Holly Cottage, Helford

We booked this cottage through Sykes. The first point to make clear is that there is no parking, when we booked the Sykes advert had stated that off street parking was available. Instead the parking available is a walk down the road from the property in front of residents’ houses. It is a very busy rural road with lots of farm vehicles passing at speed at all hours, not ideal to walk up and down with a young family each time you want to go out. A few times during our stay there was no parking available outside neighbouring properties so we were forced to park out of the village in a lay-by. The property was listed as being baby friendly, please be aware if you have a small child like us that the staircase is little more than a wooden ladder with slate flagstones below. Not really suitable for anyone with mobility problems or a small child. We immediately flagged this up and eventually got a stair gate almost a week into our stay. The garden was very overgrown when we arrived, as stated in other reviews. The BBQ was mouldy and the garden furniture stacked and filthy, despite us holidaying in August when one would expect to use a garden. There were no BBQ tools available so we struggled along with kitchen utensils. Sykes did address these concerns when we reported that light switches in the kitchen were giving electric shocks when pressed, fortunately it was only my husband that had received the shocks as the switches were high enough that the children hadn’t touched them. The beds in the cottage were comfy, the shower good. We really appreciated the dishwasher and washing machine. But for just shy of £3000 we expected parking, a useable garden and BBQ and definitely didn’t expect to find the electrics to be unsafe! The customer service from Sykes was appalling, we would never use them or one of their many subsidiaries again. Their advert for the cottage was inaccurate, we would not have booked had we known the parking situation. We we were basically ignored by them with regard to the unsafe staircase until it became apparent that the electrics were unsafe so they had to act. They didn’t take any responsibility for anything, lied about call backs to us and then said nothing more they can do as they are only the booking agent. Overall it was not as expected and I can’t really recommend.