Large Cottages in the New Forest for Group Holidays

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Amy - Verified booking

  This is a lovely property, ideally situated for exploring Dorset and the New Forest.

  Our boys and dog thoroughly enjoyed the spacious house and garden, in particular. The house was very comfortable & there was everything we needed & more in the kitchen. On our first day we found that the television in the snug didn’t work. It switched off intermittently & the next morning unfortunately did the same. The contact number given by Sykes was for a company that looks after the property on behalf of the owners. My husband left a message, but didn’t hear back so had to chase them up later in the day. We were told someone would go round to look at the television the following day. Having returned to the house we were unable to tell whether anyone had been in, so again rung that company. They said they spoke to the maintenance person who thought the tv probably needed replacing. They’d also spoken to the owners, who said they’d been there the previous week & it was working ok then. We were asked to video what happens to the television, which we did & this was emailed to that company again. We never heard back from them or the owners, so felt the duty of care was lacking. Having a second television wasn’t the end of the world, but it meant one room in the house couldn’t be used, as intended. Our biggest disappointment was in having to spend part of our holiday chasing up an issue & not getting it resolved. It would also have been nice to have heard from the owners at some point, even if only to apologise for the inconvenience. We understand that they aren’t local, so you lose an element of personal touch but at least this issue wasn’t anything major.

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• Alison - Verified booking

  The lodge is very nice, it was very clean and comfortable and we really did enjoy our stay there and we would return.

  The directions are very poor, needs to be more specific we arrived from Lymington but the directions did not get us there. It needs to be more clear about the restrictions on the park and you are not attached to the main one, it’s very clear when you arrive and laid out in a folder, this would have been useful advice when booking. This did not affect our holiday as we like the quiet nature of the retreat, but feel others maybe not happy, it needs to be clear when booking. The fridge and cupboards were all full of left over items, which meant we had no where to store our things. It felt like we were sharing with other people, rather than this was our home for the week. We catered for the whole week of food and had to leave items on the side as there was no space cupboards. The maintenance team were excellent, we had a problem with hot water, nothing anybody could have foreseen, this was fixed within half an hour with the most excellent customer service. The lodge is lovely as said at the beginning, the area is lovely, we only traveled half an hour a day, sometimes less to visit some excellent places. We had a fantastic holiday, the little bits would have made it superb.

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• Judith - Verified booking

  The photography gave a misleading impression of the size of the property and garden it was smaller than we anticipated although we appreciated the extension.

  Bedroom 2 with double bed was wedged against the wall, so no space to get out that side. There was not enough room to store bicycles as stated the garage was locked. The combination locks for the side gate and bike shed had seized and needed lubricating with WD40 and were still stiff to roll. The keysafe was difficult to operate and there were no instructions on how to close it once the key had been removed. The letter box kept falling off and although we tried screwing the nuts back on it repeatedly fell off. The non stick coating on the pans was badly worn and we didn't use them. The chrome lavatory brush handle had rusted. There was a shelf unit/cupboard in the bathroom which had broken and was incomplete. The shelves in the white cupboard in the bathroom had fallen down and needed fixing back in. Some pictures were loose in their frames. The bath was slippery because it didn't have a non slip base we bought a non slip mat. The dining room table was too high and the chairs too low. There was no instruction manual to reset the hot water, so some of us had cold showers. There was a loud drilling noise at night of unknown origin which could be heard in the 2nd bedroom and front lounge.

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• Paul - Verified booking

  Overall, we were very pleased with the accommodation and had an enjoyable week.

  Just a few minor issues: 1. The instructions to open the main gate could have been a bit more detailed as we spent a few minutes working out how to use the fob. 2. The cupboard in one of the twin bedrooms was full of spare bedding so there was no room to hang any clothes. 3. There was no recycling bin in the lodge. 4. Not an issue with the accommodation, but we were disappointed to find out that we had to pay for a pass just to use the on-site restaurant (we didn't want to use any of the other facilities). Is this something that can be taken up with the site authorities? 5. Sykes advertises two lodges on the site: Seahorse Lodge and Amethyst Lodge. In relation to Amethyst Lodge, there is a note about the site facilities being 5 minutes walk away and that driving is not advised. It probably wouldn't have made much difference, but we chose Seahorse as this note wasn't included in the accommodation details and we assumed this didn't apply to Seahorse. Perhaps Sykes could be consistent in their information on this. 6. Also in relation to Amethyst, there is a note about on-site passes being available at half price. Does this also apply to Seahorse?

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• Colin - Verified booking

  The location of the lodge was pleasantly quiet.

  The lodge its self was a good standard. However, the presentation, soft furnishings, towels etc were very basic, not what we would expect. On arrival there were cleaning clothes dumped on the decking. The crockery and cutlery were a random selection and the some of the mugs, plates and bowls were chipped and tea stained. There were no hand towels, no basic hand wash, no toilet brush in the main bathroom, no waste bin in the en-suite. In the en-suite shower room there was a shower chair which had to be move out to have a shower making it very awkward. There was a washing machine but no ironing board or iron. Your instructions are very specific about not leaving items in the cupboards but there were all manner of things including medications such as paracetamol etc in the kitchen cupboard, ice pops in the freezer. Item's belonging to previous renters or the owners in the main bathroom cupboard. It felt like a very amateur operation. When you pay for holiday accommodation, I think you should feel you are the first people to use it, not that you are gate crashing someone else’s holiday home.

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