“Very disappointed with the service received following them cancelling my booking 24 hours before it was due to start. Would not book through them again.”
“Unprofessional behaviour, they have stolen my money. They tell you lies and when you complain they ask you to leave I booked for 14 nights at Horizons apartment Newquay. I have been told I will not get a refund. I was lied to about the lifts working and was out of order outside our apartment the roof was leaking. I also complained about no heating in the evening and also accused of sexual assault. This company are thieves please look at other comments. PS stated in the advert there’s a sauna which doesn’t exist. Please stay away from this company”
“Last year we used Cottages.com and had no issues with our lodging, so we decided to book another lodging this year. Unfortunately we were left disappointed by our lodging, whilst it was not as advertised, the main issue was the lack of Wi-Fi. The advert for the lodge clearly advertised Wi-Fi, and we would not have booked the lodge if it did not have Wi-Fi.
We contacted the owner about the Wi-Fi, who promptly ignored us, despite us messaging him back immediately after he had messaged us. He ignored us until 12pm the next day, where he stated he had never had any issues with the Wi-Fi before, though we looked on the reviews and this is clearly not the case. In reality, the Wi-Fi network he had given us simply did not exist, and there was no router inside the Lodge.
We need access to Wi-Fi, and as stated, we would never have booked a lodging if it did not advertise Wi-Fi. So as there was no Wi-Fi, unfortunately we had to return home. I contacted cottages webchat who advised me on how to make a complaint, which is exactly what I did.
I must add that in the next week that it took for Cottages to reply, the owner had not messaged us to advise the Wi-Fi was back up and running so we could return, this is important because according to the Cottages Complaints team, it is my fault that we didn’t give the owner enough time to resolve the issue. Which is a ridiculous statement, we could have happily returned, and even despite this, is it not the owner’s responsibility to ensure the facilities are in working order?
The entirety of the response we received back from the Cottages Complaint team was embarrassing for yourselves to say the least, there was not an ounce of thought or care that went into helping me, it was clearly biased towards the Lodge owner. The advisor also pointed out that, despite allowing their owners to advertise Wi-Fi on their listing, they don’t guarantee the Wi-Fi. So essentially, Cottages has created a system where customers can’t complain about actual issues, because they just don’t guarantee it. Which is abysmal. This is false advertisement, it is misleading.
But it gets better! After replying to the awful response, I received a follow up. In this email the Cottages Complaint team tells me that they enquired about the circumstances with the Lodge owner, but they haven’t received any response from him. So because of this they transferred a £20 voucher to me, and said now my complaint won’t be subject to further review because it is settled.
So the first part here, I genuinely do not know how a complaints team can be attempting to resolve a complaint about a Lodge without speaking to the Lodge Owner. What this tells me is that the complaints team never had any intentions of actually resolving the issue, the outcome of the complaint had already been decided. Additionally, I do not know how Cottages can continue to side with the Lodge Owner, when he won’t even reply to yourselves! This Email was sent to me no more than 3 weeks after the stay, so Cottages didn’t even bother to chase the Owner for longer than 3 weeks. They just quickly attempted to sweep my complaint under the rug with a £20 voucher, which compared to the cost of my stay is insulting.
The second part, is the assumption that the complaint is now closed because they offered me a £20 voucher. This is so insulting to your customer. The complaint should stay open until you have come to an agreement, to send your customer a voucher then throw the complaint in the bin is unbelievable.
My last email from the team literally just told me to contact ABTA, because frankly the Team can’t even be bothered to chase the Owner for a response, so why bother putting an ounce of effort into actually resolving a complaint. They even had the courage to write that “despite their best efforts they hadn’t been able to settle my complaint”, which is frankly embarrassing. Have some humility and admit that you couldn’t care less.
So the moral of the story here, is Cottages is great until you actually have to deal with Cottages, then you will speak to some of the worst customer relationship advisors I have ever come across, who have zero interest in resolving your issues.”
“The property we stayed at was wonderful and very clean little touches like tea coffee sugar provided the beds we're very comfortable and the cottage was so cosy the owners estelle and philp we're very helpful the surrounding countryside was perfect we had some lovely dog walks the cottage was called rock cottage”
“You only know how good a company is when something goes wrong. Our stay was dreadful at a bungalow in Portscatho Cornwall that cottages.com brokered. Their customer service is dreadful and would let you stay in unsafe, unhygienic properties, even with photographic evidence they were not interested in helping us. Will never use this company again and advise others to steer clear.”
“We had a couple of issues and trying to get hold of someone to speak to at cottages.com is a nightmare. Virtually impossible. I had to use the tab that was used for an owner as that was the only way I got to speak to someone. The first person I spoke to was unprofessional. Almost like someone was passing the phone when it was ringing and decided to pick up. He didn’t have a clue.
Would never use this company again.”
“Misleading advertisements for properties. Property descriptions claim the property has/provides things it does not, or fails to make you aware of issues, such as the property has security cameras inside the property to monitor guests during their stay. Their customers service is non existent and even you make a complaint regarding the property (even at the start of your holiday) nothing is done to address the issues. They make it practically impossible for you to complain, cutting off all channels of communication. Their staff are rude, lazy and your complaint is never addressed.”
“I have just completed a lovely long weekend at the Barn on the wall in Cumbria and must say the eight strong party had a wonderful time the owner Anna was extremely helpful and very amenable the cottage was wonderful it's grounds and stunning views were excellent.
Thank you Anna for a brilliant weekend.”
“we stayed at Crook if Golf in Bacton. The accommodation appeared to last have been updated in the 80's. We were not expecting luxury but this was beyond a joke. Mattresses very thin and uncomfortable. Badly stained bedroom carpet. Pillows so worn out they were about an 1" thick. We had to buy our own. Bathroom suite very worn and poorly fitted. Black mould around shower base. Ingrained dirt in corners .of room. The settee was incredibly uncomfortable, we noticed that someone had previously found the same problems as we did in the reviews which had unfortunately been left after we booked. The open space out front has now been built on with more chalets. It is a shame because a great deal of the owners have made their chalets really nice. Would never recommend this to anyone.”
“I made a booking on 17/924 and the same day was contacted by owner of the cottage to say that they were no longer letting their cottage and Cottages.com had been informed months before. After many hours of trying to contact them via their contact nos-not actually speaking to a person!!!! I did manage to speak to a person who seemed disinterested and said that I’d receive a refund within 10 days. I am still waiting 31 days and will now have the frustration of trying to deal with this. I am a pensioner and have had to rebook (using another company) having to use more money I can’t afford! Due to go away soon and need reimbursement in order to enjoy it!”
“I recently stayed at Brothersfield cottage and wrote an honest review of the poor standards.
I’ve also emailed Cottages.com about the property and the substandard condition, however the review has not been put on their site and they haven’t replied to the email. This company is very quick to take your money, but anything negative is ignored. I will never use Cottages.com again!”
“What went wrong was Cottages.com, full stop. If I was the owner of the cottage I'd be furious. They were so obstructive regarding giving information, not answering threads, that I had to get an arbitrator (airbnb) involved at least twice before my trip. It is very frustrating to need to contact them for anything. They only sent me the code for entry a couple of hours before arrival. The cottage itself was lovely, but everything the company seems to do that represents 'caring' about the customer, is such an act that it is laughable. They frustrated my to such an extent that I had to get over that in order to enjoy my stay. I'm sure that's not what it is meant to be.”
“wanted to talk to someone about an issue, but is all AI, no real people to talk to. As I was on a phone it was really hard typing YES or NO answers only to questions. Being able to talk to someone helps. Won't be using Cottages.com anymore.”
“I wanted to leave a review about a recent stay but was unable to because the company has to contact you. There is no customer service number or email address. There is a digital chat number which is useless.”
“Holiday cancelled with no compensation 2 days - yes 2 days before booking was meant to start. If we had cancelled we would have lost all funds paid...
Would not provide equivalent accommodation, just left us with nothing didnt even refund money for 7 days for us to rebook.
Couldn't care less that what they do is against ABTA code of conduct and the law!
If you want your holiday cancelled with no notice or compensation book with them other wise go somewhere normal.”
“Shocking customer service from this company,
They rented me a cottage that overwhelmingly stank of damp and one bedroom infested with wood lice.
So bad that we had to leave a day early
They sided with the cottage owner instead of their customers!
Liars! AVOID AVOID SVOID”
