School Holidays 2017 Cottages In Salcombe

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Christopher - Verified booking

  16 Bolt Head (Winkle Cottage) is in an excellent location, only 100 yards or so from the beach at South Sands, a slightly longer walk uphill to Overbeck Gardens (beautiful) and on the doorstep of the westward coastal path.

  The roads accessing this property are very narrow, steep and winding. This entails much jousting with oncoming traffic and pedestrians. Needless to say once the car was parked, that’s where it stayed. If you don’t wish to cook then South Sands beach has the South Sands Hotel, Harbour Beach Club Hotel (both pricey) and Bo’s Beach café (better value). A further pleasant walk to North Sands beach will get you to The Winking Prawn which is well worth visiting for food or coffee. We preferred this. Salcombe itself is a brisk 35 minute walk away. Within the complex there is a lovely viewing point with a seat only 30 yards from the house. The property is good holiday accommodation and I would certainly use it again simply for the location. The kitchen is well stocked with utensils, the lounge/dining area was comfortable as were the bedrooms. The en-suite is large and very convenient, while the bathroom felt a little cramped, but adequate. The outdoor area is located in a courtyard (with some greenery), but is not secluded. There is a footpath at the end of the patio area which other residents use to access the rear car park. Storage space in the main bedroom is good, though a few more hangers would not go amiss. In the second bedroom it is inadequate for two adults but is probably enough for two children. In the third bedroom – what storage? The worst part of the experience was the “allocated” parking space. The description warns that it is sloping back to front but what it doesn’t say is that it also slopes down very much at one front corner i.e. tilted (which makes parking trickier) and the bay is very narrow with a low wall on one side. Had there been a vehicle in bay 17 then I would not have been able to exit the car once parked. Also my wing mirrors would have fouled the wall had I not spotted this and closed them before entering the bay. The only solution is to find a parking slot for an empty property and hope no-one else turns up. I have few other adverse comments, none of which spoiled our stay. I imagine that the owners are aware that there are problems with the extractor fans, because these were turned off at the isolating switches. The ensuite fan doesn’t function when the isolator is turned on, while turning on the bathroom fan results in a terrible smell akin to that of a refuse vehicle – only ten times worse. The owners need to sort out who is responsible for emptying the vacuum cleaner. Like good clients we cleaned the property at the end of our stay, as requested. The vacuum cleaner (a good one) was very ineffective and smelled. On opening it I discovered that the bag hadn’t been emptied for months, possibly years. It was so full it looked pregnant. There were no replacements bags so I proceeded to empty it through the tiny hole. This took a good 30 minutes because in addition to much dust, the contents were mainly hair and fibres, all of which had to be pulled out. The cleaner worked well after this attention. Owners please note – reduced rental for me next time!! Finally, the instructions, while comprehensive and clear are somewhat out of date. For example, clients are asked to strip beds and to place bedding and towels in the red bag provided and also (elsewhere in the instructions) in the black bags provided. There were no bags provided. We just bunged them in the bath! I had better re-emphasize “It is a good place to stay”.

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• Mr Atkinson - Verified booking

  To start with the positives: very clean, modern decor.

  Very comfortable double bed, sofas and kitchen stools. Excellent fridge freezer, wifi & TV. Off road parking for 1 car. Most amenities were provided for within the property. Security: Plenty of keys for windows and all doors. Though location of the outside decking area wasn't ideal, it was a good place to catch the sun. Negatives: The property is built on a slope which has to be at least 60 degrees. There is a long flight of stairs up to the decking. Also there is a small 40-60 degree slope of lawn just before the decking the lower edge of which abuts a vertical 15 foot rock face, and it was where our dog chose to "do what dogs do" she wasn't happy & neither were we. That area is fenced off for us humans, but we still had to get over there to clear up. The kitchens patio doors look onto that rock face which is about 15 foot away. The kitchen lacked trays for transporting plates, glasses etc. No Cook Pots, whether they might have been metal or Pyrex Dishes with lids were available, so casseroles could not be prepared. The 1 non-stick frying pan looked 20 years old, desperately needs replacing. No non stick pans for cooking eggs and dairy products were provided either. Lesser issues: Some of the keys were marked incorrectly, these all need checking a marking correctly. The bath took forever to drain, we asked that they sort the issue out so that future guests don't face the same slight inconvenience. I really hope they did! Final Issue, which I'm not sure whether it is Miloran or Coast & Country Cottages responsibility: There is no info to say where the nearest places are for buying food. The Spar Shop in Loring Road is closest and is only a few hundred yards away (if the you exit the property via the rear gate, turn left along a rough footpath then right on to a made up footpath, cross the road entering street opposite & shop is 50 yards on right). Next nearest in The Co Op in Marlborough. We only discovered the Spar half way through the week after making 2 car journeys to Marlborough!!

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• Ruth - Verified booking

  Batson House is a beautifully presented holiday home, done up to a very high standard.

  We enjoyed our stay here but felt that it could have been made better by more useful information being available. In the information book with regard to heating it simply says that the house uses oil not gas and to please bear this in mind when using. This means nothing to me as I have never lived in a house that uses oil. We ran out of hot water after 3-4 showers on the first morning. There were 10 of us that would have liked to wash and the house sleeps up to 12. There was nothing to warn us about the fact that hot water was likely to run out and to use hot water sparingly. There were a few other gripes too. It didn't seem to be possible to actually turn on the lovely heated towel rails, again some information about how to do this would have helped. Also, the bottom oven didn't work. The house claims to have WiFi but when you get there it mentions in the information book that the Wifi is unreliable and intermittent. This is an understatement! I hate having to rely on such things but two members of our party needed to be able to complete some work over the weekend and were reliant on the Wifi in order to do so, some prior information about this again would have helped. Lastly, the layout of the house means that noise travels very well, so when younger (or older!) people go to bed before others in the house, it is hard to keep noise to a level that doesn't disturb those on higher levels. Having said all of that, it is a lovely house in a lovely situation and the walk in to Salcombe along the creek is beautiful.

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• John - Verified booking

  We had been somewhat forced into finding a suitable house at the eleventh hour due to our regular home in Salcombe (for 20+ years) had suddenly been sold and our holiday cancelled !

  Why did we not stay in Batson in the summer so many years ago ? Batson House was perfect for the visiting family during the first week … but maybe a bit too large when we were left as just grandma and grandpa ! The location for the little boat at the slipway and the peacefulness were ideal - and it was actually a shorter and flat walk to the pub than it had been from North Sands… so that was appreciated. The house is perfect for at least 3 couples with assorted children - maybe 4 couples at a push. The only complaint (seen before in reviews) was that the BBQ was very dirty and needed complete strip down and wash & brush…. and we had to go and buy a new gas bottle at £49 (!) as the one left was empty. If it is offered as part of the package it should be useable on arrival. Other than that it was all very good … although there were no “instructions” specific to the house which might have helped when we lost all water pressure to the house ! Eventually flicked what looked like a light switch in utility room (next to boiler pump switches) and pressure was resumed. Somebody must have turned it off thinking it was a light switch ? Oh … and it would have been handy if the lights on the steps could be made to light up at night (or have instructions to get them to come on). But it is still a 5 out of 5 from us. Thank you.

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• Neil - Verified booking

  A lovely house, which we've stayed in several times before.

  However, on this occasion we felt let down by the standards we have come to expect from your company. Despite being told upon collection of the key that there may still be a 'checker' at the property, upon arrival we found a mouldy loaf of bread in the bread bin. Although switched on, the fridge temperature gauge was set to zero. We only realised this the following day, luckily, the 100 pounds worth of shopping we purchased the day before wasn't ruined ! We fail to understand why the fridge would be turned off, especially as we were told that the 'checker' would be checking that everything was switched on and working ready for our stay. There were issues in the bathroom this time - the toilet flusher was not working properly, and the bath panel was loose and kept falling off. The back door lock also needs some attention. We were a bit surprised when we received our 'reminder' email (one week before our stay) that it mentioned the need for a "Good Housekeeping Bond" of £200. There was no previous mention of this when we made our booking, although neither was it mentioned when we collected our key ! As mentioned, this is a lovely house we normally enjoy staying in, however, although these are only small issues, they did detract from the enjoyment of our holiday.

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