Large Cottages in Lake District with Hot Tubs

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Caroline - Verified booking

  Stayed with 4 girlfriends for a 50th birthday.

  Not far from Penrith, Lovely picturesque village. Great views. There's a well stocked kitchen, Large dining area, the bedrooms were clean & beds comfortable. Lovely big garden, great place for kids to run around in. Hot tub is fabulous, clean & well maintained. However there were some issues that spoilt our holiday. No external aerial for TV. an inadequate indoor one that we couldn't get a signal on all weekend!! Despite a phone call to owners a difficult conversation due to very bad phone signal! Asked if someone could come out & sort this. No one arrived at all. So a basic TV was not available. The WIFI was non existent! The Hub stated could not be found! & I tried every room! There's a blue ray player but the remote left would not work in the TV to get to correct channel. changed batteries (our own) still didn't work. Unable to use that also. Bulbs were missing from 2 lamps looked for spares as stated in welcome folder none were found! We swapped one from lounge area. The small toilet on ground floor had a sink on top of cistern this was full of water on arrival so unable to wash your hands in this bathroom. Old bar of soap, a soggy tissue & 2 disposable razers found on shelf in large shower on the first floor. Upon arrival we checked out the Hot Tub thankfully this worked great. Sadly we had to clean up the patio area. The previous occupants had left a few items of wet clothes, cans, & rubbish littered around! (Unbelievable how people leave property) however this should have been picked up by the cleaners. They must not have gone outside at all! Chairs all array table not cleaned. Extremely disappointed with this & find that totally unacceptable. Such a shame as the location is perfect, barn a great size. reported to sykes when I returned . Owners need to visit this property for themselves as I do blame the quality of the cleaners! for most of it. My advice to owners ... invest in a good broadband & get an outdoor aerial fitted.... Our saving grace... The local pub The Sun inn a few minutes walk away! Fabulous. Worth a visit & a great restaurant. Lowther Castle 15 minute drive away also worth a visit. There's a Morrisons & shopping area 10 min drive away too. These complaints were made in May by other people. But nothing has changed.

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• Joan - Verified booking

  The key safe was very difficult to open.

  We eventually walked in to be greeted by several houseflies, which continued to be a nuisance throughout our stay - where are they breeding? I soon found that the hob was filthy and no hob cleaner was supplied - I had to buy some & clean it before using it. The windows were dirty, both kitchen and back room, as was the tiled splashback behind the cooker. The kitchen bin lid was dirty - good job it's foot-operated. I had to clean out the fabric softener compartment before I could use the washing machine - it was completely clogged with gunk and washing powder - and empty the fluff filter in the tumble dryer. The cutlery drawer had crumbs in and some of the cutlery was dirty, as were some of the place mats. The dining room floor had breakfast cereal on it and a load of dust from where the stone wall is crumbling! The downstairs loo was badly stained - I left it cleaner than it was, but it clearly hasn't been properly clean for many weeks. The bathroom sanitary bin was left half full - yuck! There were light bulbs missing in the kitchen (1) and the single bedroom bedside light, and the light in the extractor over the hob wasn't working either. The microwave was too small for most of the dinner plates supplied - they couldn't turn. TV reception was poor, as were the wi-fi and phone. The low ceiling and huge beam over the bed in the mezzanine rendered it unusable, even for little me! Lucky only five of us were able to come on the holiday as it turned out. We were surprised to find no welcome pack - not so much as a pint of milk - no leaflets about local attractions, no information about the local recycling scheme (i.e. take it all to Morrisons car park), and no notes on how to operate the central heating system. On the plus side, the hot tub was ace - the best we've found anywhere - and the towels supplied were very good quality. The location was very convenient - just a few minutes' drive from Morrisons and handy for Ullswater, Derwentwater and plenty of other lovely places. We enjoyed a good meal with our grandchildren at Gianni's Italian restaurant in Penrith. We had lovely weather all week, so we didn't have to spend much time in the Barn, and actually had a really good holiday.

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• Vicki - Verified booking

  When we arrived the cleaning lady was still there finishing up next door, just as well she was as we couldn't gain entry as the key was not in the lockbox but in the door on the inside of cottage.

  She had no knowledge of us arriving as said it had not been cleaned! When she gained entry with her keys it was a left in right mess by previous customers. She told us to come back in couple hours (by this time it would be 6pm+) not her fault but a break down communication either with booking agent & owner. When we finally get in on first glances the ladies did a fab job in a short space of time to clean and prepair it for our stay. It was during the stay we started to find little bits not so perfect, the cottage could do with a little TLC and money being put back into it and bring up to date with current times. The kettle could do with replacing as has rather alot scalling init. The TV Ariel is no use at all, everytime you want watch TV you have to retune and lucky dip what channels you pick up. There is an outdoor ariel socket on wall why there's no extension into this instead the crappy plug in ariel?? Luckily the TV is a smart TV so can use your Netflix/prime accounts if you have these. The WiFi is shocking slow, the router is next door and you piggy back off that, it was hit and miss alot the times. The bathroom door handle needs attention, no one dared locked the door incase it came off and you got stuck in there! The shower in main bathroom is a cheap of the cheapest ones going and pointless for double shower that size, plus there's not alot hot water it runs cold and tepid, so don't think if having a bath. Cheap plastic toilet seats. The hottub man comes Friday & Mondays. We noticed He doesn't empty them at each change over but simply wipes the seats, fish out the bugs, cleans the filters and replaces the chlorine tabs. So not sure how many guests have used same water before us? (He was there just finishing when we arrived Friday- the tub was 40° so obviously not been emptied and refilled) These may seem little things but when your paying £1200++ these little things do go a long way to making your stay more comfortable. The garden is good size, enclosed so dog friendly. Overall its a lovely cottage, ideal place as base while you explore the beautiful lakes have to offer.

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• Martin - Verified booking

  We loved The Belfry and would not hesitate to stay here again.

  The open plan upstairs lounge and kitchen is gorgeous and well equipped with everything you need including a welcome pack and a cleaning pack. The bedrooms were comfortable and bathrooms lovely. Location is perfect .. just minutes from the village centre on foot. Bus stops outside on main road and the 599 service every 20 mins in summer timetables takes you to all main attractions. One toilet doesn’t flush well as others have reported…downstairs lighting flickered quite a bit and we did think security could be a tad better… you cannot lock the door with the key from inside although there is a bolt. The entrance to the yard isn’t secure as no lock to wooden fence door. but it does appear to be a quiet area. The church bells ring constantly but didn’t bother us. Some reported a smell of damp downstairs and there is a hint of mustiness but again didn’t bother us. It’s an old building with great charm and a modern interior. The hot tub was awesome and available to use from arrival. The lane from main road to property is indeed very narrow and we turned our wing mirrors in for safety but it is passable with care. Plenty of parking space. This is a fantastic property and we would highly recommend it.

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• Graham - Verified booking

  Generally good but with a few niggles.

  The L shaped sofa is too soft and uncomfortable. The back rest is too far back and the cushions too soft. The dinner and small plates need changing to a flatter design as the upward lip around the edge means they don't fit the dishwasher rack so we ended up handwashing. A seperate dryer would be much more useful than a combined washer/dryer as a drying cycle takes four hours and is very noisy. An external washing line would be a good addition. The dining table is not hygienic. It is a big piece of wood but there is a large crack and a big hole in it where you can see crumbs etc have dropped in and can't be cleaned out. Likewise the chairs and bench seat look nice but they are hard and uncomfortable after a while. The freezer needs de-frosting as it's caked with ice. The toilet in the master en-suite needs sorting as it doesn't flush very well. Also the shower doesn't drain very fast so the tray is nearly overflowing when running. We had to lift the plug from the drain hole to make it drain quicker. The weirdest thing is that because this was obviously a larger building split up to provide separate accommodation, the window in the small bedroom looks out onto the garden of the property next door.

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