This is a fabulous cottage with lots of space and facilities. The cottage was clean and had everything that we needed/ wanted. The location was lovely, and there was a beautiful garden to the front and back.
The review form mandates the completion of the ranked scale for cleanliness, customer service, comfort, condition, location and value for money. Overall the cottage itself was excellent, but the cottage included a hot tub and sauna and outdoor space which was the reason for booking in the first place. Therefore the ranking provided is an overall score combining both the cottage and the outdoor facilities.
The main issue with the cottage was accessing the hot tub and the condition of the hot tub. There is a slabbed pathway in the garden but it does not reach the hot tub or the sauna. The patio doors from the cottage lead out to the hot tub and sauna, but to access them both you require to walk down a grassy slope. Given it had been raining, the sloped area was wet and the mud was making it slippy. The alternative was to walk across another patch of grass, resulting in wet and muddy feet by the time we reached the hot tub (wearing flip flops). This area really needs a pathway or some decking or something to make accessing these facilities easier and less risk of slipping on wet grass (especially given the lovely Scottish weather!).
The sauna was brilliant. The hot tub unfortunately appeared old and in need of repair. Several parts fell off the hot tub on first entering it. Other than two pillows falling off, we had no idea what the other parts were. Some were floating on the water, other parts sank to the bottom. The hot tub felt warm (not hot) and there were undissolved tablets floating. We didn't stay in it for too long on the first day we arrived.
On the second day we assumed someone would arrive to do some maintenance work on the hot tub (new tablets to clean etc), however no one arrived. We contacted the named person to report the difficulties we were having but we were told that the responsibility for maintenance of the hot tub was via an external organisation and that we should report this ourselves to this organisation. Given that we were all on holiday looking for a stress free weekend, the last thing we wanted to do was be on the phone to someone reporting an issue regarding a product belonging to someone else.
On the third day we gave the hot tub a last try, but on opening the cover, we found the temperature to be 34oC, it wasn't warm enough to sit in.
We spent most of the weekend using the sauna.
The cottage itself was perfect but the weekend was about relaxing, using the hot tub and being outdoors. The difficulties we had with the hot tub did put a dent into what would have been the best weekend.
I emailed the person we booked with on return from the cottage to provide feedback on our experience and received no reply, therefore it is difficult for me to make recommendations to others to use this cottage in the future; the most important aspects of purchasing a product is the customer service and value for money.