Villas In Port Isaac

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Rebecca - Verified booking

  Swallow cottage unfortunately was very disappointing.

  Other than the area, which is stunning and quiet,and outwardly the building appeared to be absolutely gorgeous. Inside was dirty and not maintained. The instructions on the Sykes website contradicted those left in the property. Firstly, there was no key safe as stated. So we spent a while trying to discover how to get in. After a phone call to the agent we discovered ourselves that there is in fact no key safe. And the property was left open with the keys on the upstairs table. The instructions from Sykes contradicted what was left in the owners book of instructions. 9:30 departure on Sykes, 9 am in the book. No instructions for the laundry, which we did work out ourselves but didn't end up using as the directions were so aggressive and blunt inside that I didn't feel like lining their pocket. Dogs welcome, fully dog friendly on Sykes but in the book keep them on lead and don't leave them alone ( which I did speak to the owner about, as this was one of the stipulations of us actually booking here.) The property inside although beautiful was dirty, and we spent an hour cleaning before we could unpack. I would suggest having a word with the cleaner as this is not a standard that is expected. We also had an extra horror of someone else's dirty underwear in one of the main bedroom drawers which we had to dispose of. It was a warm week when we stayed and half of the windows don't open, the double glass doors which lead to the balcony don't open properly and felt like they we're going to drop off. No exaggeration. And the double doors to the small fenced balcony do not open at all, resulting in no air flow all week. The toilet seat was dropping off, again I spoke to the owner about this and was assured this would be fixed but it was left so I ended up rectifying it myself. You will not get any service here unless you walk about the property outside. This can't be helped but needs to be more transparently advertised. Don't expect to be able to order in here, as we found nowhere to deliver locally. Understandable with the location but also I feel should be advertised. Good points The property location is quiet and a short walk into Port Isaac itself which is beautiful, scenic but also very hilly so keep that in mind if you are physically challenged. The property has a decent kitchen, with a large electric cooker, dishwasher and fridge. The king bed is comfortable, although my teenager found the bed in the single room to be uncomfortable. The property itself is nestled on a farm which is quiet and pretty and you have the extras of chickens and ducks wandering around. It is quiet and overlooks the bay. Nearby there is a dog friendly field by the second car park to your right as you go into Port Isaac that is fenced in, just in case your pooch needs extra security. We didn't end up spending a lot of time indoors due to all of the problems, and didn't get the impression from previous correspondence that anything would be rectified so made do for the week. But going forward we would not rebook unless standards met the price band paid. I am a travel blogger and hate to have to write negative reviews but renters need to know what to expect when they book a property.

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• Adam - Verified booking

  I firstly have to say that for the £300 for the three of us that stayed was good value.

  ..secondly if I had turned up in and or around the peak season paying upwards £700++ I would be severely disappointed, In general terms the holding looks very tired and slightly dated/needs a paint and done neatly as in various areas it is plane and visible to see, missed paint and general looks of a rush job. The plastering looks strange and only half skimmed type look/when pulling the cord for the extractor fan in the bathroom it almost pulls the casing and or fan off the ceiling/again the painting lets this area down/when the wind is blowing reasonably hard you cannot sleep as it's too noisy. The kitchen my friends told me [they arrived on the Sunday and me on the Monday] they had to basically clean the kitchen and especially the cooker area and it. there was food bits in and around the area, the fridge is dated and a little rusty/the frying pan fell apart when my friend was using it, there was another so used that...cutlery old and needs replacing a long with general food prep tools [knives were blunt etc for something decent and maybe a good chopping board]. Not really enough choice in glassware etc but it was enough. I would in the future if funds permitted get a slightly bigger TV for the lounge as it is a little bit too small nut adequate... I could not fault the layout of the grounds and very neat and tidy and the view was amazing...there is no facility for being eco friendly and recycling etc with bins...might be a thought for the future. The worst thing for me personally is that it stated it came with wifi...My friends cell phone coverage with their provider was excellent, unfortunately for me I had zero signal. They didn't need the wifi but for me there was almost zero wifi then whole entire time, I initially put it down to the weather but there was times with no wind and no rain and still nothing, may I advise a simple fix would be to put a repeater in the holding itself then it boosts the signal from their farm house [I am presuming that is the originating router for the wifi it's self. i would generally ask for some of the money back but as I said in the beginning for this time of year £100 each for a week is OK value but the general up-keep/cleaning and updating would need to happen if I was to come back in high season. If I'd turned up in summer I would be demanding a refund and leaving as for that amount of money it would definitely not pay a high price for. We saw your cleaners turn up next door to clean after some guests had left...one was in the car on her phone and the man was inside and the amount of time spent in there, I'm sorry but it wouldn't be enough time to do a thorough clean...I work in the ambulance service in London now but 15 years ago I worked in the private yachting and hotel business as a purser and butler, so I do know what a basic cottage should look to new guests coming in and at the same time not expecting what I used to perform but the basic's were not met as per advert sorry. But I want to highlight for this time of year good value and the grounds to the property immaculate but for high season I think a better standard could be achieved for little effort

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• Jim - Verified booking

  Starting positively, the cottage was lovely, a little quirky which we liked but everything we kind of expected from a typical seaside cottage.

  It was clean, the beds were comfy and everything we needed was supplied. Location is perfect and the fact that you get a parking space was a bonus. We arrived on the Saturday in torrential rain but on Sunday morning the weather had improved so we could go and have breakfast on the decking, it was lovely. I had received a phone call on the Friday telling me about the scaffolding next door and they were hoping it would be taken down during the week, I said as long as it doesn’t spoil the view then it’s not a problem, it most certainly did but as it turned out it would be the last time we used it. The sun comes over lovely in the morning, perfect for breakfast alfresco unless you’ve got builders within 10 feet of you banging and drilling from 8.30. We felt confined in our property looking out at the nice weather rather than being able to make the most of it. There were a couple of times after that we could have used it as the builders weren’t there, unfortunately the reason they weren’t there was because it was absolutely chucking it down with rain. We feel disappointed that we weren’t informed earlier about this when we booked and the impact it would have. The scaffolding is going to be up for a good few weeks looking at how the work is going so people need to be told beforehand that the decking will potentially be out of bounds during the day unless you like sharing your tea and toast or afternoon tea with a couple or so workmen! My son was in the attic room and was woken up most mornings by the noise which he wasn’t happy about (he is 18 and isn’t happy about a lot of things to be fair!!). I visited your office to mention our concern and report the fact that the carbon monoxide detector went off at 4am, it seems this probably should have been swapped in the last few years for a new one as it hadn’t been changed since being fitted in 2013. We were told maintenance would come out that day to fit new batteries, by 4.45 no one had been so my wife popped back to the office to inform them, they were literally just closing the door. Obviously carbon monoxide is the secret killer so felt more comfortable with a working alarm and eventually a man turned up to put new batteries in and confirm my view that indeed it did need a new one fitted which he did the following day. As I said at the office, I don’t honestly know what you can do about the building work and the scaffolding but it does have a massive impact on peoples holiday stopping at April Cottage which is a shame as everything else was great. I would be interested to hear if anyone else shares our views whilst staying there in the last few weeks or coming weeks.

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• Demelza - Verified booking

  We really enjoyed our stay.

  We liked the accommodation. The layout was good with the upside down side the Juliet balcony was lovely. The views are amazing. However, our journey in to the accommodation and finding you was difficult. The postcode was incorrect on one of our emails and it took us on a nice little jaunt through the town to a farmers field over the other side of Port Port Isaac to somebody else’s farm.He said it’s not the first time this has happened. The description on the email was accurate, but we were following the postcode, in the email unfortunately this led us to go to the wrong place. The cottage was nice everything was set up well getting into the property was good and easy with codes and keys ect. The information that was given prior to the holiday was helpful and supportive and made us feel prepared for a holiday in addition the pack of information inside with local things to do was useful. Some of the information was conflicting so in one information pack it said check out time was 9:30. Another one said 10. Another part said nine on a handout so there was different information about checking out we went with 9:30 we went with the email that we had been sent from yourselves.The cleaning equipment provided was great. More than adequate parking a great location for day trips out around Cornwall. A really good base to use for exploring Cornwall. Nice to have the animals outside the cottage was lovely. Unfortunately the bathroom did have mould on the door and in the shower and smelt damp and unclean. This was unfortunate as it did permeate around the lower bedroom.We recognise that there is no window in that room, and that doesn’t help with the damp, and that has intern made the door damp and mouldy. The fan stays on for a long time and I think this helps airrate but doesn’t adequately sort out the damp situation. And around the back of the toilet and tiles smelt of urine, so it could’ve done with a better clean. An air freshener was provided, but this did little other than add another smell on top of the unclean, damp smell. We are certainly looking to book with you again next year, a bigger accommodation and bringing the rest of our family to stay in the Rock. overall, we found the service from you as a company excellent. Very informative and efficient service from yourselves and with a few tweaks to accurate post code information and clean accommodation. It would’ve been 10 out of 10.

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• Helen - Verified booking

  Unfortunately, we felt very disappointed with the stay and left after 5 nights in the property, having paid for 7.

  We drove 7hours to get to the property and having stayed in many local self-catering homes within Port Issac, found it a shame that a welcome package was not offered, as all of the other properties we had stayed in offered one, that were also self-catering. On arrival, we were shocked to find that the cul-de-sac, the property dwelled within, was not as aesthetically pleasing, as we'd been led to believe and realised now, this is why you cannot see pictures of the front of the property. For us, it felt like a set of caravan esc homes than many other homes listed within the area. For the extremely high cost to rent the property for a week (July), we were not informed that this particular cul-de-sac housed a large collection of seagulls, which are protected animals. Thus realising during our stay that they housed themselves on the roof of the property. The noise of the constant squawk (day and night) along with the movement on the roof meant we managed very little sleep and therefore decided to vacate the property earlier than we had planned. Not forgetting, your car will be destroyed by the seagulls excrement. Positives for this property are that it has been done up well inside by the owner and was mostly clean throughout. The car parking space was small and directly outside the property, meaning that you saw your car outside the front windows but this did not bother us as much as the seagulls did. We therefore would not recommend this property and would not stay ourselves in this property again.

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