Bunny Cottage by Bloom Stays

Great location in the delightful hamlet of Saltwood. Lots of opportunities for walking on local public footpaths and visiting nearby attractions. Hythe and the seafront also accessible on foot. House comfortable but basic. Friendly pub serving hot food very close to the house. Small, no frills shop also nearby selling essentials.

The range of cooking utensils available in the house severely limits the type of meals that can be prepared. There were no instructions on how to operate the central heating so cooler evenings were spent wrapped in blankets in the living room.

Bunny Cottage is a pretty cottage in a great location, just a short walk into Hythe. The interiors are lovely, with pretty pastel colours, and an immaculate kitchen which is bang up to date. We enjoyed sitting down for breakfast in the dining area, and settling down on the sofa in the venings. Bedrooms and large bathroom are well equipped. It was the perfect place to stay to explore Hythe, Folkestone and Port Lympne over a long weekend. Coffee machine was a nice touch, and we liked being able to walk into Hythe whenever we wanted.

Closer access for parking would have been ideal, but the car park just below the road was perfectly fine for us, and we had no problem with space. The steep stairs are just part of the age of the property- so we had to just watch our toddler a little near these, but again, no problems- just something to be aware of.

The house was very very clean, well decorated and very well equipped

the twin beds creaked which disturbed the nights. The door of the double bed bedroom was stif and a bit difficult to open

I have stayed in a few cottages around the UK and loved them so I expected to like Bunny Cottage quite a lot. Unfortunately, the accommodation could not compare to other places I've stayed in the UK and did not meet my expectations. It certainly missed the mark relative to its price point for the reasons listed below.

If you suffer from pet hair allergies, then do not book this cottage. Generally, I would try to avoid pet friendly accommodation but the Bunny Cottage reviews did not make much mention of pet visitors, and generally, I would hope that the cleaning is of a sufficient standard that I would not notice. My allergies are not severe but triggered when there's lots of hair e.g. on soft furnishings. For me, the sofa was a no-go zone as were a lot of the blankets left around the house. Further to this, there were other cleaning 'oversights' - there's a plumbing pipe behind the bedroom curtain that's covered in plaster dust and a lot of the kitchen ware needed to be washed before use. I think that there might also be a problem with the fridge seal as the smell coming from it is not particularly pleasant (the inside also looked like it needed a thorough wash). Beyond these quite critical issues, I was shocked that there were no kitchen or bathroom additions, such as shampoo, body wash or UHT milk or coffee pods for the machine. This is below standard at this price point - in every other staycation home I have encountered, there have been high end soaps and washes, always coffee pods and milk...and that's not even to mention we've usually had wine or crisps or even a small biscuit included! Another annoyance was that the house has clearly been developed for commercial use I.e. there are signs that no-one ever comfortably lived here as they would, otherwise have realised that the rainfall shower is too big for the cubicle and there's nowhere to stand out of the water. A personal issue for me but I appreciate it's subjective - the bed was much too soft. Finally, a couple of public service announcements to avoid disappointments: 1) The fire is actually decorative so don't expect a roaring stove fire on a cold day. I was pretty gutted at this.