Holiday Apartments in Bowness On Windermere

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Krupesh - Verified booking

  If there was below zero rating.

  I would give this. This was our first holiday after the birth of my son who is now 8 months. Our precious moments with him were ruined correcting the catalogue of failures in this house. Some of these are listed below. Upon arrival, the bathroom in which you cannot swing a cat was left unclean. There were skid marks in the toilet, brown fresh smudge marks the (size of two fingers) on side of the door, the sink had bits of someone’s mouths spit stuck on it Willis appeared to not have been cleaned for a while, the shower handle was sticky, the bathroom door handle did not lock and the toilet (the icing on the cake) had a huge crack in the ceramics the panel. Something which I’m led to believe the owner is aware of but has decided to not fix. The toilet crack leaks toilet water a very small drip leading to the bathroom floor (be it very slowly). My wife called lakelovers around 5pm (keys in safe place from 4pm) and various calls, messages and after number of hours wait, the bathroom is superficially cleaned. Our first precious moments with my child on his first holiday ruined. Our evening ruined. Same night, my wife decides to make my 8 months olds baby milk and make some porridge for him to eat. Noting this is a self catering house, the pan to warm his milk and make porridge is dirty with food being stuck on the edges. The utensils all have dried food stuck on sides which has been left uncleaned for weeks. This food had now started to darken, harden and had bits of dust catching onto the food which makes a beautiful view as one can imagine. Neither I nor my wife could cook that day, make food for our child or the day after. An issue again which was notified to the agent the same day of arrival who said they could not get someone out the whole of Sunday (noting it was around 5-6pm on Saturday when lake lovers were notified). Lakelovers offered to pay for two bottles of water (approx. £ 2.50) by way of reimbursement for our troubles. Now let’s move to the kettle - the kettle handle was sticky to a point that it could be mistaken for super glue. One would have to wear gloves to simply touch the kettle. Inside when opening the kettle we had mould like limescale built up over weeks on end of not cleaning. This being a hygiene issue could not be used to make milk for my child or be used to boil water. The Microwave plate - again with bits of food stuck to the plate. The oven, the hob and the fridge - well no surprises there, again same issue of uncleanliness. Now let’s move to the windows - these windows have issues with being opened and if you are to brave enough to cook then be warned the air from the food will remain in the house. There are no known fire safety measures. The sitting room carpet sheds and is quite sticky and smelly in places. Needs a deep clean. The room has a TV, but hopefully you can change the channel and watch TV as the button from the remote are falling off, they are just about intact. The sofa due to wear and tear could do with a replacement. The firmness of the sofa is lost and when you sit in, you will sink in. The cabinet door below the tv has no handles and does not close properly. The kitchen sink due to its design flaws, drips water to the cabinets and sides of your cleaned dishes every time you wash your dishes. Not a complaint but something you need to bear in mind. Now we move to the bedroom. The bedroom door will open one third of its full opening. Just enough for you to be able to go to your side and play to you to me with the baby and get into the bedroom. In the event of a fire, I hate to imagine how one would even get out, given such tight opening. Also just imagine if you are slightly overweight then good luck getting in. I guess it’s the owners way to discriminate against fat people. The room is just about big enough to allow for full opening, it’s just the layout of the room, so size isn’t the issue here. The bed - well. The woods underneath the bed keep falling in the middle of the night and these need to be adjusted for the mattress to then sit properly on. You need to do this once every few hours if you want a good night sleep. The size and depth of the bed mattress is the size and depth of your duvet, so if you want a good night sleep bring your own mattress. All of the above has been notified to lake lovers within the first two days of our stay. Whilst some issues like cleaning and parts of maintenance were resolved after spending days on end calling, emailing, sending pictures and then following up, some issues still remain outstanding after 7 days of stay. Note the cleaner has spare keys, and will enter the house without notifying you. This was a concern when my wife had just come out for a shower and was getting changed and the cleaner came unannounced to fix some of the above issues and used her own key to get into the property which we were staying in. Invasion of privacy I wonder. In summary, there are health & safety issues - crack in the toilet; bedroom door not closing; no fire safety equipment; windows not opening. There are health issues due to hygiene and cleanliness - kettle, microwave, oven, fridge, to name a few. There are ongoing maintenance issues such as bathroom door not locking, cabinet below tv stand, strengthening of bed base etc. There is a formal complaint in place and which I intend to request a full refund for. The quality of my stay was fully ruined. I would strongly recommend you stay clear from this property unless you want to learn on how not to let you holiday home. I hope the agent and owner take serious note of the issues as I have not ruled out taking legal action. There is photographic evidence of all the issues highlighted.

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• Krupesh - Verified booking

  If there was below zero rating.

  I would give this. This was our first holiday after the birth of my son who is now 8 months. Our precious moments with him were ruined correcting the catalogue of failures in this house. Some of these are listed below. Upon arrival, the bathroom in which you cannot swing a cat was left unclean. There were skid marks in the toilet, brown fresh smudge marks the (size of two fingers) on side of the door, the sink had bits of someone’s mouths spit stuck on it Willis appeared to not have been cleaned for a while, the shower handle was sticky, the bathroom door handle did not lock and the toilet (the icing on the cake) had a huge crack in the ceramics the panel. Something which I’m led to believe the owner is aware of but has decided to not fix. The toilet crack leaks toilet water a very small drip leading to the bathroom floor (be it very slowly). My wife called lakelovers around 5pm (keys in safe place from 4pm) and various calls, messages and after number of hours wait, the bathroom is superficially cleaned. Our first precious moments with my child on his first holiday ruined. Our evening ruined. Same night, my wife decides to make my 8 months olds baby milk and make some porridge for him to eat. Noting this is a self catering house, the pan to warm his milk and make porridge is dirty with food being stuck on the edges. The utensils all have dried food stuck on sides which has been left uncleaned for weeks. This food had now started to darken, harden and had bits of dust catching onto the food which makes a beautiful view as one can imagine. Neither I nor my wife could cook that day, make food for our child or the day after. An issue again which was notified to the agent the same day of arrival who said they could not get someone out the whole of Sunday (noting it was around 5-6pm on Saturday when lake lovers were notified). Lakelovers offered to pay for two bottles of water (approx. £ 2.50) by way of reimbursement for our troubles. Now let’s move to the kettle - the kettle handle was sticky to a point that it could be mistaken for super glue. One would have to wear gloves to simply touch the kettle. Inside when opening the kettle we had mould like limescale built up over weeks on end of not cleaning. This being a hygiene issue could not be used to make milk for my child or be used to boil water. The Microwave plate - again with bits of food stuck to the plate. The oven, the hob and the fridge - well no surprises there, again same issue of uncleanliness. Now let’s move to the windows - these windows have issues with being opened and if you are to brave enough to cook then be warned the air from the food will remain in the house. There are no known fire safety measures. The sitting room carpet sheds and is quite sticky and smelly in places. Needs a deep clean. The room has a TV, but hopefully you can change the channel and watch TV as the button from the remote are falling off, they are just about intact. The sofa due to wear and tear could do with a replacement. The firmness of the sofa is lost and when you sit in, you will sink in. The cabinet door below the tv has no handles and does not close properly. The kitchen sink due to its design flaws, drips water to the cabinets and sides of your cleaned dishes every time you wash your dishes. Not a complaint but something you need to bear in mind. Now we move to the bedroom. The bedroom door will open one third of its full opening. Just enough for you to be able to go to your side and play to you to me with the baby and get into the bedroom. In the event of a fire, I hate to imagine how one would even get out, given such tight opening. Also just imagine if you are slightly overweight then good luck getting in. I guess it’s the owners way to discriminate against fat people. The room is just about big enough to allow for full opening, it’s just the layout of the room, so size isn’t the issue here. The bed - well. The woods underneath the bed keep falling in the middle of the night and these need to be adjusted for the mattress to then sit properly on. You need to do this once every few hours if you want a good night sleep. The size and depth of the bed mattress is the size and depth of your duvet, so if you want a good night sleep bring your own mattress. All of the above has been notified to lake lovers within the first two days of our stay. Whilst some issues like cleaning and parts of maintenance were resolved after spending days on end calling, emailing, sending pictures and then following up, some issues still remain outstanding after 7 days of stay. Note the cleaner has spare keys, and will enter the house without notifying you. This was a concern when my wife had just come out for a shower and was getting changed and the cleaner came unannounced to fix some of the above issues and used her own key to get into the property which we were staying in. Invasion of privacy I wonder. In summary, there are health & safety issues - crack in the toilet; bedroom door not closing; no fire safety equipment; windows not opening. There are health issues due to hygiene and cleanliness - kettle, microwave, oven, fridge, to name a few. There are ongoing maintenance issues such as bathroom door not locking, cabinet below tv stand, strengthening of bed base etc. There is a formal complaint in place and which I intend to request a full refund for. The quality of my stay was fully ruined. I would strongly recommend you stay clear from this property unless you want to learn on how not to let you holiday home. I hope the agent and owner take serious note of the issues as I have not ruled out taking legal action. There is photographic evidence of all the issues highlighte

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• Jason - Verified booking

  The property was warm and spacious and finished to a very high standard.

  Having two bathrooms also made getting ready to go out on an evening very efficient. The car parking space was generously sized - once we located it - but more of that later.... This week marked the 15th anniversary of the first time we took our daughter on a cottage holiday when she was just 10 weeks old. We have averaged between 2 and 4 cottage holidays per year over that time, visiting a mixture of old favorites as well as exploring new ones. 2023 has been no exception and our week in Ambleside was our 4th cottage holiday this year and the third at a new property. My point is that as a family we are well used to locating and gaining access to properties in places that we have never been to before - although I do know Ambleside town very well having been a visitor for the last 30 years or more! We had a relatively trouble free 3 hour drive over to Ambleside last Saturday afternoon and arrived in town quite relaxed and in good spirits at around 5.00pm. We were also able to drive pretty much straight to the lane end on Kirkstone road marked "Edinboro" which we turned down as instructed. We drove down a very narrow track and came to what looked like a dead end with cars parked everywhere and nowhere to turn around. I decided to reverse up and review the written instructions, but in doing so scraped my car along a low wall that I hadn't seen. At this point I was fit for driving back home and we were at the top of Hardknott pass by the time my wife persuaded me that we should go back and try again. At this point we had to reverse along Edinboro twice more to allow delivery vehicles out as there is absolutely no room for vehicles to pass each other and no space to turn around. Finally, I drove further down and we located the parking space for number 16 - but it was now beginning to get dark. I unloaded the car whilst my wife and daughter set about finding the apartment. There was a sign on a wall marked 17, 18, 19, 20 and 21 - but not a number 16. We asked other people but nobody else knew where number 16 was. Eventually my daughter explored a little further and after about 20 minutes we finally found number 16. It was now after 6.00pm and darkness had fallen. By now we had been in Ambelside for well over an hour, but we had yet to locate the secure box with the key in it. There was a secure box in a well lit area with what looked like a faded number 16 next to it on the wall near the fuse box for number 16, but our key code would not work. We phoned Sykes several times and eventually they sent a local assistant to help us. He wasn't going to arrive until after 7.00pm so he advised us to go for our evening meal and he would tell us how to get in once he had fixed the secure box. So two hours after arrival - we set off down into Ambleside for our meal and just made it in time for our 7.30pm booking. The assistant phoned me half an hour later to explain the our secure box was in the parking space next to our car. It did say that in the instructions but it was pitch dark under there and none of use had seen it and we were all a little frazzled by this point. I don't care if "everyone else manages to find the property and the secure box OK" - we didn't. It wasn't the best start to our holiday and really spoiled the mood for a while what with scraping the car and all. The site is compact, but quite complex with several apartments in different buildings over four levels. The instructions really need a plan (map) of the site clearly showing the location of the designated parking space and the apartment entrance. Also the key code and location of the secure box should be on a separate line in block capitals - not buried in a paragraph of text which includes navigation instructions from Windermere town. In summary, a great apartment in an amazing location. Summer nights on the balcony must be absolutely lovely. Just needs better instructions supplemented by a site plan or map to help locate everything that we struggled with for nigh on two hours.

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• Amanda - Verified booking

  The shower was weak and it was either too hot or too cold.

  There was no way of washing up the pots, pans, plates etc because no sponge was provided or washing up liquid (I don’t see why we would have to fork out for that ourselves). The bed was so low and extremely uncomfortable, I couldn’t sleep very well for the whole time we were there and it made my sciatica worse. There was a painting on top of the bed which fell and almost smacked us in the face on our last night there. There was black bits all over the bed when we first arrived, the cupboard under the TV kept tipping forwards at the slightest touch, the TV remote was an absolute joke! Sticky keys, couldn’t change the volume, was a massive hassle to even put it on the normal TV setting. The fridge was also tipping forwards at the slightest touch. The sink was shambles. The hot water took forever to reach it, and it was a pathetic weak stream! Just like the shower but worse! Parking was shambles but that was fully expected. The upstairs neighbours LOVE to listen to the TV at max volume at 1am which made for a really restless night. Would not recommend and will not be staying again. I’ll be seeking some sort of compensation for a chaotic and awful stay. Forgot to mention the signal is awful and there is no WiFi (no WiFi is clearly stated on the ad), but if you’re after 4G/5G usage - forget it.

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• Tracey - Verified booking

  We had a great stay at River Falls view and would highly recommend the property.

  It was very well situated with a gorgeous view of the river. We spent many hours watching the water flow past whilst having a cheeky glass of vino. The property was well stocked with many items you don’t normally see in holiday let’s such as a hairdryer and cleaning items which was a bonus. On arrival we found it clean and well maintained and the decor was akin to a country cottage (very quaint) The only recommendations we would give are for it to have a set of recycle type bins in the kitchen rather than just the one bin as when you go to the refuse area outside they expect you to separate for recycling, having separate bins in the kitchen would make it easier to organise for the quest. The other recommendation would be to improve the outdoor seating as it’s a gorgeous view and great to sit out and watch the birds and wildlife but the plastic chairs and table provided don’t fit with the elegance of the property, are faded and stained as well as uncomfortable (no seat pads) which is the same for the wooden bench at the other side of the balcony (again no seat pads to make it comfortable to sit for any length of time) Other than that we loved the property and would certainly book it again, I. Fact we tried for June but it’s already fully booked.

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