Poppy Cottage, Carew

Poppy Cottage sits in Redberth, a quiet village in the Carew parish of south Pembrokeshire, a few miles inland from Tenby and a short drive from the county beaches. It is a whole house rather than a room in one, which is most of what makes it work for a dog: no shared corridors, no lobby to steer past, and a yard with covered seating for the hour after a beach walk.

The welcome for dogs is the part guests pick out most warmly. Arrivals with a dog mention a treat box left out for it, and the property lays on an afternoon tea for dogs - small gestures, but the kind that say the hosts have thought about the animal rather than merely tolerating it. Cats are welcome here as well as dogs, which is unusual enough to be worth flagging. The house is well equipped for a self-catering week and has been described as spotless indoors on arrival, and the hot tub is the other feature people come back to.

The honest caution is housekeeping, and it runs both ways. Against those spotless reports sit stays that found dog hair left behind in the kitchen and on the bedding, and outdoor space in worse shape still: sand in the hot tub from the previous party, seat pads left wet and dirty under their cover, and a yard that needed weeding. On a property that welcomes dogs, hair left between changeovers is the failure mode to ask about, and it is worth checking the outdoor furniture and the tub before anyone settles in.

The second thing is space. The house is smaller than the photographs suggest, and guests with a large dog have found the only floor big enough for him to stretch out on was the bathroom. A settled small or medium dog will be fine; a big one, in a full house, will be underfoot. The living room with the sofa bed also runs cold, having no radiator of its own. The owners keep pets of their own on the property, so a dog that reacts badly to other animals needs a conversation first. Any charge, and how many dogs are allowed, are still not stated, so agree both with the owner before you book.

Best suited to a couple or a small family with one modest-sized, well-mannered dog who want a self-catering base for the Pembrokeshire coast and will happily give the place a once-over on arrival. It earns a 4.1/5 paw rating: the welcome is genuinely good, the housekeeping is not always.