We had a lovely stay at the Victory. Gorgeous house in a perfect location. Great for kids as well as adults. Very sweet and accommodating booking agents.

2 families of 4 plus two small dogs stayed. The Victory is a quirky property, full of character in a fantastic location right on the beach in Kingsdown. We stayed over New Year when the weather was rubbish so spent a lot of time in the property - maybe my review would differ slightly if just used as a place to sleep in the summer when outdoors more. Positives: The property itself on first impression once inside has lots of character and the bedrooms are very comfortable and spacious. The kitchen/dining area is great for socialising - we celebrated new year with games/karaoke and it was perfect. The log burner was lovely and we appreciated that plenty of logs were left for us (shame there was no kindling to get it started.- We had to borrow some from the pub next door, which was great by the way!) Upstairs snug had great views of the sea (through the scaffolding (see below) Negatives: We arrived to the house to find it covered is scaffolding so not a great start. It was obviously there for a reason but might have been nice to have been pre-warned about this when we were expecting to turn up to a beautiful beachfront house. the lounge (an extension of the kitchen/diner) is not big enough for 8 people to relax together. Being the winter we wanted to get cosy and watch a film together - we had to move chairs and to say it was a little cramped is an understatement. The kitchen is extremely under-equipped if you want to self-cater. Not enough cookware to prepare a meal for 8 people (we had to go and buy our own roasting trays) and some of the utensils could do with replacing. Again, it depends what you want from your holiday - if you’re eating out all the time, a slice of toast and a cuppa would be fine. The garden is a courtyard, which would have been fine except it was a mess from whatever building work was going on. I even paving, broken furniture, builders tools, so felt unsafe for the children and dogs. Overall, we enjoyed our time at The Victory, however, we have stayed in much better properties at the same time of year for less cost - you are paying for the location and view, not luxury.

This is our 2nd time staying in Kingsdown with Keepers Cottages, first time at The Victory. It didn’t disappoint! We were 6 adults, 3 small children and 2 infants. I was worried it may feel too cramped for us all but it was perfect due to the layout, location and excellent amenities at the property. Beach at your doorstep and next door to the lovely pub, we all enjoyed walks, a big bbq as a family in the backyard and generally fell in love with the property! The toys were very well received and everyone raved about the comfy beds. Another great find is the Oxtail butcher, 5 mins walk - they had everything we needed for our bbq, brilliant produce, we didn’t need to go further than there! Thank you so much Keepers Cottages and we will be back!!

Before starting my property review I want to state that none of this is a reflection on Keepers Cottages who endeavoured to help but were not backed up by the owner. I also acknowledge that my review is on outlier against others here and elsewhere but I photo documented everything, and have sent the photos to the owner. We found the property to be both poorly cleaned and poorly maintained. Our welcome was a broken front gate (which was like this when we were in the area in March), leading to a property in which there was a used tissue in the living room, used make up wipes in the downstairs bedroom along with a part empty can of beer under the bed. The shower curtain was mouldy, the casing of TV remote was melted, the washing machine door broken, there was soiled bed linen in the upper bedroom, dead plants, frayed furniture, a dirty pot in the kitchen cupboard, a leaking radiator, and a badly stained blind in small first floor bedroom. Outside, the food bins had food in them and one was truly disgusting with rotting food and numerous flies. The cardboard bin was full to overflowing and the glass bin was half full of plastic and foil containers mixed in with bottles and glasses, which had obviously been taken from the Zetland Arms. Keepers Cottages arranged for their rubbish collection company to come and empty the bins - the owner doesn't provide this service so you're expected to wait until the council empty the bins. The front terrace has four or five holes where paving is missing, which is potentially dangerous and the wooden furniture is falling apart – two of the seats should not be used. The back terrace is no better, being quite overgrown with weeds and again with furniture which is well past its best. It’s certainly not an inviting place to sit. We were also surprised that there was no pack giving details of the house, the equipment, the local area, local restaurants etc. Nothing to make us feel in any way welcome. The property has a 'shabby chic' design, which is absolutely fine but it shouldn't be at the expense of cleanliness, good maintenance and safety. Over the years we have rented a number of properties in this price bracket - £2,770 for a week - (we have twice stayed elsewhere in Kingsdown) but have never had an experience like this one. We complained directly to the owner and were offered an evening meal for two as a gesture of goodwill. We politely declined, although in reality we were insulted by the offer, which we felt was derisory for the experience we'd had. Thanks to Keepers Cottages for your assistance over the week.