4/10
This is a lovely comfortable well appointed cottage in a nice village within reach of Keswick and the Northern Fells. Sadly our mistake was booking a pet friendly Cottage, as we don't own a Cat or a dog we are not used to what they do to a home. As we opened the door we were hit with the strong smell of hot sweaty, wet dog, a smell that stayed in the cottage all week despite everything we did to eliminate it. The whole place was covered in dog/cat hairs and our first day was spent vacuuming and trying to fumigate the place. There was a Shark vacuum in the property that I had to service first before it was any use as the dirt basket was full, the roller clogged with hair and the filters thick with hair and dirt (I took Pictures as proof if this is questioned) Once serviced it worked well, but we filled up the vacuum dirt container over four times before we could allow our little grandchildren to play with their toys in the living area and their bedrooms. However over the week we just gave up as it just seemed to be everywhere and no end to it turning up. The person coming in after us will have a much cleaner place to stay I assure you. If that was not enough, the hot tap in the downstairs bathroom did not work and the rim of the toilet their was yellow, no amount of scrubbing by my wife could change that. In the upstairs toilet the lid was badly cracked and how that stayed in one piece during our stay is a beyond me. All the kitchen units needed a wipe over but I refused to allow my wife to spend her whole holiday cleaning the place. Lastly and sadly unavoidable is the smell of oil from the tank outside that provides the fuel for hot water and heating in winter. There is no extractor fan in the upstairs bathroom, so quite rightly the owners ask for the window to be left open. No problem except the wind blows the smell of oil throughout the top floor.
Now to be honest as annoying as all this was, after a clean and a change of wind direction, this was a really enjoyable stay. The beds were very comfortable and as mentioned the cottage has everything you could possibly need for a great stay... if your a dog owner or cat owner who loves that 'Doggy' smell and who is used to having hairs all over the carpets, on the chairs, sofa's and all over your clothes. I for one will never book a 'PET FRIENDLY' cottage ever again. As I say I have taken many pictures which obviously have the time and date in the metadata if my review truthfullness is questioned.
Graham S.
Estada de 7 nits (ag. 2022)