Holiday Apartments in Porthmadog

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Trevor - Verified booking

  The instructions given by Sykes to gain entry to the apartment are confusing.

  The address given for The Old Cornhill is No 6 (which is actually the number for the whole building. However, the Old Cornhill door has a Number 2 on it. But there are also two doors with Number 2 on them - OC and Cornhill Courtyard, which are sometimes let together as a single unit. You need to use the door at the back of the building, along the dank, rubbish strewn short alley way. There is however. a much easier way of locating the correct door. You are told to enter the courtyard and the OC entrance is round the back. Once in the courtyard, there are very clear nameplates next to each door, that identify The Old Cornhill and Cornhill Courtyard - that's what the location instructions should say. There are two key boxes – use the one on the left of the front door. And the 5 digit code you are given is incorrect as the key box has only 4 digits. You need to omit the 0 at the end of the number you are given. It seems to us that the apartment was renovated for holiday lets about 15 years ago and has been left to fall into decline ever since. The two sofas are saggy, shabby and uncomfortable and the cushion covers are stained. The mattress falls away at its edges as the edge springs have failed. There is a lot of black mould on the grout in the shower. The bathroom sink plug hole does not fit and your bowl of water will seep away whilst you are using it. The kitchen sink tap drips when on full cold. The front door is not very secure and better locks would be advisable. The windows are draughty and the wind whistles through them. The electrical items display stickers that state the last electrical test was in November 2022. There is an iron with a ‘failed – do not use’ sticker on it. There is an airer that has a broken catch so you have to lean it up against something otherwise it falls over. The oven door doesn’t close properly. The detergent drawer of the washing machine was full of black mould. The freezer is heavily frosted up and, as a result, we could only open one of the three drawers. The cooker hood filters smell strongly of grease. The kitchen is fairly well equipped but there are only 2 teaspoons and 2 mugs and a pair of tongs would be useful. One of the wine glasses was cracked. Many of the glasses have dishwasher burn. We could hear every footstep made by the users of the apartment above us and, from our bathroom, we could hear nearly every word said by the users of the apartment alongside. The listing says there is a patio or outdoor seating area. This takes the form of a few pieces of broken and dirty garden furniture against the wall in the courtyard where residents park and the bins are stored. The bins were overflowing and there was rubbish on the ground in the courtyard. One bin, in particular, was overflowing when we arrived and was only emptied a fortnight later just as we were leaving. The gateway to the courtyard is very narrow and the courtyard has room for 2 cars if they are parked well. The spaces outside the building, on the road, were always taken and so we parked in one of the 20 or so free-to-park spaces outside the Tafarn Pencei pub 50 yards along the road. We managed to get a space there every time we needed one. The listing states the apartment has a TV. Being 15 years old, it is not a smart TV and only offers the freeview channels, rather than what current day expectations of a TV would be. The remote control for the TV does not work (we changed the batteries and it still did not work) so you have to use the channel and sound buttons on the back of the TV to turn on, change channel and sound. The USB port on the side of the TV does not work. There is a blu-ray player but it and the TV do not ‘talk to one another’ and so the blu-ray player is useless. We reported this to Sykes Cottages AKA Menai Holidays by phone on our second day (when they called us to reset the router as the lady downstairs had a problem with wi-fi) and did not receive a response for 5 days. They sent round a ‘technician’ in our absence to fix another problem with downstairs' access, as well as ours, but our problems were not even looked at, let alone fixed. The downstairs issue was "fixed" by the expedient of taping a card to one of the plug switches saying "do not turn off" - which card could only be read if it was lifted up - it was not placed so you could easily read the instruction. We reported this to Sykes/Menai via the portal as it was a weekend and the phone lines were closed, but never heard from them again. It seems they were only interested in appeasing the complaints from the tenant in Cornhill Courtyard, rather than the problems we were experiencing. They even closed our call before we got back from our day out and could receive my feedback as to whether the issue had been resolved or not. As it was a Saturday, phoning hte office resulted in a "we are closed" message, hence notifying them via the official channel of the Portal.

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• Cheryl - Verified booking

  This was our second time at The Old Cornhill apartment so that in itself is a recommendation.

  It is a warm and comfortable holiday retreat with the most amazing views from the front window of the harbour and the mountains beyond. It is within easy walking distance of the centre of town whilst being in a very quiet area for night time. There are some stunning coastal and ancient oak woodland walks from the door or if feeling more adventurous short drives to some good mountains. The apartment was very clean with everything you need for an enjoyable stay included. The bed is very comfortable - it is low down as some people have commented on but that was not a problem for us, we took our own pillows as we prefer down pillows. The private car parking was a bonus as the harbour area can get very busy with cars. The shower was very good - great pressure. The kitchen is well equipped - we took our own sharp knives for food prep and tin foil to line the grill pan. The Ffestiniog and Welsh Mountain Railway is across the harbour and is a great place to spend some time watching the steam train being re-fuelled before setting off again. All in all, I would recommend this accommodation to anyone who loves a good view and has mobility - there is a set of stairs to climb with your belongings to get to the apartment as it is on the second floor but once in and unpacked, the effort is worth it. Climb the harbour steps near the apartment for outstanding views over the whole area - you can just see Snowdon.

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• Cecilia - Verified booking

  We'd like to leave a detailed review as there is only one on your site for this property and we usually rely on reviews when booking holiday accommodation.

  The apartment was very comfortable and had everything you could need. The kitchen is well equipped and the pans and knives are of a good quality for holiday cooking. There is an iron and ironing board plus a clothes airer so doing any washing is easy. The bed was very comfortable and there is plenty of storage. The shower is good with plenty of hot water but there was variable pressure at times - but nothing to put you off staying here. The views from the window are wonderful. You can see the harbour and the steam trains in the distance. The area gets busy on sunny days but is quiet in the nights. It is just a very short walk into town and to the train station and the beaches at Borth-Y-Gest and so is an ideal location. There is parking available in the courtyard and there is a small table with chairs for sitting out but this area is shaded so we preferred to sit on the benches across the road. The place was very clean when we arrived and was supplied with handwash etc to help keep Covid safe. We could sometimes hear the people in the apartment above us moving about a little but this was certainly not an issue. We really enjoyed our stay and would recommend this apartment.

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• Stephen - Verified booking

  A very nice and well appointed property with stunning views of the harbour.

  We found it to be very clean and well equipped. No complaints about anything apart from just 2 items. 1) the "low level" bed is VERY low, and difficult for oldies to get out of. 2) the brown sofa/bed has had its day and needs replacing. It is old and stained. It looks like it converts to a bed, but the problem is that it starts to do this while you are sitting on it, so the base tilts and the extension starts to come out, making it so uncomfortable that you have to get off it. We had to move it away from the wall because we were worried we might trip over the bit sticking out on our way past it during the night. I have photos if you wish to see evidence. Other than that everything else was fine. The kitchen is well equipped, the bathroom is modern and well appointed, the shower was really good. We would definitely stay there again, although we would prefer a slightly higher bed if possible.

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• Michael - Verified booking

  The arrival instructions were clear.

  Parking was easy, we parked outside or in the nearby free car park. Another flat had their car in the shared court yard, but there was space for another. The entrance is at the back of the building, it isn't pleasant; damp, dark and mossy. The flat itself was incredibly clean, tidy and well thought out. We had a lovely view over the harbour from the lounge. The kitchen was well equipped, they had provided basic cleaning materials, but the fridge doesn't seal closed properly and the freezer is over icing. The shower was reliable. The bed; had lovely fresh linen, was firm and comfy but quite low. Our main concern was that the building is an echo chamber and all floors are creaky. We could hear all the neighbouring flats clattering, chatting and tv's, so I'm sure they could hear us! It made us concious walking about and watching tv.

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