Holiday Cottages In Ambleside

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Janice - Verified booking

  The exterior aesthetic of the cottage is truly beautiful and it is perfectly located with lovely walks from the door and a short drive to Ambleside & Hawkshead.

  The garden is lovely, although it's use was restricted due to lack of funiture (4 old plastic chairs). The linen was clean, water hot, heating adequate & kitchen well-equipped (although no order to storage & not everything was clean). Unfortunately, the negatives far outweighed the positives including large areas of black mould on the window frames throughout the cottage, on the shower room walls & the utility room walls & doors; ingrained dirt in the grouting in the shower room; thd lounge windows were difficult to close & the secondary glazing trims kept falling off; filthy floor, sink & resources (mops, sweeping brushes, hoovers) in the utility room; 2 hoovers available but both dirty and don't pick up dirt so unusable; cupboard interiors dirty; cobwebs around ceilings; broken hinge on kitchen cabinet above the sink - BEWARE if you don't hold it open, it falls down on you; 2 broken dining chairs; water stain & large crack on the bedroom ceiling; electric socket hanging off the wall & 5 of 8 lights not working in lounge; broken kitchen bin; red marks in the bath; dirty laundry in the laundry basket; info folder has incorrect info about bin day (so bin doesn't get emptied because no-one knows to put it out on Wednesday, not Thursday); no key to 'games' cupboard or door from utility room into garage. The maintenance team sorted the lights & socket, removed the broken chairs & banged the windows to close them. The cleaners did a re-clean (it felt very reluctant) but we still had to buy cleaning materials & clean the shower room, bath & utility room ourselves to make them useable. Sadly, the cottage is in dire need of some maintenance work & a thorough deep clean. So many issues have been raised in previous reviews; a shame no-one appears to be responding. Such a shame because it has the potential to be stunning. We left feeling massively disappointed & needless to say, wont be returning.

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• Denise - Verified booking

  I first came to the Old Farm a year ago and loved it so much that I wanted to come back.

  The weather was wonderful this year so we were able to make good use of the garden, although an outdoor table would have made eating outside more pleasurable. It is quite difficult not to bring grass indoors as the lawn was mown but the cuttings left on the lawn. The fridge door is really difficult to open (as it was last year). The bin in the kitchen cupboard had broken so didn't come out when the door was opened. Also the local instructions for recycling etc are difficult to understand. The green wheelie bin was already full so our bag wouldn't go in. The other black wheelie bin (which shouldn't be used I understand?) was full of soil and old dog poo bags. Neither bin was emptied on Thursday. I put both bins out the night before in the correct place. I did however help a neighbour clean them both out and disinfect them before I left to try to resolve the issue. The cleaners came and were really grateful and nice people. They do a great job. I think that the only improvements that could be made to the Old Farm, as it is quite expensive to hire, are new kitchen units (most doors don't open or close properly) and a new dining table and chairs (chairs falling apart). The downstairs shower room needs upgrading as it's tired and some mould is forming on the walls. You would then believe that the price reflects the quality of the property. At the moment it doesn't. However, we think the Old Farm is wonderful and we very much enjoyed our stay.

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• Lindsay - Verified booking

  Unfortunately our stay at this cottage was plagued with problems, in part due an overgenerous description of the facilities.

  Be aware that the adjoining room to the main bedroom is not accessible in any way but through the main bedroom, and also that though the description states the garage is suitable for 2 small to medium cars, you will not be able to exit the garage easily if you do try and put two medium cars in it. The facilities were very poor, with the upstairs shower completely unusable as water pours through the kitchen ceiling every time you try (obviously an ongoing problem based on the water stains on said ceiling). There is no support available from Sykes during your stay, as we discovered after phoning the emergency number within the posted hours to try and find out why we had no water one evening, and were unable to get hold of anyone. When we followed up the next day and also reported that the shower was unusable, we were promised Sykes would look into the issue then heard nothing else for the remainder of our stay. This resulted in four adults on a fairly active holiday having to share a single shower, which was not ideal. Following our trip we have reported these issues to Sykes, and received very little response other than "we have passed your concerns along to the local office". Unfortunately we would not use this company again, and would caution others to read other reviews before booking. Had we done so, we would have noticed the string of negative feedback this cottage has had over the last 12 months and would have made alternative plans.

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• Sarah - Verified booking

  Summary: Charming, old fashioned cosy cottage in a beautiful location with time-warp fixtures & fittings - BYO wine glasses!

  Good points: wonderful old farmhouse in peaceful hamlet with great views, pretty garden, characterful interior - wobbly floors and exposed beams. Decent white bed linen, comfy beds, nice & warm. More space than expected: useful wash room and double garage. Weak points: judging from the quality and condition of the kitchen, bathroom and shower room they haven't been modernised since the late 1970s. Furnishings old fashioned (not in good way). For the rental price (£767 for 3 days) I would expect higher quality furnishings, bathroom & kitchen. Things that need changing urgently: 1. Kitchen glassware: the wine glasses were thimble sized, the tumblers were free with petrol tokens in the early 1980s. Awful! 2. Whilst well-stocked, the kitchen equipment, crockery and cutlery were ancient, low quality and grubby; I put on a dishwasher cycle on arrival. 3. Please provide washing up liquid & kitchen surface cleaner. 4. Decent quality hand soap from a local gift shop would show a little care & attention to compensate for kitchen & bathroom agedness. 5. Ancient deep-cleaning equipment (e.g. stainless steel cleaner / fly spray) under kitchen sink made the kitchen stink - needs chucking out. 6. Guest instruction manual was dog eared and shabby - needs replacing & updating. 7. Previous guests hadn't put rubbish in black bags, so this was left by the bin men.

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• Jeremy - Verified booking

  Lovely property in a great location so handy for the centre of Ambleside and with a car park pass so you could safely park your car in the large car park a couple of minutes from the property.

  The road the property is on is very narrow and double yellow lined so it is slightly problematic when arriving with luggage. The road is also very noisy on occasion. Right opposite a pub and the dustbin wagon woke us very early one morning. There was a big problem with the main TV in the lounge which was described as a Sky/Smart TV meaning you could watch on demand services. We noticed very quickly that there were no streaming capabilities but the very helpful housekeeper had her husband visit us on the Saturday morning to attempt to resolve it when it was discovered that not only was it not a Smart TV, it neither had any of the Sky functionality either due to the owner's account issues with Sky. In fairness, the father of the owner did try and resolve the issues but it went from getting a new TV on day 2 to finally getting a Roku streaming stick on day 4. The facilities at the property were very good - no microwave but a double oven, fridge/freezer, washer/dryer, dishwasher etc. The bed linens and towels were of excellent quality but, as some other reviews have mentioned, the sofa is pretty uncomfortable.

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