Name: kate & tom's
Rating: 4.73

“the few problems we had were dealt with very promptly e.g. wasps nest outside kitchen window It would have been nice to have a couple of 'loungers' to use in the garden”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Very efficient when booking and with payment. The amount of information sent before the holiday was very impressive and helpful regarding the area and things to do and places to eat etc. Communication was excellent.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Polpier is a beautiful property with lovely views and a wide range of facilities. The house manager and gardeners were extremely helpful and friendly and the house and garden was very well looked after. A swim in the morning, croquet before lunch, salad from the garden and tennis in the afternoon. Oh and I forgot the snooker table, table tennis and the disco. We spoilt ourselves even more on our last evening by hiring Pencoose Pantry to create and serve a fabulous meal. Thanks everyone for making a great stay for us!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Our family gathering was a huge success having all come together from as far afield as NZ Scotland and London for a 70 th birthday It was everything and more than we were expecting as the house itself is SO tremendously welcoming as well as being so well appointed spacious clean fantastically comfortable beds and with every need catered for in the kitchen - extra fridges etc We had 5 grand children from11 to 3 who spent hours in the fabulous pool and hot tub and the older generation weren't far behind ! they also loved the games room It was hard to believe we only had from Friday afternoon to Monday morning as we had done so much including walks and a pub to the Our one regret is not being able to get i On that note we were hugely grateful to having the extra hour in the morning we left as it just made the w/e seem better value We all just wish it could h e been for longer Thank you so much for everything and to eveyone involved I could go on and on Hazel Wager y”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hi Hazel, I'm so pleased to hear the weekend was a success. I'll personally share this feedback with the team and your kind words. Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Marsden Manor suited us perfectly - the housekeeper was excellent but a tiny criticism for the keen croquet players was that the croquet lawn had not been cut very recently! Also we did check twice with you the postcode for the Waitrose delivery which you got wrong, necessitating two further phone calls to change the delivery address. Unfortunately the order had been delivered to the wrong address (this happens frequently according to the owner who redirected the van to us).The housekeeper has the correct postcode so perhaps you could amend your records. A large swarm of bees was an interesting disturbance to lunch on the lawn - they entered the roofspace above the 2nd floor but as two of us are keen bee keepers we managed to calm proceedings and then shoo some bees from the top floor. We did not disturb the housekeeper because it was Sunday and she was going to a party. However we appraised her of the situation before we left. Our stay and your input was most certainly very good. Perhaps Bensons could have sent a chef who had brought a menu with him (we had got one which we lent to him as he tried and failed because of poor signal to have one sent digitally. The waitresses were not very agile and probably inexperienced eg didn't refill wine glasses, water jugs or pour coffee without prompting but the food was truly excellent and recommendable. Many thanks and with hope that this doesn't sound too grumpy old womanish, Sue”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hi Sue, Some great feedback there - and we'll pass this on to the team and external parties you mention. Pleased to hear you had a great time. Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“We Loved the mill, really beautiful location, wonderful Property in idilic surroundings which was incredibly quiet and relaxing yet close enough to many local amenities. very helpful owner who was just a phone call away. Wouldn't hesitate to book this property again, it really was delightful. Thanks for a wonderful weekend. Laura”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hi Laura, Bois Mill really is beautiful and glad you had a great time. I'll pass on your kind words to the owner. Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Guidance on what to do if the housekeeper doesn’t turn up as there is no phone signal at the house. The house keeper was taken ill and we we waiting outside for an hour and a half. An email and texts were sent to us but there is no signal at the house, the owner would know this and so rendered the messages a little useless! No hanging spaces in some of the rooms was inconvenient. Unsafe gas hob (this is urgent) The middle ring on the job is faulty. A friend said we shouldn't use it as it was unsafe! High level bolt on swimming pool to allow it to be closed off from 6 year old size children. It's too easy for children to enter pool site unattended. There is also a small area of water/pond by drive in front of the kitchen which is unsafe for small children. dustpan, brush brooms would be useful to have at hand as the kitchen floor gets dirty. External door to downstairs bedroom should be possible to unlock from inside – fire escape. My 80 year old mother was in there as she finds stairs difficult. It is a fire hazard not to be able to open the outside door to that room. It is very difficult to find the right key – colour coding would help. The key to the kitchen door doesn't work from the outside. I had to put a cork over a cupboard in the kitchen by the large dishwasher as it has a sharp screw sticking out. This needs to be fixed. Rugs generally moved about and became a trip hazard for the vulnerable. Many cooking pots and dishes were not cleaned. Large dishwasher did not function until we cleared a blockage of glass ? from the outlet Measuring scales would be useful”

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Posted 8 years ago

“We have just returned from a wonderful weekend at Peddington Manor, a large hen party and a fantastic time was had by all. The whole process from start to finish was managed very professionally by Kate and Toms. I would definatly return again and recommend to others. Thank you. Elaine Mcdonagh”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hi Elaine, I'm so pleased to hear you had a great time, and look forward to seeing you again in the future! Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Wonderful house, beautiful setting - perfect for our family of 11! Highly recommend ...”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Nancy! Thanks for taking the time to let us know about your stay at Meadowbank House, it certainly is the perfect family house :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Using Kate & Tom's was a doddle, the house they provided was quite superb, we all had an excellent family holiday and no complaints at all. In fact our expectations were exceeded at almost every turn. Many thanks.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Chris! Riverside Mill is a great house, so I am thrilled to hear that your family enjoyed their stay! Give us a shout if you want to book again for your holiday next year, I am sure Sam will be delighted to have you all back :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“The house lived up to expectations and in 9 years of taking this 'Family and Friends' holiday it was far the best property we have stayed in. The booking and other arrangements were handled very smoothly by Kate and Tom's who kept in touch with us on a regular basis.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Ian! That is wonderful news, I am so glad we were able to help you so much with your booking! Do let us know when you are ready to book your 10th year away together, perhaps another trip to The Coast House is in order? - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“We loved the house and garden, especially the amazing view. The house is really comfortable and the spaciousness great for small children to play. Lovely situation too and the area is beautiful. Very well-equipped and it was very nice to have children's toys, cots, playpen and so on.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Alison! The view from The Garden House certainly is stunning, and I am so pleased to hear that everything else matched up to it :) Let us know if we can help book another stay for you all in the near future! - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“We had a wonderful stay at Marsden Manor. The house and gardens were beautiful and immaculately maintained. We were welcomed on arrival by Diana, and an offering of fresh eggs, bread and home made jam. The beds were fantastic. Fluffy towels. Plentiful pool towels, tennis racquets and a wealth of dvds and games to keep the children entertained. We had two cooks who took over all meals. Having a large kitchen, pantry and huge amount of fridge space was a Godsend. We could not have had a better house for our family celebration. It was perfect in every way.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Isabela! What wonderful feedback, thank you! Marsden Manor is one of our favourite houses and I am so pleased that your family loved it too! Diana is a fantastic asset to our team and her home made jam is incredible! :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Cossington Park was the perfect choice for our much awaited family weekend. It's attributes are too many to list. The most comfortable, very well maintained amazing house. Beautiful huge gardens. The best cherished memories.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Sue! Thank you so much for leaving us your review, Cossington Park is a fantastic property and I am so pleased that we were able to help arrange the back drop for your family memories :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“The customer service from Kate & Tom's was excellent. Very quick responses and extremely friendly staff. And the website is good. Croft House itself was very good for our needs. The gardens were quite beautiful and very well kept. Iain the owner was very friendly and it was a nice touch that his wife, Ann, had baked us a cake. That was very welcoming and appreciated. There are a few small bits of general feedback: we were a little disappointed that there was an additional charge to use wood for the pizza oven and the fire pit. £25 for wood to use the pizza oven and then £3.50 per pallet to go in the fire pit was a bit surprising given we had just paid £3300 to stay for the weekend. If that extra cost was just pre-added to the bill and the wood seen as being 'thrown in' then I think we would have felt a lot more comfortable. I would argue that with paying £3300 for three nights that wood to burn should be part of the package... I expected shower gel/bath foam to be included, there was only handwash. Two dishwasher tablets for 3 full days felt a little unfair. Toilet roll ran out as well. One shower for the whole house was a bit limiting too - I would recommend adding another above the bath in the bathroom on the first floor. We had a lot of fun in the games room but it's quite a damp and dank space and could do with rejuvenating somehow. The air hockey table was already broken. We had one game on it before one of the barely taped on goals came off. It feels barely worth advertising it on the website if I'm honest - it should be replaced, fixed or removed. The above are just very small things which I think, if remedied, would have resulted in a 5 star review. Many thanks!”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Nick! I am so pleased to hear such lovely feedback about our team and indeed about Iain and Ann! I will certainly pass these kind words on to them :) In regards to the concerns that you have raised I will discuss them with the owners to let them know your thoughts. All feedback is very much welcome as it the best way to learn what our guests need, so thank you! Hopefully we can welcome you back to a kate & tom's property in the near future and do our very best to get that 5th star from you!! - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“The house was top-notch and exactly what we were looking for!”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Debbie! Great news, thanks for letting us know :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Fabulous house and garden with plenty of space for all 3 generations to be happy.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Katie! What a challenge it can be to entertain all 3 generations! I am delighted to hear that Mulberry Cottage was able to do this :) - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“We had a lovely stay at the Grey Cabin. The house was beautifully decorated and in good condition. It was situated within a stone's throw of the beautiful Cambersands beach, with good access to both the beach and a couple of local shops. There was a useful information pack with details of local restaurants, tourist attractions and things to do. I would suggest that you add some advice about booking taxis well in advance. We really struggled to find a taxi firm that could accommodate us on the Friday night of our stay, which resulted in us having to cancel our reservations in Rye due to not being able to get there. What also would have been useful was information about how to use certain things in the house - specifically the television (which we were unable to use throughout our stay!). We were also rather surprised that we weren't left with anything in the fridge (a drop of milk or some butter) as we had been advised that these little "essentials" would be provided. There was a general feeling that whoever had prepared the house for our arrival hadn't really checked to see what needed replenishing from the last visitors. There was no cling film and only one bin bag. We were also only provided with 1 toilet roll in each bathroom which, for a 2-night stay for 5 people, really wasn't enough and caused a bit of an inconvenience. All five of us have previously rented cottages and beach houses through websites such as this one, and have always been greeted with some kind of welcome hamper or gift. It is these little touches that make the stay really special and make the guests feel truly welcome. Overall, we had a lovely stay at the Grey Cabin and feel that refining these finer details would have made it excellent. Thank you.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Debra! Firstly, I am so pleased to hear that you enjoyed your stay at the Grey Cabin, it is a beautiful house! Thank you for making us aware of the problems that you faced, I will discuss these points with the property owner in order make them aware of the elements that would have made your stay just that much better! - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Dear Kate and Tom Sorry for the delay in getting in touch but I have been away for a few days without internet access. I just want to give you some feedback on our stay at Lambourn House We booked Lambourn House for a family gathering to celebrate my Mum and Dad’s 80th birthdays. We had a good weekend and had fun - but Lambourn House did not live up to expectations. Luckily we are a practical, supportive family so we didn’t let the problems we encountered ruin the celebrations. Firstly the positives: The house was well stocked with towels, cutlery, crockery, glassware, toilet rolls, dishwasher tablets, washing up liquid, bin bags and ice. The drawing room was a lovely room and the kitchen/snug and dining room worked well as rooms for being together. Fingers and Forks catering company made us a lovely meal on Saturday night. I am sorry, but here are the negatives: The house keeper we met on arrival was lovely but before she left I had to sign a three page document I hadn’t seen before concerning noise, hot tub, sauna etc! Not a particularly welcoming arrival. The kitchen had one small J like cloth, 2 dirty scrubbers, and 4 tea towels- not enough for a four night stay for 22 people. It also only had a small amount of foil, no cling film, no kitchen roll, and no specialised cleaner for the ceramic hob- all of which items I have grown to expect nowadays in a UK holiday let. We purchased large cleaning cloths and hobrite so we could keep the tables and ceramic hob properly clean. We also had to purchase a steel as the kitchen knives were all extremely blunt and we had planned a family roast for Sunday. The kitchen had one dishwasher only. I did think about asking about this at the time of booking-but thought it would be a silly question as such a large house is bound to have 2 dishwashers! You can understand also, with only one dishwasher, why 4 tea towels were totally inadequate for the job! The dishwasher also tipped forward every time you started to load it up with items- it was not securely fitted in its unit. On arrival, the second fridge was freezing its contents. When we tried to change the temperature this caused it to stop working completely. We managed to get it working again but it continued to freeze the drinks, leading to a can of coke exploding inside it which we had to clean up. On the first night we opened the patio doors in the drawing room but at the end of the evening they would not close. The locking mechanism was broken and the doors had slipped. We reported this to the house keeper who was very nice but heard nothing further from anyone concerning this issue. We eventually managed to get these doors closed at the end of day two and didn’t use them again! On the first night the shower in the bedroom for 5 leaked through the ceiling into the drawing room. We reported this to the house keeper as well as a matter of courtesy. It looked like this wasn’t the first time this had happened. We only used the sink and toilet in this en-suite for the remainder of our visit not wanting to cause any more water damage, but this inevitably put pressure on the rest of the bathrooms. The games room was not big enough to play a proper game of pool. I think there was only one side of the table where you could actually hold the cue correctly- on all other sides you had to hold the cue at an acute angle, trying ones best not to hit the walls or the window! This restriction should have been in the property details. The younger members of our family were quite disappointed as they were looking forward to a pool competition. The table football was pushed in a tiny corner and was unusable because of the size of the room and the absence of a ball. There was also no table tennis outside, so your website is misleading in this respect. Upstairs in the bedrooms, at least one bed was a “put me up” bed, and most were old, uncomfortable and without mattress protectors. On the third floor, one of the bedrooms had no sockets in it and another bedroom no blind on the velux window so the daylight flooded in at dawn. I don’t know if you know, but the house comes with four pea-cocks that roam around the garden! “Peter the peacock” was very noisy every morning at dawn. I think their presence should have been mentioned on your website. Inevitably the birds poo-ed in the garden and on the patio. Next doors dogs also poo-ed on the gravel drive and in the back garden. With regard to the photos on your website, the photo you have of the dining room is in fact not the dining room, but the dining table in the far end of the kitchen. The kitchen table must have been moved out for this image to be taken. Also, your photos do not properly reflect what most of the bedrooms look like. The rooms were not as beautifully furnished as your photos show. I feel the photos should be honest, so no-one is disappointed. I am sorry this is such a long list but I feel it is important for you to know these things about Lambourn House so you can put things right. I and my immediate family regularly stay at properties in the UK with friends, using all of the main letting agents, so feel I know what is fair and reasonable to expect nowadays. Despite all, my parents did enjoy their 80th birthdays-which was a huge relief to me as I booked this house! I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards Sarah Maxwell”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Sarah! Thank you for taking the time to leave us your comments regarding Lambourn House. The house is a great party venue for 30th birthdays and hen parties but certain elements are perhaps not as suitable for family groups - I am so sorry that it did not meet your expectations. I will give the owner a call to discuss your concerns and am hopeful that we can resolve these things for future guests. I am so pleased that your parents were still able to enjoy the weekend for their special celebration! - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

“Great venue for a large family gathering.”

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Posted 8 years ago

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Hello Georgia! Ludbrook Manor is a fantastically spacious property, I am glad your large family were able to enjoy their time there! - Jessica, Head of Client Services

Posted 8 years ago

kate & tom's Reviews