Lakelovers Reviews

Was advised that the property next door had some work being done but majority would be done before the stay - wrong it was like a building site
The cleanliness was not satisfactory - egg and shell on wall next to bin - mould in the shower - floors filthy - the trays to cook in were disgusting and god knows what bacteria they contained
On complaining the decision by owners was that it was not an issue - even though photo's sent
Recommendation is to not use the property - Lakelovers (or Sykes Cottages) looked into but are only guided by the response from the owners so about as useful as a chocolate teapot

We have been staying in No.20 Eskin Street/Keswick now for 9 years, ever year and Lakelovers/Sykes are getting worse. We have just left the property and paid the deposit £600 for next year 2023. Amongst the group members, we found the week before the one initially booked, is £500 cheaper so we called within 48hrs, of the Internet booking to try and alter the booking and dates.

We were informed that the deposit would be forfeited and would they would have to cancel the booking and we would have to rebook. No "admin" fee or the like. For regular customers of nine years, I felt I had to add to their shocking Negative feedback and look forward to a response from them. I always dealt with the groups booking, but after four years of Lack of Customer service I handed it over to another one of our group of 10. Maybe that's why they changed their name, but the invoices and contact details are still Lakelovers..

Thought I was booking a cottage the day before arriving through Lakelovers. It turned out that it was actually Sykes. In the 24 hours we first looked at the cottage to booking the price went up. Apparently this was linked to the number of views we had made before booking.

On arriving at the cottage(which was lovely) we found construction work taking place 4 feet from the door. It was so loud the workers wore headphones. The work started at 8.30 and went on unto 4.30 every week day. It was impossible to stay in. It was clear from complaints in the guest book that the work had been going on for over 4 months but at no time were we informed.
On trying to rectify the situation Sykes made the whole process difficult. Ten days later we did get agreement to a small refund(still tore made 14 days later) however the amount of correspondence it took to get that far made us realise we were fighting a losing battle. Awful customer service.

Just leaving a property by Ullswater after a week. We rang when we checked in because we couldn't get the heating and hot water going and there were no instructions. We told them we had two elderly people, no heat or hot water. They promised to ring back. They didn't. As far as they're (not) concerned, we've spent a week without heat. The place was poorly cleaned beforehand. Obviously, never again.

Phoned Lakelovers Windermere office to ask if they could arrange for Champagne to be placed in a holiday cottage (as a surprise) in advance of one of my colleagues staying there. I was told that was a nice gesture and that they would transfer me to the right department to arrange it. I was transferred to their head office who told me that they did not offer this service due to the cost and effort of someone having to arrange it. I'm sure one of the housekeeping team could have arranged this and it would have made for an excellent guest check-in experience. Clearly Lakelovers aren't interested in going that extra mile for customers.

Avoid,avoid,avoid. I will never book another holiday through Lake Lovers (Syke Cottages). We visited Old Rigg Farm, in error we left some belongings behind. We contacted customer service 2hrs after we left and where advised that they had located the good and they required £15.00 to return them to us. 12 weeks later, 25 calls, 25 failed callbacks I was advised that they had sent our belongings to another guest in error. 2 weeks later they decided they had enough of our case and where closing it. At no point was I offered a refund or goodwill, to say they lack customer service is an understatement. I cannot stress enough that you should avoid booking with this company.

Went to appartment in Ambleside in September. On arrival the placed looked clean but soon realized how filthy it was. Cobwebs everywhere and dead spiders ! The dust was thick. We paid an extra £35 for cleaning fee. When we returned home we complained to Lakelovers and attached photos. They just informed us there is nothing they can do as we did not inform them when we were on holiday. The only reason we didnt inform them is we didnt want to spoil holiday and have to stay in for them to inspect. We were disgusted with their reply. We have stayed at this appartment many times and never had any problems. All i can put it down to is this new company Sykes that has taken over. We will never be booking with Lakelovers/Sykes again ! So stay clear.

Had to complain about our rental property, Langdale View at Windermere..
Lake Lovers took the details and said they would contact the property owner with a view to compensation( paid over £1300 for one week early October 2021).. I have chased Lake Lovers a numerous times and they just say the same thing, they will contact owners again.
They take no responsibility for any problems and do not do anything if the owners do not bother replying. Total waste of time. I will not use them again!

The house is centrally located opposite Coop in Keswick. It had everything you could need and great extras like the dog bed, treats and blankets as well as human ones like Milk, biscuits and a bottle of wine which made the stay all the better.

The house is comfortable, relaxing and has everything you could need cooking wise in a lovely kitchen separated from the living area. The utility room was very handy after rainy days and storage. The gas fire very warming and saves the messing with woodburners.

The parking is ok but if a large car is in front (from the house next door) it is tricky parallel parking against a stone wall and a fence behind. When we arrived next doors tow bar was over hanging our space which made it tricky, a quick word and they moved the car a lot forward. I would say if you have a medium to large car don't bother with the parking, you can buy an online monthly pass for most Keswick car parks for £28 or use the Rugby club at £4 per 24hrs,.

Overall an excellent stay, we loved the house, meeting the owners and had a very relaxing stay.

Lakelovers were good, mainly because the owners do their own cleaning and we didn't have any complaints to raise which seems to be the issue. We do tend to avoid Sykes group/empire but had little choice as they control 90% of the holiday rental market in Keswick now.

My partner and I were due to stay at a Lake Lovers property from October 29th to 01 November. We were due to attend The OMM at Langdale, it was cancelled due to severe weather. On the advice of the local council and many tourist organisations in the area we decided not to travel due to severe weather in Cumbria and around Keswick in particular. However on contacting Lake Lovers they refused to move the booking or refund the booking, they insisted that there was no issue with flooding and that we should still travel to the cottage. This advice was in direct conflict with official travel advice and therefore we didn’t travel to the accommodation. The customer service and lack of empathy with the situation were very poor and I wouldn’t recommend dealing with this company. I will not be booking with them again having lost £540.

Lakelovers has devolved from a lovely Lake District holiday cottage company. Only recently did I realise they had been acquired by Sykes, possibly the worst holiday company going! Used Lakelovers for years, recommended to family and friends, not anymore. Had to cancel a holiday due to my niece getting covid, contacted LL and they couldn’t wait to cancel it, the cottage was back on the market within 20 minutes, once cancelled they didn’t want to help at all, useless! I requested my insurance policy, to which was told LL didn’t have, even though bought through them, the insurance company (through Sykes) informed me LL could only provide. Unless you don’t have any standards whatsoever, steer clear of these cowboys.

My son booked Muirhead at Applethwaite hall 10th September for myself and my wife as we were celebrating his wedding on the Monday of our stay.
Arrived Saturday evening and were very disappointed on arrival due to the poor standard of cleaning & temperature in the rooms.
When unpacking our food we found that the fridge needed cleaning as the door seals and shelves were dirty, and every cupboard door had a thick layer of dust on the ledges. The toaster also required cleaning before use, as there were remains of the previous occupant's food inside.
The dish-drainer was in a disgusting state so we did not attempt to clean, and placed it in the dishwasher out of the way.
The washing machine detergent draw and door seal had not been cleaned (possible dog hairs).
There was broken glass (faced away from view) in the cupboard (no shards so knowingly placed) - had a child found this they could have been seriously injured; There was also several chipped & cracked cups in the cupboard which should have been replaced.
All the doors had dust on the ledges which can be seen in the photos.
The bedroom door handle screws were hanging out and could have cut your hand - this indicates no cleaning has taken place on the handles.
The shower door seal was also filthy, and metal shower shelf for toiletries was covered in rust which transferred to anything placed on it - we had brought special items for the wedding which would have been covered in rust |(completely unusable).
My wife has severe osteo arthritis so cannot do without the shower shelf so placed an expensive cloth over to protect the products, the cloth is now ruined.
The bathroom storage holders were also dirty,
The heating is pre-set at 19 degrees in the rooms and 16 degrees in the hall, the kitchen radiator is broken. Lake lovers supplied a stand-alone heater for the kitchen. When trying to override the heating (which Steve Rainer at lake lovers suggested) it immediately drops back to the pre-set temperature. This heating is controlled by the owners via a Hive system from their home, and also contains motion sensors next to each radiator which drops the temperature if it does not detect movement. I don't come on holiday for someone else to control my heating!
We were both uncomfortably cold, and with a disability such as Arthritis we found this unacceptable.
We are both 67 years old suffering with osteo arthritis (Age UK stipulate that the temperature in a living room for over 65s should be a minimum of 21 degrees.
We spent most of Sunday cleaning before attending my son's wedding on Monday.
We visited the Lake lovers office on Tuesday and Steve Rainer took our complaint, we showed him the photos of the issues and in his words this was totally unacceptable.
Steve asked if we wanted a cleaning team sending out, I said we had already cleaned the property as much as we could.
Steve organised for maintenance to attend the property to repair the heater in the kitchen and to try and override the heating.
Maintenance arrived the same day, they could not repair the heating in the kitchen and left a free standing heater for us to use.
Maintenance said they would contact the owners to override the heating as he was unable to do so.
At 9.30pm the same evening my wife was so cold she was sitting in the living room with her Scarf and coat on.
In our opinion the heating was never changed.
There is a 9am leaving policy for a Covid deep-clean, with occupancy unavailable until 4pm (leaving a 7 hour cleaning window).
Before leaving we were expected to strip the beds, remove towels, remove rubbish, load the dishwasher, all before 9am - I am unable to see what the cleaning team have done on top of this given our experience.
We attempted to vacuum the hallway, but the smell of dog from the vacuum would have engulfed the house - This obviously requires new filters.
We came on holiday needing a break, and went home needing a holiday, very cold & tired.
When I returned home I sent the photos to lake lovers to investigate our complaint, several days later I received this communication from Gemma at Sykes cottages.
The information she gave was totally untrue.
Contacted Lakelovers on Wednesday 22nd regarding this communication and Sue said I would receive a call back from Steve.
This did not happen.
Contacted Lakelovers again on Wednesday 22nd and Judie said Steve would have an answer for me on Friday 24th as the case was being investigated.
This did not happen.
Contacted Lakelovers again on Tuesday 28th and Dee said Steve was on the other line and he would return my call.
This did not happen.
Contacted Lakelovers again on Tuesday 28th and Geo said that Steve was the maintenance person and he would not be dealing with this,
No replies or apologies from Lakelovers or the owner.
Totally shocking company.

Mr Holcroft

Hello i was staying in ambleside and had booked a trip on a bus with mounting goat . I was told they stop at water head so as I was not sure if it was near the booking office for boat trips i ask a member of the boat crew and he said i don't know I don't work for them. as he is there 52 weeks a year i am sure he must have seen there bus if it stopped near the booking office . he was just a job.s. worth and yes thebus did stop near the booking office. (sum people want to grow up)

I hadn’t been to the Lake District for almost 50 years. Honey Cottage must have last been decorated around that time. When we arrived, the front door was in an appalling state and needed a re-paint. Sadly, the same was true of the rest of the cottage. Ancient furniture and 1960s decor. The building had obviously once been part of a large house, then broken up into bed-sits, then stitched together as a cottage. It reeked of a landlord who couldn’t care less, especially in the current staycation COVID boom. We are experienced holiday let owners ourselves, in both the UK and Spain, but Honey Cottage is by some distance the worst holiday let that we have ever seen. Even the small courtyard garden hadn’t been touched for months. Utterly awful.

We had a late booking for a property in Ambleside but unfortunately had to cancel because of my wife's mother's deteriating health. Took out the insurance upon booking (£40) but did not receive any policy or policy number upon booking confirmation (which apparently I should have). It turns out the insurance is with a 3rd party company and not with Lakelovers/Sykes.
The insurance company sent out a claims form which is ridiculously long winded and quite intrusive as to my mother in laws health history. Unfortunately my mother in law died and I am awaiting a death certificate to prove that to the insurance people. As I knew the property had been re-let on our dates (for more than we had originally paid) I asked Lakelovers where my money had gone and they said to the owner of the property. So I asked if the owner had been paid twice for that week and they confirmed this and did not even try to get me a refund as "it is in the smallprint".
They said that is why I paid insurance????
Do not be conned by this company as we have been.
BOOK ELSEWHERE.