“What we liked:
Joanne, our host and property owner, who popped over shortly after we arrived to settle us in.”
The space of this former family home is great and in a lovely peaceful area overlooking the sea and is private with parking. The exterior of the house has a certain appeal due to the stone it is built with and had mature shrubbery in the gardens which appeared well kept. The toilets and bathrooms were generally nice and clean with soap and toilet rolls available. The bed linen and towels were also fresh and one double bed was made up ready for us which was nice. There were bits and bobs that ...
The space of this former family home is great and in a lovely peaceful area overlooking the sea and is private with parking. The exterior of the house has a certain appeal due to the stone it is built with and had mature shrubbery in the gardens which appeared well kept. The toilets and bathrooms were generally nice and clean with soap and toilet rolls available. The bed linen and towels were also fresh and one double bed was made up ready for us which was nice. There were bits and bobs that you could use in the house, i.e., in the kitchen, and it appeared to be well equipped. The heating and hot water worked well and the family bathroom shower was pleasing to use (we didn’t use the en-suite shower). The lounge and conservatory seating was comfortable. We liked the established house plants. The house, as stated, is in a peaceful area although to note, it is accessible via a single track road (there are not many vehicles coming and going so not a problem).
What we didn’t like:
The musty smell when entering the house (unfortunately, air fresheners dotted around the house did not hide this all week). This is an older style home, and largely dated. The cooker hob was dirty and we cleaned the ground in stains off this - we did not use the oven or hob so cannot comment further on this. All the key rooms in the house that we used had a lot of cobwebs hanging from the ceilings, walls, light fittings and bannister including live spiders, dead spiders and dead daddy-long legs. We cleaned as much of these away as possible, noting the hoover pipe is split, making it a challenge to use (also noted in a previous review). The two double beds were a little on the small side, hence we used one bed each - the mattresses were reasonable, not great (noted in a previous review) but the bed bases were very creaky - you wake yourself up every time you turn over. The twin bedroom mattresses appeared to be well past the sell by date too (these did not look or feel very comfortable, even for young children). There were a list of things that either needed replacing or repairing in addition to our above comments: curtains in the lounge are hung at an uneven angle, dirty windows, landing light fitting not secure to the ceiling, family bathroom sink water took ages to drain away, the hand held shower over the roll top bath could not be used, the light fitting in the bathroom was broken at the top housing dead flies, the mirror light switches did not work, bedroom ceiling light bulb not working, cooker under the stairs covered up (?) etc. The internet was a little intermittent at times and the tv reception had blips, particularly when the weather was poor. We could not even access our own Netflix account through the tv as it was completely ‘’locked’. While the beach is a 2 minute walk, (some) people with physical disabilities, the elderly or young children would struggle with accessing this and getting back up and we found the narrowing of the pathway a little off-putting (there is an alternative route available although we cannot comment on this).
Conclusion:
Unfortunately, there are more negatives than positives about our stay in Waters House (we made the decision not to let this spoil our break although it invariably, it does). We are disappointed that Sykes Cottages do not appear to have updated their rating of this property, despite some of the former reviews, and we do not agree with the ‘4 tick rating’ of this property. We do feel, however, that this could be a great holiday home to rent if it was given the TLC it desperately needs. Based on our experience, we rate this property as no more than a 3 star rating (if that) and unfortunately we would not recommend this property.
