in the listing, I feel: 1. Huge area of nettles in the garden. I was traveling alone with 3 young children so was drawn by the garden. But there’s a massive section of nettles on one side not fenced off. Appreciate stopping nettles growing is unfeasible. But pointing it out would be helpful or even fencing it off 2. Wifi is too slow to do anything beyond send text whatsapp messages. I appreciate the area has slow wifi issues. Average speeds in the postcode is only 10 mb per second. But the wifi in this house runs at no more than 1 mb per second. I mentioned before I was travelling alone with children. Add to the fact there was no mobile signal and ultimately, I needed wifi to be able to keep in touch with the childrens’ father and other people. So this was massively inconvenient. I know there’s not much an owner can do about slow wifi all the time, but when someone advertises “wifi” at a property, you assume it will be usable. I had specifically looked out for wifi because I know signal in the area can be patchy. I’d also specifically looked for a hot tub but the hygiene issues were hugely, hugely off putting. It’s worth adding that on the occasion I contacted the owner about it, despite the fact there was nothing they could do, they did respond immediately. But of course it was impossible to contact most of the time anyway because of a lack of phone signal and a very slow wifi network. In all, this is a beautiful property in a wonderful area. But a lack of cleanliness, poor maintenance and unclear advertising in regards to things like wifi left me personally very disappointed.

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• Joanna - Verified booking

  Could be lovely - but needs a lot of attention.

  The worst was the VERY dangerous electric towel rail – this is hot to burning levels – I burned my hand twice hanging up towels and when I caught my elbow on it while getting out of the bath and it immediately blistered and burned through layers of skin casing a nasty burn which is still painful 5 days on. There are no rails in the bath or wall and it is quite a high bath - so nothing to get hold of when getting in and out and I’m a fit adult. This would be really dangerous for children, anyone elderly or disabled – the rail is a real health and safety issue heating to the temperature of an iron and was not even labelled with a warning sign as dangerous as very hot. When we arrived at 4.30 (check in was from 4.00) the wooden floors and tiled entrance had recently been mopped and were very wet meaning that both humans and dogs were slipping a lot until they were eventually dried. We couldn't use the drive for parking as a large ATV was parked there for the duration of our stay so we had to park on the road – meaning we had to carry all the luggage and load dogs directly onto the road in the rain. Parking area was very overgrown so passenger had to get out into thorns. Dustbins are left out at the front of the cottage - adding to the general dilapidated appearance. The upstairs floor looked derelict – even worse state than downstairs. The photos must be old that were used in the advert as it didn’t live up to expectations. Random clutter left in corners and behind the washer – which had been poorly fitted so that the doors didn’t close. Needs a thorough update, decorate inside and out and a deep clean. Paint on windows cracked inside and out. Light switches, plug sockets, table mats, chopping board all needed cleaning. Curtains in sitting room and hall were grubby on the bottoms and dusty with cobwebs. Damp on bedroom wall. Fuse boxes all exposed – need boxing in. Only one loo roll for 4 nights and 3 dishwasher tablets seems rather mean. The garden is a jungle and not dog proof. Nettles and thorny roses everywhere, full of weeds and overgrown shrubs, junk and dying planters. Such a shame as it could be a lovely place to sit out. View from kitchen was onto a mass of nettles. So – whilst it was in a beautiful location with walks close by, I would not recommend it until plenty of TLC has been lavished on it. Photos available. Bit of a long list - but it wasn't cheap and we expected better.

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• Kevin - Verified booking

  We have visited Netherraw for three years running however, sadly this will be the last time.

  As a positive if you want isolation and great night skies and walks on your doorstep, Netherraw is perfect. There is hardly any noise, so you can hear the wildlife all around you. The upstairs bedrooms now have hangers for your clothes and ample drawer space. Sadly, the negatives we found were numerous. The shower basin easily flooded and water spilled over on to the floor. The only way to avoid this was to turn the shower on get wet, turn the shower off, lather up and then rinse off. Which isn't what you expect to do. This was raised last year when we came, but nothing has been done, in fact it is worse. The extractor fan isn't strong enough to cope with the steam in the shower room, so we had to leave the door open for it to escape. Not ideal but thankfully there was only the two of us. The toilet seat in the shower room, the laminate is cracked underneath and looks like it would soon start to peel off. The hot tube was part of the attraction of going to Netherraw, especially after long walks. On the second day we removed the hot tubs cover only to find that the headrests were damaged through wear and tear, their coverings were cracked and in some places none existent exposing the foam/cushioning underneath - so we decided not to use it. The overall feeling for us was that through usage the cottage just needs a bit of TLC.

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• Bruce - Verified booking

  Disappointed we weren't advised the hot-tub was out of order.

  We had specifically searched for a location that offered one. There was an out of order sign on hot-tub shed door. We had to get custodian of property to come sort out the beeping smoke dectector (we couldn't get it to stop). Asked him about hot-tub and said he would message owners. Messaged him later and he said owners confirmed it was not working. We had to make new plans for our evenings instead of using it. Fortunately, we brought a stick for the tv so we had other entertainment for the 2 kids during the evening. Besides the hot-tub, there were a few things that were also a bit disappointing about our stay. We couldn't get the tv to work in the bathroom; it seemed like the batteries were dead in at least 1 of the remotes for the tvs; wi-fi signal was not the best (guessing because of the remote location); couple of lightbulbs were burnt out. Mostly minor inconviences, other than hottub, but disappointed us a bit. Overall, house is very spacious and welcoming and is well laid out. The beds were very comfortable, bathroom and WC was good to have both, kitchen had numerous appliances and sufficient pots, pans and utensils. Wood burning fire was nice for the cooler evenings. Would have rated my recommendation and stay higher had the hot-tub been working.

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• Michael - Verified booking

  The Vault house is in a great location with all local amenities on your doorstep.

  The welcome pack was a lovely surprise and even our dog was treated. The property was spotless and the decor and furniture was of a high standard. The beds were very comfortable with good quality linen and pillows. The outside area was a great addition and fantastic for families, BBQ’s and guests with dogs. We have a couple of negative points being when we stayed the weather was very good and the property gets warm. The bedroom window opens up onto a gangway at the side of the house which we was not happy leaving it open while sleeping. A couple of fans in the property would probably resolve this issue. The last point was more of an inconvenience than a negative as the outside area cannot be accessed directly from the property so you have to go out the back door onto the side street to enter from the side gate. This meant locking up every time we went to the garden. Like I said it’s an inconvenience more than anything else. I would definitely recommend the Vault House to anyone looking for a relaxing break that is in a great location to explore the wonders of Northumberland.

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