Romantic Bed And Breakfasts In The Isle Of Wight

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Barbara - Verified booking

  Roebuck Retreat is a nice bungalow with a lovely modern kitchen and a range of comfy chairs in lounge area.

  There is an enormous patio with good views over the countryside. However, it was let down by the fact that the combi boiler hadn't been checked, it had lost working pressure( the gauge was showing zero pressure) and needed repressurising (a 5 minute job). Sykes only give a landline phone number for contact with their emergency team, not much good if you are deaf like we are but we texted my son at home to contact them but apart from saying they would contact the owner and providing a mobile number for the housekeeper ( which we sent a text to but no reply from her) NO ACTION or prompt help was done. In the end as we have a combi boiler ourselves and know how to set the pressure we did it ourselves so we could have hot water. We are home now and its eight days since we texted the housekeeper and still waiting a reply. If we had not known how to reset it we would have been without hot water for the whole weeks holiday. We were initially reluctant to reset boiler as it is not ours and did think of asking my son to call out an emergency plumber as we had not heard back and still haven't from the housekeeper. The lack of WiFi and the very small tv are unusual as most holiday lets we have stayed in in the past provide a full sized TV and WiFi. The arrangement of the way one bedroom and bathroom doors open into hall while the other two open into the rooms takes getting used to. The bathroom has a shower over the bath running off a mixer tap, the taps were difficult to operate to get the shower running at the right temperature, in fact all the bathroom taps could do with replacement washers if not outright replacement. The external door locks could do with a shot of WD40 so they operate smoothly while the front door handles look ready to pull out of their housing. There is an infestation of ants under the patio doors. The duvet on the double bed was winter weight and that on top of the memory foam mattress made for hot uncomfortable nights. The bedroom curtains could do with black out linings as the sunrises early and floods the bedrooms with light The roads leading to the property are unmade and make for a bumpy ride especially over the speed humps. The property is also quite remote and there are no local shops within walking distance, not even a general store on the site. Finally, there is a lack of storage for suitcases, not a problem if only 2 people staying as they can use the second bedroom. The owner has stored large bags on top of cupboard in hall and bedding on the top of the "open" wardrobes in the bedrooms. To sum up, Sykes need to get their act together regarding emergency repairs, the owner needs to leave a mobile contact number for the same reason. It does not help that currently check in times are after 5pm ( a hangover from Covid, in theory properties needed to be cleaned, disinfected and aired ), a check in time of 3pm would give more time to fix any problems found upon arrival.

  Read more less >

• Karen - Verified booking

  Following 2 weeks of storms, the track is now only 4 wheel drive friendly.

  The hot water tap in the kitchen cannot be regulated and goes to full power unexpectedly. The bathroom tap was loose and leaking. A plumber was called and the problem solved efficiently by Sykes. 1 guest slipped and fell on mossy pathway at rear of house, probably not a normal issue but gutters did not cope with the rainfall. We had read reviews of a small kitchen so were prepared, however, it was the lack of storage space for food that was a problem. Only 1 small cupboard in the kitchen was available for storage, all the others were filled with an unnecessary abundance of crockery. There was a lack of storage space in 2 of the smaller bedrooms. The ground floor bedroom only had a small understairs wardrobe, a bedside cabinet with 2 small drawers and a small dresser with 2 small drawers, difficult for 2 adults. A lot of our clothes had to be stored on the window ledges. The small upstairs bedroom only had a chest of drawers which we couldn't access because we had to put up a travel cot in that room. All toddlers clothes were laid out on the spare bed which wasn't too much of a problem, but might not be quite as acceptable for older people using that room. We loved the space both inside and out. The location was quiet and close to walks. Contacted Sykes re the possibility of an external washing line rather than using the tumble dryer, with 8 people this would not have been environmentally friendly. We were pleasantly surprised to find, on our arrival, that a line had been installed, plus pegs. We were staying for 2 weeks and were pleasantly surprised that after the first week, someone came in to change bedding and towels. The only thing that would prevent us from using this holiday venue again was the narrow lane that leads to the track because there are few passing places and there were often bottle necks where we had to spend a lot of time either reversing or waiting for other people to reverse. Whilst this was frustrating, it wasn't as frustrating as coping with people who didn't seem to appreciate that you have to slow down on small country lanes when you cannot see around a bend.

  Read more less >

• Laura - Verified booking

  The barn was fantastic!

  We all loved it, the garden was large and secure, the games room entertained the teens for hours, the house was lovely, the beds were comfortable and everything was well presented. Kitchen was well equipped. I loved that the house had 2 separate upstairs bits. The bath took a while to run, but you could just set it running a bit earlier to solve that problem. The bad reviews I felt were really clutching at straws. I dont know what some people expect when they go away, especially to a dog friendly family sized house. The only small issues were the showers: the downstairs one got water everywhere somehow, and the upstairs one didnt work. If we were to return to IOW I would definitely use this place as a base; it's a fantastic location down a dirt track and away from other people, so you can have music on and play outside later without worrying about annoying people. It's easy to get anywhere on the island aswell, nowhere seemed to take longer than 45 minutes to get to.

  Read more less >

• Benjamin - Verified booking

  Problems with the property on arrival were that I needed to find the hoover to get rid of the hair on the floor.

  The floor had been moped but hair was left everywhere. Fortunately the hoover did the trick. In addition, the windows were very dirty. During the stay things that became annoying were, 1, loose flooring in kitchen, step on it wrong abs it hurts your foot, 2, patio doors don’t open as they hit the slabs outside, 3, loose and wobbly bath, 4, doesn’t effect use but has a poorly fitted kitchen. The worst thing to deal with was the ant infestation, we had ants coming through/around the patio doors even when shut, and I put any powder down that I found under the sink. I don’t expect to have to deal with ants running through a property that I’m renting for 1 week. Whilst I have no negative feedback for Sykes, and none of the problems above are massive, added all together that property is a mess and should be sorted properly before charging so much for it. Not impressed. I will not recommend staying there.

  Read more less >

• Confirmed Guest - Verified booking

  Very clean, super spacious, well located & so peaceful. Comfortable seating, excellent beds & linens, quality crockery, great internet speed, masses of storage, quick/efficient heating, gorgeous hamper on arrival & generally top-notch across the board. The only drawbacks were the very tight, rocky driveway on exiting the property which scratched our wheel. This beautiful house is ideal for families, but not quite equipped for family-sized cars. We also had an issue with lack of hot water in the ground floor en suite shower which our elderly parents were using. However, the housekeeper was very quick to respond & offered to bring in a plumber to look at it. It would have been amazing if the TV upstairs was connected for broadcast rather than just gaming, as it was a lovely space to sit & just chill out. Totally recommended if you want everything for a relaxing stay in one place.

  Read more less >