“We stayed in the house just before Christmas.”
It is in an absolutely beautiful and perfect location, just minutes from the sea and in the centre of town with easy access to shops. Every bedroom has a sea view, as does the siting room. It was well heated generally with a good boiler, although as expected when there was freezing cold winds outside there is only so much an old house can do to keep out the cold! It was very comfortable and the kitchen was fitted out beautifully.
Unfortunately we had a few problems. The biggest was that the house did not have winter duvets, just very light summer duvets, so we were very cold our first night (this was in deep December!). Because we arrived on a Saturday, our first full day was a Sunday and so no one was able to deliver more blankets that day. We ended up ordering blankets on Amazon. Heavier duvets were delivered on the Monday. Everyone was nice and polite, but it was a real pity we had to deal with this extra hassle.
The electric fire in the sitting room didn't work; when we pointed that out, we were told that they had tried to fix it already and failed. It was strange this had not been specified in the explanation of the house, and it would have helped with the heat when there was a winter storm.
Finally, the downstairs bathroom did not have any heat or hot water. It was not a big deal, really, but the problem was that a maintenance man turned up unannounced, asked to be let into the house, worked on the system for a while, and then asked if he could turn off the electricity while we were there cooking. We said no, of course, given that this was meant to be a holiday. It turns out the owner had asked the maintenance man to come without the knowledge of Sykes Cottages. We were very unhappy to be disturbed like this.
So overall it was a very mixed stay: exquisite spot, wonderful rooms, very comfortable, great bath, feeling very luxurious; but bedding not properly prepared for winter, electric fire not working, very dirty downstairs rug, and an unwelcome visit and disturbing visit from a maintenance man. In the end, we loved it enough that we would go back and I have already recommended it to friends--with a note of its imperfections!
