Hopton Cottage - Darwin Lake Holiday Village

Spacious, 3 showers, 4 toilets

Poor quality doors and windows, difficult to open and close. Mattresses very cheap and uncomfortable .

It is in a good location with access to great places. The property is spacious and has recently been refurbished so is modern and up to date.

It seems that previous guests have not taken care of the property and there are a lot of snags. The heater was hanging from the wall, the shower/bath mechanism was broken and the cooker symbols were all rubbed off making it difficult to judge cooking times. The biggest issue we faced was the back door would not lock and we tried countless times to get in touch with the out of hours numbers and got no response. Also, when trying the booking.com helpline, the AI did not recognise the booking reference and no help was obtained this route either. The door was blocked by a table and other furniture overnight but the issue is the lack of response to the issue at hand.

nice , clean accommodation, spacious bathrooms, good location

This is the 2nd time this year we have stayed at Darwin Lakes . We stayed in Kedleston this time as Tissington was already booked. Beds were really comfortable and no creaky floors upstairs like Tissington. Good well stocked kitchen . Husband especially likes the fishing .

Location was beautiful and serene , shops available a short drive away, although hills with high gradient surrounding on country roads which could prove difficult for inexperienced drivers but if your looking for a little hideaway it is perfect. Just search the village location in satnav as the postcode takes you to the farm a few hundred yards away. Plenty of space inside and out with ample parking, whilst not directly outside, is within a few meters. we chose to park our cars to the rear and use the back entrance. Well decorated and pretty modern but very nostalgic feel outside with beautiful settings and wildlife in a remote village. It was perfect besides the thoroughness of the cleaners. Kitchen well equipped with plenty of crockery although only 1 side of the toaster worked we managed anyway and were too busy to complain. We had reported the shower head which was very promptly fitted with new washer to work perfect, toilet flusher fixed immediately at request and the boiler to reheat additional water was explained. We did need to ask for a mop for the shower room which was supplied quickly although was not very clean and bucket the wrong size for the self drain mop so was no use. It seems the cleaners just need new/better equipment and better guidance and structure in their cleaning routine.

Location was slightly far out from some places but makes up for it in remoteness and grounds all well maintained to look picture perfect and serene. The house looked clean at first glance but cleaners seem to be there for a holiday as we soon discovered dust and lots more behind every table and cupboard, previous residents items found, piece of broken glass behind a dresser, crisp pack behind another. We wanted to store the spare duvet, from inside, to on top of the wardrobe but the dust was too much to do so, then on checking they cleaners don't actually dust on top of anything, photo frames or the skirting boards behind things, they don't scrub tiles in the showers either so has grime in between the grout and all the silicone sealant is dirty in need of replacing. The glass and mirrors are streaky as if they use wet or dirty cloth to clean those, they don't clean windows and the master bedroom has a bird nest above it so piles of droppings on the window ledge plus some on the window too and one below uncleaned. The place has great potential if the cleaners didn't let it down with lack of attention to detail. They need a checklist to keep on top of cleaning between every guests, especially shower walls, and schedule things to be done on monthly and weekly basis regardless of guests. I would have rate 10 if the cleaners actually did their job, 9 if it weren't for the dirty shower tiles etc Besides that it could use a few more essentials on offer to purchase at the reception. Although I would come again I would hope they had better cleaners or exposed them to some in house training.