Sleeps 20 Cottages

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Tanya - Verified booking

  Positives- Location was good.

  The house was very spacious. The function room and bar area were great & was great for my 30th birthday celebration. Negatives- when we arrived there were 2 rooms that were freezing and the water coming out of those taps were freezing, including the bathroom. Baring in mind we are in December. To have no heating and rooms being cold to the point you could see your own breath? That’s not really acceptable. We tried to contact the owner on several occasions, but we’re unable to get through. Due to arriving Friday night, I had to call the syke out of hours number. I must say the woman was really nice and helpful. She even tried contacting the owner and an alternative number and failed getting through. So I had no option but to buy portable heaters for those rooms. The issue did eventually get resolved a whole day later when the owner got back to me and luckily I got my refund for the heaters I had to purchase. But it was just the inconvenience. Advice & Room for improvement- The facilities on the kitchen are not the best as far as self catering house goes. Especially for a house that houses 29 people. Thankfully we had a caterer provide our food for Saturday when the main celebration occurred (otherwise feeding 29 adults would have been traumatic). Stupidly decided to make a roast dinner on Sunday which was a nightmare and took forever due to the lack of equipment. The kitchen could do with being knocked down and adding more cabinets with equipment and making it a more open space. If you are a group that don’t usually cook your food from scratch then You’l be fine. The house has so much potential, but it’s very old and obvious in some of the en suits. Some of the bathrooms are nicely decorated, but the others are just old and starting to fall apart. Very cheap material was used. The carpet in the bathrooms starts to stink after a few showers. I hope the house gets fully renovated, as we would return if that was the case, but currently wouldn’t really recommend. It made a lot of sense why the house was discounted when we booked. I would advise for people to bring their own towels. They appeared washed but were stained. None of us had ever experienced that. Also for a long weekend, it would be nice to have more clean & unstained towels. The owner does eventually reply, but takes a while. So if you questions before your stay, you have to be very patient. If would be nice if the owner was more responsive and kept their phone on when guests are staying or at least provide an alternative number to call if there are any issues.

  Read more less >

• Delyth - Verified booking

  We booked the house for a family and friends celebration over a weekend.

  On arrival the whole house was freezing, and it took some time to get the heating on and a whole day for people to feel comfortable; lucky we had taken some extra blankets with us. It was very disappointing and stressful that we had to go around cleaning, especially the toilets and kitchen before we could start to enjoy our break. We really wanted to brush, mop and hoover some areas, however there was no cleaning equipment available. Luckily on the first evening we had hired outside caterers which was a godsend as preparing the house for the main arrival of guests took us until 6.30. Towards the end of the evening the caterers found out we had no hot water (our cleaning had been carried out using antibacterial wipes) As it was late, we tried to call the Skyes office several times but in the end, we had to leave a message. The following morning, I contacted Skyes again and the owner. Our main issues at this point were sorted by lunch time. We did find out from the owner that the lack of hot water was due to her switching it off during the previous week and had forgotten to switch it back on ( we are now wondering why the cleaner didn’t spot this when she was in that morning). The hot water took until late afternoon to be at an acceptable temperature which did make our afternoon tea a little harder to deal with; the china we were using could not be put in a dishwasher. Other negatives during the weekend; Some rooms smelt damp , Dangerous step in the kitchen area that we kept tripping on, Lack of kitchen equipment and matching crockery , Stained towels , Lack of towels in the main toilets and bathrooms (advised to take your own) By the Sunday morning both taps in the kitchen leaked if you did not hold them down at the joint area. This property would be ideal for large bookings if the issues could be resolved as the house and location is beautiful

  Read more less >

• Terry-anne - Verified booking

  Argyle House is a gem of a place!

  Deceptive from the outside as its massive on the inside! It sits right on the see front & has amazing veiws across to the mainland. We were a party of 20, 12 adults & 8 children (ages from 5 - 17) celebrating a 50th birthday & there was enough room for everyone to have their own space, the teenagers had their own rooms which they loved as they could chill out whenever they wanted. There are 2 lovely big sitting rooms, the kids took ownership of one while the male adults chilled in the other watching football! The real hub of the house though was the massive dining room (the only room big enough to hold all of us at once) and the kitchen. The dining room overlooks the harbour & out to the mainland, it is a fabulous view! The kitchen has everything you could possibly need & there's a massive range cooker more than capable of catering for the 20 of us. Most rooms are ensuite which was a real bonus. Fantastic big garden for the kids & dogs to runaround in complemented by a hot tub sited in a very tasteful gazebo to protect you from the elements although we were very lucky as the sun shone all weekend. The owner was very welcoming, contacting us on day one, to check in with us to make sure we were happy with everything & again after check out which is a lovely touch. The neighbours and the people on the island of Bute were so friendly too, which really helped us all to feel welcome & part of the community for the short time we were there! All in all a lovely house in a lovely location, I would definitely recommend it for a large group.

  Read more less >

• Liz - Verified booking

  Milton Manor was a fantastic party house for our 27 family guests and the accommodation itself was perfect, versatile and very comfortable and clean.

  It was a wonderful stay and allowed us to celebrate a 90th birthday in real style! Our only criticism was that the property owner was not there when we arrived and due to mobile phone connectivity it was tricky to get hold of her. It would have been good to have a few things explained in person like how to work the hot tub (instructions weren't very clear and it was lukewarm until the end of day 2). It would also have been good to have had a single book with all the instructions in it rather than have them in picture frames dotted around the house which was a bit like being at school with 'do this' and 'don't do that' notices around! The welcome stay book that we did eventually find was in a small dark corridor area so were rather at sea as to how things worked at the start when all our guests were arriving, and being an old building it had some quirks, such as light switches being in unexpected places (the ladies downstairs loo light switch being in the gents downstairs loo, for instance!). Our younger guests and those needing to do a small amount of work from the house found the internet rather slow. But otherwise it was a really wonderful week, and the local lady that cooks lasagna and chicken tray bakes ready for your arrival if you want them was a must-have - they were absolutely delicious and home made! Shops are very close and we ordered a massive Waitrose food delivery for the Friday evening which worked well and kept us going almost for the whole week. We were so sorry to leave at the end!

  Read more less >

• Natasha - Verified booking

  Hello, it was a good venue for the weekend celebrations.

  Downstairs, the kitchen and dining worked really well. However, my feedback is, your bathrooms, gosh they really need work on the 1st floor and especially in the attic suites... Also, the bedroom where you just have a curtain between the bath and the bedroom (I appreciate it's small) was very disappointing to put a couple in - no dressing mirror (tiny one by sink not adequate), no where to hang clothes. But essentially your bathrooms let you down - they need redecoration. A big point for me as I had musicians playing is thathe piano is not 'good' it really wasn't up for using and I mention this as it was a specific reason for booking (I'm afraid it's on it's way to piano heaven in terms of key action, keyboard itself, the ricketiness of it and would require some degree of work). Also the music room is tiny and the piano faces the wall. This doesn't live up to the marketing for it - so I'd suggest you think about that part. Light bulbs in lamps were missing downstairs - just worth checking. These are the reasons it scored 4. We've hired house before and realise of course they aren't hotels... We're not silly or arrogant.. It's just feedback for you to think about. Overall it is a really well located, well thought out venue. So, thank you.

  Read more less >