The Haven

Unfortunately we were very disappointed with the Haven, it is a very run down and needs a lot of work, it is damp, dirty and unpleasant, we couldn't use a couple of the rooms as the furniture was so stained, I have photographs of some of this, the curtains are hanging off the hoops

We had a lovely week and really enjoyed the our stay.

There are a few things missing - for example there are only 4 wineglasses and the pots and pans for example are only just enough if you have a full house. Fortunately many of my family are happy to drink wine from beakers.... Perhaps someone needs to run through and fill in the gaps, but the property itself was very comfortable indeed and the beds are very comfortable, there is always hot water and good showers. We will try to book it next year, although its not clear when next year's dates are likely to be made available as its fully booked out at the mo, which probably means the dates are undecided. The garden was almost but not quite dog proof, which would be a challenge to remedy and probably reflects more on the dogs than the garden.

Great house, lovely placement.

Just a shame the Easter availability of the house for the next 3 years are already booked. Am I correct that this is so?

We had a wonderful week and were so pleased with the space and the warmth of the house in February.

It was a five star week. By way of note only we had difficulty starting the left hand oven and could not find instructions. Eventually got it going by trial and error. We had a blackout caused by a trip which we isolated and John Bray fixed it impressively quickly. It might have been helpful to know what had caused it by way of note. The heating tripped out and we got it going again by resetting. That might be problematic for those without the technical skills we have and again operation notes might be helpful. None of these detracted from a fabulous week in your amazing house. Many thanks.

Fantastic homely property with gorgeous views.

Photos true to reality but don’t do justice to the view. Plenty of space for 10 of us aged between 3 and 86. Kitchen very well equipped for cooking if you want to eat in and lovely to have the basics on arrival as well as tea towels, washing up liquid, hand soap and toilet rolls in the bathrooms. Plenty of hot water for showers for everyone and arrived to a warm house. Gardens are very big to allow children and dogs to run around and must be gorgeous in the warmer weather. Cinema room was great for the younger members of our group to have a space to hang out in the wetter weather! The position is perfect for shorter coastal walks to Rock or Polzeath from Daymer Bay and longer ones if you wish. Daymer Bay 5-10 minute walk and great for a refreshing morning swim before breakfast! Trebetherick stores just round the corner has a very good range if you need anything and does wonderful breakfasts/lunch with amazing staff. We all thoroughly enjoyed staying at The Haven and will be back. Perfect for a relaxing or active holiday in a lovely peaceful setting.

We (6 schoolfriends) thought the property was spacious clean and tidy and we had a very good week there so much so that I might make a family booking for 2026.

I liked the location and the fact that there are a number of walks available straight from the property without having to take a car although if you are taking small children to the beach in Polzeath you will probably need to drive there as the hill is very steep. It is a beautiful area with a number of lovely places to visit e.g. Rock, Padstow, Port Isaac and Tintagel. We did have one concern about the oil boiler in the utility room which smelt very strongly of oil despite a visit or possibly 2 from a heating engineer. You couldn’t leave dogs overnight in there.

The Haven is an absolutely fabulous house.

Large airy rooms and full of space and character. Very good if you’re a large group. Plenty of bathrooms. Relaxing and fun. Brilliant position as well. Massive garden.

We had a nice time staying at the property.

The Haven is a lovely roomy house with great views in an excellent location.

It does lack some basic equipment: an outside shower. This is normal for Cornwall properties which we have rented over many years and does help to keep some of the sand out of the house. Curiously, there was not even a mop provided. The kitchen was very short of large serving dishes and had only just enough plates/glasses for a party of 12. The dishwasher had to work pretty hard. There seemed to be an infestation of moths - especially on the top floor which needs to be dealt with, The large tele room was great (although we had such good weather we didn't use it much!). We had an excellent week with fabulous weather and would return. I found communication with Sykes Cottages before our holiday a frustrating experience. There wasn't even an email for questions and calls were all channelled to the head office who obviously had no local knowledge. They seemed reluctant to put one in touch with anyone locally which required a lot of calls back. On arrival the information folder was so well hidden in a drawer that we tried to phone the office to find out the wifi code. We left a message that was never returned but luckily tracked it down. A slightly more personal welcome would have been nice. All the information in the folder was generic with nothing pertaining to the property we were in. In fact there was conflicting information about bin collections. I did manage to phone the local office who were efficient and helpful.

We had a lovely week at the Haven.

A big airy comfortable house, beautifully situated with a big garden. There was plenty of room for our family and friends to enjoy, and the kids loved the media room. However, as previous reviews have said the house would benefit from a bit of care and attention. The house feels a little neglected which is a great shame, as it is a beautiful house. A visit from the window cleaner would be a good start, so you could really enjoy the glorious views. However, we are still hoping to return next summer as we all enjoyed the charm of this lovely Daymer Bay House.

The Haven is large and spacious, and at one time it was very well planned and designed.

Do not be taken in by the glossy pictures, however: big houses like that do need a lot of regular upkeep and maintenance, which The Haven has not received. There is a lot of ingrained dirt and grease around the house, mould around the windows which hasn't been attended to, peeling wallpaper and soiled carpets and furniture. The windows haven't been cleaned for a long time - we see that another guest mentioned that in June - and my wife cleaned the lower panels of the kitchen windows herself so that we could see our grandchildren playing in the garden. Sykes Cottages are very quick to get in touch when they want something, but do not bother to reply when we have concerns - all machines and no human response: that is the problem when a company in Cheshire manages a property in Cornwall, they have no personal feeling for or knowledge of the property. We won't be using Sykes again.

Beautiful property and superb large landscaped gardens.

A real throw back. Like a home from an Agatha Christie film/ novel or period drama. We had a fantastic time The space for ten people is amazing. Cutlery facilities( 3 shower rooms/ 5 bathrooms- fantastic. Great media room) Here’s the negatives. The windows do not all open and Those that do are not opening as they should. A real Safety problem. The cleanliness of the outside windows is not great. Very dirty windows. A window clean would sort. We were given fans by the excellent Haven rep, Paul- Some areas of the property are worn and in need of a bit of TLC. Cleaning inside was fair. No tennis table. Photographs need updating urgently as people book for various reasons. We took our own and returned to our own address.

We had a wonderful time at The Haven.

The house was so comfortable and spacious and we loved the garden. Our party consisted of 6 adults, 2 babies and a labrador. Everything you could think of was provided and the standard of cleanliness was very high. The separate TV room was amazing with huge TV and comfortable relaxed seating. The sitting room was tastefully furnished and decorated as were all the bedrooms. Location was perfect for us with easy walking access to Daymer Bay and Polzeath and a short drive to Rock. I would definitely recommend this property and hope to book again next year.

The house is beautiful with spacious rooms well laid out.

There is enough seating for everyone in the kitchen, lounge & conservatory.There are plenty of kitchen utensils etc provided & books & games for people to use. The beds are comfy & the property was clean & tidy. The decor is a little tired & could do with an update. It would be helpful to have a mirror in the double bedroom. The grounds are large & there is plenty of parking. We had two issues (no table tennis table & no BBQ) Overall a lovely place to stay.

What a lovely house !

We really enjoyed our stay . The beds were very comfortable and the house so spacious and light . We would love to come back. Some more T towels would be nice but other than that it was perfect.

Beautiful house but very tired.

It wasn’t fed through to local agent that we had booked two extra days so the beds were not made up when we arrived. The house had no mop and when a sickness bug hit our family, we really needed one. We asked the local agent who said they’re deliver one but it never came. Otherwise a great house for big gatherings in beautiful Daymer Bay.

We would have liked a mop for the kitchen floor for any spillages etc.

Otherwise it was extremely well-equipped and ideal for my family which included three great grandchildren. They want to return to the same property next year please.........

An absolutely fantastic place to stay!

The house is beautiful, spotlessly clean and perfectly located for walking to Damer Bay or Polzeath. We had a lovely week, thank you ever so much!

Great place with greats views of coast and golf course.

Easy access to the beach. Would go again.

We had a lovely stay and the Haven was lovely.

We were let down by select villages as had a big house booked with family at Kennacourt which was postponed from the pandemic. They cancelled us with 2 weeks notice and no real explanation so we had to find new accommodation. Sykes were amazing. So simple and organised. We were contacted when we arrived to check all was okay. Had a lovely family break. Thank you

We arrived in the evening and the following morning I had to go to John Bray's Rock office with some items of concern listed below and others became apparent during our stay: - Cupboard door in kitchen for waste bin was falling off its hinges.

- Cupboard door in TV room came off in my hand as I opened it. - Light in fridge in kitchen not working correctly. - Neither of the two outside PIR sensor floodlights were working so difficult to unload car in the dark. - Internal lights in both ovens were not working. - Top floor bedroom sash window impossible to fully close so serious draught and wind noise at night. - Microwave fan catching on housing during cooling with clattering noise. - Both ovens needed a serious clean and grease could be wiped off with kitchen paper towel. - Door compartment covers in fridge in utility room were missing which reduced capacity. - Shower in ensuite on first floor was broken - subsequent visit by maintenance man confirmed the thermostat had failed. - Shower trays in ensuite and other first floor bathrooms were in an appalling state with black mould all around the bottom of the trays. The maintainance man did his best to scrub clean but these two shower trays clearly need replacing. I have photo's of these if you wish to see them. - Main bedroom mattress is stained - we did not discover this until we stripped the beds on departure. Single bedroom mattress was also stained. I have photo's to send. - Several of the cooking utensils were unusable due to the non stick coating flaking off. This is the third large family property we have rented from John Bray in the last 16 months at a cumulative cost of almost £9,000. The other property (The Old Granary, Cants Farm) was excellent and was booked twice. The Haven is in need of updating in several areas, in particular the kitchen and several of the bathrooms. I can only assume that previous hirers have not bothered to report the faults we encountered. Following my visit to the Rock office a most helpful maintenance man visited the same afternoon and repaired cupboard doors but was unable to replace the shower in our ensuite. This was a most disappointing (and expensive) experience and makes us reluctant to consider future rentals with Sykes / John Bray.

The doors handles on the doors were a little rickety and included us getting locked into the master bedroom soon rectified with the maintenance man repairing within 24 hours.

The beds were so comfortable, is it possible to know where they came from. A lovely stay and we would love to rebook Many thanks Ruth Brown

The house was lovely and comfortable and we liked it a lot.

In fact we would say it was perfect for our family holiday and we would love to book it for next year. Possibly for 2 weeks if we can. The only two things I would say are about the kitchen: the kitchen utensils and crockery need a bit of an overhaul and they weren't very clean. It could do with a new set of saucepans, a new water jug for the table and some standard water glasses. There were hardly any there and the ones that were there were so fine that I couldn't give them to the children as they would break them. Also the kitchen needs a good clear out - there feels like there are lots of bits and bobs and clutter from previous stays. The kitchen didn't feel like it had been cleaned very well. Including the crockery. Apart from that, the other rooms were immaculate and we had no issues at all. It felt very comfortable and clean and we loved the way it had been decorated.