New Year Breaks In The Lake District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Krupesh - Verified booking

  If there was below zero rating.

  I would give this. This was our first holiday after the birth of my son who is now 8 months. Our precious moments with him were ruined correcting the catalogue of failures in this house. Some of these are listed below. Upon arrival, the bathroom in which you cannot swing a cat was left unclean. There were skid marks in the toilet, brown fresh smudge marks the (size of two fingers) on side of the door, the sink had bits of someone’s mouths spit stuck on it Willis appeared to not have been cleaned for a while, the shower handle was sticky, the bathroom door handle did not lock and the toilet (the icing on the cake) had a huge crack in the ceramics the panel. Something which I’m led to believe the owner is aware of but has decided to not fix. The toilet crack leaks toilet water a very small drip leading to the bathroom floor (be it very slowly). My wife called lakelovers around 5pm (keys in safe place from 4pm) and various calls, messages and after number of hours wait, the bathroom is superficially cleaned. Our first precious moments with my child on his first holiday ruined. Our evening ruined. Same night, my wife decides to make my 8 months olds baby milk and make some porridge for him to eat. Noting this is a self catering house, the pan to warm his milk and make porridge is dirty with food being stuck on the edges. The utensils all have dried food stuck on sides which has been left uncleaned for weeks. This food had now started to darken, harden and had bits of dust catching onto the food which makes a beautiful view as one can imagine. Neither I nor my wife could cook that day, make food for our child or the day after. An issue again which was notified to the agent the same day of arrival who said they could not get someone out the whole of Sunday (noting it was around 5-6pm on Saturday when lake lovers were notified). Lakelovers offered to pay for two bottles of water (approx. £ 2.50) by way of reimbursement for our troubles. Now let’s move to the kettle - the kettle handle was sticky to a point that it could be mistaken for super glue. One would have to wear gloves to simply touch the kettle. Inside when opening the kettle we had mould like limescale built up over weeks on end of not cleaning. This being a hygiene issue could not be used to make milk for my child or be used to boil water. The Microwave plate - again with bits of food stuck to the plate. The oven, the hob and the fridge - well no surprises there, again same issue of uncleanliness. Now let’s move to the windows - these windows have issues with being opened and if you are to brave enough to cook then be warned the air from the food will remain in the house. There are no known fire safety measures. The sitting room carpet sheds and is quite sticky and smelly in places. Needs a deep clean. The room has a TV, but hopefully you can change the channel and watch TV as the button from the remote are falling off, they are just about intact. The sofa due to wear and tear could do with a replacement. The firmness of the sofa is lost and when you sit in, you will sink in. The cabinet door below the tv has no handles and does not close properly. The kitchen sink due to its design flaws, drips water to the cabinets and sides of your cleaned dishes every time you wash your dishes. Not a complaint but something you need to bear in mind. Now we move to the bedroom. The bedroom door will open one third of its full opening. Just enough for you to be able to go to your side and play to you to me with the baby and get into the bedroom. In the event of a fire, I hate to imagine how one would even get out, given such tight opening. Also just imagine if you are slightly overweight then good luck getting in. I guess it’s the owners way to discriminate against fat people. The room is just about big enough to allow for full opening, it’s just the layout of the room, so size isn’t the issue here. The bed - well. The woods underneath the bed keep falling in the middle of the night and these need to be adjusted for the mattress to then sit properly on. You need to do this once every few hours if you want a good night sleep. The size and depth of the bed mattress is the size and depth of your duvet, so if you want a good night sleep bring your own mattress. All of the above has been notified to lake lovers within the first two days of our stay. Whilst some issues like cleaning and parts of maintenance were resolved after spending days on end calling, emailing, sending pictures and then following up, some issues still remain outstanding after 7 days of stay. Note the cleaner has spare keys, and will enter the house without notifying you. This was a concern when my wife had just come out for a shower and was getting changed and the cleaner came unannounced to fix some of the above issues and used her own key to get into the property which we were staying in. Invasion of privacy I wonder. In summary, there are health & safety issues - crack in the toilet; bedroom door not closing; no fire safety equipment; windows not opening. There are health issues due to hygiene and cleanliness - kettle, microwave, oven, fridge, to name a few. There are ongoing maintenance issues such as bathroom door not locking, cabinet below tv stand, strengthening of bed base etc. There is a formal complaint in place and which I intend to request a full refund for. The quality of my stay was fully ruined. I would strongly recommend you stay clear from this property unless you want to learn on how not to let you holiday home. I hope the agent and owner take serious note of the issues as I have not ruled out taking legal action. There is photographic evidence of all the issues highlighted.

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• Krupesh - Verified booking

  If there was below zero rating.

  I would give this. This was our first holiday after the birth of my son who is now 8 months. Our precious moments with him were ruined correcting the catalogue of failures in this house. Some of these are listed below. Upon arrival, the bathroom in which you cannot swing a cat was left unclean. There were skid marks in the toilet, brown fresh smudge marks the (size of two fingers) on side of the door, the sink had bits of someone’s mouths spit stuck on it Willis appeared to not have been cleaned for a while, the shower handle was sticky, the bathroom door handle did not lock and the toilet (the icing on the cake) had a huge crack in the ceramics the panel. Something which I’m led to believe the owner is aware of but has decided to not fix. The toilet crack leaks toilet water a very small drip leading to the bathroom floor (be it very slowly). My wife called lakelovers around 5pm (keys in safe place from 4pm) and various calls, messages and after number of hours wait, the bathroom is superficially cleaned. Our first precious moments with my child on his first holiday ruined. Our evening ruined. Same night, my wife decides to make my 8 months olds baby milk and make some porridge for him to eat. Noting this is a self catering house, the pan to warm his milk and make porridge is dirty with food being stuck on the edges. The utensils all have dried food stuck on sides which has been left uncleaned for weeks. This food had now started to darken, harden and had bits of dust catching onto the food which makes a beautiful view as one can imagine. Neither I nor my wife could cook that day, make food for our child or the day after. An issue again which was notified to the agent the same day of arrival who said they could not get someone out the whole of Sunday (noting it was around 5-6pm on Saturday when lake lovers were notified). Lakelovers offered to pay for two bottles of water (approx. £ 2.50) by way of reimbursement for our troubles. Now let’s move to the kettle - the kettle handle was sticky to a point that it could be mistaken for super glue. One would have to wear gloves to simply touch the kettle. Inside when opening the kettle we had mould like limescale built up over weeks on end of not cleaning. This being a hygiene issue could not be used to make milk for my child or be used to boil water. The Microwave plate - again with bits of food stuck to the plate. The oven, the hob and the fridge - well no surprises there, again same issue of uncleanliness. Now let’s move to the windows - these windows have issues with being opened and if you are to brave enough to cook then be warned the air from the food will remain in the house. There are no known fire safety measures. The sitting room carpet sheds and is quite sticky and smelly in places. Needs a deep clean. The room has a TV, but hopefully you can change the channel and watch TV as the button from the remote are falling off, they are just about intact. The sofa due to wear and tear could do with a replacement. The firmness of the sofa is lost and when you sit in, you will sink in. The cabinet door below the tv has no handles and does not close properly. The kitchen sink due to its design flaws, drips water to the cabinets and sides of your cleaned dishes every time you wash your dishes. Not a complaint but something you need to bear in mind. Now we move to the bedroom. The bedroom door will open one third of its full opening. Just enough for you to be able to go to your side and play to you to me with the baby and get into the bedroom. In the event of a fire, I hate to imagine how one would even get out, given such tight opening. Also just imagine if you are slightly overweight then good luck getting in. I guess it’s the owners way to discriminate against fat people. The room is just about big enough to allow for full opening, it’s just the layout of the room, so size isn’t the issue here. The bed - well. The woods underneath the bed keep falling in the middle of the night and these need to be adjusted for the mattress to then sit properly on. You need to do this once every few hours if you want a good night sleep. The size and depth of the bed mattress is the size and depth of your duvet, so if you want a good night sleep bring your own mattress. All of the above has been notified to lake lovers within the first two days of our stay. Whilst some issues like cleaning and parts of maintenance were resolved after spending days on end calling, emailing, sending pictures and then following up, some issues still remain outstanding after 7 days of stay. Note the cleaner has spare keys, and will enter the house without notifying you. This was a concern when my wife had just come out for a shower and was getting changed and the cleaner came unannounced to fix some of the above issues and used her own key to get into the property which we were staying in. Invasion of privacy I wonder. In summary, there are health & safety issues - crack in the toilet; bedroom door not closing; no fire safety equipment; windows not opening. There are health issues due to hygiene and cleanliness - kettle, microwave, oven, fridge, to name a few. There are ongoing maintenance issues such as bathroom door not locking, cabinet below tv stand, strengthening of bed base etc. There is a formal complaint in place and which I intend to request a full refund for. The quality of my stay was fully ruined. I would strongly recommend you stay clear from this property unless you want to learn on how not to let you holiday home. I hope the agent and owner take serious note of the issues as I have not ruled out taking legal action. There is photographic evidence of all the issues highlighte

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• Andrew - Verified booking

  Cottage was all we expected and more.

  The photo’s rarely, from web to actual, do the property justice and with the Kirkstone we found it was even better. The views are across countryside at the front of the property which were beautiful which always seemed to have sheep and so many weather conditions that no hour was the same. Was as spacious as we were expecting and everything looked new and clean-lovely wood burner too. It was easy to jump around the Lake District from here and the lanes are not too small either (mind you, we’re from Devon and the lanes here ARE small) but be prepared for lots of pools of water after heavy rainfall though this makes rivers then become full and more exciting. In terms of all that you want from the Lakes everything is within an easy car journey and Ambleside seems to be a gateway to most places. It was easily our favourite small town and had most of all we needed there. The nearest big Supermarket type shop is a 10+ mile journey away but if you shop ‘local’ in Ambleside there is plenty of smaller shops. Bit of a black spot for communication at the cottage, phones etc, so be prepared to be in contact when you’re back in range outside of the valleys but there is Wi-fi provided. All in all we had a great time (wife even did the Park Run in Ambleside) and we visited over 15 bodies of water in the week with a favourite being Grassmere and Rydal (next door to each other) followed closely by Tarn Hows in the sunshine and the beautiful Buttermere on a slightly overcast day. End of the week was more damp but didn't ‘dampen’ our enjoyment. Highs-Lakes and walks (oh, and the Gingerbread shop in Grassmere) Lows-Parking everywhere in the Lakes is at least £2 (spent about £10 a day on parking-take lots of £ coins) and, if there is a toilet, 20-30p for a Pee! Enjoyable WInter/Spring holiday with some great photo’s in the bag

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• Eleanor - Verified booking

  We were moved to this cottage last minute the evening before our holiday by Sykes who suddenly cancelled our original booking.

  Only 3 alternative options were given, the other 2 being further from the lake district so not suitable. The owner was extremely friendly and helpful over the phone and the location in the centre of town was great, and we were grateful they accepted the last minute booking. It had a large kitchen, was clean and warm and a visitor permit for parking was provided. It worked well as a base for exploring the Lakes and isn't too far from Windermere and Ambleside. Our main issue was that this was not an equivalent cottage to the one we had originally booked (this was entirely Sykes doing and not the owner's who had given accurate details when we checked their listing so please don't hesitate to book this cottage if it meets your requirements). We had booked a 2 bedroom pet friendly cottage that slept 4 adults, with large living room and views, and had made sure this had wifi which my partner needed to be able to work, and also had a washing machine and dishwasher. Unfortunately the cottage we were moved to had none of these and Sykes suggesting this was an equivalent alternative for the same price I feel was very dishonest. My partner ended up having to leave early due to the lack of wifi and phone signal and there was only one bedroom and one bed, which would have been a bit of a squeeze if 4 adults had been coming! We have still had no response/apology or partial refund from Sykes and I would be very hesitant to book with them again after this experience.

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• Tony - Verified booking

  The cottage is well located in Outgate, only 200 yards from a pub serving lovely food & beers.

  Hawkshead & Ambleside, are a few minutes drive away, with the serene and beautiful Esthwaite Water, Near Sawry (& HillTop) & Wray Castle not much further. This side of Esthwaite Water is quieter for traffic too (without the crowds in Bowness & Windermere!!) It is in a 'complex' of several linked properties (looks like they were one long property) behind a gate with adequate parking for 2 cars and a sun terrace. Inside it was very clean, spacious & comfortable with very good central heating for our chilly stay & loads of storage. Excellent TV too (42" I think) unlike many other places which go for a minimum size. The only criticism is that I guess the previous occupants failed to mention the blocked drain in the shower which we found the next morning. This could have been cleared before we arrived (interesting to note that the cleaner didn't notice it either - no need for running water when cleaning a shower?) One easy improvement would have been a more comprehensive welcome pack on arrival. A few biscuits plus some coffee & tea sachets is minimal nowadays. A cottage in Dorset where we stayed last year provided milk, tea & coffee, a homemade cake, bottle of wine and flowers! Now that's a welcome pack! Sykes management have been very good (we did have a problem unrelated to this property and not caused by Sykes, and they did a good job in trying to sort it out).

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