WARNING - Keith and Helen (K/H) have a very strict change/cancelation policy! We booked 6 weeks in Fellside. A month after booking, circumstances required us to reduce our stay to 4 weeks. We gave K/H 2 -1/2 months notice. They told us they would re-list the two weeks (which they did) and they said they would work with us on a refund (which they did NOT). The 2 weeks did not rebook in the 2- 1/2 months that they were re-listed. We asked K/H to please refund the 2 weeks that we did not use or at the very least to give us a credit that could be used in the future. Our requests/emails were ignored.
The cottage itself was nice - roomy, comfortable and well appointed (other than the kitchen, which was a bit sparsely equipped). However, it was plagued with a host of issues that continually had to be dealt with - to name a few: a bathroom that was unusable due to a very bad odor, a broken washing machine, numerous failed light bulbs, slow draining shower and sinks, a missing DVD player. To their credit, K/H remedied these issues with the exception of the strong decaying/dead animal odor in the bathroom, the source of which was never identified. However, it was annoying to have to deal with all of these issues, and surprising in a property as expensive as Fellside.
The issues above are the reason for our 1 star rating. We rate our accommodations based on whether or not we would return. For us, having to pay for 2 weeks of unused accommodations has cast a dark shadow over Fellside and K/H - accentuating the cons and diminishing the pros of our stay.
We do quite a bit of traveling. When selecting accommodations, we rely heavily on reviews. Therefore, we always try to take the time to return the favor by writing detailed reviews including pros and cons lists. Below is our cons and pros lists.
Cons - inflexible change policy, quite expensive compared to other lovely cottages we have rented in Ambleside, lack of views, no Wi-Fi signal in the main bedroom, extremely steep windy driveway, difficult parking spot, main bedroom bathroom shower basically has one temperature and it makes a loud whining sound.
Pros - comfortable living room, good size refrigerator/freezer, plenty of storage for food and clothes.
We are usually so happy with our rental cottages and we have come away with life-time friendships with many of the cottage owners. In contrast, the experience with Helen and Keith has been quite frustrating and disappointing for us.