“Crozier cottage is in a fabulous location, both for views and local amenities.”
It is well equipped and comfortable and well thought out. Not all facilities are listed by Sykes, ie downstairs toilet and use of Netflix not mentioned. Since Sykes took over from Heart of the lakes, standards of cleanliness and customer service have fallen dramatically. Despite the cleanliness of Crozier Cottage being mentioned by previous guests, some of whom were blamed by Sykes for being "irresponsible dog owners" one of the problems was still not addressed. This was due to the hoover being over full with weeks of dirt and dog hairs which blocked it completely and deposited the dirt back on the carpet. It took my husband half an hour to clean it out and get it useable for us. The general cleanliness in the current Covid climate was also lacking, particularly after we received an email telling us that our access time was put back to 6.00 pm because the usual cleaner was isolating and extra cleaners had been brought in. The email was sent after 2.00 pm on our arrival day and was not read until the next day, and strangely when we arrived at 4.05 pm there were no cleaners on site, so we went in. Prior to our holiday i contacted Sykes twice and was promised a call back that I never received. Their Customer Relations who deal with complaints were quite rude to me and the phone call to them achieved nothing. Each time I phoned Sykes I had difficulty hearing the person dealing with me because of the laughing and personal conversations going on in the back ground. Apparently Customer relations seemed to think this was fine! So I feel very sorry for Heart of the Lakes who have always been good and professional when we have used them many times before. I would certainly think very carefully before using Sykes again, we look for smaller companies that care about their customers. The good reviews that Sykes get are generally relating to the ease of the booking system they use, not about their customer care or the actual cottages.
