Big Cottages & Group Accommodation in Staithes

Reviews

What our customers say about their holidays

• Kathleen - Verified booking

  On arrival, cottage found to be neglected.

  Crockery, cutlery, glasses all dirty and smell of bad drains in kitchen. Fridge door shelf broken, no veg. basket or shelf. Freezer inaccessible due to cleaning tools being piled against it. Also, remains of a plastic bag which had/did contain something, frozen into bottom of freezer. Ice cube trays filthy. Insufficient cooking utensils - no small pans!! Broken toilet seat in downstairs loo - unsafe! Toilet brush upstairs broken AND DIRTY! Rug in twin bedroom had to be lifted - trip hazard - and then discovered it was dirty, not having been vacuumed for ages. Blind fixings falling out of the wall. Extractor in bathroom, although switched on, not working. Also, drawer units in bathroom had to be cleaned. Not only did we have to deal with these shortcomings in the cottage itself, but we then had to experience outrageous invasions of our privacy. The first issue was to contend with men hanging around at the door to our cottage (in Gun Gutter alley), vaping! This happened on 2 separate occasions. My daughter had been startled one night, when she went out to put rubbish in the bins. She found 2 boys lurking in the darkness, vaping! She challenged the boys, and was met with aggressive responses, and one of them ran away after she caught him peeping into our kitchen window where I was working. We immediately reported this to the local pub, and it seems that someone there had directed their staff to use our sheltered area for vaping/smoking. We still had a second incident, when on another evening, another man was found there and when challenged he agreed that this shouldn't be happening and said he'd speak with the landlord. We had no further problem but not a nice feeling for 2 ladies on their own! The FINAL unacceptable happening and the most shocking I feel - on Friday 15th, on returning from our morning walk, ready to get on with breakfast, we found an ESTATE AGENT waiting at our door. She was waiting for VIEWERS TO ARRIVE, to view the property which we later discovered had been on the market for sale since June this year!!! We had to vacate the cottage whilst 3 people were shown round. A TOTAL INVASION OF OUR PRIVACY. Our personal belongings were on display, and we felt quite violated! We were told the viewers had come a long way, were expected almost immediately, so we had no option other than to go out and find somewhere for coffee. It was too late to cancel the viewing. We were sitting outside at a local eatery for almost an hour. On returning to the cottage, people were still milling around and did eventually leave us to get on with our breakfast, albeit rather shocked by what had happened. Things got better, more shocking!!!!! Later in the day, just after lunchtime, there came a knock at the door. My daughter answered and a woman marched in, saying that she had bought the house that morning, she'd had her offer accepted and she wanted to show her friend around! As she chatted to my daughter, her friend started opening doors and looking into the other rooms, and then she said she was 'just going upstairs, for a nosey'!!!! Yet another violation,. another complete invasion of our privacy - we felt so unable to control or question the situation. We did feel the new 'owner' and her 'friend' were possibly a little inebriate, maybe celebrating the new purchase. BUT, how were we allowed to book cottage in July when it had already gone on the market for sale, and why were we subjected to these invasions of privacy by estate agents, viewers, and then the new owner???? According to the estate agent,the owner had already told Sykes to make no more bookings when the property first went on the market back in June, which might explain just why the place seemed so 'run-down'? Who knows. Overall - Far from the relaxing. peaceful break we had planned.

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• Ashley - Verified booking

  Expensive & Disappointing.

  Having viewed the property on the Sykes website, what sold it to us, was the chance to sit outside in the sunshine, next to the beautiful surroundings , with family searing and the use of the hot tub(despite the additional fee charged for this). So having booked the property for a week for potentially five of us, we were so disappointed upon our arrival. The house looked lovely from the exterior. Parking was however limited. The house is ideally located for Whitby and all the local beaches and that was a great plus. The house was generally clean and tidy. However it wasn’t long before we started to find little things that let it down. The toilet seat was loose which required tightening, the small towel holder was hanging on by a thread; the vacuum cleaner holder in the kitchen wasn’t fixed to the wall properly. The beds I found uncomfortable, however my wife found them the opposite . The double beds are two singles pushed together which caused an uncomfortable ridge in the middle. The quilts were extremely thick and heavy, ideal for winter but not for summer. Bed linen was lovely and clean and there were sufficient towels provided. The showers worked well. The shower seal needs a good bleaching as there was green mould evident. The Wi-Fi was pretty awful . It worked okay downstairs but upstairs it was non existent, This was evident of the tvs in each bedroom. You could not get any programs, either ones that are streamed such as Netflix, Amazon or any terrestrial tv. So it was effectively a waste of time having tvs in rooms that you couldn’t use. The main tv in the lounge only has streaming and catch up tv . No terrestrial tv. So unless you subscribe to streaming services you will be even more disappointed. Now we doing go there to watch tv, we wanted to sit outside. Well where do I start with the rear garden area. There was some that rattan furniture but no seat covers. I believed they had been ruined in a previous review and not replaced. So no comfortable seating to use. So the first thing we had to do, was spend time and money visiting local supermarkets etc looking for a couple of sunloungers to use during the week. The table outside is tired, needs sanding down and re varnishing. The rear,area was over grown with weeds, hanging baskets with dead plants or weeds in. There were dead leaves and a dirty floor in and around the hot tub. The hot tub stunk so much of chlorine that it made your eyes water and brought me up in a rash. Nobody attended to the hot tub during the week, unless they came during the day whilst we were out. The chlorine gradually died off to a bearable level mid week. Half the jets didn’t work in the hot tub, which was annoying when you are paying extra for the facility. There wasn’t a lot of privacy when using the hot tub and could easily remedied with a little bamboo screening. So overall the holiday home failed to live up to our expectations. We have used Sykes on numerous occasions and this has been by far the worst we have stayed in. We would love to return to the area but would not return here. So despite a few faults within we thought we could live with

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• Ashley - Verified booking

  Expensive & Disappointing.

  Having viewed the property on the Sykes website, what sold it to us, was the chance to sit outside in the sunshine, next to the beautiful surroundings , with family searing and the use of the hot tub(despite the additional fee charged for this). So having booked the property for a week for potentially five of us, we were so disappointed upon our arrival. The house looked lovely from the exterior. Parking was however limited. The house is ideally located for Whitby and all the local beaches and that was a great plus. The house was generally clean and tidy. However it wasn’t long before we started to find little things that let it down. The toilet seat was loose which required tightening, the small towel holder was hanging on by a thread; the vacuum cleaner holder in the kitchen wasn’t fixed to the wall properly. The beds I found uncomfortable, however my wife found them the opposite . The double beds are two singles pushed together which caused an uncomfortable ridge in the middle. The quilts were extremely thick and heavy, ideal for winter but not for summer. Bed linen was lovely and clean and there were sufficient towels provided. The showers worked well. The shower seal needs a good bleaching as there was green mould evident. The Wi-Fi was pretty awful . It worked okay downstairs but upstairs it was non existent, This was evident of the tvs in each bedroom. You could not get any programs, either ones that are streamed such as Netflix, Amazon or any terrestrial tv. So it was effectively a waste of time having tvs in rooms that you couldn’t use. The main tv in the lounge only has streaming and catch up tv . No terrestrial tv. So unless you subscribe to streaming services you will be even more disappointed. Now we doing go there to watch tv, we wanted to sit outside. Well where do I start with the rear garden area. There was some that rattan furniture but no seat covers. I believed they had been ruined in a previous review and not replaced. So no comfortable seating to use. So the first thing we had to do, was spend time and money visiting local supermarkets etc looking for a couple of sunloungers to use during the week. The table outside is tired, needs sanding down and re varnishing. The rear,area was over grown with weeds, hanging baskets with dead plants or weeds in. There were dead leaves and a dirty floor in and around the hot tub. The hot tub stunk so much of chlorine that it made your eyes water and brought me up in a rash. Nobody attended to the hot tub during the week, unless they came during the day whilst we were out. The chlorine gradually died off to a bearable level mid week. Half the jets didn’t work in the hot tub, which was annoying when you are paying extra for the facility. There wasn’t a lot of privacy when using the hot tub and could easily remedied with a little bamboo screening. So overall the holiday home failed to live up to our expectations. We have used Sykes on numerous occasions and this has been by far the worst we have stayed in. We would love to return to the area but would not return here. So despite a few faults within we thought we could live with

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• Philip - Verified booking

  The oven was filthy.

  The property was not clean. The hoover was useless. The property was not watertight. Rain water dripped through a light fitting. No one answered or replied when we rang the Sykes' out of hours emergency number. The storm guard on the front door was too tight and impossible to lift. This created both an obstacle and a safety hazard. We cut short our holiday as a result. When we did speak to Sykes' customer care on Friday the person could not see the messages we had left on our account and photos. The Sykes' customer care person promised a response regarding our money back. No response. Sykes take the money but let out unsafe properties. Sykes take the money but have no one available to speak to out of hours. Very poor service. I have been a loyal customer of Sykes. I won't use them again as when things go wrong they don't want to know. The property was not clean. The hoover was useless. The property was not watertight. Rain water dripped through a light fitting. No one answered or replied when we rang the Sykes' out of hours emergency number. The storm guard on the front door was too tight and impossible to lift. This created both an obstacle and a safety hazard. We cut short our holiday as a result. When we did speak to Sykes' customer care on Friday the person could not see the messages we had left on our account and photos. The Sykes' customer care person promised a response regarding our money back. No response. Sykes take the money but let out unsafe properties. Sykes take the money but have no one available to speak to out of hours. Very poor service. I have been a loyal customer of Sykes. I won't use them again as when things go wrong they don't want to know. The property was not clean. The hoover was useless. The property was not watertight. Rain water dripped through a light fitting. No one answered or replied when we rang the Sykes' out of hours emergency number. The storm guard on the front door was too tight and impossible to lift. This created both an obstacle and a safety hazard. We cut short our holiday as a result. When we did speak to Sykes' customer care on Friday the person could not see the messages we had left on our account and photos. The Sykes' customer care person promised a response regarding our money back. No response. Sykes take the money but let out unsafe properties. Sykes take the money but have no one available to speak to out of hours. Very poor service. I have been a loyal customer of Sykes. I won't use them again as when things go wrong they don't want to know.

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• Jane - Verified booking

  We really enjoyed our week at Roxby Cottage.

  The lounge / diner area is light, spacious, comfortable and has great views over the harbour. Upstairs is very pleasant too, really well organised to make full use of the space, a very comfortable big bed in the spacious main bedroom, and the bathroom was very clean, smart, and a good size. Everything was of good quality, in good condition, clean and welcoming. We didn't miss our own outside space as there's the harbour and beach 10 steps away, not to mention the fabulous walks right around the harbour, the beck and even up to the clifftop if we were feeling energetic! It was fascinating watching harbour life, from 7 am with the fishermen and dog walkers to the evening stragglers on the beach. And yet surprisingly quiet and peaceful. The pub nearby was most convenient, and up to its usual standard. We appreciated the complimentary parking permit, and we enjoyed the walk up to the car park, there are so many lanes, secret ginnels and amazing views along the way. Sykes were very prompt and efficient at sorting out a small issue with a blind, which was appreciated. All in all we had a marvellous week at Roxby Cottage, we enjoyed all that Staithes had to offer and would stay again at the cottage in a heartbeat! Thanks for a great holiday!

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