Riverview (Alnmouth)

We had a lovely weekend for ten of us, aged between 10 and 80.

The house is in a beautiful location with lots of space. Negatives: The description stating that there are sea views from each floor is untrue, and there is no balcony. We struggled to open and close the kitchen cupboards and doors, and there was a lack of cupboard space. We paid an extra £300 for use of the hot tub for three nights. I’m sure I read that extra towels would be provided for hot tub use, but we couldn’t find any. There are no carpets, so every noise was amplified. This was a problem when the teens wanted to stay up late. I would have expected a welcome pack considering the price of the house. There was no washing‑up liquid, dishwasher tablets, cloth, or tea towel provided. There were also no spare toilet rolls or soap. There was a lack of mugs and glasses for ten of us, which was problematic. As mentioned in other reviews, there was a bad smell in the downstairs bathroom when we arrived. However, we ran the water for a while and this disappeared. Positives: The bedrooms were all very comfortable, and the showers were great. The living area provided a big, spacious area for us to socialise. Parking outside was a bonus. All in all, we have had a fantastic weekend at Riverview and made cherished memories.

Overview is a lovely house and incredibly spacious.

We were a family of three generations, and all could be comfortably accommodated in the five double bedrooms, with plenty of bathrooms as well. The location was good, with a short walk to the high street, and for the little ones the beach was a great favourite. The kitchen cupboard doors were irritating, but otherwise the kitchen was quite well equipped. Some smaller tea plates and smaller glasses would be useful additions. We found the house rather impersonal, with hard floors throughout and very few home comforts; however, it is a holiday let. It would be helpful for guests to know that there are two key safes. After a long journey, it would have been useful to be aware of this, rather than trying the first one and then having to locate the second, which is positioned quite low down and difficult to use. Eye‑level placement would be much easier. All in all, we had a lovely week in Alnmouth and would recommend the house to a large family.

We had a really good time in Alnmouth and liked the accommodation very much.

There were 9 of us, so a few more bowls and pans would have been useful but the house was spacious, warm and comfortable.

Very noisy house!

You can hear everything which is not good when kids are trying to sleep and adults need to talk/ whisper in this case. Very dirty in places, lots of broken drawers and cupboards in kitchen. Most of the kitchen utensils/ cookware were broken or filthy. Heating comes on at strange times so very cold at night with only a thin cover on an excruciatingly hard bed. I would have added photos if had the choice.

Hi.

Loved the house. Lovely bedding and towels and very spacious. Modern and up to date. Mostly well equipped kitchen but we felt more cutlery and dishes were needed along with some small glasses. There were 6 of us and with 10 it might have been a stretch. Little touches were missing such as no hand soap at the sinks and no spare loo roll. Other than that it was great thank you

In the downstairs room a wardrobe door was hanging off so was very dangerous.

The lounge windows needed serious cleaning. The bathrooms smelled of drains but were ok after running water through the system. Communication with Sykes was awful. We would be very reluctant to use them again.

The house is spacious, comfortable and well equipped for a family self-catering holiday.

There is not very much work surface for food preparation in the kitchen. Also the drawers were rather annoying. Sometime they were reluctant to open and sometimes refused to stay shut. Also we could not find a bottle opener. The beach is within easy walking distance of the house. It has rock pools and sand, and plenty of space for dogs to run about. There is a village shop close by, and several supermarkets near Alnwick, 12 minutes away by car.

No cutlery.

Tried contacting Sykes but complete waste of time Not helpful at all Beds very uncomfortable, gave us back ache so had to leave after second night A lot of money for substandard sleeping arrangements. Owner should spend a night sleeping there to understand Nice views, clean property. Shame it was spoilt by poor beds and awful customer service

We were a group of seven adults aged 19 to 82 years and Riverview (Alnmouth) was a perfect holiday cottage for us.

Lots of room! Easy access to the beautiful Northumbrian coastline with its lovely beaches and castles.

Having booked this property for a large family celebration on the basis that it was a large luxury house which would meet our needs there were several aspects which disappointed us.

On arrival, we were met with a damp smell in the downstairs bedroom suite which was very offputting. As the holiday progressed, the downstairs en suite began to smell increasingly of drains, as did the top floor bathroom, which appeared to have a split in the pipe. There was also only hand-wash provided on one of the five bathrooms and we had to go out and buy some more. The hoover was extremely smelly upon use as it was completely full of dust. In the kitchen area, we found cracked glassware which we put to one side as it was hazardous, the kitchen cupboards were difficult to close and some basic equipment, such as a cafetiere and a bread knife were sadly not there. We would also have expected decent champagne glasses for our celebration, not plastic flutes. The welcome pack in general was extremely poor - having booked extensively with other agents we have been provided with fresh local produce whereas all we had was a tube of washing up liquid, one sponge and three dishwasher tablets, as well as a few individual biscuits packs and some uht milk sachets. We were very glad we had not paid the additional fee to use the hot tub as both it and the garden furniture adjacent to it was filthy. It seems a great pity to have a lovely property in a great location that appears to be poorly maintained and certainly doesn't reflect the premium price.

The only negative is the instructions regarding key safe.

It’s very confusing there are two key safes outside and the 2nd one you eventually come to, the one with the keys for the front door, is hidden behind foliage so we couldn’t find it for ages! In the pouring rain with two young children it wasn’t very fun.

Having seen quite a few negative reviews I was really worried: this was a family get together for my son's wedding so really wanted it to be right.

So relieved when everything was in order and it was perfect for our family. A couple of things for the owner to be aware off: the rechargeable blind in the lounge area needed charging and could not be used whilst we were there. For future occupants take spare toilet roll as only one supplied in each Bathroom! Also no cupboard space for any food that you take and we were lucky that we had taken a large cardboard box which we used for the duration. Other than these points it was great and perfect for our family reunion.

We enjoyed our week at Riverview.

The house was spotlessly clean and in a good position near the river and estuary. We had an issue when we arrived when as soon as we unlocked the door the burglar alarm went off and we didn’t have a code to stop it. Eventually we managed to contact the agent who arranged for it to be switched off remotely. Our main grumble was the lack of space to store our provisions for the week for ten of us. There was almost no spare cupboard space, even with the small kitchen downstairs, and limited work surfaces for food preparation. It is difficult to see how this could be rectified however, given the modern layout of the kitchen area. Over all we had an enjoyable week in Alnmouth and hope to be back.

Overall we thoroughly enjoyed our break.

The property is in a perfect location. It is clean, comfortable and spacious. However the lock box instructions are unclear especially as the one containing the key is obscured by foliage. There is a second key box beside the hot tub which we tried in vain to open resulting in a call to the office and a maintenance man being called out. This delayed our entrance by an hour to six o’clock ☹️ The freezer needs defrosting. The bottom shelf is full of stuck together ice cubes and the top shelf door is broken and doesn’t fit because of frost build up.

The accommodation was of a high standard , but the place was dirty , freezer was all frozen up couldn’t use it as drawers were frozen closed with lots of old ice cube , ice packs and dirty.

A bird had been in the house and feather and bird muck in dining area/lounge Window ledge on bio folding doors all bird muck Cobwebs everywhere and I mean everywhere Dishwasher smelly Drains in main bathroom smelly we had to flush the taps as no one had been in property for legionella precaution. Outside area was unusable all green No communication

We found the house very good having been made anxious on reading a poor review just prior to our stay.

There was a very good response to my query about this review. The only thing lacking was a bread knife! A comment might be that there might be a table tennis table/snooker table in the sun room for when it rains.

On arrival the property clearly hadn't been cleaned properly or checked prior to our arrival as there were decorations from a previous occupant left behind.

The hot water didn't work and wasn't sorted until late on the second day which meant we all had to have ice cold showers. Customer service has been terrible as after reporting our complaint we never heard back from Sykes, we had to keep chasing. We weren't offered any apology or feedback to our complaint. We were only there 3 nights and paid £250 for the hot tub as could only have if we paid for the week. No one came to clean or maintain while we were there. I would have expected someone to come and maintain it for the price we paid!

Generally very clean, well presented, spacious and comfortable.

Well situated for the beach and village. 3 things to note:- Listing states there is a log fire with initial fuel provided. There is no log-burning fire it is a gas stove. We brought logs and had to take them back home. The microwave in the kitchen was working but not revolving; this might just have been down to user error but should be looked at to see if it is a fault. There should be some smaller saucepans for the hob, only one huge doublehandled one and one other one supplied.

Lovely house, kitchen area is limited for cooking for a lot of people but looking at the photos we sort of expected that.

One of the drawers needs fixing. The en-suite downstairs had a strong drain smell when the upstairs were using their bathrooms. We were a group of photographers wearing waterproofs and boots, there was limited space to hang coats and somewhere to sit in the hall to put on boots would have been useful. Otherwise a good holiday property....thanks

The house is lovely and we had a great time.

Thank you! As the house is only used for holidays it is lacking a few details that could help make it feel more homely or be more practical: A bath shelf or table next to the lovely bath to put bath products, drink etc Kitchen essentials e.g salt, pepper, oil Bedside table and lamp for every bedside Some simple user instructions for the heating Some rugs to soften the hard floor, particularly during winter Door bell - as the living area is on a different floor to the front door we could not hear knocking on the door when our food was being delivered

We had a wonderful time staying at riverview, very impressed

.

It was disappointing to arrive at 5pm (which is a very late check-in time) to find the house hadn't been cleaned. We then tried calling the numbers on our booking form - one of which was out of order and the other was to a lady who no longer serviced the house. We had to search for another number to contact somebody and then arrange for a cleaner to come urgently. This meant we could not unpack or go shopping, as had been planned. We were told to go out for a meal and charge this to Northumberland Coast and Country Cottages, which was helpful. However, we then had to use the Sunday morning to go shopping and felt we had lost a night and morning of our holiday time. The cleaners did a good job of making the beds and bathrooms clean and tidy, but the general cleanliness of the house was below standard. There was dust under beds, on the stairs, old socks and cloths behind bedside cabinets and furniture. The dishwasher needed a deep clean as the dishes smelled terrible so we had to handwash all of the dishes (which for 10 people was a lot of work). There were baby cots/highchairs/potties all over the house, with nowhere to store them out of the way. The wardrobes in the master bedroom were filled with boxes and bags so there was very little room to hang clothes, and most of the wardrobes in the bedrooms didn't have hangers so clothes had to folded and put wherever there was space. The outside area was full of cobwebs and the artificial grass had debris all over it - which considering this is the first impression of the house was really disappointing. We ended up sweeping and cleaning and hoovering so that the house was clean for our guests who we had invited to share the time with us. I am still waiting for the reimbursement of our meal and the housekeeping bond, so will need to take time today to contact the company again, as I would have thought this would have been dealt with by now. Overall, I have paid nearly £3,500 for a week that did not meet my expectations at all. A very disappointed customer.

We we're very surprised at how high a spec it was.

The owners have thought of just about everything that is required for your stay, the house is a real gem, I would highly recommend this house Alnmouth its self is a lovely seaside village,on a beautiful coast

My wife and myself along with our family , which was 6 adults and three children plus a dog , stayed at the property from the 9th April until the 16th April.

We were pleasantly surprised at how high a spec your home is , we all loved staying there. I would like to thank you for letting us have the privilege of being your first clients , I myself know the area very well as I am from the area . As for your home I would not hesitate in recommending it to my friends .