Villas In Windermere

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Kate - Verified booking

  Very disappointed with our stay overall.

  It could have been amazing as the cottage is in a great location and ideal for what we needed. Looks very nice from first appearances etc. The owners have thought about all the items that will be needed so the kitchen etc was well stocked. The bed was very comfy but one of the sofas in the living room was not so made it difficult to relax on an evening. Unfortunately, when we arrived we got an overwhelming smell of paint in the entrance porch. We later discovered this was probably to hide all the mould that was appearing on the walls. We had to move the shoe racks and coats inside as the coats got wet paint on them from touching the damp walls. At the start of our stay (Saturday) we didn’t notice any mould but this began to grow and we could see it appearing on the walls by Monday, by the Saturday we left it was everywhere, so had obviously been wiped down before we got there. The owners clearly knew about it as there were 5 dehumidifiers in the bedroom, 2 behind the bed under a massive damp patch and dehumidifiers elsewhere all over the property. The black mould was mostly in the bedroom but some in the bathroom and living room too. I understand old cottages/houses etc can get mould and it can be difficult to clear, we left the bedroom window open to allow for condensation to escape but this made no difference. The main thing that annoyed us was that the owners clearly knew about it and had just thought dehumidifiers would fix it, rather than assessing the full extent of how bad it was and closing the property to fix it. The heating system using storage heaters is very confusing too and seems to come on in the middle of the night and the day when you’re out, but not on an evening when it might actually be needed, and if you try and switch it on it takes forever to warm up. We only used to log fire once as it kept constantly going out so we gave up and used blankets. The only solace is we were able to get a partial refund, although it wasn’t even 50% of what we paid which is what we asked for back. We contacted Sykes on the Monday in the hopes that they’d be able to move us somewhere else, but didn’t get it resolved until we were home so stayed in the property so we didn’t completely ruin our holiday by cutting it short, but they were very helpful.

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• Sylvia Frances - Verified booking

  The cottage was absolutely lovely apart from two things.

  1 1/2 toilet rolls do not last a week! Can't there be some spares in the hall cupboard? I too find that duvets are far too hot for the summer months and therefore always take our own 4.5 tog one, as well as an extension lead as the sockets are never in the right place for hair dryers and mirrors. We were quite horrified, when we took off the quilt cover to find the duvet extremely marked and soiled. A complete clean or a new one would be appropriate and we were glad we did not have to use it! We had been told by Sykes that all bedding,towels, tea towels , oven gloves, cushions, books and leaflets would be removed so we brought all our own only to find that everything was present. We did hang onto the phone for two sets of one hour which, incidentally cost me £2.70 to try and get to tell the owner that we were bringing our own things but they refused to giver me any contact details. In fact, they refused to speak to me because they had messed our booking up with that of our daughters and had (and still have) got our name wrong and put both cottages in our daughter's name I had to get my daughter on the mobile on speaker so she could shout at them to speak to me! Whilst I was hanging on to the phone for al that length of time I looked on their site and if you clicked on "book this" it said sorry this was not available - this added to our stress as we thought they had gone bust! You still have my booking under the wrong name! I have not placed this report earlier as my daughter was in her cottage and I didn;t want anything else to go wrong. We all know the problems you have had with Covid but I think Sykes have handled it very badly and will think very carefully whether I book through them again. I certainly would book the cottage again but possibly not through Sykes.

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• Connor - Verified booking

  Disappointed with the stay overall.

  While the cottage is very good looking, and it was clean and well stocked, it could be frustrating to stay in. The only methods of heating were the storage heaters which despite the instructions given were not easy to use and only seemed to come on when we didnt particularly need it, especially the evening. When they were on, they took a long time to heat. And the wood burning fireplace, which went out very quickly and we ran out of wood. Due to this a lot of evenings were quite cold. The bed was lovely, but the couches were not particularly comfortable. The parking instructions were not entirely clear, and we parked in a small parking spot beside the garage after misunderstanding the instructions which said "in front of the garage". The owner confronted us on this and we were more than happy to move but before we could finish explaining the misunderstanding, he cut us off very rudely. I understand we made a slight error, but it was no way to approach it with guests. Every appliance from the heaters, to the towel warmer, to all of the kitchen appliances were not switched on, so our night was spent trying to find how to actually get all of our facilities on, some of the sockets more hidden than others. Unfortunately I would not stay here again, as I have had better experiences in other cottages in the area, for similar prices.

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• Connor - Verified booking

  Disappointed with the stay overall.

  While the cottage is very good looking, and it was clean and well stocked, it could be frustrating to stay in. The only methods of heating were the storage heaters which despite the instructions given were not easy to use and only seemed to come on when we didnt particularly need it, especially the evening. When they were on, they took a long time to heat. And the wood burning fireplace, which went out very quickly and we ran out of wood. Due to this a lot of evenings were quite cold. The bed was lovely, but the couches were not particularly comfortable. The parking instructions were not entirely clear, and we parked in a small parking spot beside the garage after misunderstanding the instructions which said "in front of the garage". The owner confronted us on this and we were more than happy to move but before we could finish explaining the misunderstanding, he cut us off very rudely. I understand we made a slight error, but it was no way to approach it with guests. Every appliance from the heaters, to the towel warmer, to all of the kitchen appliances were not switched on, so our night was spent trying to find how to actually get all of our facilities on, some of the sockets more hidden than others. Unfortunately I would not stay here again, as I have had better experiences in other cottages in the area, for similar prices.

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• Andrew - Verified booking

  The electric wall heaters in the lounge were controlled by the owner on her mobile phone.

  She kept turning the temperature down on them and sometimes off completely. We had to telephone her numerous times and ask her to turn the heating on or up, because the room was freezing. It was snowing outside when we were staying there. The Lake District can still be extremely cold even in the summer. The broadband service was so erratic and slow it would not allow Netflix or iPlayer to operate, so the tv was useless. We ended up using our own Vodafone data for the internet. The amount of stairs you have to climb from the front door up to the bedroom is 28, which is even a struggle for someone who is fairly fit. They provided us with one small bath and hand towel each for two weeks holiday, which is really penny-pinching, considering that there is no washing machine in the apartment to wash laundry. The property comes with an allocated parking space, which is ideal in the centre of Windermere. The apartment is located in the centre of Windermere, with shops, restaurants and pubs right on your doorstep. The lounge and bedrooms were decorated to a good standard with very nice furnishings. The kitchen was well equipped with everything required for cooking and eating.

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