Exeter Holiday Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Susan - Verified booking

  Good evening, I wish to make a complaint about inaccurate listing information, and deceitful communication.

  When we booked the cottage, Rookwood, (March 23) our search criteria included local pub and shop. Drewsteighton had both, so we booked a 7 night stay in Rookwood. A very late notification email received 12th May informed us, the pub and shop had closed. Due to the short time frame before we were due to travel, (2nd June), my search for an alternative cottage offering the same facilities we required came back unsuccessful. We had no option to cancel without incurring full loss of all monies paid. So we had to go ahead with the holiday knowing we already had a big compromise on our preferences for amenities we could walk to. We left the property on Tuesday 6th, rather than Friday 9th, cutting short our stay due to not managing without the local facilities which left us remote and cut off. My complaint is that the pub and shop closed back in October 22, 5 months before our booking. Your reviews for Rookwood confirm this as you had other complaints about the same miss information posted on your website. Not only did you leave inaccurate information up, you also left it too late to inform us of these closures, for us to be able to rebook more appropriate accommodation for our needs. I have taken screenshots of reviews and replies, that I can send, but you can see them on your own website, confirming what I have said. The closures were in October 22, in March 23 these facilities were still listed, we were not informed till May 23, after the cut off period for cancellation without deductions had passed or enough time to rebook alternative. This is totally unacceptable and looks like planned miss advertisement to encourage holiday makers to book what has become a very remote cottage. I do expect to receive a reply back from you as soon as possible. Regards S Hinton

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• Caroline - Verified booking

  I think Rookwood is ok-ish (with a few notable issues) but it's hugely over priced for what it is and generally feels like the owners have done all they can to maximise their profits and not put any care into anything.

  The photos make it look MUCH bigger than it is, and it's seen better days - I can't upload the pictures I took but the garden is not the flowery oasis you see in their pictures, it's a yard full of weeds and the smell of the oil tank in the corner wafting over you if you sit out there. The beds were incredibly uncomfortable - super soft and hard to lay flat on without rolling into the middle. You also have to arrive via some very narrow but busy roads so hard for driving, although the cottage itself is peaceful. The lounge is nice but despite them saying they always provide firewood, what they mean is only during some months of the year. Although you wouldn't expect to need it in July we did and so had the expense of buying some locally (we would have brought with us if we'd known), although there is central heating but part of the reason we'd paid extra for the cottage was because we like a fire. We didn't use the upstairs shower, as others have said, it clearly leaks as you can tell from the large stain on the carpet. As others have said, the shop is permanently closed and the pub is for sale so won't be available any time soon and should therefore be removed from the listing - rather than just putting a note on the page and leaving the bullets so if you're searching for somewhere with those facilities it'll still come up, this is very dishonest. And as others have said, we were told about this change very late on. The saving grace was the excellent housekeeper Maddy who not only kindly offered to post something I'd accidentally left behind, she also came and saved us when we got locked out the back as there was nothing to warn us the back door locks automatically if you go out. Thank you for your help Maddy.

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• Paula - Verified booking

  Our group of 7 adults and 4 children had a lovely stay at Lower Wadden Farm.

  The house and annexe are very comfortable and well-equipped, particularly the kitchen where there was a generous amount of crockery, cutlery, glassware and pans compared to other places we have stayed. The views from the front of the house over the valley were beautiful and we particularly enjoyed using the sun room for evening drinks. The kids loved feeding the chickens and collecting the fresh eggs! We didn't meet the owners but Jo was very helpful and forthcoming on the occasions that we spoke by phone. If I were to make any suggestions for improvement it would probably be that the main house could do with another shower cubicle, as there is only one walk-in shower between five bedrooms (the others are showers over baths but only one of these has a curtain so you can't really use the others for a proper shower). If that's not possible then the installation of shower curtains or screens on the other baths would help. Second small suggestion would be to provide towels for the hot tub - I understand that the owners don't want their towels used for the beach, which is perfectly reasonable and we were happy to bring beach towels, but it's unusual not to have any provided for hot tub users. Be aware that the whilst the house is not isolated as such (as there are several other properties on the farm) it is a fair distance up some narrow lanes from the nearest village so you will certainly be reliant on cars for the duration of your trip. If you don't fancy cooking every night or driving a few miles to eat out, then we can recommend a take-away from the fish & chip shop in Colyton, but put in a pre-order in the afternoon if you are a big group!

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• Carl - Verified booking

  Beautiful cottage in a stunning village.

  Unfortunately, the shop/postoffice and pub are currently shut which we would like to have been made aware of before arrival - a small note in the folder in the cottage was a bit late ! The cottage has all the comforts of home, however there was absolutely no storage in the kitchen as the drawers & cupboards were full of utensils and other things. The outside area was terrible and clearly hadn’t been weeded or looked at for a very long time. The weather wasn’t great but I wouldn’t have wanted to sit outside surrounded by weeds and dead plants anyway. It was a shame as the pictures on the website description show how it did look. The bedrooms were a really generous size but again let down by minimal storage - adding a dress rail to hang clothes in each room would be perfect. The beds were all very comfy with good quality bedding. Everywhere was spotlessly clean. The bathrooms were beautiful, the en-suite was very small but that added to the charm. We walked to the nearest pub - Fingle Bridge which was amazing but do check opening times as it’s not always open. There is parking by the pub but this gets very busy with walkers, otherwise it’s an extremely steep hill or across a muddy field. A community shop has been set up in the church which a lovely local explained to us and they also have a small produce market in there on a Tuesday & Thursday. Parking wasn’t a problem we parked by the church wall which was a 2 minute walk away or there was plenty of parking in the village square or car park.

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• Abs - Verified booking

  Cosy delightful cottage with a lovely fire In a tiny very quiet village.

  .pub and shop permanently closed (was not informed of this) No problems in parking.. Cleanliness of cottage immaculate... huge stylish bath Nice to have heating when you need it.. Beds very very comfy, but! As they are interlocking you sink to the middle of them which disturbs your sleep..Linen is beautiful... i would highly recommend grip rods to steps..or take the carpet up! As you say they are very steep! The handrail does help! However you do need to be fit on your feet.. All mod cons you could ever want are provided in this cosy cottage Some washing machine detergent would have been great! Tea/coffee/ and milk with a beautiful cake left for us was very thoughtful... A back garden light would of been good to have... Bulb in cupboard were washing is not working Blind in kitchen broken.. Housekeeper was aware of this..wasnt an issue tho as we really enjoyed watching the birds in the garden... Having so many tv channels prime and Netflix amazing beutiful large tv, along with beautiful furnishings. Locals very welcoming Beautiful church on your doorstep Please note due to time of year many attractions are closed Such as canonteign falls and steam trains... highly recommend house of marbles and the superb endsleigh garden centre near ivybridge..its a wow for christmas displays. Overall a very beautiful quirky cottage and we enjoyed our stay.

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