Last Minute Cottages in Lymington

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Jane - Verified booking

  After reading some of the previous feedback I was prepared for the possibility of some issues when we stayed at Downton Lodge.

  . However, I needn't have worried. We enjoyed our stay so much that we are already planning to rebook. The house is indeed a little tired in places, however being a grade ll listed building there will be many rules and regulations to navigate regarding its upkeep, and this needs to be taken into account.. The house was clean, full of character and well equipped. There are many little touches that show that love has gone into the house, and many efforts to make sure that the guests are comfortable. Pros - A lot more privacy around the pool area than I was expecting, aka not as overlooked as it first appears. The owner was lovely, and very accommodating. Especially when it came to use of the pool! The aga was a big plus point for me, having grown up with one I loved cooking on an aga again, and enjoyed showing it to my children who had never seen one. The sitting room, contrary to the pictures, does not only have conservatory furniture - but also has armchairs and a sofa. The showers are remarkably powerful. The best I've seen in a long time. When staying in holiday homes we normally find "bath towels" that don't look big enough to be away from their mother. The ones in Downton Lodge are huge, fluffy and good quality. The location is superb, within easy reach of the beach, shops, local towns and plenty of places to explore. Cons - just the one... The lack of a washing machine! To be fair I did know there wasn't one available when I booked, but I hadn't anticipated how much I would need one. Due to the pool and having 3 girls I found myself doing quite a few "handwashes", and while this isn't the biggest deal in the world - it would be nice not to have had to. Maybe the owners could think about installing one? As there is space... All in all, we had an amazing break away in a tranquil, beautiful setting. Thank you to the owner Karen. We look forward to visiting again soon!

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• Alan - Verified booking

  Some items to consider if choosing this property: The sitting room photographs are misleading.

  The actual armchairs (not in any photograph) are very old, but usable. The bath/shower room had a considerable leak from the mixer unit, leaking water all over the end wall. The second bedroom mattress was uncomfortable and should be changed. No iron No hair dryer No vacuum cleaner The door to the en-suite bedroom seemed to be locked. After four nights we realised the door required a very hefty push to open it. It should be made clear that the entrance to the property is by the five bar gate drive and not where the sign for Downton Lodge is. The property was clean and tidy but I think there is too much play on the listed building aspect. Considering this is a high end cost property it certainly needs some work. The main benefit of this property is the excellent heated swimming pool. Very clean and well looked after. A pleasure to use. We had a pleasant time and the property is in an ideal location for the New Forest and the general area. However, it is unlikely I will use Sykes Cottages again. I do not like wasting my time going through several groups of multiple choice questions several times only for the phone line to go dead at the last choice. The web site could not understand my need to change a single 'date'. ( We had to leave a day early ). Also, I do not like being 'pestered' by emails wanting to know how my first night has been and what to do when I leave. I was told by some very helpful ladies ( not Sykes ) that the emergency phone number was some considerable time out of date.

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• Alison - Verified booking

  The lodge is very nice, it was very clean and comfortable and we really did enjoy our stay there and we would return.

  The directions are very poor, needs to be more specific we arrived from Lymington but the directions did not get us there. It needs to be more clear about the restrictions on the park and you are not attached to the main one, it’s very clear when you arrive and laid out in a folder, this would have been useful advice when booking. This did not affect our holiday as we like the quiet nature of the retreat, but feel others maybe not happy, it needs to be clear when booking. The fridge and cupboards were all full of left over items, which meant we had no where to store our things. It felt like we were sharing with other people, rather than this was our home for the week. We catered for the whole week of food and had to leave items on the side as there was no space cupboards. The maintenance team were excellent, we had a problem with hot water, nothing anybody could have foreseen, this was fixed within half an hour with the most excellent customer service. The lodge is lovely as said at the beginning, the area is lovely, we only traveled half an hour a day, sometimes less to visit some excellent places. We had a fantastic holiday, the little bits would have made it superb.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  Overall, we were very pleased with the accommodation and had an enjoyable week.

  Just a few minor issues: 1. The instructions to open the main gate could have been a bit more detailed as we spent a few minutes working out how to use the fob. 2. The cupboard in one of the twin bedrooms was full of spare bedding so there was no room to hang any clothes. 3. There was no recycling bin in the lodge. 4. Not an issue with the accommodation, but we were disappointed to find out that we had to pay for a pass just to use the on-site restaurant (we didn't want to use any of the other facilities). Is this something that can be taken up with the site authorities? 5. Sykes advertises two lodges on the site: Seahorse Lodge and Amethyst Lodge. In relation to Amethyst Lodge, there is a note about the site facilities being 5 minutes walk away and that driving is not advised. It probably wouldn't have made much difference, but we chose Seahorse as this note wasn't included in the accommodation details and we assumed this didn't apply to Seahorse. Perhaps Sykes could be consistent in their information on this. 6. Also in relation to Amethyst, there is a note about on-site passes being available at half price. Does this also apply to Seahorse?

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• Colin - Verified booking

  The location of the lodge was pleasantly quiet.

  The lodge its self was a good standard. However, the presentation, soft furnishings, towels etc were very basic, not what we would expect. On arrival there were cleaning clothes dumped on the decking. The crockery and cutlery were a random selection and the some of the mugs, plates and bowls were chipped and tea stained. There were no hand towels, no basic hand wash, no toilet brush in the main bathroom, no waste bin in the en-suite. In the en-suite shower room there was a shower chair which had to be move out to have a shower making it very awkward. There was a washing machine but no ironing board or iron. Your instructions are very specific about not leaving items in the cupboards but there were all manner of things including medications such as paracetamol etc in the kitchen cupboard, ice pops in the freezer. Item's belonging to previous renters or the owners in the main bathroom cupboard. It felt like a very amateur operation. When you pay for holiday accommodation, I think you should feel you are the first people to use it, not that you are gate crashing someone else’s holiday home.

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