Dog Friendly Cottages in Suffolk Coastal District

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Stephen - Verified booking

  I was not going to give a review yet they asked for one (email) so as they ask I will give what I hope is a fair and honest assessment.

  First of all I am sure if you stay at pudding cottage you will have a good time. Just be wary of their 'housekeeping deposit' system. We go to a lot of cottages and hotels. Last November and December we stayed at three cottages. This was our third cottage, 2 with Sykes I think, the other a NT which are always brilliant, as are landmark ones. So. OK, we arrived on the 17th when it was cold, very cold, remember that cold spell? Not a fault yet took 24 hours and lots of wood to warm the cottage yet that was OK. I broke a plate which again was my fault and a pain. Not used to the type of electric hotplate and trying to see how each one works accidentally left one on and then distracted by an elderly pooch left a plate on a hot hotplate, ahh picked it up and it cracked and my fingers sizzled. It was in a nice loacation although next to run down ugly farm buildings yet generally OK. my gripe though was the after effect of a misdemeanor of mine. Sadly a elderly pointer of ours, over 13, her mother and grandmother both died at 10 so she has done well. Yet she has deterioated over the past few months and indeed we nearly didn't go to the cottage at all. So our stay was overshadowed by her. (You may consider my review coloured by this and I am aware of this and trying to be even handed). She was wobbly and we had to shadow her all the time, the kitchen floor was very shiny and she couldn't walk across it so we had to be very careful (again no fault of cottage). We had 2 nights when we thought we would leave early in the morning and on the second we did. This was the day we were due to leave anyway and we left early straight home to see the vet. (We saw the vet who knows her well. It was touch and go yet we tried another drug to add to the ones she has and this has certainly perked her up. She is on the home stretch though), Anyway, my misdemeanor. We have stayed at many cottages and we have four dogs. Yes, poop. Lots of it. Every cottage we have stayed at we have meticoulously picked up. Its part of our regular routine all day very day! My only mitigating circumstance apart from the anxiety on the old girl was we left on the 21 Dec, shortest day. It was dark by 4pm the day before and we left in the dark. We didn't pick all the poop up, we forgot to go round in the morning as were anxious to get to the vet. So yes, our sin and we were and are very sorry about this. Embarrassed and upset indeed. No excuses. However, I was not too happy about being scolded for it. Ok we can live with that, eat humble pie but then to be charged a 'housekeeping' charge of £30 for it seems a bit steep. How much does a housekeeper make an hour? For a job that would take say a max of 20 min, maybe a lot less, £30 is a pretty good rate. But the reall concern was that they were able to take the £30 out without our authorisation which makes me think they must have our card details after the transaction when we purchased the stay. They have a sort of a breakage deposit which is in my view dodgy, certainly makes me think about using them again (we won't), yet this was for an unpleasant task and not under the T&Cs; of breakage. And £30 seems excessively high. I know hotels can keep card details for a period yet can companies like these? That I'm not happy with this as I don't think their deposit covers this. and would certainly colour who and how we book our next (We have one already in March, yet that is at a hotel we have stayed at before).

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• Andrea - Verified booking

  The cottage was really lovely, and thank you to the owners for letting us stay and extending by a day.

  However, there were a few issues that made our stay challenging - the rooms were extremely light and we had to buy additional blackout blinds; there were only 4 bath towels provided for an 8 day stay and no washing machine (we had to use our beach towels and ask family who live nearby to please wash our clothes and towels for us to last the stay); the carpet on the stairs has sharp tacks pointing out of it on every step and our children cut their feet on them 4 times!; under the sink was leaking and smells bad; the welcome pack was appreciated but lack of tea bags, no salt/pepper grinders, only providing one bin bag and 4 toilet rolls for an 8 day stay again just felt unnecessarily stingy and made the start of the holiday difficult rather than comfortable and homely. We usually stay in air bnbs and this stuff is basic provision along with towels/washing machine so it was quite off-putting unfortunately despite it being a really lovely place and perfect location and the bath, TV and living room suite are fabulous. Fortunately we have family who live in the area who were able to help us out to make our stay more comfortable, but without this it would have been upsetting and wastes a lot of time for people who have paid to come on holiday then find they have to go shopping for basic stuff they have at home and could have brought had they known (yes you pre warned us there 'might' not be many bin bags - but we weren't at all expecting ONE bag for an 8 day stay for a family of 4 who also recycle everything they can - as I say it gave an impression of being purposely awkward for those coming on holiday as it would have cost pennies to provide 3 bin bags and salt/pepper grinders and a spare 4 pack of loo roll we would not have used them all, but it would have felt more comfortable and welcoming than crisps). The worst part was just how impossible it is to get any information from or communicate with best of suffolk/sykes cottages. This we would describe as 'extremely poor' and wouldn't give one star. Your app doesn't work, your numbers are hidden, the emails are no reply, the online chat doesn't ever work, it takes over a week for anyone to answer a simple question by WhatsApp- a route which took me 3 days to discover was even an option of contacting you. We won't be using this company again or recommending it.

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• Suzanne - Verified booking

  Pudding Cottage was a last minute booking and we chose it because of the location and the October heatwave.

  We read previous negative reviews around the cleanliness and the very steep wooden staircase but decided to go ahead. We were very pleased with the quiet location however it was evident that the cottage was in need of a proper fettle and clean in all areas. The soft furnishings were tired and the rugs upstairs were stained and were dirty. We appreciate that the cottage is old but that is no excuse for a failure to clean and maintain a property to paying guests. We had 2 infestations of flies despite closing the windows whilst out, presumably they came in via the chimneys. The main bed had a duvet and a top sheet on top of a very soft and springy mattress which obviously needed replacing. The grass was very long in the garden and hadn’t been cut in a while. The main issue was the very steep wooden staircase and the hand rail did not extend around the corner so there was nothing to hold on to. I could go on and on about the cleanliness including the crockery but I guess that is the owners issue with their housekeeper. I recognise that positive reviews have been previously left however everyone has their own cleanliness standards and for us this was well below. After contacting the company, the owner has taken our feedback on board and responded in a positive way so hopefully standards will be improved for future guests which will make Pudding Cottage a great place to stay.

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• Trevor - Verified booking

  The cottage was freezing when we arrived so we spent the first night in coats.

  The welcome pack was nice and included ground coffee but no cafetiere or anything to make it with. I rang the number but they were no help. I did find a cocktail shaker with a dead fly in it though. The TV batteries were dead and no spares in the man drawer. There are CDs but no CD player, videos but no video player. There are candles dotted around but the instruction booklet said candles weren't allowed. The kitchen could have done with scissors and tongs. The downstairs shower room never got warm enough to use. Some of the curtains could have done with being a bit shorter so they would fit behind the radiators better. The cold water feed in the upstairs bathroom was worse than the hot water feed. There was a freezer but it was in an outside shed so probably wouldn't work in cold weather. The drive is constructed such that you scrape the bottom of the car on entering. I had to park in an unlit road. To get recycling instructions you had to type in a long URL to get to the county council information. I didn't bother. The cottage itself was fabulous. Uneven floors, small doors, cosy rooms; all quaint features you'd expect from a 17th century building. It is barely overlooked. The garden is huge. It's nice to see they've not sold it off. There's a lookout table and chairs at the highest point, but you have to avoid the dog pooh on the steps.

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• Malgorzata - Verified booking

  Our stay was delayed by one day due to problems with the heating system, which had a far greater impact on us than you might think.

  Then, for the first and second days we had no hot water - this was rapidly fixed but was still a real pain. However, the main thing is cleanliness - the whole place was really dirty, clearly someone had been in as there were fresh bedclothes, and some superficial cleaning had been done, but there were cobwebs everywhere and dirt and dust on a lot of the surfaces, we had to spend an hour or two cleaning the place before we felt comfortable there. We've stayed in this cottage and the one next door on several occasions, and it has always been pretty dirty, so this is not a one-off occurrance, although on this occasion it was particularly bad. The cottage is pretty, comfortable and well located, which is why we like to go there, but the standard of maintenance, especially cleaning really lets it down. Oh, and I had to spend a while with the sink plunger to get the bathroom basin to drain properly, at least there was a plunger there for me to use. Please get the standard of cleaning improved, it's not a cheap rental and should be spotless.

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