Sidmouth Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• James - Verified booking

  My wife and I stayed at the Old Kennels Cottage Accommodation for 6 nights at the end of July 2023.

  We payed over £1300 for our stay. One of the main reasons we chose this cottage, was because it had a washing machine. We had traveled from Switzerland via France and had already been on the road for 9 days. Upon our arrival, and to our surprise, there was no washing machine. The booklet in the cottage said it had a washing machine as well as on the Website of Sykes Cottages, who we booked through. After contacting the Site Manager, we were informed that the washing machine was broken. The Site Manager said that they would return the next day to discuss the matter. We never saw that person again for the duration of our stay and no message was left for us to say that they had stopped by and that we should contact them. Had we had not contacted the Site Manager, no one would have told us that there was no washing machine available. There was ZERO communication prior to our arrival that the washing machine was broken and not available at the property. This was a huge inconvenience to us and certainly was not the nicest experience to start our holiday with. We were offered to have our washing done by the site manger at the farm. Which was a nice gesture. But after seeing how dirty (particular the bed sheets and towels) the cottage was when we arrived, we did not accept this offer. Also, this was certainly not a sufficient solution to having no washing machine at the property. We certainly did not pay £1300 for a stranger to do our washing on another property. On our departure day, we asked the owner that we be refunded accordingly as they did not provide us with a washing machine that we could use, at our own convenience, in the cottage. The owner refused to refund us. In addition, upon our arrival, the property was not cleaned properly, not even to a minimal standard of cleanliness. In the Kitchen all the door handles and appliances were sticky and dirty to touch. The drawers where the cutlery and toaster were kept had not been cleaned. There were still ALOT of left over crumbs in the toaster from the previous week. The tea towel provided had a huge stain on it, and the dish sponge was black and smelly. It certainly didn’t give us much confidence that the rest of the utensils and kitchen were cleaned properly?! In the Bathroom the bath mat had stains on it and didn’t look clean. There were a number (more than should be tolerated) of hairs around the toilet, sink, floor and shower area. In the main double bedroom the sheets had a stain in the middle of the bed, and the mattress protector was covered in stains, and looked liked it hadn’t been washed in a long time. It was disgusting! There were cobwebs everywhere and no sign that any had tried to be cleaned. Dog hairs were also evident on the sofa and floor of the lounge area. There were left over pieces of litter in the small bin of the main bedroom. The bin had not been emptied. The Hoover (a Dyson) had not been emptied, it was full and we had to empty it our selves to use it the first night, because there were dead insects everywhere. Therefore, I would highly recommend that you DO NOT BOOK AND STAY HERE. For the price you pay, it does not equate to the the service and quality you expect to receive. You will find much better accommodations and hotels with a much higher level of cleanliness and standard of service in the nearby area. Lastly, there are similar feedback comments on the Sykes website dating from Oct 2022. Therefore, the owner has not dealt with these issues sufficiently and the management of this property has some serious problems.

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• Alexander - Verified booking

  The Holt disappointingly feel short of our expectations.

  There were a couple of significant issues which shouldn't have happened. However overall it is a lovely well equipped cottage in a good location which serves as a good base to explore East Devon. Regarding the listing, it doesn't make it clear that you're actually on a holiday cottage site with 7 other cottages. One of these is directly overlooking the garden/hot tub area. The cottage is overlooking a car park. The directions to the property are also incorrect. Everything else in the add is as described. It's furnished well and the rooms and comfy and cosy. Regarding the issues. When we arrived there were shards of glass inside and outside the property. I actually cut my hand on these when sitting in the chair. We had a very young baby with us which meant we had to be very careful on where we put here. It was all over the garden too which meant the dog couldn't go out. It was also all by the hot tub. Our first night was spent trying to clear all this up. The second day someone came to try and clear it up. R.e. cleanliness, there was a unempited bin full of used sanitary products and the hot tub had a bloody plaster in there and grime around the sides. We never really got an apology for the issues we raised. It looks like the site is for sale which goes some way to explaining management's lack of disregard. Overal a nice stay in a nice cottage, but we paid a lot of money and shouldn't have encountered these issues. Maybe try once under new management.

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• Victoria - Verified booking

  Thank you so much for a wonderful stay.

  We have had an amazing week. The Holt is very well equipped with a lovely comfortable sofa, beds and everything we needed. We liked the added more personal touches such as quirky whale light, rope side light, paintings etc. Flowers, biscuits, milk, teabags, coffee pods etc were also well appreciated touches. The hot tub was wonderful and lovely to have it regularly cleaned and perfectly located in a gorgeous sunshine trap. The Wi-Fi and smart tv were both excellently received by our teenagers. Our ideas on very small improvements that might help future guests - • A keysafe to leave key when out if more than 1 adult couple here. • Recycling is great but took us a few days to find it as gate was closed over so maybe more signposting or a plot map of entire area in the instruction booklet. • Entry gate was just secured with string and not that strong as latch is broken especially with a dog • There is space for 6 guests but the saucepans and oven trays are not that big for cooking for 6 so we did purchase more while here which we have taken back with us but may be worth getting • The garden has an apple tree which is full of rotten apples and all over the patio as a result there are many wasps and many stings had. If the over hanging branches were cut back this would help a lot All in all we have had a wonderful stay and hope that we may return another time. Many Thanks

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• Sue - Verified booking

  The setting was lovely but spoilt by a few niggles.

  The keycode safe was very fiddly and hard to open. The listed fridge/freezer was anything but as was only a very small fridge with an ice box that wouldnt even hold a small tub of icecream. The village shop was closed each day just after lunch due to staff shortages and had hardly any stock so we had to travel to the larger stores further away and then had no space to store items so had to do a limited shop each time. The salad box was only big enough for 2 items! We tried to use the dishwasher on day 3 when we had built up enough crockery to make it worthwhile using but unfortunately it did not work due to no salt and there was none in the cupboard! There was no control on the hot tub to turn the water temperature down as it was too hot for us to use. The area around the building needed a good tidy up, lots of weeds growing and a very dirty door mat to greet you. The TV only worked on a few of the days holiday as it kept saying no signal and as we dont subscribe to NETFLIX it was a little disappointing. The area around the house was lovely and we enjoyed going for long walks each day. All in all we enjoyed our holiday but a shame it was spoilt by a few small niggles.

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• Ann - Verified booking

  The property was a little disappointing for the money.

  The sign at the end of the lane was obscured by greenery & so not easy to see. We booked it to cater fo my elderly parents as it was listed as having a walk in shower in the downstairs bathroom. This was not the case, it was a shower cubicle with a large step up into it & so my parents were unable to use it. I was told the bed downstairs could not be configured as twin beds, when in fact it was two single beds attached so this could have been done. The property could have been cleaner, coffee stable was dusty & the bed & bedside cabinets in the downstairs room have clearly not been pulled out & behind them cleaned in months! The oven was difficult to use & once we had turned it on (after speaking with the owner) it also needed a good clean as once it was hot the fumes when you opened the door made your eyes water! Beds were comfortable & clean but the bath towels were awful & not much bigger than the hand towels - you couldn't wrap one around you after a shower as they were way too small. Location was good

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