Holiday Cottages In Knaresborough

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Kim - Verified booking

  Beware/Be aware if you are thinking of booking this property – things you should know The photos and description on Sykes Cottages website do not reflect the current state of the property.

  Once you locate the property you can’t park on (the very, very busy) Skipton Road so you have to find parking round the corner (somewhere on Electric Avenue) or in the alleyway at the back of the property (if you’re lucky). Once you find parking you have to walk around the front of the property to get in as the back gate is bolted and locked shut and once you do gain entry you can’t leave the property by the back door as the door doesn’t lock from the outside, so every time you want to go out or unload your car, you have to park, go around the front and then walk though the whole house to unlock the back door to unlock the gate to bring your cases etc in. It doesn’t start off well in relation to the parking, but around the front of the house the gate doesn’t open or close properly, the front path is covered in moss which is slippery when wet and the front garden is a mass of weeds (not like the pristine photo on the website), plus the windows are filthy and covered in spider-webs. Perhaps that’s why when you enter the property there is a sign indicating that you should take your shoes off. Bearing in mind at the front door you are offered a selection of used, dirty slippers and at the back door used flip-flops and sandals! On entering the property you find that the ‘plush’ lounge suite is covered in a throw (which you are instructed not to remove), but I doubt you’d be able to snuggle up as it is very uncomfortable and feels like it slopes forward. The kitchen also revealed a gas hob (not electric as advertised on the website) which is dirty and covered in baked on food, together with an aged oven and grill (which appear to have been the subject of a ‘deep clean’ (the agent’s words) by the owners after previous complaints). Not sure having looked inside I considered these to be clean, let alone the subject of a ‘deep clean’. Hence we didn’t use the hob, oven, grill or microwave due to their dirty condition. There is a washing machine, I did open it, but it smelled so we didn’t use it – but if we had there was nowhere to hang washing – no clothesline outside or airer inside. We didn’t use the hot tub (not our thing), but noting the comments from previous guests, am not sure I would want to anyway (but having said that we didn’t open it up so it could have been fine (noting that the water had been tested 2 days before our booking commenced)). Bearing in mind there is reference to the narrow tread on the stairs – going up is OK, but you need to be careful coming down as the stairs are quite steep and the narrow tread mean you have to come down almost sideways to be on the safe-side. Once upstairs, the ‘sleek’ bathroom isn’t very sleek – the sink taps are very dirty, the towel rails are covered in rust and dirt (the rust I could accept, but putting nice, clean towels over the dirty towel rails does rather defeat the object). The shower is poor at best, the water flow is dismal and the shower leaks when turned off (so much so that if you leave it in the holder the water drips sufficiently fast enough to splash and run along the side of the bath and onto the floor creating a slipping hazard, hence finding the shower head in the bath tub on our arrival), the shower curtain rail is rickety and wobbly, the venetian blinds are dirty and so is the window ledge and a “suspicious stain” on the toilet seat referred to by a previous guest also appears to still be there. The bed was fine, although the double room consisted of one chest of drawers which appeared to be of cheap construction (the bottom two were a bit dicey and stuck together when opened), two bedside drawers and a rickety hanging rail and coat hangers: the twin bedroom had what appeared to be a child-sized wardrobe in the room. We didn’t use the games room on the top floor – went up to have a look but it was airless and warm and the windows were covered in green moss. The ’Welcome’ info booklet referred to “helping yourself to the semi-skimmed milk, tea, coffee and sugar” – I couldn’t find one tea bag or one granule of coffee (but there was a couple of sachets of sugar) and the milk was long life, not semi-skimmed. Also there wasn’t any shower gel or shampoo (most places have at least small bottles of the basics) – so on arrival (from Australia in our case) not only can you not have a shower to freshen up, but you can’t even make a cuppa without doing a shop first! The whole place had a musty smell was full of labels directing guests to not do this/not to remove that/don’t touch this – down to a sticker that advised of various games above a basket which contained (you guessed it) various games. I did complain to the agents about the state of the property (and sent photos as they requested) and asked for my booking to be cancelled and receive a pro-rata refund and although the agents assured me they had passed on my comments, photos and request on to the owners, and that the owner had to be given an opportunity to rectify any issues I raised, the agents advised they had failed to hear back from the owners. (Seems to me the owners were prepared to wait it out until my booking ended rather than try to do anything to rectify/respond to the issues I raised.) If I were the agent I would drop this property from my portfolio for fear of being sued for false advertising or else ask the owners to provide current, up to date photos and descriptive information. I don’t think the current state of the property is accurately reflected in the description on the agent’s website nor do the photos accurately reflect the quality of the fittings for the price being charged in the rental (which is quite pricey: you might want to consider staying at the Travel Lodge in West Park, which is cheaper per night and includes a buffet/cooked breakfast (and is also closer to the centre of Harrogate than the property)). My advice – don’t waste your hard-earned money, there are better places to stay for what this owner is expecting you to pay for a dirty, smelly property with cheap fixtures and fittings.

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• Kylan - Verified booking

  I don’t like to write negative reviews but with us paying so much money (£438 for 2 nights) we really expected more.

  Firstly, the ‘off-road’ parking as described in the description is not off road at all, it is street parking and a few minute walk up the street from the front door. This made unloading the car very difficult as the back gates are bolted shut! Upon entering the house, the smell of cleaning products was quite strong which we weren’t too bothered about because we thought, at least we know it’s been cleaned. However, when getting things out of the cupboards or drawers to eat with or drink with, everything had to washed first as they were all still dirty from the previous stay or stays :-/ the dishwasher did not work and is labelled do not use, when reading the guest book this seems to have been a longstanding issue that hasn’t been fixed but it is still advertised, same with the washing machine, broken and couldn’t be used but still advertised. Then, the bathroom. The shaving mirror at the side of the sink was covered is splats of toothpaste from whoever was in before us. The bath had hairs in and the toilet seat has a very suspicious stain at the back of the seat. My other half, being very particular, had to go buy some sponges to clean everything down before we felt like we could relax which took a couple of hours out of the first day we were there. There was still left over food in the freezer from the previous stay. The cupboards were not clean enough to put things in so we just wiped the sides and kept everything out. The WiFi doesn’t reach the games room on the top floor so if you are like us with the idea of bringing a PS4 etc for a games night, think again. There is a PS3 up there but only with very old retro games (this was a nice touch). Other than everything above, we had a nice stay and made the most of it given we were disappointed we’d paid so much. The hot tub was nice, a little cold but it didn’t smell as the guest book mentioned and the water was blue as you would expect. Although the slippers on the way in is a nice touch, they should at least be new or clean. They were stained with what looks like fake tan and the other pair had black marks on the soles. The description states that towels are included with the stay, meaning we didn’t pack any. To then find that one 1 towel each had been provided, I understand that we are only there for 2 nights so 1 towel would seem acceptable. However when I’ve used the towel to getting out of the hot tub, I don’t want to be using the same towel 3 hours later when I get out of the shower. The shower head is shocking, the water pressure isn’t the best which is evident but even me as a bloke couldn’t get a shower with that shower head, there’s no power and the water trickles out. It’s a case of having to get a bath, and even then, depending on what side of the fence you sit on, you don’t feel clean after a bath. The kitchen is well equipped for making meals. There are instructions everywhere, for everything other than the oven which seems to hard to understand given that the markings have worn away but we figured it out eventually. The heating is easy to use, I like that the TV is a smart TV and you can login to your own accounts. The bed in the master is really comfy and the lamp with the usb ports is a nice touch. There is an Aldi over to road which is handy. The centre is within walking distance or a 10 minute car journey. Overall we have had a good weekend but still quite disappointed that we paid so much.

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• Karen - Verified booking

  A really pretty compact cottage.

  !st issue was the location of the key box, it is on the reverse of a porch post. This information would be useful in the e-mail with the key code, it took us some time to find it and ringing for information did not help nice though the person on the phone was. Nowhere does it state that the cottage fronts a busy A road and there is no stopping outside the cottage. Off road parking is a side road or another residents parking space which we found out due to that resident approaching us.( thank heaven for sat Navs) General maintenance was very poor. Terrible mould in the washing machine completely black door seal and inside of the drum. I cleaned it with antibacterial wipes and despite a hot empty wash it made clothes smell of mould. Bedding smelled of mould it was pretty unpleasant I asm guessing guest bedding is washed in the mouldy washing machine.The oven was filthy and rusty and had not been looked after. A dehumidifier was constantly running and I needed to empty its water drawer out.There was a wasp nest above the bathroom roof and they found their way into the bathroom and slowly died. Also a type of millipede/ damp loving creature was found in the bath on numerous occasions, I drew the line when I found one on the bed! There were plenty of notices from the owner reminding us to remove our shoes, clean kitchen surfaces, not use certain blinds and not switch off the dehumidifier. The bins outside were overflowing with previous guest rubbish and had not ben emptied. A useful note from the owner would be bin collection day and where to leave them out so they can be emptied, I have no problem with doing that as I am sure most guests comply with common sense care of the property during their stay.On the surface the property appeared well put together, on closer inspection it really could do with a thorough maintenance plan to bring it up to the standard most guest expect. On the positive the local residents are very welcoming, Harrogate is a 20 minute walk away, transport links are good and lots of things on your doorstep.The hot tub was nice after walking all day sadly the water was a bit suspect being a rather cloudy green. Still we did have a lovely time, but for the money it was rather disappointing.

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• Jennie - Verified booking

  Disappointed with our stay at Glendown Terrace.

  The photographs need updating to reflect the property as it is now. The whole house would benefit from a good deep clean both inside and out. The house does not have any kerb appeal. It looked rundown from outside, slippy path, weeds and overgrown tree and dirty windows and windowsill. Lots of signs around the house saying do not use, do not remove etc. What we found rather off putting was used slippers and used flip flops at the front and back door. The outer back door didn't lock. The property was grubby. The kitchen cooker hood was very greasy, not enough pots, pans or utensils to cook a dinner. The cups were dirty inside which put us off from making hot drinks and cooking in the property so we ended up eating out each evening. What was a nice gesture was the water bottles and the milk left for us in the fridge. That was nice but we didn't use the milk because we didn't want to use the pots. The bathroom was grubby, Shower was disappointing with no pressure just a trickle which constantly dripped when turned off. A wobbly hoop holding the shower curtain over the bath wasn't great either. Luckily we were out all day at the Great Yorkshire Show so just used the house for somewhere to sleep. We slept well, the beds were comfy and we were warm, didn't have to use the fire or the heating so I can't comment on them. The tv was useless, no Freeview tv. You had to have an app to watch iplayer or itvx but couldn't just watch Freeview. We didn't want to use the hot tub because of how grubby the house was and reading some of the comments in the guest book said it smelt so we gave that a miss. A shame because it could be made a really nice house if it was looked after. Glad it was just a base for us at night and not a holiday home.

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• Cornelia - Verified booking

  We had a very relaxing short break and complete peace and quiet in this cosy, tastefully furnished and extremely clean cottage in a beautiful part of the country.

  Owner Graham is really welcoming too. The cottage has everything needed for a short stay, the bed is comfy, and there is plenty of drawer storage space. It was fab that for once we didn't have to navigate around sizable amounts of old paperbacks, stacks of board games and an array of ornaments when unpacking our belongings. There's plenty of storage space for food as well. The description does not really do this cottage full justice, e.g. there is free wifi and Netflix, and a power socket in the living area has USB ports, as do the bedside lamps in the bedroom. Whilst there is no cooker (which we knew beforehand and didn't need), there is a plug-in double hotplate in one of the kitchen cupboards. Just a heads-up for anyone on the larger side: it can be a bit of an adventure for more voluptuous guests to try and squeeze through the little gap at the side of the shower screen, which is firmly installed in situ (going by the online photograph, we had assumed that this would swing open). The shower itself is absolutely divine though. We returned home totally relaxed and would gladly stay in one of Graham's properties again.

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