Sparrow House

Stayed at Sparrow House for about a week back end of July and would fully recommend.

Ideal location with Alnwick centre (including castle and gardens) just a short walk away (10mins or so), quick and easy access to A1 and very close to supermarkets (Sainsbury's, Aldi, Lidl) so you can stock up! Overall, house is very spacious and well maintained however will mention that the upstairs floorboards can be a bit creaky. Can be a bit of a tight turn/squeeze onto the drive and the hedges need a trim (may not be an issue when others visit) but otherwise ample space for two cars.

Sparrow House was a great find.

We loved our week there, it was spacious, clean and a great central location to visit Northumberland (which we loved) couldn’t fault it

Lovely property within easy 10 minutes walking distance to Alnwick Town centre.

Property well equipped, very comfortable and spotlessly clean. Having dogs it would be preferable if the rear garden was secured as there are no gates on driveway preventing access to road. The shower in shared bathroom was unuseable as water either scalding or cold, have mentioned this to Sykes. There also seems to have been some confusion with Sykes over bed configuration which was not as we requested. I think possibly this is to do with the link Sykes use when requesting bed configuration.

Overall a really lovely property, a big space so ideal for our family weekend away and kept to a high standard.

Close to town, off street parking and close to all amenities inc Alnwick attractions. We found a handy lane which got us to Alnwick Gardens quickly. Allows dogs which is a bonus. Here are our thoughts broken down into positive and negative- Positive - All of the above and the space was ideal for our needs really. Lovely area and the booking process with Sykes was easy. We didn’t use the garden due to time of year but it could be used. Quiet area. Cost was reasonable for size of the place and all on offer. Good customer service from Sykes (hadrians cottages) with issues - see below. Negative - we arrived slightly earlier than check in time on Friday and let ourselves into the property to put some food into the fridge. Our plan was to go to town until proper check in time. Around 3pm the house had still not been cleaned from previous guests. Bins full, beds not stripped or cleaned and coffee cups in the bathroom. We phoned Sykes who confirmed that the property had been “missed” and it was lucky we had phoned to alert them to this as it was not on the list to be cleaned for our arrival. We vacated again and cleaners came but still in the property after actual check in time and we had plans to use the house at this time. Had we not phoned, I’m not sure what would have happened with cleaning and starting our stay - the property was then cleaned but some issues - used coffee cups from previous guests left in bathroom, the welcome pack was not swapped over so contained biscuits and jam which had been used by previous guests - our dog discovered dog bones left by a previous dog which worried us about attention to detail given cleaning issues above - thanks for dog welcome pack - WiFi did not work the entire time we were there which mean smart tvs would not work - I can see this had been raised previously. This needs to be looked at asap. - would be great to have gate or fence installed for small children and dogs as the garden is “open” to the road - hot tub would be an excellent addition! - bushes need to be cut back on narrow entrance to drive and driveway - very dark and narrow so a difficult angle to get cars in (thanks for the torches!) Overall a good stay and we would come back!

The 2 brown sofas bottom out and are uncomfortable, had to sit on a cushion for padding.

The rugs throughout are thread bare. No wardrobes in any of the 3 bedrooms. Wi Fi was poor the TV kept freezing as a consequence. Tumble dryer worked but did not get hot/warm. No bath mats provided. Needs a towel rail in downstairs toilet. Needs a set of round glass Pyrex dishes with lids to cook in the oven and prevent splashes in the microwave. The mattresses on the two single beds were like sleeping on a jelly...need replacing. Green bin covered in maggots. Requested/messaged on two phone numbers that the two singles be a Superking this was not done. Fitted sheets where poorly placed/rushed corners were no where near the corner of the mattress, had to strip the beds to do properly, one sheet was even inside out.