If you want a great location, especially if you have dogs, this is the cottage for you. Open the back door and you're a stones throw literally from Fitz Park, yet only a 5 minute walk in to the town centre. Unfortunately, that's about it for the positives. Oh, the bathroom was nice and modern, and the gas burner a nice addition in December.
The cottage was very dirty, and not just that the cleaner had missed the off thing that week. This was weeks worth of dirt and grime. From dirt in the cutlery drawer, to grease on the hob, dirt on the kitchen cupboard doors, to every skirting board in the house being filthy! We accidentally spilt some water on the living room floor. I couldn't believe how black the kitchen roll was after I'd moped it up! I've stayed in many holiday cottages and never seen anything like it. The first couple of hours of our stay, having arrived after office hours, was spent cleaning - not a great start to the holiday.
I sent photo's to Keswick Cottages and got a call from a lady from the cleaning team to say sorry. I finished the call slightly puzzled as to why they had rang. I don't feel a quick phone call apology sufficed if I'm honest, but that's all I got.
The sofa's are very uncomfortable - that could be a personal taste, and others might like them, but worth a mention. Likewise the very soft bed, and the single beds had the lovely plastic under sheets on them - not everyone sleeping in a single bed is a child with bladder issues!
Lastly, we stayed over Christmas, as we have done in many cottages. Usually the cottage is decorated accordingly. We had a small wooden reindeer at the door and a Christmas table cloth on the small dining table - not very festive!
This could be a fantastic cottage, in a fantastic location. Luckily the location can't be changed, hopefully the amount of TLC it gets will!