Waltons Close

We had a really great week staying at Waltons Close with the family.

The property was extremely clean inside however the outside patio area had not been cleaned at all and had moss growing on it. We had a leak from the new washing machine plumbing and that was dealt with efficiently by the maintenance company . I was unaware that you had to give at least two weeks notice if you need the beds to be separated into singles so we had to organise that ourselves and take an extra set of bedding. The kitchen saucepans need replacing as the nonstick surface is degrading. Other than that we had a wonderful week with the family helped by fantastic weather . Thank you . Sandra

Location of property was fantastic and the property was really nice and spacious - kids loved having the space and not fighting over rooms.

.. the garden was really nice and the dining area was really nice ...I was going to give it 3 stars but loved the location so 4 reflects that ... as the challange was the downstairs was not very clean and the kitchen was always invaded by flies .... and the WIFI was unfortunatley only working in 2 rooms the only other recomendation woud be to ensure that the beds have a topper which would make the beds more firm and comfortable (upstairs was clean and good)

We really enjoyed our family break!

My elderly parents were with us, we had a problem with the downstairs shower! My mum couldn’t have a shower because the shower head was taped up and couldn’t be lowered, the reason I picked this place was for the downstairs bedroom with shower room! Please can you sort these things out? It may sound trivial but it is important to accommodate every guest! Also we had to call customer service as we wanted access to the hotel for swimming, we were told someone would get back to me, but nobody did, we rang the hotel to confirm we could go! Apart from that, we had a great time!

Overall a good stay.

We did have a leak with one of the upstairs bedrooms en-suites and could not get in touch with anyone or with Sykes Cottages.

We were really impressed with the property , it was well equipped, comfortable, cosy and spacious.

We really enjoyed the added bonus of being able to go to North Lakes leisure club for the week, the facilities there are really good. The only difficulty was letting the agency know how we would like the beds made up as we needed four singles and two doubles. I contacted the live chat person who assured me the message would be passed on , however this did not happen but fortunately my sister lives next door and saw the person preparing the property and was able to let them know . It would have been helpful to be able to speak to someone to arrange this . However we would definitely book the property again as we had a very enjoyable stay . Thank you .

A lovely spacious cottage in a nice village, however we were disappointed with some details.

Our shower was taped, unsuccessfully and we were unable to use it. We had to use another. Not ideal. Another shower had hair in the plug hole and a very stained toilet seat. The garden furniture was covered with moss and bird excrement and we had to clean it before use. The garden was also unkempt. The heating came on several times a day and night and we had to adjust using the thermostat but the bathrooms didn’t have one. It was very hot! The house was spacious but sadly the bathrooms and dated kitchen let it down. The village was very nice and a meal at the Brantwood hotel was delicious and good value. We feel that Walton close was overpriced for the condition of the property. Regards Mrs Norah Parr

Lovely, spacious cottage in Stainton village.

Clean and comfortable with all basic facilities, the central heating was on when we arrived which was a warm welcome on a cold, wet day. There's a local pub and hotel/ restaurant both within walking distance. It's convenient for access to Penrith/ Lakes. There is WiFi but we couldn't get a phone signal while we were there. One of the upstairs ensuite toilets wasn't flushing on arrival. We did report to local agent but it wasn't fixed before we left. Fortunately there is plenty of other facilities in the property. However we did enjoy our stay here.

Lovely house and big enough for the 6 of us.

Not clean however which is a real shame. Enjoyed my time but would not go back to this house.

Place was clean and very comfortable for a group of eight friends.

While the cottage was mainly as advertised several issues became evident throughout our stay: -Firstly the cleanliness of the property was awful.

While surface level tasks such as clean surfaces and fresh sheets had been provided there was an evident lack of deep clean for a very long time. To ensure we left the property as advertised we used the hoover. Whilst hoovering the downstairs hall area, the cylinder of the hoover was completely filled and some areas of the carpet were so dirty they changed colour when cleaned. This small area is only around 5m2! - This accumulation of dust and debris meant there were huge numbers of different insects. There was cobwebs present in practically every room of the house and large numbers of spiders throughout the property. Uncountable numbers of flies were present in the cottage, and while it was a warm weekend a large proportion of these were in the property upon arrival. We organised an afternoon tea and unfortunately had to dispose of the leftovers because the flies were so numerous over the food. Sharing food was made difficult as flies would land on any plate of food after seconds. Huge numbers of moths were present in the property to the point that one member of the party opened their luggage once home and found a live moth within! There were clearly issues with pests before our stay as there was a fly zapper (though this didnt work!) at the property. - there were key maintenance issues throughout the property including a toilet that broke on 2 occasions and had to be fixed, and a shower that did not work. These were all in the double ensuite upstairs. When we used the washing machine there was a horrendous smell in the kitchen which wafted through the property. And while we couldn't see any obvious blocked drains or leakages it was evident the drainage had not been maintained in some time. - One of the key reasons we selected the cottage was it's inclusion of use of a local spa. I had to email prior to arrival to check how this could be arranged, and even within this conversation there was no mention of additional discounts on food and treatments. If we had known this in advance we would have made use of the spa more and we only found out while looking for information in the pack. This information also said that to access the spa we would require the spa pass attached to the property keys. As the keys were barely attached together at all it's unsurprising that the spa access card was missing. Luckily for us, we have used this spa before and were willing to try and discuss this access upon arrival. The spa were very understanding but many people would have missed out on this inclusion in the cottage. - The property advertised as having zip link beds, and there was no way of communicating when booked how you required the beds set up. Therefore I sent a separate request for how we required the rooms fo be set up. We asked for 2 singles in the 2 zip link bedrooms and both were made up as king size. Ultimately we could use these beds as was however if we had had particular requirements for the rooms these would not have been met. The bedding provided was unseasonal and as such was very warm overnight! - we also had issues disposing of our rubbish as the instructions in the pack were very limited and indeed non-existent when it came to recycling. We had gathered for a special occasion and unfortunately this stay put a real strain on the enjoyment of the weekend. The odd path to direct communication with the owner created by Sykes meant resolving simple issues was impractical. The cumulative effect of the lackluster property maintenance led to a several key issues.

There was a leak in the downstairs shower room which was coming from the upstairs en-suite and leaking thro the ceiling !

Apart from that the property was very nice

What a great large family home.

Seven of us and a dog hired this cottage for a family celebration. All 4 bedrooms large doubles/twin with 4 bathrooms so great for large family or two families. Outside space lovely and due to amazing weather sat outside for all meals. This house is in a great location just 2 miles from Penrith and more importantly 2 pubs and a little shop in village. We also had access to a leisure club with gym and swimming pool. Great place would defo recommend.

This was a great little property.

Had everything we needed for our weekend. All the family and friends loved it

The house was lovely - loads of living space and bathrooms and very clean.

Perfect for our needs. The only issue was the make up of the rooms - we’d asked for both twins to be made up as super kings, but unfortunately only one was which meant one couple pushing the beds together and making do. I don’t know if this was Heart of the Lakes not passing on the message, or the owners not acting on the request. We didn’t notify of the error when we arrived as didn’t want any additional admin or hassle whilst away. All in all though a lovely trip, and such a good location a few minutes drive to Ullswater and Penrith.

The location and property were great apart from a couple of niggles but also one major problem.

Niggles - the wifi is poor for this day and age and cost of the property; there are no obvious recycling facilities and the toilet flush in one of the en suites was very weak. However our major issue is the cottage smelled badly of kerosene; very strongly in the kitchen but also elsewhere downstairs. I reported this on the Saturday yet no one came to sort it out til the Thursday. When an engineer did arrive he told us this was due to a leak the previous week and that nothing had been done to alleviate the smell. Unfortunately this made the kitchen very unpleasant and the whole atmosphere of the cottage unwelcoming. I would like you to treat this as a formal complaint and I believe some compensation should be made.

This was a lovely holiday destination.

We were 8 of us including 2 children and 3 dogs. Originally only 2 dogs a booking, but the host was kind enough to allow 3 dogs. We were greeted to a lovely welcome bowl with snacks, tea and a bottle of Prosecco. The house was very spacious and we were really happy that each room had its own bathroom facilities. The games, tv and speakers were a great touch and we were pleasantly surprised to have internet as it said they will be none. The beds were so comfortable and cosy. It was located not too far from the beautiful sights and everything was quite easy to get too. Unfortunately on the first day we had no hot water. We noticed the boiler hadn't been turned on, but once we turned it on there was hot water the next day. No hot water ran in the first room on the first floor during our stay. The house was cleaned well, but cob webs were everywhere. Other than this we had a beautiful family holiday and everyone loved staying in this cottage including our 3 shih tzus. Thank you for making our holiday with this spacious lovely cottage.

We enjoyed our stay, the property was lovely and the owner was kindly accommodating with our request for taking along out dogs to the property.

The cottage is brill and well located.

Cleanliness was patchy - ok at eye level but cobwebs above. Oven needs a good clean. Carbon monoxide alarm went off twice on 2 occasions at night. Reported it to Heart of the Lakes but no-one came to check it which could have been potentially dangerous.

Large roomy house in a good location but very disappointed as just not clean enough and lacking some basic TLC .

We decided to clean it ourselves to a point we were comfortable with as did not want the disruption of cleaners coming back . We did however ring Sykes cottages to lodge our displeasure who hopefully told the owners their cleaners are doing a poor job. Having said that we had a great week, the house has got great potential but needs a deep clean and a little more thoughtfulness. Felt we left it in a far better state than we found it .

This was a last minute booking as the accommodations we originally had booked was cancelled 24 hours before we were due to travel due to Covid so we were very pleased to find this accommodation at short notice.

The cottage is very nice and in a good location. Nice local pub less than a minute walk away. Lovely little village market stall just opposite the pub on a Saturday morning selling fresh bread etc. We were a party of 7 and there is plenty of space to accommodate several families such as ours. Kitchen facilities were plentiful. Our only criticism we have is the place could have been cleaner, there were lots of cobwebs and the sills and staircase banisters didn’t appear to have been cleaned in a while. There was a problem with flies, particularly in the kitchen which was a nuisance when try to prepare food. We appreciate this problem has tried to be addressed with a plug in electric fly machine and fly spray was readily available in the cupboard under the sink so obviously the owners are aware of the problem. We were not sure how the flies were getting in as we deliberately tried to keep the door closed whilst we were preparing/cooking food. Overall we enjoyed our stay.

This house was in a lovely location in a beautiful little village, with two very good pubs within 5 minutes.

Upon first arriving at the house, it was clear there was a fly problem. Also, the fridge was very smelly (I had to clean this before we put anything in it), there was a pile of post for the owner that no-one had passed on; the kitchen floor was filthy; everything felt like it could do with a good dusting; the instructions regarding use of bins was out of date and the outdoor bin was already full of rubbish - on top of that the membership card for the leisure centre was not where the instructions had said. We felt that there were a couple of essential items missing from the kitchen - pint glasses; flutes, and replacement oven trays required! I had to call Heart of the Lakes with a couple of the issues whilst we were away, some of which were resolved. This didn’t deter us from enjoying our holidays at all, and despite these, the house was very spacious, with comfortable bedrooms and a cosy little snug lounge.

The house and location were perfect.

The house was spacious and comfortable and is clearly looked after. The spa access was an added bonus which we really enjoyed. We had a fantastic holiday! The internet was very unreliable. The flies were quite hard to manage but we could see that there were things put in place to try and help this.

Just spent a week at this fantastic barn conversion.

The location Is amazing just a few miles from the Ullswater. Arrived to find the place really clean throughout, there is plenty of room for parking and a lovely stream along the driveway. Every kitchen utensil I needed was there and in immaculate condition. Having the pub a 2 min walk from the property was really convenient especially after a going on long walks, to be able to have our evening meal (highly recommend). The bedroom and bathroom downstairs was very well thought out with easy access especially as my parents have mobility issues. The complimentary champagne and chocolates were thoroughly enjoyed by the cosy fireplace, together with the board games for the kids. Will definitely be returning soon.