“My husband and I booked a holiday cottage for a week in Scotland in April. Subsequently in December (two weeks ago) my daughter died unexpectedly and we took on the care of our granddaughter. Because we became guardians to a school age child we could no longer take the holiday during the period planned. Plus we had added another dog and cat to our family. I called Cottages.com to cancel on January 2 to cancel which gives them four months to relet. I expected to lose the £60 deposit. I was totally shocked when they informed me that I had to pay £186 to cancel. Everyone else I have dealt with in these past two weeks has been so kind and empathetic to our situation but Cottages.com - totally cold and without empathy. I was fair to them but they did not reciprocate.”
“Whilst they hold a good selection of cottages for holidays. The company itself has in my experience proved itself the worst business I've ever had to deal with..
They positively hate dealing with the public, and their interactions show an arrogance that should only be rewarded with the company Going Out of business. They are that poor and I would never, ever advise anyone to touch this company ever for any reason.
We had a cottage booked with deposit But the owners cancelled their cottage last summer, but on the point of paying the balance for the holiday we found out from the owner that it was no longer available but had not been contacted by cottages.com. When I complained I got no apology and was made to wait for repayment of the deposit. They are a total disgrace to the industry and do not be tempted to book with them”
“Do not book with company the hide cancellation policy through 10-12 different links not info given on booking just impossible to find hidden policy of if you cancel you still basically pay in full. Don't risk it.”
“Do not book with this company. They make you pay a £250 deposit. You lose this money even if you cancel 6 months for your holiday. This is unfair and therefore I would NEVER book through this site EVER AGAIN.”
“We were supposed to be on holiday today for four nights but I fortunately the property is flooded, that happens and I completely understand, however what I don't understand is cottages.com and their lack of contact to I form is of the matter! I only found out when I called the owner to ask where to collect the keys! I don't think they would actually have made contact at all if I hadn't made that call two days before travelling! They knew over two weeks previously as the owner contacted them about it and also numerous times in between when other guests did exactly the same as myself yet still they didn't think to contact us! The man on chat was rude and sarcastic, no empathy skills whatsoever, couldn't care less attitude! Promised a call back from a manager, nothing. The relocation team did contact me after I said I wanted to complain, are going to provide refund but compensation for their lack of communication was offered at £25 voucher, like I'm going to book with these Muppets again! I've requested transcripts of the chat and any messages sent by the man in chat as I feel they will contain further evidence of ride and sarcastic tone, needless to say these haven't materialised yet! Will head down freedom of information route if nothing appears and no contact from complaint but I'm not hopeful. The owner was so stressed, I feel so sorry for anyone dealing with this company, avoid like the plague unless you like playing roulette with your annual leave and arrangements!”
“I have had two excellent experiences with this company. This year we booked a week at Christmas in Portpatrick, Tartan Escapes, where we have stayed twice before. Due to family circumstances we had to change the date and this was arranged for the 8-15 of December instead of the week over Christmas.
At the end of October, I received a call telling me that Tartan Escapes has sold the property and my holiday could not go ahead.
They did offer to find other accommodation, if they could, or I could have a refund. Rather sickened, I took the refund.
My point is, the holiday was cancelled at very short notice. I dread to think what they would have found in place of where I'd booked. Just be careful, like no fault evictions, your holiday can fall foul of landlords that care nought about you and your holiday plans.”
“Avoid this company at all costs. Stayed in a cottage which I would classify as potentially dangerous, exposed mains electrics, mould in the property, damp. Complained to cottages.com and they responded by re-letting the property to another family, who had similar complaints. Asked for full refund which was ignored. Further emails sent - ignored. Requested information required to commence legal action - ignored. Now feel duty bound to raise this issue publicly.”
“My family and I have just come home from a break in Two Seas luxury accomodation in Ness in the Outer Hrbrides. The house was just perfect. Beautiful, spotless and and lovingly renovated by our most attentive host. Although he was abroad while we stayed there, Colin kept in touch, always genuinely concerned that we were happy and comfortable. The house is built on a machair, so no cars to avoid as you walk for 5 mns down the machair to a beautiful sandy beach where you only meet a few dogwalkers. The view from each window in the house looks onto the sea and the beach and we were in a perfect spot for seeing the beautiful sunrises and sunsets. In winter the aurora can be breathtaking and in spring the machair is carpeted with all kinds of machair flowers. If you love all things nature, views, wide open spaces, beaches and a very comfortable base, this is the place for you. I think of the word serenity when I think of Two Seas.”
“This week we have stayed at The Old Stables in Cantley NR13 3SF and we both would like to say Thankyou Very Much for our stay, these premises were immaculate and so peaceful to out in the countryside, what a beautiful place this was and hopefully we shall return, it's 23miles to Great Yarmouth beach and many more places to visit including The Norfolk Broads to, definitely 10 out of 10 for us and loved the fresh eggs to for our breakfasts, once again a Big thankyou to Imogen the owner and from us it's a BIG YES
Mr n Mrs Douglas, Coventry”
“We booked Katys cottage in Angus for weekend 21st October. As we are all aware storm Babet hit and we were told not to travel to these areas. We were unable to get to the cottage due to road closures. Contacted cottages.com for refund as it was through no fault of our own that we could not get to the cottage. We were told the owner has not indicated any issue as to why the booking could not go ahead. This is absolutely absurd did the owner want us to travel in unsafe conditions and to go against police advisory. I will NEVER book through this site again. Cottages.com were not helpful at all.”
“We have a holiday Let in West Susses and had a booking last week from cottages.com, when our cleaner came to clean 10:30 the day the guests were supposed to leave at 10am the guests were still there and then ran out of the house, once she got in she knew why, they had trashed our bungalow, broken blinds, broken pictures, broken crockery, our house is none smoking and they had been smoking drugs in there, there were left over spliffs on our carpets and furniture, burn marks on our sofas and chest of draws, we took pictures and videos of everything made a police report but all a waste of time as the people had given a fake phone number and email to cottages. Spoke to cottages and they said there was nothing they could do and they were not prepared to compensate us for anything their clients had done.
They were more than happy to take the commission from the booking and not even give us anything from it which we find absolutely disgusting. The cost of the damage is in the thousands and the commission would not even have covered a tenth of it
Had to pay our cleaner double and more to sort the place out as best they could. The police said as they had no phone number, no email address, no real name or date of birth they could not take it any further. Cottages put profit before Owners and when their clients damage property they could not care less about sorting it out.
Tried ringing cottages numerous times about the matter and the phone just rings and rings, after first initial email response from them they have not bothered to return any of our additional emails
They do not do a proper vetting of clients so basically anyone could book and give false information they wouldn't have a clue who they are or how to get hold of them if something like this happened, as long as they take the booking and the profit from it thats all that matters to them
From our experience it might seem great to start with but you soon find out what they are really like
This is the second time this scenario has happened to our property through cottages
Business should work both ways in the holiday let industry with both sides helping each other out, cottages have shown us from their point of view it only works one way”
“We went to Seion, Nant Y Garth. Y Felinheli, Gwynedd, LL56 4QE. Huw the owner is so rude and obviously has little to no customer service skills. We booked a week. When we arrived the bedding was damp so at midnight we had to dry it again! The mattress is on its last legs. The sofa want taking to the tip you have to really struggle to get out of it. There is damp! Despite a photo of the damp it apparently does not exist. I contacted cottages.com to advise them at NO point did I ask for a refund. The owner came back with a disgusting reply stating I am asking for a cheap holiday and there is no damp!!!
Huw, you clearly have little to no respect for your customers. I did not ask for a refund and would not ask for one. Your cottage is damp and this has been shown on our books which rippled and our clothes. We lasted three nights then decided to leave as we couldnt get a phone response nor a text response.
Maybe it is time for you to sell up and leave the holiday industry OR go on a customer service course. If it isnt damp get it checked out by a profressional.”
“Appalling customer service. We had to cancel last minute when my dad was diagnosed with a brain tumour and was too ill to travel. He passed away shortly afterwards. Cottages.com refused to refund us any money and showed zero compassion during this most difficult time. As long as you have paid up they really don't care about their customers. Would never book with them again.”
“Owned by a heartless parent company who are the furthest thing removed from a family-friendly company as one could imagine.
I booked a holiday with them for a £25 deposit, but, as a result of the cost-of-living crisis, when the time came to settle up I couldn't afford to do so and sadly had to let the holiday lapse.
They actually cancelled it. Not me.
Now I'm being jumped upon by Big Brother Company "Awaze Vacation Rentals Ltd" and being threatened with CCJ even though they've resold the property/holiday week.
No. This isn't family-friendly at all.”
“I recently booked a cottage in Scotland through Airbnb with Cottages.com. The house is dog friendly so therefore I would expect a dog secure garden area. A recent negative experience made me re look at the photos on the page. I was unsure so contacted the 'host'. I think that was Cottages.com. They advised the garden is not secure. I gave notice within a few days I would have to cancel my booking. The cancellation policy on this property was partial refund if cancelled before Feb 2024. I asked for a refund and was told I was not entitled to one. I contacted Airbnb support. They were so helpful. I phoned Cottages.com they were not at all helpful. Meantime I had cancelled the original booking. Stupid me!
I then had to rebook the same property and once booked Airbnb negotiated a full refund of my original payment. I booked the same dates but within 1 week the fee was £40 more. How unfair. Thank you to Andrei from Airbnb, without your help there would not have been a refund. Shame on you COTTAGES.COM. I won't be booking another property through you. Disgraceful customer service. My advice would be to book directly with the 'individual host' and not through a 3rd party.”
“Rented an apartment in Saunton-no mention of 33 steps from car park down to apartment and back up even though asked on booking! Not in the “need to know “ information- Can’t speak to a human just “chat””
“Booked an apartment in Lyme Regis months ago due to go 8th September,email from them gave the contact name and number only .I spent the next 10 days trying to get arrival/key details via website,their useless chat now and having searched for the phone number and spent over an hour at various times I got told to wait until 48 hours prior to visit.
I sent 3 texts to the owner / contact,eventually rang ,after 3 rd call his answer system gave me his office number where a lady said she would get him to contact cottages .com .
2 hours later their customer service called to say it was withdraw and holiday was cancelled.
This gave us a day to book elsewhere,our money plus 150 compensation was payed within days .
Having used this company previously,this was an awful experience which highlighted how useless their web ,phone ect is if you need to contact them
Needs looking into,they even gave a message saying while they rested the phone line to use web,‘tis was10 am phone opens at 9 am”
“Cottages are always nice and in good condition. However, considering the price paid I don’t think guests should be asked to strip the bed, empty bins etc etc and be out by 10 a.m!!”
“We stayed at the Watchkeepers Cottage in Mundesley Norfolk the owners left milk, bread & biscuits which was very thoughtful, the cottage was also very well equipped.
But the cottage was dated & needed a lot of TLC, the skirting boards had not seen a cloth & around the stair area everything seemed sticky it needed either a good clean or decorating, the shower screen had a bad case of dirt/mould & needed bleaching, the windows needed a good clean & the garden was very boring with very long grass.
It wasn't a cheap cottage & we felt quite done! needless to say we won't be booking Watchkeepers again.”
“Seems they do not actually visit or review their accommodation.
The cottage, to be fair, was OK except that the kitchen had multiple non-functional pieces of equipment, and seemed to be supplied with a strange collection of cutlery and implements that made the creation of a simple meal almost impossible!
The wifi which "cannot be guaranteed", was guaranteed to be unusable all of the time. There was no information for passwords and no-one to contact. There was a wifi extender within the cottage which we could connect to, but it could not connect to the internet, anyway. We had to tether the TV to my phone in order to watch anything other than a subset of freeview channels.
The "Idyllic" outside space was nothing like the description - BBQs were rusted and burned out, the sauna was broken, the bbq huts looked like they had just been partied in and there was left over rubbish remaining with them. The "paddock" had been turned into a football training ground by previous guests and just left like that.
Guests will use and abuse things, and make the most of the outside spaces. However, that does not mean that the mess should be left for the next guests. That is why we pay good money for a "relaxing break". Simply leaving things like a trailer park, and spending no time or effort on making sure that advertised facilities are up to scratch is not good business. Even the hot-tub water (we didn't use the hot-tub) from the previous guests was simply left stewing while we were there.
This is all the responsibility of the owners, but cottages.com must take some blame for not assessing these properties - and then simply re-iterating the misleading drivel put out there”
