Our first impressions of the cottage were it was a bit of a dump however, once inside the cottage we were pleasantly surprised by the décor and cleanliness of the interior. The owner Rebecca had left us a welcome card, flowers, Milk Tray chocolates and a bottle of white wine which is a nice touch. Unfortunately, the 'welcome pack' items simply mask several failings with this accommodation.
Accommodation Failings:
We are regular travellers to self-catering cottages, and are used to a certain standard of what is usually provided, it is very unusual to not have a 'starter pack' of tea, coffee, often milk, salt & pepper and sometimes a small loaf with a spread of some description, however, none of these are supplied in Saltaire cottage. Also, it is usual for the guests to be provided with information regarding the accommodation such as TV operation, internet connection etc, not at Saltaire cottage though. Things did not improve with the equipment provided in the kitchen, for instance there is a coffee maker but no glass bowl, and iron but no ironing board. More examples of the cottage dis-functionality can be found in the lounge, the fake electric wood burner does not even have the 'living flame' effect, the TV has Sky however, Sky without a viewing card has less channels than Freeview, visitors without a Sky viewing card are severely limited to channels. Additionally, I was not able to connect to the internet even after being given the password 'eventually' the message repeatedly displayed the internet unavailable message, compounded by the fact this is a 'dead' area for my mobile phone signal. In the bedroom, I had to bleed the radiator before it would operate additionally, other reviews have suggested that the mattress is too soft on the bed and I would agree with this also, access to the on-suite shower room is severely hampered by the door 'snagging' the carpet pile, the on-suite is where the toilet is located and the ability to operate this door is paramount for obvious reasons. Once in the on-suite, I noticed there was very little space to place toiletries, especially as the one shelf available for this purpose has a 1:3 downhill gradient, the shower looks impressive however, when in use, there must be a drainage blockage, hence the water over flows onto the smooth tiled flooring making the whole area extremely wet, slippery and dangerous.
Aggressive accusations by the owners:
We were booked to stay in Saltaire cottage for two nights with an option to possibly stay a third however, we decided to leave after just one night after we felt we were being intimidated by the owner’s husband. We returned from getting some supplies and temporarily parked directly outside the cottage to unload the shopping, when I noticed the husband throw down a cloth in an action to display some kind of annoyance, I was about to explain this was a temporary parking situation to him, when his tone of voice became aggressive, while foaming at the mouth he began to state that a dog had fouled on a lawn in a different area of the buildings and that the police might be informed. As he had even bothered to mention this to me, I took this as a veiled accusation that it had been my dog, both myself and my partner we shocked by their aggressive accusations, and although later Rebecca tried to explain we had ‘taken it the wrong way’, no apology was forthcoming regarding their outrageous behaviour. Consequently, she could not fool my wife Jane a behavioural psychologist and we took the decision to leave immediately.
Location of Saltaire:
In the Saltaire cottage description, it suggest that it is located only half a mile from the famous village of Haworth, this is not true and any visitors should be prepared to double this distance to 1 mile, this can be checked on Google maps by typing in the Saltaire cottage post code BD22 9DE an Haworth, select walking and check the results for yourself.
This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC