Barbara A
May 2019
After travelling all day to reach Curlew cottage, we could not get inside. We were given a key code by Sykes Cottages letting agents which did not work. After eventually getting in touch by my mobile, we were told they would contact the owners and get back to us. We waited nearly two hours and only by chance the couple next door were leaving and assisted us. It was very clear at this point we were not given the right instructions. They never did get back to us, but lied and said they tried and left a voice message on my phone. Strangley enough there were no missed calls recorded and they sent us an email saying they tried to contact us but couldn't leave a voicemail ???? We are still waiting for an explanation and an apology at least.
The cottage is extremely uncomfortable. The mattresses need replacing as my husband and I and the friends that stayed with us all suffered with bad backs from the mattresses being to soft. The sopha also needs replacing for the same reason. The central heating is uncontrollable and comes on at all hours of the day and night. Even turning the thermastats down made no difference. The toilet in the main bedroom is only big enough for a child as it's wedged between the shower and the wall. The wooden stairs are steep and dangerous and if you are elderly or infirm in any way they are extremely difficult to go up or down. Getting your cases upstairs is ridiculously difficult. On closer inspection of other posters who left a positive feedback, they are few and far between and a long time ago. On first appearance the cottage looks ideal, but the faults only come to light once you are staying there. Stupid things like the dressing table mirror placed to high up the wall, that you have to stand up to see into it. All of this I would not have bothered writing a review if I had had an apology from the owners or Sykes letting agents who left us there and lied to us about getting back to us after waiting two hours to get inside the cottage. The owners did not agree with our complaints, well they wouldn't would they. They just couldn't care less and were only interested in taking our money. This was a very expensive experience as we cancelled a booking we'd made to stay there in August, knowing there was no way we could stay there again. We lost a great deal of money in a deposit we had placed. All in all Sykes letting agents, the owners of the cottage, were both unprofessional and anyone that stays here should be aware if they need assistance they won't get it.