Dog Friendly Cottages in Penrith

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Caroline - Verified booking

  Stayed with 4 girlfriends for a 50th birthday.

  Not far from Penrith, Lovely picturesque village. Great views. There's a well stocked kitchen, Large dining area, the bedrooms were clean & beds comfortable. Lovely big garden, great place for kids to run around in. Hot tub is fabulous, clean & well maintained. However there were some issues that spoilt our holiday. No external aerial for TV. an inadequate indoor one that we couldn't get a signal on all weekend!! Despite a phone call to owners a difficult conversation due to very bad phone signal! Asked if someone could come out & sort this. No one arrived at all. So a basic TV was not available. The WIFI was non existent! The Hub stated could not be found! & I tried every room! There's a blue ray player but the remote left would not work in the TV to get to correct channel. changed batteries (our own) still didn't work. Unable to use that also. Bulbs were missing from 2 lamps looked for spares as stated in welcome folder none were found! We swapped one from lounge area. The small toilet on ground floor had a sink on top of cistern this was full of water on arrival so unable to wash your hands in this bathroom. Old bar of soap, a soggy tissue & 2 disposable razers found on shelf in large shower on the first floor. Upon arrival we checked out the Hot Tub thankfully this worked great. Sadly we had to clean up the patio area. The previous occupants had left a few items of wet clothes, cans, & rubbish littered around! (Unbelievable how people leave property) however this should have been picked up by the cleaners. They must not have gone outside at all! Chairs all array table not cleaned. Extremely disappointed with this & find that totally unacceptable. Such a shame as the location is perfect, barn a great size. reported to sykes when I returned . Owners need to visit this property for themselves as I do blame the quality of the cleaners! for most of it. My advice to owners ... invest in a good broadband & get an outdoor aerial fitted.... Our saving grace... The local pub The Sun inn a few minutes walk away! Fabulous. Worth a visit & a great restaurant. Lowther Castle 15 minute drive away also worth a visit. There's a Morrisons & shopping area 10 min drive away too. These complaints were made in May by other people. But nothing has changed.

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• Joan - Verified booking

  The key safe was very difficult to open.

  We eventually walked in to be greeted by several houseflies, which continued to be a nuisance throughout our stay - where are they breeding? I soon found that the hob was filthy and no hob cleaner was supplied - I had to buy some & clean it before using it. The windows were dirty, both kitchen and back room, as was the tiled splashback behind the cooker. The kitchen bin lid was dirty - good job it's foot-operated. I had to clean out the fabric softener compartment before I could use the washing machine - it was completely clogged with gunk and washing powder - and empty the fluff filter in the tumble dryer. The cutlery drawer had crumbs in and some of the cutlery was dirty, as were some of the place mats. The dining room floor had breakfast cereal on it and a load of dust from where the stone wall is crumbling! The downstairs loo was badly stained - I left it cleaner than it was, but it clearly hasn't been properly clean for many weeks. The bathroom sanitary bin was left half full - yuck! There were light bulbs missing in the kitchen (1) and the single bedroom bedside light, and the light in the extractor over the hob wasn't working either. The microwave was too small for most of the dinner plates supplied - they couldn't turn. TV reception was poor, as were the wi-fi and phone. The low ceiling and huge beam over the bed in the mezzanine rendered it unusable, even for little me! Lucky only five of us were able to come on the holiday as it turned out. We were surprised to find no welcome pack - not so much as a pint of milk - no leaflets about local attractions, no information about the local recycling scheme (i.e. take it all to Morrisons car park), and no notes on how to operate the central heating system. On the plus side, the hot tub was ace - the best we've found anywhere - and the towels supplied were very good quality. The location was very convenient - just a few minutes' drive from Morrisons and handy for Ullswater, Derwentwater and plenty of other lovely places. We enjoyed a good meal with our grandchildren at Gianni's Italian restaurant in Penrith. We had lovely weather all week, so we didn't have to spend much time in the Barn, and actually had a really good holiday.

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• Vicki - Verified booking

  When we arrived the cleaning lady was still there finishing up next door, just as well she was as we couldn't gain entry as the key was not in the lockbox but in the door on the inside of cottage.

  She had no knowledge of us arriving as said it had not been cleaned! When she gained entry with her keys it was a left in right mess by previous customers. She told us to come back in couple hours (by this time it would be 6pm+) not her fault but a break down communication either with booking agent & owner. When we finally get in on first glances the ladies did a fab job in a short space of time to clean and prepair it for our stay. It was during the stay we started to find little bits not so perfect, the cottage could do with a little TLC and money being put back into it and bring up to date with current times. The kettle could do with replacing as has rather alot scalling init. The TV Ariel is no use at all, everytime you want watch TV you have to retune and lucky dip what channels you pick up. There is an outdoor ariel socket on wall why there's no extension into this instead the crappy plug in ariel?? Luckily the TV is a smart TV so can use your Netflix/prime accounts if you have these. The WiFi is shocking slow, the router is next door and you piggy back off that, it was hit and miss alot the times. The bathroom door handle needs attention, no one dared locked the door incase it came off and you got stuck in there! The shower in main bathroom is a cheap of the cheapest ones going and pointless for double shower that size, plus there's not alot hot water it runs cold and tepid, so don't think if having a bath. Cheap plastic toilet seats. The hottub man comes Friday & Mondays. We noticed He doesn't empty them at each change over but simply wipes the seats, fish out the bugs, cleans the filters and replaces the chlorine tabs. So not sure how many guests have used same water before us? (He was there just finishing when we arrived Friday- the tub was 40° so obviously not been emptied and refilled) These may seem little things but when your paying £1200++ these little things do go a long way to making your stay more comfortable. The garden is good size, enclosed so dog friendly. Overall its a lovely cottage, ideal place as base while you explore the beautiful lakes have to offer.

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• Gill - Verified booking

  The cottage was beautifully furnished, warm and comfortable but the lack of housekeeping stock and the ‘house rules’ did not give an overall welcoming feeling of relaxation or luxury holiday.

  For example - no detergent for the washing machine (in the countryside, wet muddy walks, in winter?), peppermill was empty, torch batteries flat or low, no spare toilet rolls, single small discs of packet soap in bathrooms with no refills, a single replacement bin liner only, outside shed bulb not working. As a pet friendly cottage, comments such as ‘Obviously dogs are not allowed upstairs or on the furniture’ and ‘there must be NO evidence of dogs left in the property on vacating’ feel quite disrespectful to guests and assumes the worst of them. The 9am checkout is early and difficult to rationalise particularly when the guest is expected to do most of the tidying. To be packed up, beds stripped, house ordered, had breakfast and on your way, under the threat of leaving not a single dog hair, by 9am on the final morning makes your last day a very early start and/or takes up much of the previous evening. Things like this detract from what could have been a really enjoyable and relaxing stay. Whilst we appreciate all prices have increased, the cost for ensuring usable items are well stocked and refilled should be a reasonable inclusion to the overall cost. The cottage is not cheap and for this tariff, we really would not expect to feel penny pinched and unfortunately it engenders a degree of dissatisfaction. Initial supply of logs is as stated in the description, but again, refills require a car journey to stock up and in our experience cottages of this cost and marketed as luxury would have extra logs on site and available. The village pub is excellent and well worth returning to, the location is good for local attractions, walking from the door is good if without wanting to let your dogs off lead but requires walking across a lot of sheep fields or the road to get to better dog suitable walks. Overall a very lovely property but not the luxury relaxed holiday ambience we were anticipating. Lots of positives but definitely some areas to reflect on to improve the user experience or expectations

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• Gill - Verified booking

  The cottage was beautifully furnished, warm and comfortable but the lack of housekeeping stock and the ‘house rules’ did not give an overall welcoming feeling of relaxation or luxury holiday.

  For example - no detergent for the washing machine (in the countryside, wet muddy walks, in winter?), peppermill was empty, torch batteries flat or low, no spare toilet rolls, single small discs of packet soap in bathrooms with no refills, a single replacement bin liner only, outside shed bulb not working. As a pet friendly cottage, comments such as ‘Obviously dogs are not allowed upstairs or on the furniture’ and ‘there must be NO evidence of dogs left in the property on vacating’ feel quite disrespectful to guests and assumes the worst of them. The 9am checkout is early and difficult to rationalise particularly when the guest is expected to do most of the tidying. To be packed up, beds stripped, house ordered, had breakfast and on your way, under the threat of leaving not a single dog hair, by 9am on the final morning makes your last day a very early start and/or takes up much of the previous evening. Things like this detract from what could have been a really enjoyable and relaxing stay. Whilst we appreciate all prices have increased, the cost for ensuring usable items are well stocked and refilled should be a reasonable inclusion to the overall cost. The cottage is not cheap and for this tariff, we really would not expect to feel penny pinched and unfortunately it engenders a degree of dissatisfaction. Initial supply of logs is as stated in the description, but again, refills require a car journey to stock up and in our experience cottages of this cost and marketed as luxury would have extra logs on site and available. The village pub is excellent and well worth returning to, the location is good for local attractions, walking from the door is good if without wanting to let your dogs off lead but requires walking across a lot of sheep fields or the road to get to better dog suitable walks. Overall a very lovely property but not the luxury relaxed holiday ambience we were anticipating. Lots of positives but definitely some areas to reflect on to improve the user experience or expectations

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