We never use kennels, but I'm happy to pass details to you of the person we use.
Henry, our lab, lives in her house with her. She has her own dog, and occasionally is looking after other dogs at the same time.
It feels a better solution to us than kennels, but appreciate that everyone is different.
Yeah, we usually send our dogs to stay with one of our friends, and then we have hers in return (We've got three). She also looks after other dogs from time to time, and this time she wasn't available, so we sent ours to Pridelands near Ringmer. Appreciate that may be a bit far for the OP, but we picked them up this morning and they were fine, and the lady said they'd been great, no traumas/drams.