“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.”
“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.”
“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”
“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”
“What a terrible company, was advised!! today by a rude advisor called Martin to basically push off then advised by another advisor called Robert I could not complain about Martin...
Martin the customer services advisor from hell was rude, and brusque, but guess that passes as customer services at cottages.com.
This treatment was after a 2 day stay for £555 at a lovely rural property, quiet and secluded, that will be a big fat NO...in reality I was treated to a digger all day 50ft from the property front window from 10 am to 5pm, smashing ...no doubt cottages.com will think that is great...and its me that has the problem...I have pictures but out of a misplaced fairness to the owner I will not share”
“I can second these are a joke of a company! Had issues with hurst house in st bees and all cottages.com could say was that they didn’t own the property so it wasn’t their fault!
Astounding that they can just blame the owners even tho they represent them ! Wouldn’t never use this company again! Beware !”
“Avoid.. only to happy to take your money and when there is a problem they keep trying to fob you off for months.
We stayed at maytree cottage in May. After 1st night awoke to find 2 members of family covered in bites. You could then see bed bugs in that bed. After speaking to the owner we left the house for the day ,and was told the problem had been dealt with. Upon our return that evening we were shocked to find that there was visibly still bed bugs in that bedroom and 2 other bedrooms. Because at that time it was so late 7 of us had to sleep downstairs on sofas. GREAT HOLIDAY!!!!
The next day was spent on phone to cottages.com and out side in garden shaking off 9 peoples clothes before we packed cars. That afternoon cottages.com did offer us a alternative house to stay at.
Which we did except although it was not in the area we had planned to holiday,so by the time we had travelled there it was late evening. ANOTHER DAY OF OUR HOLIDAY LOST .... the next day was spent washing 9 peoples clothes with dettol in the fear we may have brought the BED BUGS with us. Although cottages.com did transfer us to a different house, we feel after saving up and looking forward to a holiday it was ruined and fell well short of our expectations, to say the least. And certainly don't expect to come back off holiday covered in BITES.....
Then after 2 months and numerous phone calls to be told we are not entitled to any compensation!!!!! What a shambolic joke of a holiday company.”
“They misrepresented a property clearly had not been inspected for some time! Too many issues to list but unsafe hot tub being one big issue. Dirty unusable crockery & utensils, dirty bedding to name but a few. Cottages.com not taking responsibility for advising this cottage. You are better off booking with Classic Cottages or smaller companies. I will not use them again!”
“I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole. Thieving bustards.
I had to cancel a ling weekend, was told I would lose my deposit. When I responded to agree to this I received no response.
I eventually called them only to be told I would lose 75%!!!!
Unless you are confident you will definitely use your booking DO NOT USE.”
“Booked a holiday on Air BnB. Was sent an email from Cottages.com to confirm the pets we were taking a week from the holiday start date. They then needed £25 per pet paying. An EXTRA CHARGE not clear when the booking was made. If I hadn't contacted them then no charge would have been made! Don't like the way this company operates with charges added at a later date. Be aware when booking you may be charged extra. Poor customer service from the man I spoke to, just after your money.”
“This was not good
I did contact the owner
I have tried to contact you
I was terribly ill whilst there
There were untold amount of flies
It smelt of urine
The kitchen had remains of toast over the counter
Because we booked five days Monday to Friday we actually only had three full days for over £1050. Extortionate
We actually left on Thursday evening as I was too unwell to stay
I could not breathe / asthmatic and it was either too many air fresheners in there ( which I did place outside after one day) which then allowed us to smell the urine
I did ask why so many and the reply was because previous occupants made a curry
But we arrived after 4pm the next day ? Surely a curry wasn’t being made before 10am when they departed ?
Anyway , money 💴 spent and had made me very wary of any further bookings with your company .
We have stayed at the lodore falls hotel which takes dogs and spent similar amount of money and this is a far better experience, clean beds and no signs of other people & their dogs . Ridiculous prices ! But the owners are so egotistical that they are fantastic, as all reviews published say this !! Total biased reviews! I am so not happy with this! My review has not been published and I feel I was fair with my review.
Cottages com you are also not good with reply’s!
Regards
Unwell from staying in one of your cottages !”
“We booked a small house in Southsea called Little Sage House; the woman who owned the house did not want to rent anymore. We did not find out until the morning of the booking. We only found out because we texted the woman to ask what time we could book in. Cottage.com were unhelpful, we stopped the fund transfer and told them and we found somewhere to stay the following day and booked the cottage.com had in fact taken the money and put me in a £900 overdraft. I expected them to pay for the overdraft and their response to my email was to refuse to communicate with me. Their behaviour has been unethical and disgraceful”
“My partner Viv lives in Bedford and I live in Swansea. Viv recently lost her much loved Dad and having been a carer for both her parents for the past 8 years is struggling at the moment.
She loves Wales and after much research booked a lovely peaceful cottage called Bwythn Berwig in Llanrhidian on the Gower Peninsular for a well needed break for peace and reflection in a lovely tranquil place. Bedford to Llanrhidian M1, M25, M4 is 230 miles each way. So by the time I get back to Swansea 920 miles in total !
I drove to Bedford on Thursday and we drove down to the cottage yesterday (Friday). We had official confirmation of AirB&B plus an official booking reference number and the £640 for the week’s stay was taken from Viv’s bank account on Friday morning by AirB&B. We arrived at the cottage at 4.20pm on Friday 16th June.
No key safe, no one to greet us ! We phoned Cottages.com who we believe own the property and at first they tried to say we hadn’t completed the booking ! We gave them all the confirmation information and they then changed their story and said the ‘owners’ had cancelled in the afternoon, AFTER the money had been from Viv’s bank account ! We were stranded stuck in a lay-by we eventually got a contact number for AirB&B they contacted the ‘owners’ who said they had cancelled the booking ! Hoping they would find an alternative they came up with 3 inferior and more expensive properties not in the area and said we would have to pay upfront for an alternative property but a ‘refund (of Viv’s money) would take 15 working days’ ! Why ? They took from her account instantly.
We spent 3 more hours in the car in a lay-by trying to find an alternative but being holiday season and very, very last minute everything was way over £1,000 for the week and not on the Gower Peninsular where we really wanted to stay ! The thing is they cancelled this booking they had both our phone numbers email addresses and no one had the decency to even inform us ! It got to 9pm before we gave up and headed back to Bedford ! The M4 to M25 junction was closed and we eventually got back to Bedford at 2am this (Saturday) morning ! To say it was a stressful day is an understatement ! Further research by us showed that the cottage wasn’t just a holiday let it’s also up for sale, so we can only assume the owners have either had an offer or someone has booked a viewing and they cancelled us but didn’t have the decency to even let us know ! You can’t have a house on the market and as a holiday let surely it’s got to be one or the other ! It’s not so bad if you cancel future holiday let bookings because it gives holiday makers time to book an alternative, but to cancel on the actual day of arrival after taking the money and not even inform us of the cancellation is absolutely disgusting ! I didn’t know things like this could happen I thought AirB&B would have a decent customer service and look after it’s customer’s not leave them stranded when we had done everything by the book !
Dixie & Viv :0(”
