“This is a lovely renovated cottage ...”
This is a lovely renovated cottage and we enjoyed our stay.
The owners were pleasant and helpful. It is ideally located for exploring the fantastic Northumberland coast.
It should be noted that there is a steep slope from the driveway down to the cottage and this should be stated in the main details so that the elderly, infirm or disabled are informed before they book.
A number of things would have improved our and any other guests stay: it definitely needs a full sized bread board/glass workshop protector as the small plastic boards provided are unless when preparing food, the selection of knives is poor, it would have been nice to have some kitchen foil for cooking purposes, the bath is lovely but it’s a shame such small towels are provided, take your own bath sheets.
The shower is very basic and hard to maintain a constant temperature. The seating is very uncomfortable and it was only on the last day that the owners told us that it was actually a fold out bed which helped a little. I’m sure that if the room was rearranged, a better, more comfortable sofa could be provided as it was disappointing to come back after a great day out to being uncomfortable in the evening.
The cottage only gets sun in the morning in the area provided and as you are not allowed to use any of the owners grass, there is nowhere to sit outside and enjoy the sun. We would recommend the area for fantastic dog friendly beaches and great coastline. We would not however return to this cottage.
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Owner Response:
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I would like to thank Mrs Hardy for taking the time to notify Sykes of her feedback and I would like to respond to this in order to reassure her and our future guests that we have taken these comments on board.
The slope to the cottage can be seen on image 1 of the Sykes website, I'm not sure if it could be classed as steep. Our previous guests have included an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair and a person who depended on a portable oxygen machine to get around and the various knee and hip replacement guests which did not pose a problem.
The small chopping boards have been replaced with a large glass one, a new set of kitchen knives added.
As for the request for tin foil, our guests receive tea, coffee, milk, sugar, biscuits and wine which is usually appreciated.
Bath sheets as well as bath towels have now been provided. The shower works directly from the new Combi boiler and the water pressure is excellent so not sure how the temperature was not maintained, it was working fine when tested as confirmed by our new guests.
The seating in the lounge is a modern L shaped sofa from Ikea, whilst I do appreciate these modern furnishing are not as comfortable as a traditional feather stuffed, they are very practicable for a holiday home.
The fact that it converts to a bed did not seem relevant to mention to Clare as they were a couple using the super king size bed in the bedroom. Sorry.
The cottage does indeed get the sun in the morning as it faces east and there is lovely comfortable seating in place on the patio with outdoor cushions provided.
We have our own private garden well away from the cottage.
Our guests are welcome to use the large lawn which is directly in front of the cottage and we categorically did not state that they were not allowed to use it. At present there is a bench seat and in the summer months there are loungers for the sole use of our guests.
Mrs Hardy did make use of this area to dry washing so I am at a loss as to why it was deemed out of bounds.
I have responded to this feedback not because I want to prove a point but to reassure our guests that we do value their input which is why I make a point to meet with our guest within the first 24 hours to ask if they need anything, which I did with customers who only asked about the washing machine.
I have been asked for a variety of things such as a slow cooker and even a freezer, which I have happily provided. If Mrs Hardy had simply asked for the above items I would have provided them.
