The Cragg

Reviews (35)

• Jonathan

  I'd say that whilst definitely high on quirk/history, it was low on cleanliness and facilities. The listing appears to have been written by someone who was an estate agent in a previous life. Take "...a luxurious roll top bath or a quick rinse in the walk-in shower..." as an example. A more accurate description would be "...cold metal bath or low flow electric shower..." No mention about the lack of privacy throughout bedrooms and bathrooms due to wood panelling with large gaps between panels until reading the welcome folder that we didn't find until checkout day. Lots of broken items, poorly stocked kitchen, exterior lighting non-existent. Could go on and on but won't. Not bad enough to demand any refund but generally at the poorer end of similar offerings.

• Debbie

  We agree with other feedback in that there are damp patches on the walls however, this didn’t bother us as it’s what you would expect from a house that is 300 years old (if we are right taking the date from within the house). However we cannot speak as highly of Sykes. When we arrived the Aga wasn’t working properly and was expelling horrendous fumes which meant we couldn’t stay downstairs and had to open all the doors. Clearly the flue was blocked as the fumes were coming back through the vent. We reported this to Sykes and as it was Christmas Eve, we expressed the need for urgency to be able to cook Christmas dinner for 8 people. A representative came and said he could smell the fumes walking up the path and agreed it was unacceptable. However being 5pm on Christmas Eve (and him not being an Aga engineer) all he could do was light it or turn it off as it would need a proper engineer. Clearly we were very disappointed although we can’t complain about the maintenance guy who was very pleasant and sympathetic. Alas we had to cook dinner in a small electric oven in stages and reheat in the microwave as the turkey was cooked. We finally received a message from Sykes saying they would need to send someone out so as not to impact any future bookings and could we leave the key so he could get in! I made it clear I didn’t care about future bookings. The Aga was not needed now as we would be out or able to use the small oven and hob for the rest of the week. Christmas dinner was the important meal which needed the Aga. We followed up our message with a call to Sykes confirming they were not to inconvenience us anymore and they were not to send someone out. Despite two clear instructions and us taking the key, they let themselves in and lit the Aga. No idea what time but we returned to the house after a day out which was yet again filled with fumes! We had to open all doors and send the children upstairs again. On reporting this the representative on the phone agreed they had clearly received our instruction and it was very wrong for this to have been ignored. An hour or so later we felt a little chilly. The heating had gone off! We put the thermostat up and checked the boiler. No joy. Whatever the person who came in had done it had cocked up the heating. We again called and said we had no heating at all apart from a small oil heater that was in one of the rooms. We were told that someone would come back to us. By 7pm we realised no one was calling or coming to sort this out. Being late December it was VERY cold and the children were crying. We had to drive round to find logs so we could at least light the log burner in the snug. Finally finding them at Troutbeck bridge and £50 later with an hours round trip, we finally had some form of heat but overnight it was still so cold. At 11am next morning we had STILL not received a call and had to chase again. At 1pm someone brought some electric heaters and had a look at the heating. He couldn’t fix the heating but called a gas engineer who told him to reset something on the boiler and finally we had heat. Firstly why was someone not out the night before with those heaters? Why were we left as a family with young children without heat and why were we ignored? Again the guy that came out was very sympathetic, pleasant and understood our frustration and agreed it was poor service. The day after we came home so we had a lot of drama for what was a looked forward to family Christmas break with 3 generations. Clearly we complained. Sykes advised us that the owners had offered a partial refund. I feel that was unfair on the owners as our issue was the service from Sykes. Clearly the Aga was faulty which is the responsibility of the owner however, Sykes manage it and should have prioritised the fault being Christmas Eve. Again the heating was because Sykes ignored our request not to mess with the Aga and was not the owners fault. We have at least 4 holidays a year in the UK and have holidayed numerous times (at least 10 times with various family members) with Sykes but have never had the need to utilise their service during our stay. Clearly this was shockingly poor and a huge disappointment to say the least. I hope they have learnt from this and improve their responses especially at crucial times of the year. Lost customers through poor service should not happen with a good business who value their customers. I am afraid they have lost at least 5 within our family groups as well recommendations. We have already booked our next holiday in February but sadly not with Sykes, Heart of the Lakes or Lake Lovers. It is a shame as we would recommend the house but the owners need to change managing agents for us to return.

• Elaine

  Great facilities. Lovely and warm. As it is a little ‘out of the way’ and there is no street lights, I just think there definitely needs to be some lighting on the outside. At night time it is pitch black and the only light is a small bulb in the doorway. Even if it’s a couple of lights that come on with movement, as you turn into the property.