Nine Ladies

We had a lovely stay, the cottage is in a very peaceful location and was great for a group of us.

We loved the atmosphere of the cottage and were impressed with how well equipped it was. Would visit again

The good: Location, cleanliness, big bathrooms with powerful showers The bad: Everything can be heard everywhere else in the property, which makes it difficult to try and put children to bed if some of the adults wish to stay up later and also for any early risers who are afraid to put the kettle on for fear of waking up the entire house.

Beds are uncomfortable. Towels have seen better days. The "well-equipped kitchen" provides exactly enough of most things for 6 people and a single tea towel, so really just the absolute basics. The description says "In the morning, treat your guests to breakfast with a view out on the private enclosed courtyard". Sounds nice, but the private enclosed courtyard is only slightly bigger than a postage stamp with a choice of view of the stone walls of the house or the neighbour's bins. Throw in the fact there is no dedicated parking and you do feel this property is well overpriced for what you get. The REALLY BAD: Shortly after arrival we noticed there was a wasp's nest in the walls of the property right next to the front door and only entrance. On the first evening I noticed there was no contact details for the owner in the event of an emergency. The following afternoon I searched for a contact again and eventually tried to call Sykes Cottages but had no phone service in the cottage. I noticed a chat function that initiated a WhatsApp conversation with a bot that of course told me to contact the owner and eventually said "An agent will be in touch as soon as possible". Three days later a message finally came through requesting I type "Yes" and they will be in touch shortly. Having not seen the message straight away, it was followed by another message less than an hour later saying they did not get a response so they were closing the chat. So Sykes is happy to take 3 days, but the customer doesn't even get an hour to respond before they are fobbed off. I reopened the case, hoping for possibly a quicker response...but more on that in a minute. The day after the response and closing of the case one member of our party was stung while trying to open his bedroom window. Later that morning he saw a couple picking weeds in front of the house, they asked him how his stay was. He replied "ok, apart from the wasps nest". They tried to make light of it by saying it's a bad year for wasps but he pointed to where the main entrance to the wasps nest was in the wall (they were also coming out from under multiple tiles on the roof) and the wasps flying in and out of the walls of the property and stated he had already been stung inside the property. He came inside and told my wife "I think the owners are outside", but whoever they were, they were nowhere to be seen when she came out only moments later. The following morning, which was our next to last day, my wife was stung while in the inside porch. I borrowed her phone and called Sykes and reported the problem. Meanwhile, the person who had spoken to the couple outside the day before found a phone number on a poster on the wall advertising another holiday property and called the number. Within a few minutes the owner called him back, presumably thinking they were getting a booking and our guest pointed out the seriousness of the wasp situation. The owner tried to make light of it and gave the same excuses as the person outside the day before and our guest is certain it was them he had spoken to. We asked if they could please get pest control out and after making more excuses they said they would keep us informed. Sykes e-mailed later in the afternoon to say that pest control would be coming the following morning, which was also the morning we had to be out of the house by 10am. I e-mailed Sykes back and we called the owner and left a message requesting they confirm pest control was coming after 10 as we would not have been able to pack the car with them standing in front of the only exit. Not surprisingly, neither Sykes nor the owner got back to us to confirm. When we returned to the house on the final evening we were stopped in the street by total strangers asking us about the wasp's nest. We were then informed that the owners were made aware of it before our arrival and that the cleaners had even offered to call someone out on their behalf but the owners were not interested. Knowing this, the owners can be thankful that neither of the people stung had a serious reaction as we would probably now be looking at a lawsuit. And as for Sykes, I had a WhatsApp message about 45 minutes after we departed in response to my reporting the issue again 3 days earlier - but this time they closed the case in just over half an hour. So in conclusion the Sykes chat service is not fit for purpose.

Thank you so much for providing us with the perfect cottage for our three generation family get-together, in idyllic surroundings.

The converted chapel had so much to look at. The more you looked, the more you found, with interesting artifacts, decorations and tasteful furnishings. We had everything we needed, and more. It was a bit difficult to park at times, but that is just testimony to how popular the village is with visitors. Surrounded by wonderful Derbyshire countryside. Who could ask for more. Thank you Sykes and Thank you to the owners!

Good location in a lovely village.

Good showers and smart tv, WiFi was good. Bedrooms are downstairs which causes a noise problem if any early risers or late to bed as every noise from Upstairs lounge and kitchen is heard below. Had no working main oven all week, only grill function working. Tried to contact Sykes on day of arrival as had no owner contact detail. Had to send a message on the next day which took 2 days for a reply of, think there is a timer issue and to check the instruction manual, Which we had already done ! Left my contact number for a call back and nothing all week. Very poor communication, an owner contact option or someone with knowledge of property would have been a big help, Hope nobody needs to contact in case of emergency. There is Damp and mold forming in double bedroom wardrobe needs addressing and have forwarded a photo to Sykes as this needs addressing as I didn’t want to hang clothes in there and not much storage in other rooms. Future customers would benefit of a direct contact number to owner.

The place was really clean and clear instructions were provided.

We found it useful that the thermostat can be managed manually so the cottage was kept warm. The one issue we had was the ventilation fan in the shared bathroom was not working so the smell and condensation of the toilet was not great. Maybe the fan needs fixing. Otherwise our stay was good. Very interesting decorations.

2nd time staying at this property, a lovely well maintained, warm & clean cottage.

Lovely quiet village with 2 pubs & a circular walk from Birtchover to Stanton Moor with the Nine Ladies Circle route. Only feedback would be to have some Prosecco glasses.

The location was excellent and the villagers were very welcoming, providing the only source of local updated information.

Leaflets in the property were from 2019 and information about the property was scarce. The WiFi was good and the sitting area was comfortable. However, the bathroom did not have a working fan and there was mould on the walls. This was in part due to the shower door leaking when used. The windows contained mould too. The bedrooms all had uncomfortable beds and the smallest room lacked space for clothing and luggage. We couldn’t access the patio which seemed very small anyway. Provision of and quality of dishes, cutlery and glassware was poor considering what we paid, in comparison with other Sykes properties with a similar price.

No complimentary tea or coffee.

Dirty plates, cups and bowls. Damp in the bedrooms. Had to cut holiday short by 3 days as both myself and my wife suffer respiratory problems. Parking on the public street is a lottery. We were bitten by what we think are bed bugs.

Lovely cottage, facilities great, very cosy.

Good location in village, nice pubs and walks, not far from Bakewell and Matlock. I was a bit confused by two chapels at first, when locating property in pouring rain. When we arrived my son found a bedroom window in smaller twin bedroom, had window not properly shut and water was running down window and wall. We cleaned this up but had to push hard to get window properly shut. Windows in several rooms looked like they needed maintaining, but no cold draughts. Cottage very clean and nicely decorated. Would stay again.

Great value for the money.

Nice location and good instruction for arrival. Master bedroom Electric shower did work, which was causing troubles with 5 persons. Probably the fuce was off.

Lovely property, lots of lovely walks straight from the doorstep and the locals are so friendly.

Only thing I was confused about was where to put our waste as I could only see two traditional metal bins outside, so used these for waste and recycling - hope that was right??

The cottage was comfortable, the double mattress could do with being renewed and the bath towels .

Could do with an informational booklet with everything in it about local walks and amenities. Considering the cottage is for 6 people, there’s not much space for storage in the kitchen or the bedrooms . Would also benefit from a clothes airier not just the radiator ones .

We really enjoyed our stay here.

The house was just what we needed in terms of space (our 3 year old thought it was great!). Good location for days out too.

Immaculate cottage and beautiful location

We had an excellent stay (A weekend re-union for 5 University friends), the property was even nicer than we had hoped, with plenty of character, and the bathrooms were almost brand new!

Tiny things that would have improved our stay... In the kitchen - salt and pepper grinders, and some olive/vegetable oil. There was a bottle of table salt and some vinegar in the cupboards, but we regretted not bringing pepper and some oil for cooking with. We did appreciate the complimentary drinks and crisps though! In the bedrooms, the length of the beds did feel a bit on the small side - most of our group were over 6 feet tall and our feet were touching the frame (perhaps bear this in mind when it's time to buy new furniture). Also, the bedding could be been of slightly higher quality... but these are small details. We were very happy with our stay and would recommend!

All fantastic, thank you, we had a wonderful stay.

Very comfortable and clean. Loved the decor and artwork. The entrance lobby with seat and coat hooks particularly appreciated. A few more bowls and teaspoons would have been helpful if you're thinking of topping up anything.

Fabulous venue in brilliant location.

Two excellent pubs less than a five minute walk. An old church retaining that image. Bedrooms (3) downstairs with living accommodation upstairs.Excellent facilities. Very handy for Bakewell with Buxton not far away. This place was the bee’s knee’s and great value for money.

A superb break in an area full of places to visit and countryside to explore.

The narrow streets of the village provided some parking problems on occasion, but not insurmountable. A defective shower control was reported on day 1 but there was no response. We loved the upside down element with groundfloor bedrooms and spacious lounge above.

Property is in an ideal position for visiting the area.

Did not like the steep steps in the lounge and access to lower bathroom. Large settee in lounge does not provide enough support for comfortable sitting. Everything else was fine.