“First of all I do want to say that this cottage is as beautiful as it looks.”
However, the owners are VERY VERY difficult and will not offer any support or compensation if anything goes wrong and for this reason I highly recommend you book else were if you value your money. DO NOT BOOK!
We booked a week here in nov 2021 as a honeymoon with our 2 children. Sadly this was as storm Arwen hit the Lake District now I do want to say I totally understand that this was unforeseen and not the fault of the owner or lakes lovers however please let me explain why I am so upset and frustrated by this we arrived at approx 5pm on Friday the 26th November that evening at around 8 pm the storm hit and all electricity to the property was lost, we went to bed with our 2 children to keep warm and presumed the power would be back quickly unfortunately we woke the next morning with still no electricity or hot water and an evening without power had left the cottage completely freezing cold, we decided to spend Saturday night in a near by hotel hoping again the power would return, Sunday we returned to the property with still no electricity, heating or hot water, at this point we made the decision to return home and informed lakes lovers. On Monday we received a phone call directly from the owner who informed us that the electricity was back and asked if we would be willing to return, we live approx 1 and a half hours away but we decided to return back to try and have the holiday we booked, we were so happy to see the power was back on however that evening the power went again and again left us freezing cold and no hot water, we decided to stay the night again in the cold in hoping this would return, it returned for a couple of hours on Tuesday and then went off again now as explained I have 2 very small children so as you can imagine this really isn’t sustainable and we returned home on Tuesday 30th November. We again informed the owner and lakes lovers.
Now let me just say again I know this storm was not the owners or lakes lovers fault and so close to Christmas we didn’t want to be taking money off people through no fault of their own, therefore in my opinion we were not difficult at all we did NOT request compensation for money lost in petrol goIng to and from this property nor did we ask to be reimbursed for the money we spent on a hotels to keep our children warm, all we simply requested was for the owner to provide us with what we paid for which was 1 week in the Lake District with my family, we were willing to negotiate a date and return back in 2022 no money needed to cross hands, however sadly the owner of this property decided to insult us and offered 695, now we had paid over a 1000 to stay in this property so what are we so called paying this money for, the owners response to this was he needed to pay for over heads and cleaning for the next people to stay, now correct me if I’m wrong but given we hadn’t spent more that 24 hours in this property that is not for me to pay, the owner should be claiming this from else were not from a customer that has paid for something she hasn’t received.
Sykes cottages who own lakes lovers have actually been very helpful but please be aware any issues like this you will be told by lakes lovers that the decision to refund will be on the owner and as you can see this owner is VERY difficult.
I’m very sad that it had to come to this, this could have been resolved very amicably but the owner has other ideas.
There are many more cottages on this website with owners that will support you when things go wrong and for that reason I implore you to book a different cottage.
I am so sorry to hear that your wedding and honeymoon were disrupted by the storm and understand how upsetting and frustrating this must have been. In turn, I am deeply sorry that you feel we have been unfair in our response and saddened to receive such unhappy feedback, for the first time in over three years since we began renting the house. It is of the utmost importance to us that our guests have a wonderful stay, and I would like to think that our usual scores reflect this.
My understanding from conversations our housekeeper had with early arrivals was that your whole party of eight would be staying at your wedding venue hotel on Saturday night? I hope that you had a wonderful day and enjoyed your stay.
As we live some considerable distance away, Lakelovers manage the property for us. In addition to their customer service and maintenance teams, our guests are also supported by our wonderful housekeeper, who lives close by. I know that Hayley offered you additional logs for the woodburner and fireplace, as well as candles, hot water bottles and even her own portable heater to try and help in the short term. I do therefore feel it is rather unfair to suggest that no assistance was offered.
She called to the house to check for storm damage on Monday, and noted that you hadn’t returned, but your personal belongings were still in the house. This is why we contacted you directly to let you know power had been restored.
I am sorry that you feel it was unreasonable to retain the cleaning cost but refund the rest of your payment, although we were not required to do so. . I was also totally unaware that you had suggested transferring the booking to another date? I, too, would very much have liked the opportunity to reach an amicable agreement. Property Owner