New Year Cottages in Whitby

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Naomi - Verified booking

  Nice cottage in a great central location.

  Unloading the car can be tricky in peak times as the cobbled street can get extremely busy and is for pedestrian use only unless for access. But this is advertised, just be aware especially if you’re arriving at a weekend. It’s much less busy after 5 when the shops start to close. The stairs inside can be tricky to navigate especially if you are coming with a toddler! We had to be very careful and block them off with a suitcase during our stay. But it’s to be expected in a period property, just worth noting if you have young children. The cottage itself would be perfect if the housekeepers paid a little more attention to detail. It hadn’t been cleaned when we arrived at 3, so delayed us by 2.5 hours. Not ideal with a toddler and a dog after a long drive. The owner of the property was very apologetic and did offer to pay for our dinner that evening as an apology which was much appreciated. I have since seen another review where this has happened before, so hopefully the housekeepers are more organised in the future. The cottage itself is nice, modern kitchen and bathroom, but still quirky and in keeping with the age. The only downfall was the cleanliness in parts, toothpaste splashes were left on the hand wash from the people who were staying before us, quite a lot of dust and other peoples socks, dice etc behind the sofas. And the duvet, pillows and mattress to the double bed on the second floor were terribly filthy and stained. Which wasn’t pleasant to see when stripping the beds upon our departure. They need to be replaced ASAP as it’s not at all hygienic. I did notify the owner of this straight away, and she has assured me that she is contacting the housekeeper’s, so hopefully this has been resolved now. Because honestly, just replacing the duvet, mattress, and pillows and giving the place a thorough clean it would be PERFECT! I can’t fault the owner as she was so easy to reach and responded straight away and thanked me for letting her know. Whitby is gorgeous and overall we really enjoyed our stay. And we would stay at this cottage again if the above has been resolved.

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• Josephine - Verified booking

  Kiwi Cottage looked perfect on the photo's on the website.

  In reality it wasn't. Firstly,both double mattresses in the property need replacing. The one in the main bedroom isn't fit for purpose ( when you sit on the bed,you instantly feel the slats of the bed) and the other one was only passable when we put a duvet on top of it. The bedroom window upstairs was painted shut and I had to go round it with a knife to open it. ( If there had been a fire downstairs,we would of been trapped).When I had opened it,there was nothing to keep it open,so we had to put a rolled up towel there. The window in the lounge is super difficult to open too. The floor lamp in the lounge doesn't work. The light in the fire doesn't work. No tea towels in the kitchen. Hooks and drawing pins in lounge fireplace/beams from Christmas decorations? We found dry dog food on the kitchen floor and a plastic bottle lid in the bedroom. There are 7 old fashioned style bins outside of Kiwi Cottage,right near the lounge window. A resident of the Yard regularly comes out to put a single item into the bins (in one afternoon in the space of 3 hours,11 times) and he looks straight into the lounge of Kiwi cottage which as you can imagine isn't acceptable,so the only option is to pull the dark blue roller blind down to a point that blocks his view, only that left us with hardly any day light. There also isn't anything up at the kitchen window, so you are completely on show in there. The gate to the Yard needs fixing too,it scrapes on the floor and as it's regularly used,the sound becomes really annoying. We actually left a day early as we were sick of waking up with aches from the mattress and sitting in the lounge with hardly any day light. Sykes did offer to get the owners to come and look at the dangerous windows ,but I declined that offer as I was so fed up with the property I didn't want to come face to face with the owner. In all the years I've been holidaying in cottage's,I have never felt so fed up and stressed and so thankful to be at home.

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• Surineer - Verified booking

  My first long stay in whitby and this property was a great little hub for the week.

  On arrival we literally parked outside and used the 1hr permit provided to unload our vehicle. Additional long stay permits were provided too but parking in those were tricky. A bit of patience, waiting and circling around usually provided a place when someone left. However there is plenty of free parking available before entering the main permit zones which are a 5mins walk from the accommodation. Other reviews mention the sofas but they are now updated the broadband was high speed and perfect throughout. This property is small and compact which can be a plus or negative based on the visitors own tastes. We liked it alot. Pros : Great location Some parking permits provided Off the main street so added privacy High speed broadband Cozy Clean Dog friendly Cons : Small Little kitchen space Tight steep stairs, potentially problematic for certain people. Overall we found this place good value for money, it was clean, cozy and well located. The doggy shop is literally outside. Parking in whitby as a whole is difficult and not the fault of the property and we were provided with permits for our stay. If we come to whitby again we would actually consider this property again.

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• Tracey - Verified booking

  It takes a lot to impress my hubby, but as we walked into the quaint low ceiling beamed cottage, my hubby said wow as I did!

  It’s wonderful, and the little added touches like the tray of plum bread and chocolate chip cookies along with the tea, coffee and milk was an added extra lovely. The cottage was clean, warm and comfortable all with little themed Kiwi furnishings throughout. The kitchen is small but was more than sufficient for our stay, with modern fixture and fittings including a microwave, and induction hob. We took the top of the house room where my mum and dad took the large triple room on the lower floor. I loved the crisp white sheets and comfortable pillows, We brought our own but they ended up being thrown on the floor as we favored the house pillows. The only little thing I would raise, if you struggle with stairs this isn’t the cottage for you as they have a lovely winding staircase to the top of the house. Parking is across the bridge, it’s only a 10 minute walk. Don’t worry you can park outside the alley where the cottage is to unload and reload. I worried at first, but who wouldn’t want to have a stroll through Whitby. We loved every minute and will definitely be coming back.

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• Lesley - Verified booking

  Disappointing stay and unlikely to book again with Sykes.

  The cottage was not clean with dust & cobwebs, black mould on the cracked bathroom tiles & cracked, broken and dirty bath side, no hot water from the taps only the shower - also the shower hose broken. I had to boil the kettle to wash the pots. Exposed wiring to a light fitting and the ceiling boards ?filler hanging down. The beds were uncomfortable, albeit the bedding and towels were laundered. The carpets threadbare and ?tears covered with masking tape, you could feel the sharp carpet grippers when using the stairs. Sadly the cottage smelled foisty and damp and the peeling plaster/paint not repaired or the damp in the second floor bedroom cleaned off the wall. I would never normally give a poor review I would just put it down to 'one of those things', but this week I had my grandchildren with me as a seaside treat & they said the same things, my granddaughter giving it a 1 out of 5 as we left on Friday. It's a real shame because the cottage could be a little gem of a place if it was well maintained and spruced up.

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