Marsdens Devon Cottages Reviews 297

We had our holiday cottage in Morthoe cancelled last minute. There was a problem with the gas boiler in the property.
The company did send an email at 13.30 (we were driving down from the Midlands) and a text but due to poor telecoms in the area, we did not pick it up until 5 mins before we were due to check in at 4pm.
You can imagine the tears and panic. We called the company several times, they emailed alternative accommodation, but only to be told later that they could not contact the owners. The company did in fairness provide a full refund and apologise, but this is serious stuff, finding out that the holiday you had booked and paid for 5 months in advance was cancelled with very very short notice. We were faced with driving back to the Midlands that same evening.
The questions we have are:
- Why could they not get an emergency gas engineer out on the Friday
- Why could they not have found similar accommodation in the area, contacted the owners in advance.
We are not blaming individuals, but there seems to be a lack of genuine customer care, just going through the motions.
The company have not offered additional compensation for the distress caused.

Nice, clean and lovely cottage with lots of utilities and all sort of utensils. The owner was very helpful and give us local information. My family love this cottage and the whole holidays.

We had a great time in Dartmouth and Northam in Devon. The two properties were ideal. Loved having a washing machine and dishwasher. All well equipped with lovely soft hotel type towels and quality cotton sheets. Website on property details was very useful.Nice to have a few starter packs, eg coffee, dishwasher tablets, and washing machine products. Felt very homely.

Had this holiday booked for nearly a year and was kept informed every step of the way

On 13 May 2023 it took 20 minutes to drive the last mile (on single-track road with inadequate passing places – we had to back up 4 times at around 16:45) and over 5 minutes to get down the 36 steps and into the key press for Apartment 8. So we arranged a Tesco delivery – “you should see it in summer” said the driver. If you want a phone signal then it is 36 steps back up to the car park. We chose to return home a day early, leaving at 06:40, to minimise our anxiety in negotiating the single-track road. We found the description of the apartment and its approach to be inaccurate and misleading on a number of counts. We won’t return, which is a shame, or use Marsdens again.

I am Happy for this review to be added in all its detail!!

the booking of this property was a nightmare it was last minute booked on the friday am was told somebody would ring me back to confirm the property was ready for us to arrive on the saturday, nobody rang me back at all i rang back chasing this booking up at least 5 times the only helpful person i spoke with was HOLLY but after ringing her back after 9pm friday night still didnt have an answer so had to ring back saturday 9am the day we was supposed to be going....
spoke to a lady who still hadnt had any confirmation that we could go an said if dont here back in next 30 mins we would be booking elsewhere were 6 hours away without traffic she finally rang back within 30 mins to say it was ready but no welcome pack would be there!!
The Above has made me doubt if would book with this company again they also share the sites with holidaycottages,co,uk and they cannot deal with any of these bookings very odd indeed

on arrival the property is easy to find and done to a very high standard
comfy bed
well equipped kitchen
only small fridge with small ice box freezer in top of fridge if you plan to have shopping delivered be away of the space
great location literally minutes walk to the beach and shops and bars
the beaches are stunning in the area and do get very busy we went in the quiet time and was still busy cannot imagine what would be like in the height of summer/school holidays

The details below did bring it down and certainly need addressing
the property was let down by the cleaning there was sand in every divert of the settee,
dust on the sides and sand on the gold trim above the tiles in the bath room and also dusty sides through out.
it looks to me that this property was last cleaned when the last person stayed there and nobody had been in it since we stayed as it was showing available the previous week.
after a quick hoover and wipe down it was all good.
also major let down the property states on street parking this is a lie
there is resident parking in most streets need a pass
or from 15th march till 31st October you can park for 1 hour no return within 2 hours you can park after 6pm till 10am if you can get a space
there are payable carparks in the town non are 24hour one shuts at 9pm one shuts at 11pm there nearest 24 hour carpark is in the next village which is a 30 min walk away
there was also building work going on at the properties down the side of the house where from 7:30am till 5PM ish there's a digger driving past your front door and living room window all day long that was from the Tuesday/Wednesday till the Friday of the holiday .
nothing was mentioned about that going on
there is also work going on on properties to the rear of the house can be seen from living room window!!

The house gets very very hot and could do with some fans as the only small opening windows are on the side hardly any air flow
there is only 1 front door key so if anyone wanted to stay in the house you would have to lock them in or get them to lock you out
fire hazard as no escape root from upstairs windows

for such a lovely property and location need a few things addressing don't know if that's the owner or the management company need to change things a little

replied to you with the booking ref and details but nobody bothered to get in touch or post the review on the page says a lot really

Date of experience: 05 May 2023

Great selection of quality properties, easy booking service on an intuitive website.

Information and directions were informative and clear, making the whole process stress free.

Would not hesitate to recommend Marsdens

Having the choice of some absolutely amazing properties, that allowed dogs, was great.
Everything you need to know about each property was mentioned in the listing.
Found it really easy to book and was kept up to date with information, leading up to and after our holiday.
Would highly recommend using Marsdens Devon Cottages

Clear, professional service, with wonderful properties in superb locations

The spaciousnesss and layout of the property. Also its location - a very good view over fields from the conservatory/lounge/garden. It was easy to get to local attractions and the attractive village of Dulverton was 15 mins walk away. The owner was approachable and helpful.

The cottage was well stocked, comfortable and clean. We thoroughly enjoyed the stash of dvd's, the log burner and the hot tub. The bed was comfortable with a lovely view into the garden, and the shower had surprisingly good water pressure. We enjoyed a picnic overlooking the orchard and playing fetch across the garden.
The hosts were friendly, though we did have two issues come up. 1. When we ran out of toilet paper, the host said they do not supply it and that nowhere does it say they do on the site. Perhaps this policy needs to be reviewed in line with more modern expectations of provision in a holiday cottage? And 2. We did not find out until after we arrived that pets are not allowed to be left in the cottage. I cannot find this information anywhere on the site and we would have second guessed booking this property had we known. I did explain to the host that my dog wouldn't be destructive, distressed or toilet indoors, and he agreed to allow her to be left while we went to activities that aren't dog friendly. However we were told off for our dog barking in the cottage while we were in the hot tub. Not even 30 minutes later the hosts own dog barked in their home. Dogs bark and it wasn't an inappropriate hour (6pm) for noise. I appreciate it can be a bit annoying, but given the fact we believed the cottage would be 'dog friendly', it made us feel uncomfortable and unwelcome. Also, how can someone use your facilities like the hot tub and pool if you have a dog, which isn't allowed in there? These issues contributed to our decision to leave a day earlier than planned and we're the only negative of our entire holiday.
The only other difficulties we had pertained to the WiFi and signal. The WiFi dropped out multiple times, which made it difficult when using maps to sat nav to locations, and the hosts had to reset it every time. This was only compounded by the fact there was no signal with EE and O2 so we couldn't even use our mobile data or make calls in the property. Although we recognise these issues are mostly not in the hosts control and have no expectation that they can do anything about it.
Overall a lovely holiday but with some unwelcome surprises.

Great house for family get togethers, dog friendly and plenty of space for cars and kayaks etc.

Informative website...accurate...helpful staff on telephone...

Nice selection of properties, easy to book. We were given regular " countdowns" prior to the date with useful information.

The house was exactly as advertised. It was clean and homely and the facilities were great. It was well placed in the village. It was easy to book too.

Great service , fantastic property. Everything we needed . What more can you ask for .

We stayed in Croyde in Devon for a week in March, this is our second stay with Marsdens. The property we stayed in is well presented, clean, well equipped and very comfortable. Communication is excellent with directions and instructions on key collection.

Lovely property very clean highly recommend

A good place to start looking for a Devon base for a holiday. Excellent range of properties on view and from our experience accurate in their descriptions.

Absolutely love meadowsidebarn. 5 star accommodation. Owners absolutely lovely. We work 7 days a week so a fabulous rural retreat with fab views. The 3 poodles loved it too.