Beach Villas In Scotland

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Alexander - Verified booking

  We spent a happy week in North Stables between 9 and 16 September.

  The flat was clean and well-presented. The sitting room and bedrooms were well-decorated and comfortable. The NTS staff were exceedingly friendly and helpful. We had an excellent tour of The House of Dun given by Colin who was a terrific guide. The surrounding area is beautiful and there is much to see and do. However, while most of the flat was highly acceptable, the kitchen left a great deal to be desired and needs to be re-designed. The flat accommodates four people but there was an inadequate amount of cutlery. Serving a starter and a main dish involved washing knives and forks between courses. It seems, judging by the irregular number of glasses, that breakages are not replaced. There were only two eggcups. One of the frying pans has buckled and did not work well on the rings of the antiquated cooker. The fridge/freezer was far too small and inadequate for two, never mind four, people. It was also poorly positioned especially for older and infirm people. The kitchen was full of cupboards, most of which were empty. A proper re-design, removing most of these unnecessary cupboards, could result in the dining table being accommodated, more suitably, in the kitchen rather than the sitting room. Surely some more cleaning materials could be left. On arrival, we found two dishwasher tablets and two tea towels, one rubbish bag and no cleaning cloths. In the bathroom there was one roll of toilet paper. There was a time when a welcome tray would have been left but all I could see was a bowl with sachets of instant coffee and tea bags. NTS holiday properties are not inexpensive. My recent experiences suggest that they no longer present particularly good value and compare unfavourably with other properties in the “heritage” area of holiday lettings. We enjoyed our trip but certain aspects of the presentation and equipping of the property left us feeling disappointed and gave us the impression that not enough attention is being paid by the NTS to important, smaller details which make so much of a difference.

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• Chris - Verified booking

  We enjoyed our stay at North Stables very much.

  The flat was comfortable, clean and to a high standard. Very quiet and peaceful when the house closes. The staff that we had contact with during our stay were very helpful and friendly. The complimentary House of Dun guided tour is a must and the grounds/gardens are good to walk around. A few things that could be improved: 1. The washing machine is not working and appears, from previous reviews, to have not been working correctly since February. This should have been fixed by now. 2. The Wi Fi signal is very bad and keeps cutting out. 3. The boiler intermittently cuts out mainly when having a shower resulting in a cold wake up! It has to be reset by pressing the button on the boiler. 4. Several doors are difficult to open/close due to them catching on the carpet. 5. Two of the duvets appear to have a plastic covering under the cover and these can be very hot to sleep under. 6. Front door handle nearly off and needs refixing. 7. It would be nice to have had a starter supply of washing up liquid and hand soap. The above in no way spoiled our enjoyment of the property though and we would have no hesitation in returning.

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• Rachel - Verified booking

  Reading the summary about the cottage it sounded like there were plenty of local amenities around the area.

  We had discovered when we got there that you have to drive if you would like a meal out as the 2 local hotels are no longer open and have been closed for 2 years and more . So the summary should state there is a local shop walking distance and need to travel for other amenities. The cottage we feel needs some TLC as we found the floor boards in some areas very weak especially in the bathroom near the bath. (Its not going to be long before someone goes through the floor. It does not matter how many air freshners the owner uses the cottage has a damp musky smell and on return home I had to wash all items of clothing even ones that were not wear due to the damp musky smell clinging to them. I also feel the pictures that are advertising this property need updating as decking and other little things around the property need some attention the garden is over grown so no views can be seen from patio and we could not find the stream that has been mentioned ???.

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• Susan - Verified booking

  We had a lovely stay here.

  We were given a very friendly welcome by the housekeeper. The flat is just as described. Light and airy. People have mentioned the cooker is old. It is, but it works perfectly well it’s just very slow to heat up. The beds were very comfortable and bedding and towels were clean and new. 10.5 tog quilts in May were too warm for us, but at least we weren’t cold. I couldn’t open the beautiful old sash windows on my own, but together we managed. N.B. If you leave the windows open you’ll be visited by house martins. They like to leave little parcels behind them! The gardens and surrounding woodland are open to guests and it was wonderful having the freedom to wander around. All the staff were lovely, friendly and helpful. It’s a few miles straight into Montrose to the nearest supermarket, there are beaches, nature reserves, castles, gardens and grand houses nearby . A lovely place to visit if you can manage 18 old stone steps up to your front door!

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• Leslie - Verified booking

  Our arrival was a nightmare.

  It was very distressing and disappointing to be informed after 7 hours of travelling that our accommodation would not be available at 4 pm as promised, but only after 10 pm due to the late check-out of the previous guests. When we got the call from Sykes we were 30 mins away from our destination, with very poor cell phone reception and no internet in the area where we were travelling, so communication was a nightmare. A text message to the owner was equally disappointing, as he merely referred us to Sykes. Sykes Cottages offered us the choice of staying in alternative accommodation for the night, or resting in the alternative accommodation, but this added 90 minutes of travelling in the dark amongst the mountains to our day's journey, and the accommodation wasn't what we wanted, so we selected the return trip through the mountains. After a struggle to open the key safe we we finally entered the cottage at 10.30 that night. Not happy.

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