Suffolk Secrets Reviews 

We couldn’t have had a better stay at the Blue House, Westleton. The cottage was well furnished and equipped, and the dining room with the bifold doors and additional seating was where we spent an awful lot of our time. The garden was very dry after the long heatwave but was still constantly full of butterflies and there were lovely climbing passion fruit plant full of flowers and fruit and a fig right next to the dining room.

The kitchen had everything you need plus space to store your own food, which I often find is sorely lacking in holiday cottages.

The house is well furnished, the beds and bedding wonderfully comfortable with lots of nice decorative touches throughout.

For us the location was superb as we were on the doorstep for Minsmere, Westleton Heath, Darsham Marshes and myriad footpaths. If you want to do something a bit more cultural/sightseeing/beachy, Aldeburgh and Southwold are just a short drive away and Snape Maltings & Woodbridge just a little further.

We had a problem with the shower, which was dealt with the same day. We couldn’t have asked for better service from Suffolk Secrets from the start of our booking until the end of our stay. We wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Suffolk Secrets or a stay at the Blue House. We’d certainly love to return.

Well designed website provides accurate information in an easy to understand manner. Booking process is very clear and user-friendly. Have used for a number of years and always happy. with website.

We recently stayed in Butterfield House in Beccles, having used Suffolk Secrets many, many times we were very comfortable with the £3,000 cost for the week, being sure it would be worth the money…large house with a garden and cinema room on the river. We had a myriad of problems…thick dust everywhere, freezing cold bedrooms, boiling hot kitchen that we couldn’t even walk on the floor as it burned our feet….cinema room not working, television controls not working, garden unkept and unusable… having complained to suffolk secrets, expecting at least some financial recompense for the lack of heating…nothing! A very weak apology and a “sorry we can’t get hold of the landlord, but you can try if you like”… but we didn’t book the house with the landlord, we booked with you! Still no response.
We will never use them again and we suggest you don’t either!

Great experience in a very nice and modern Property. Everything was very clean and it was well equipped. We highly recommend this property to other people.

Best place I've ever stayed. Great location, great host, stayed several times and looking forward to returning again in September!

Have used Suffolk Secrets and the original company, Heritage Hideaways for past 25 years, which says it all.

Unfortunately system doesn't allow me to give no star rating otherwise I would have. We stayed in The Cabin in southwold, lovely location normally but the accommodation was appalling, dirty curtain, blown windows, frayed carpets and worst of all mouldy shower door and bath mat, corners of conservatory also mouldy, stained tea towels, unusable frying pans and broken garden furniture. I was offered £100 as top offer of recompense which I feel was an insult, considering house was £1600 for 6 days. Suffolk secrets admitted cleaning was there responsibility, but this was not missing a clean on one occasion for the amount of filth that had occurred. I have booked with this company before and had no reason to complain but I will never book with them again because of this incident. This is not what you expect when you go away for a relaxing time. This was all backed up by photos and still a ridiculous insulting offer of compensation.

A beautiful property and grounds with everything you could need. Great location for exploring Suffolk

We enjoyed our holiday in Reydon, Southwold, Suffolk.
The Headmaster's House was an excellent property. It was tastefully presented and was comfortable. WE loved being so near to the countryside as well as the sea.The Headmaster's House, Reydon

We always use Suffolk Secrets to book our holiday home rentals. They have a great website with a fantastic selection of properties at all price points and a large number of dog friendly rentals. The properties are always well presented and equipped with everything you need. As a company we have always had a positive experience and they have never let us down.

Suffolks Secrets are really bad. There are a lot better agencies out there please spend your hard earned holiday money with them rather than Suffolk Secrets. The apartment was nothing like the pictures more two star than four. Shower was broken, emergency lights were faulty. It appeared the correct Electrical safety checks had not been completed. This means the property could be being let when it should not, and lives could be put at risk??. We went into the Suffolk Secrets office and reported some faults. They. Blamed the Owners who in turn blamed Suffolk secrets. Needless to say nothing got fixed

Great location, great cottage with everything you need.
Nature reserve only 5 mins away, plenty of great dog walks.
Would book again.

Property was well equipped with good sized bedrooms and excellent location 100m walk to Aldeburgh high St but beware a fairly steep incline for elderly clients, but unfortunately the outside space was very disappointing a grubby non inviting patio area with a non existent BBQ/garden area and more importantly unsafe wooden steps to front entrance an accident waiting to happen. overall disappointing. .

Very good experience booking with Suffolk Secrets. Website was accurate, the booking experience was easy and the property we rented fully lived up to our expectations. We were kept well informed by text and email re. details of the holiday

We booked a cottage on Aldeburgh Suffolk for 4 nights, having been to this delightful town many times.
Certainly not cheap, we expected a reasonable standard. The cottage was dusty , greasy in in kitchen
and in desperate need of some decorative attention, being over furnished reduced space in a compact space. We managed as there were only 2 of us, but would be a nightmare with 4, or 6 as advertised. Garden overgrown. since this was a short 'relaxing' break, we didn't raise the issues whilst there ( since we didn't want a series of agents, cleaners, gardeners and maintenance disrupting our stay.
Suffolk Secrets should be undertaking their own quality control.
we took a number of photos and upon return we requested a refund of just 10%. We were bluntly refused and directed to their terms and conditions.
Nice touch, we will not use this company in future.
In fairness, on a positive point , they did return a left item.

This is a great stay for large family and friends get togethers, a dining room big enough to accommodate everyone along with plenty of seating areas for those who want some quiet time. A great addition of a games room. The local area is surprisingly pretty, and the Old Rectory is a minute's walk from Alton Water. There is lots of outdoor space for football and frisbee games.

I am putting this review here because there seems to be no “official” way of submitting a review on the Suffolk Secrets website and now I know why… I completed the feedback form with exactly the same information and have had no response and I don’t believe that the issues in the property will be addressed so plenty of other people will make the same mistake as I will and book a holiday there.

“High Tide (Aldeburgh, Suffolk) was a disappointment. It was clean and tidy but had a musty smell and appeared in a tired and worn condition. The property is clearly in need of updating and refreshing to make it feel welcoming and comfortable, instead everything (from the little things like cutlery and bigger aspects such as walls and furniture) appears worn, well-used and very uninviting. The musty smell we traced to the sink. Scratches on the walls, dents in the appliances, just a bit grotty in general and not a place that feels someone has put a conscious effort into to making a homely and peaceful accommodation. Coat hangers for example, were a mixed bunch of leftovers and I know things like that are seemingly insignificant but they have an impact on the experience. The microwave appears to be held on with brown tape and the shower head too (it actually fell down multiple times mid-shower.) In fact, I was very surprised that a company such as Suffolk Secrets would represent/manage such a place and I do not feel that it was good value for money at all. I am returning to Suffolk for another work trip in a few weeks and have noted not to book SS as this place has really put me off.

Redeeming features are the location and the parking.”

I don’t believe this place should have been let out for people to holiday in and certainly not as highly priced as it was. The communication process with Suffolk Secrets seems to be poor as there is no way of contact beyond a random telephone number once you’re actually staying and no opportunity for you to be able to address anything. It feels like a company that takes your money and doesn’t actually care about your holiday.
I will never rent a property through them again and would advise all others to avoid. Disappointing and not that difficult to change for the better.

Great break with the sun shinning. Forth time to suffolk, first time to Aldeburgh. Lovely seaside town. The cottage was in a great location, easy reach to beach, pubs and shops. The photos on the website made the cottage look spacious but infact it was tiny. Although being small it was compacted with everything you needed, all in good working order. The double bed was so uncomfortable, the first two nights I slept on the sofa. I was unable to pull the sofa bed out as there wasn't enough room in the lounge. The website should have photos of the shared courtyard. I felt the price didn't reflect the size and comfort of the cottage though.

Comfortable, well equipped cottage in Westleton. Ideal location for Minsmere, Dunwich Heath and the coast.

A reminder of my recent complaint to you:
I recently spent a week with my wife at Knot Cottage, in Woodbridge. You may be aware that immediately upon arrival I contacted your office to express my concern about a couple of things that were a shock to us and which we were not expecting from our understanding of the advertising copy on your website, and hoped that we could be moved elsewhere as the two main issues were enough to ruin the weeks holiday for us. Sadly that was not to be, and we had to make the best of a poor situation, however it did cause us quite considerable stress during the week.

Leaving aside the disappointment when we saw the minute size of the kitchen and the fact that there is minimum room to move when the folding table is erected, and that we had to sit on garden chairs to eat (no cushions as shown on the photographs), our main issue was with the stairs and the bed, both items which had to addressed several times a day.

The stairs were extremely steep, far more so than shown on the photograph, and being spiral have very narrow treads far worse than those we have encountered in cottages before, and as we are both 75 yrs old and suffer with arthritis of the knees, it was extremely difficult to manoeuvre for both of us, especially my wife, and this was made worse by the toilet being downstairs. Hence in the middle of the night we had to struggle downstairs and back. There was a comment about the stairs but in very tiny italics, and we obviously missed the connotation of steepness.

This brings us to the bed. It was a great shock to find after we had negotiated the stairs, that the bed was approximately 14 inches high (35cm if you prefer).

Why anyone, whether old or young, firm or infirm wishes to sleep on a bed that is 14 inches high bewilders me, but clearly someone did. If you have knees that no longer work efficiently, then you would know it is virtually impossible to get up from that height without rolling onto ones knees and dragging oneself up using the furniture, not really the way we wanted to spend a relaxing holiday. (I realise now that in the photograph of the bedroom the lower part of the bed is obscured, thus leading one to assume a normal height bed)
We had no option other than to make the best of a bad job, but other issues with the place contributed to the sense that we had been blindsided by the photographs and the flowery description in your advertisement.

We arrived with a weeks groceries, having stopped off at the supermarket, but the kitchen has virtually nowhere to store groceries, thus they cluttered up the tiny kitchen for the week. We also had frozen goods with us, as always having a fridge with a freezer compartment before, we assumed this would be the same, but no, this fridge has none. (maybe warn visitors?)
When we booked, we studied the photos to make sure that there would be comfortable seating, but found that the cosy looking seats in the pictures were no more, having been replaced by different less comfotouble seating instead.
In fact the photographs were clearly taken using a wide angle lens which makes the rooms look much larger than they are, and almost floodlit in their brightness, whereas in fact they are somewhat dingy.
If you have bothered to read this to the end you will have gathered that we were less than enamoured with the property, and the way it was sold to us.
I should say just to add a smidgen of balance, that despite everything else the shower/toilet and the cooker were excellent, although you should really insist on the provision of a safety mat for the shower, before you have the aftermath an accident to deal with.

After sending you this diatribe I requested that a couple of items be made clear on your website:

1. The description of the stairs should read: “Steep narrow staircase leads to first floor. Please note this is not suitable for the elderly or infirm”

2. The description of the bed should state: “The bed is a very low profile and is approximately 14 inches high, again unsuitable for the elderly or infirm”

3. Ensure that a shower mat is provided.

I also feel that as the letting agent you ought to be insisting that the owner provides photographs of the property that are at least up to date, and not rely on old ones, it is only fair on the customer and would maintain your reputation.
I see from the website that my requests, reasonable in my estimation have not been complied with, hence this review hopefully to warn others to check before booking this property.

Incidentally you credited my bank account with an unsolicited £75. This was not necessary and I will refund if requested.