Nant Cottage, Conwy

Nant Cottage sits on Rowen Road in the Conwy valley, inside the Eryri (Snowdonia) national park and about five minutes' walk from the village pub. It is a private, quiet three-bedroom cottage with a stream running behind it, and it earns a 4.2 out of 5 paw rating - a good score with a couple of caveats worth reading first.

The location is what dog owners like. The valley lanes and the riverside give you walking straight from the door, the pub is close enough to leave the car behind, and the setting is genuinely secluded rather than merely rural. Inside, the cottage matches its photographs, is well equipped for cooking, and there are usually cakes waiting on arrival. The management office responds quickly when guests raise something.

The important caveat is the garden. It is not dog-secure, and guests travelling with dogs have flagged this more than once - it means lead-on inside the grounds as well as outside them, which changes how a stay works if you were counting on letting a dog out unsupervised. The lawn has also been found long and uncut on arrival, with mess left by previous guests' dogs hidden in the grass, which is unpleasant and hard to spot.

Cleanliness is the other thing to weigh. Alongside a lot of positive feedback there are reports of the cottage not being properly cleaned between stays - dog hair left on rugs, a vacuum too clogged to be much use, and marked bedding. The management company sorted the bedding out when it was raised, but it comes up often enough to mention.

Best suited to dog owners happy to keep their dogs on the lead in the grounds and looking for a quiet valley base for walking. If an enclosed garden is the reason you are booking a cottage, this is not the one.