Cindy's Retreat, Salcombe

Cindy's Retreat is a whole house on the South Hams coast in south Devon, west of Salcombe and closer to the beach than most guests expect. For dog owners the format is the draw: you take the entire property, so there are no shared corridors or landings to negotiate, and the garden is fenced. Guests who have brought a dog describe it as well suited to a small one, with plenty of room indoors for a larger party.

Reports from guests travelling with dogs are few, so there is less to go on here than at a property with a long run of pet stays. What is clear is that the house gets booked again by the same guests, and that the fenced garden and whole-house layout cover the things dog owners tend to ask about first.

The wider guest feedback is where the caution sits, and it points consistently in one direction. Cleanliness comes up repeatedly, across stays a year or more apart: dog hair left under rugs and mats by earlier guests, sofas that are stained and smell musty, and kitchen and bathroom floors cleaned in a hurry. Several of the same points have been raised in successive years without apparently being put right, alongside damp near the lounge windows, doors and locks that do not sit properly, and basin plugs that do not hold water.

Two of those bear directly on arriving with a dog. Hair left from previous stays suggests the changeover clean does not always account for pets, so it is worth a look before you unpack. And the garden, the feature that makes the house work for dogs, has been described as having a rusty, jagged boiler outlet cover and uneven paving, which is a hazard for paws as much as for small children.

Cindy's Retreat earns a 4.4/5 paw rating. It suits dog owners who want the South Devon coast and a fenced garden of their own, and who will accept a house that gets its cleaning and upkeep wrong more often than it should.