Christmas Cottages In Suffolk

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Ms Tindsley - Verified booking

  This is a well presented, comfortable and warm property in a convenient location near to the pier and beach and a short walk to the shops, cafes and pubs that make Southwold such a fantastic place. The on street parking on this quiet, narrow residential street can be difficult as it appears to be one of the few roads where a majority of homes are regularly occupied. The first impressions of the house are a little disappointing as the front door has flaking paint and the rendered elevation is showing it’s age. The interior of the property is of a very good standard, furnishings are new, and appealing. The very attractive kitchen is generally well stocked but a lidded vessel suitable for microwave cooking would be useful. There is plenty of empty cupboard space in the kitchen to store food etc. More than one tea towel would have been welcome, along with a kitchen hand towel and a pair of oven gloves. There was only 2 dishwasher tables for a 7 day stay which from previous holiday lets is unusual and maybe this explained the gritty, marked crockery and cutlery we then had to hand wash before use. A welcome bag included a lovely bottle of bubbles but no fresh produce, milk was long life. Given there was lots of mail for the owner ( their names clearly stated maybe a security issue) at the front door on arrival I wonder when the property was last visited. The ground floor utility/ shower room is small but it maintained a ‘fishy’ smell through out the stay only slightly reduced when the washing machine and tumble dryer was used once. There were no washing tables. A hanging rack for drying clothes would be a good idea and surely reduce the use of the tumble dryer.The south facing garden is very pleasant and I’m sure in summer months the garden table chairs and bench along with the gas barbecue will be a superb asset. The 3 bedrooms are small, only the twin has room for a dressing table and chair and the very small second double requires some agility given the bed is against 3 walls. The master bedroom is very light and bright with a small wardrobe. The main bathroom with shower over bath is well presented although there was soap scum on the chrome taps and shower screen. As instructed we put out the bins for emptying but the green bin, which is full of garden waste, was not emptied. Maybe the August 2022 means this service is out of date This property has all the potential to be perfect just let down by very small issues that whilst they didn’t spoil our stay at the house if addressed could make the experience outstanding

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• Judy - Verified booking

  This booking was a late change of venue so not initially chosen by me for our stay in Aldeburgh.

  I wrote a short comment in the Visitors’ Book of the cottage before the end of my stay and I deliberately did not mention any of the things that we had found negative as I know how damaging that can be - the fast, noisy and frequent traffic, the potholed access to parking, the lack of space to do anything on the kitchen worktops, the paucity of equipment in the kitchen, the tight turn in the steep stairs and dangerously short distance from the landing to those stairs, the general shabbiness of it all, the awful smell in my bedroom; we had been grateful to have rescued our trip so were prepared to take what was available. However, I felt it right to contact Sykes directly about a very specific issue, the bed. I was absolutely disgusted to see huge stains on my mattress as I was packing up to leave, the cleaners MUST have noticed that there were NO STAINS on any of the mattress protectors or bedding from our stripped beds so this stain already existed and had been covered up… ugh. Had the cleaners not reported this before now or was this just ignored? I took photos of the stains and it looks disgusting. I'm happy to share these photos. The owner offered me a small reduction on a future booking and were apparently already addressing the issues I raised - thereby acknowledging that standards were below par. In the light of gesture of goodwill from the owner, I said that I would prefer to have a small reduction from THIS visit - I have no intention of staying there again. The owner "is not looking" to offer this. I've asked Sykes to escalate this to their Senior Management (as I booked it through the them). This request had been completely ignored. Not only that but you keep asking me to write a review - so here it is. Sykes seem to be keen on ticking boxes and getting feedback but not so keen on actual good customer service. This experience does not merit even one star.

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• Penny - Verified booking

  A wonderful and spacious house is a brilliant location.

  . The whole house is beautifully renovated./decorated and extremely well equipped, from fluffy new towels to everything you could ask for in the kitchen, and all very smart. Just a few steps fom the pier and the beach and a short stroll along the prom into the lovely little town, with some great shops. The only minor thing which could have been better was the garden, It is a nicely designed courtyard with big dining table and chairs (and one comfy sun loinger) but the shrubs were very overgrown and straggly, in need of some serious TLC!! I appreciate it is the end of the seaon and also not eay to grow certain plants so near the sea, but a bit of pruning/cutting back/ shaping would have made a big difference to our enjoyment of the garden! But everything else was great and we would definitly go back! Welcome gift of a really nice bottle of fizz and a box of tasty biscuits was muchappteciated!

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• Mr Allen - Verified booking

  This is an "upside down" house, with the lounge and kitchen/diner upstairs and 3 bedroom downstairs. It is very well equipped and comfortable, with information about local sights and amenities. It has a pleasant view across Buss Creek towards the water tower, and the centre of Southwold or the pier are little more than 15 minutes walk away. It's worth remembering that it's on a corner of quite a busy road at times, so turning out from the property needs to be done with care. The parking space needs some manoeuvring to get into. The three bedrooms are of a good size, with plenty of storage. There is an en suite and family bathroom downstairs and a toilet upstairs. The cottage is furnished in a modern style, with several pictures of Southwold and some nice seasidey lampshades in the bedrooms. We had an extremely enjoyable week staying there.

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• Amanda - Verified booking

  A lovely clean and comfortable chalet.

  The view is beautiful and made the 9 hour trip from Cornwall worth it! Double bed very comfortable and lovely to see the bedding so beautifully ironed. I’d recommend cleaning the kettle with limescale remover regularly due to the hard water. We didn’t use it because it was flaking off in chunks. Sofa very comfortable, as it was just the 2 of us we didn’t need to use the chair. Fridge suitable for the 2 of us as we didn’t do any real cooking as we were there to visit friends and ate with them. Shower was great, lovely and roomy. Great to be able to use a washing machine and the oil filled radiators warm up really quickly to take the chill out of the air. We were able to sit out in the sun (even in November) and watch the ships pass by. We would like to come back next year.

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