Large Cottages in Derbyshire with Hot Tubs

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Andy - Verified booking

  This is not to be seen as a negative review and I hope you take the feed back as constructive comments.

  We had a brilliant family week and the location for central Castleton is brilliant. But the property is needing some TLC. Most kitchen utensils were provided - but we are glad we brought our large wok for cooking for a family of 7. There's no garlic crusher and an additional chopping board would be good. It might be worth sharpening knives or providing new ones as the ones provided are woeful. Not a massive issue to us, but there's no gate on the fence facing the public car park which could be a close call for potentially escaping dogs when front door opened. The front door supporting brace needs replacing as it is broken and you have to lean on the door to close it. There is no key for the side patio doors (that we found). The stable door at the rear does not close properly unless you really push it and lock the door from the inside. This is annoying if you are sitting outside. It becomes dangerous for little children and their fingers. No light bulb in small room and no replacements or spares anywhere. Dishwasher needs salt to be provided - there was none that we found, so it often didn’t clean very well. Tumble dryer - doesn’t dry clothes completely dry. Accessible electric cables/wires under tv are not only visible and unsightly, but grabbable by a child unless really supervised. The welcome book is lacking any real details about managing the property itself. The bins - although it can’t be helped - were 3/4 full on arrival. There is also a lack of details for bin day collection point. I placed the green bin in the car park, but luckily I saw the bin crew at 6:30am and they said they only collect from the roadside. There is no hot tub information/ upkeep details what so ever. Luckily, we knew we had to add chlorine as the slow release container floating around had run out by Wednesday. Who knew you had to remove this when in use? I can only compare to other places I've been where staff visited twice a day to check levels. It shouldn't be down to guests to manage the safe use of a hot tub, with no instructions. There are no spare bedding or pillows (its stated beds can be pulled apart if needed which is great, but there are no extra duvets provided) there is also an under sheet missing. The curtain in the living room is annoyingly short. Cleaning, just generally could be better. It seems a surface clean is done, rather than a thorough turnover. There are cobwebs and spiders in most room corners, the worst place being above the kitchen fridge. Bathroom window is in need of repair (there was a note on the window) however the bathroom door in the same room also doesn’t close properly. In addition, the toilet seat is moving and needs to be fixed/ replaced. King size bedroom en-suite shower doors don’t close completely, and tray floods - due to blockage. Stairs are loud and need new wedges, difficult to move up and down the stairs at night time without waking others and one gets a sense that the stairs are going to collapse! Security for dogs and young children in the garden is concerning given the proximity to the main road and it is fortunate we were fastidious in supervision. We had to move any wood lying around to form a barrier to deter them from escaping, especially towards the car park side. There were many screws lying around in the rear pebbled area that we picked up following construction of the welcome cover to hot tub. It seems a missed opportunity to encompass the fire pit and grassed area along with the pebbled area into a wholly securely fenced area. The seating area along the fence in the pebbled area, along the roadside, by the hot tub is a great idea, but it is too high. It needs to be halved in height to sit comfortably on. This is by far the main area we used A seat leg was broken on the arm chair in the living room by window. We ended up balancing this many times so it could be used. The oven has a weird funny smell when in use Castleton experienced a massive power cut during our stay, so the burglar alarm needs resetting as it was beeping and there was an issue rebooting the WiFi and TV but we conquered that eventually. I come back to the Welcome pack, there were no instructions how to do any of this. A clock would be nice on the fireplace in the living room. It takes two adults to lift the hot tub lid on and off. Actually 3, the first time we used it we leant the lid against the fence, but it dropped down the back and it took 3 adults to get it out (2 in the spa). Whilst the lady cleaning the hot tub was utterly pleasant, she arrived at around 8:30am, but check out is at 10. The hot tub was being drained by before 9am, which didn’t allow any use for the morning of departure had we wanted to. Fortunately we didn't, but we were just not expecting anyone so early. Again, I come back to the welcome pack (lack of) information if 8:30 am is the norm.

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• Janette - Verified booking

  This holiday house is beautiful and in a really calm and peaceful location.

  The weekend we visited was very thick with snow, which made the whole place even more amazing. The owners live on the site, but the holiday house is built in such a way that you will not see another person while you there. It looks out through bi-fold doors over a horse and alpaca pasture then onto open fields and hills. We hired out both Zoe and Steve’s ‘cowshed’ which gave us plenty of space for 5 adults, 2 toddlers and 2 small dogs. The garden is safe and enclosed with gates either end, which meant the children and dogs could play freely between both houses. The hot tub is a massive added extra to the homes! It is only overlooked by one room of one of the houses, is under a permanent gazebo with lights. We used it in thick snow! One side of the garden also has a wooden gazebo with cushioned seating, heater and lights. The inside of both houses was so comfortable; beds, duvets, sofas, chairs everything. The kitchen was equipped with everything you need to cook, and has a washing machine and dish washer. We called to make a very last minute booking, and the owner could not have been more helpful. Literally no complaints, wonderful weekend had by all, 5 stars (definitely more if we could)

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• Michael - Verified booking

  Location and cleanliness of the Accomodation was fine, as expected.

  As this was a new build, would have expected the door handle in the main open plan kitchen not to have fallen off a number of times during the stay, there were only 50% of the required screws in the handle. Also, as listing is for a hot tub cottage I would have expected the water quality, temperature and level to be correct and maintained before our stay. The water level was so low there was an error message on the display & a film on the water meaning we couldn’t use, as a regular hot tub user this hadn’t been maintained for a number of months looking at the film on the water and colour of the filter! While using the outside space it was evident there was a wasp nest in the shed right by the seating area making this hardly usable despite the good weather. Finally, as the caretaker explained, the current building regulations mean that all windows must be escape windows which would have been fine had they been fitted with safety latches which they were not and therefore dangerous for our children of 7&8 in a three storey house. Overall a very disappointing stay due to some basic failings!

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• Karishma - Verified booking

  Perfect little getaway!

  Beautiful location, clean home and great facilities. We booked this place as a last resort due to being let down with the previous property, but we were not disappointed with the outcome. Ardsley Cottage turned out to be a much better option. The kitchen has all the things you would need (a few more cleaning supplies would be handy), with a dining room attached where you can sit round a lovely big table to enjoy a meal together. Moving into the spacious living room, you find big comfy sofas to sit and relax in, along with a smart TV. Upstairs there were 3 bedrooms set up with bath and hand towels for each guest and 3 laundry bags to pack away bedding at check out. The large bathroom was great for showers or baths (bathroom lock wasn't working). Finally leaving the best till last ... the GARDEN. Incredible scenery surrounding the house with the added bonus of the hot tub (with British weather, it could do with a gazebo of sorts to provide shelter from strong winds or rain). Highly recommend this property!!

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• Katie - Verified booking

  I feel I need to leave feed back in two halves.

  Good points- location is amazing, beds really comfortable, bedding good quality, towels good quality and living room furniture was comfortable. Things that let the property down- two missing gates on the front ( the dogs could get directly into the carpark or drive to main road), no handle to assist the hot tub lid lifting ( it took both my husband and I to get it back on so my parents had been unable to use it once we had left), no safe steps for older guests and a shower at outside the back door, very large amounts cobweb's in most areas, back stable door didn’t fasten together and is extremely poor repair, broken lock hanging off the inside of bedroom two along with a broken curtain tie back and broken soap holder left in the shower, shower in main bedroom not draining and leaving stood water, curtains that don’t reach the bottom of the window, no wood packs for the fire pit and lots of large lengths of wood left on sitting area so it was not able to be used.

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