Nice location, pleasant cottage.

Booked for farm-seaside cottage with booking.com, but Sykes Cottages of London had handled administration and payment. We incorrectly judged it as top class accommodation on the basis of price - £1,358 for three nights. All weekend we discussed and puzzled about the price. Firstly we didn’t get anything like four days at the premises: when Sykes’ terms and conditions arrived, they said we could only take possession at 6 PM on the first day (Thursday), and we had to leave by 9 AM on the last day (Sunday). So, at a nett 2 ½ days, a stupendous £543.20 per day! The blurb talked of a private beach - in fact it was a shady hollow of damp shingle on a rocky shore. The farm itself was charming, with sheep and llamas. But the cottage was modest. The main bedroom barely accommodated the 4’6” old-style double bed, which was so narrow for two that after the first night I slept on the floor. The pint-sized fridge had cracked moulding, resulting in a door shelf spilling out every time we opened it; I repaired it temporarily with duct tape. The TV remote did not work. The laminate on the ground floor was defective and folding. But overall, the cottage’s finishings were good and it was a nice place to be – probably worth £400-£500 for the duration. The manageress was dismissive about the defects but genuinely surprised at the price we had paid. After the weekend Helen on