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Sykes Cottages Reviews

1.2 Rating 1,362 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Sykes Cottages

Company Reviews

1.2

Based on 1,362 reviews


Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Over A Week
Customer Service	1.1 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult
Returns Process	Could Be Better

Read Sykes Cottages Reviews

Phone:

0124 435 2059

Location:

Sykes Holiday Cottages Lime Tree House Hoole Lane
Chester
CH2 3EG

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Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 17th May 2024

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 10th April 2024

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 18th January 2024

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 4th January 2023

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 4th January 2023

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 4th January 2023

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 4th January 2023

206

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“The customer service of this company is shocking! I'm now having to take legal advise as they won't give me evidence by law I should be able to receive! There was a huge storm at a property I stayed at and they are trying to blame me and my partner for breaking a motor on an electric gate!”

Posted 3 months ago

“Do not use, we booked a deposit and realised 3 days later that the half term had changed. They are trying to charging us £990 for a cancellation fee. Even though the holiday isn’t for another 5 months!”

Posted 3 months ago

“Like many, many other reviewers, I'm giving 1 star as 0 is impossible. Sykes are an utter disgrace, someone needs to step in and shut them down! Let me first of all say, this is in no way a reflection on the property I rented via Sykes through Air BnB. The property was amazing, well looked after and I would be more than happy to highly recommend it to anyone. The problem was the booking process; I would implore all property owners, please do not use Sykes to represent you as a booking agent! I booked the property for a work trip, I needed to add a few extra days to the original booking (for which the property was available), so I made a request for an extension via Air BnB; Sykes refused it. I messaged them via Air BnB to ask why, which was met with silence. I put in another extension request, which this time remained unanswered for a week. It was the day I was due to check in, with still no response, so I called them. It took me 20 minutes to get through to them on the phone, but eventually I managed to speak to someone. As a previous reviewer stated I was met with the comment “we cannot revise your booking due to data protection". I asked the Sykes employee, how we were breaching data protection in this extension process, they could not answer me, so I had to go on to explain how data protection laws work and how booking through Air BnB works (being very familiar with the processes myself from numerous work trip over the years). I asked if they had a customer complaints department, which they replied they did and asked to be transferred. After a further 10 minute wait, again I was told “we cannot revise your booking due to data protection" (I actually think it was the same person I originally spoke with, I think they may operate out of a garden shed in Chester). Again, I explained how data protection and Air BnB worked and how we are not breaching any policies (de ja vu!). After a further 10 minute lengthy conversion with their “Team Leader” (Probably went outside the shed for a smoke) I was informed they would email me with an update on the issue before I checked in. Guess what…. I arrived at the property to check in with no update! As I literally opened the door, I received another message from Air BnB saying my extension request has been denied. Lessons learnt…. Never ever, ever again, have any dealings with properties booked via Sykes!!!!”

Posted 3 months ago

“One star only because 0 isn’t an option. Terrible customer service for disabled people who struggle with technology. They use an insurance company which is impossible to get any response from and whose website is totally inaccessible, so Sykes keep our money. Would never book with them again.”

Posted 3 months ago

“I booked for a week for our family,11 of us in total in a large farm house in Honiton. I paid a low deposit. 2 weeks later I realised our grandchildren had different half terms and needed to cancel. I phoned and was told I wouldn’t lose any more than the deposit. When my bank statement arrived I noticed. £348.30 had been taken from my account. I have been told I can only rebook the same property. All school holidays are all ready booked up. And I huge farm house is not suitable for2 grandparents! I am not allowed to book a more suitable property. So I am loosing £400 for a booking which lasted 2 weeks before cancelling. Absolutely shameful!! I would definitely not recommend this company!”

Posted 3 months ago

“Sykes are awful! There is nothing bad to be said about the property owner or the actual property we booked via Airbnb, but Sykes, who manages the property and is, therefore, the official host on Airbnb, is terrible to deal with. We needed to change our dates; Airbnb and the property owner were happy, but Sykes made it impossible, blaming "data protection". I was the guest, Sykes was the host, and Airbnb was the platform - data protection does not prevent a guest from communicating with their host! Regardless, Sykes claimed that since "AirBnB changing their terms and conditions, we are unable to pass data protection checks that would allow us to legally help with the booking.". This is obviously a complete farce, and they are using this as an excuse to fob off customers. Airbnb should consider removing SykesCottages.com as a host from ALL Airbnb properties, given this factually incorrect information they give to customer support queries, causing reputational, brand and goodwill damage to Airbnb. Let's see how quickly SykesCottages.com suddenly finds the ability to have half-decent customer service once Airbnb cuts them off at the teat. I hope they go bankrupt, and I will never book any trip that has SykesCottages.com as the host.”

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 18th January 2024

Posted 4 months ago

“Pre booked a holiday for Cherry Garth, Aislaby for 29.6.24 for one week. Unfortunately, due to a tragic incident in the family we are forced with cancelling this particular holiday. We asked if we could use the £393 we paid upfront towards a holiday more suited to our needs and were told this was not possible as it had been booked with the owner. We were told that we could possibly change the date, but we needed to change the venue for convenience, and apparently we couldn’t do this. What bothers me is who keeps our money, Sykes or the property owner? To add insult to injury, after cancelling we’ve received numerous emails inviting us to book Cherry Garth. What a despicable company, no morals, no empathy, just ruthless…….. and judging by all the negative reviews I don’t know how you are still in business.”

Posted 4 months ago

“With 9 months notice, I needed to make a 1-day shift in dates, I was flexible and happy to add a couple extra days, if that worked. On 3 separate attempts to reach customer service, I got "Hi, I'm whoever, how can I help you"...then nothing! I got up at 2:30am to be sure to catch an agent promptly and account for the time difference. But still, nothing beyond "Hi, how can I help you". I am planning a 2-month long holiday of a lifetime and this was a sad start. Eventually I cancelled the reservation at significant cost (half the booked week), despite the 9 month lead time. Didn't want to spend the next 9 months worrying if the on-the-ground service would be as bad as the online service. Disappointing to say the least.”

Posted 4 months ago

“Absolute fraudsters. Recieved an email about a refund on a property that was booked and cancelled within 3 days. No mention of drop down of forfeit of monies. In deed no mention throughout the booking of the bookings being non refundable at all. Total scammers. In fact email recieved stating the refund will be processed within a certain number of days. No refund then contact made and some randoms keep stating small print. Trouble is there computers and humans contradict each other and now we will be going to court. I do not allow theft on monies and illigemate theft of hard working peoples monies. Book with booking. com only what this company protraies as a customer service actually is not!!”

Posted 4 months ago

“Made a booking at the Shippon (Tarporley) through Sykes Cottages as we were due to attend the June 2024 race meeting at Oulton Park. We have had to cancel this due to a berevaement and been informed by Sykes that we have to pay a cancellation fee of approx one third (£212) even though this is more than 6 months away and the owner will be able to re-let the property due to the popular race event. They cite Terms and Conditions which are both unclear and unfair to the customer. Live chat hasn't worked for past 2 days they have been "busy with other customers) - nearly 1300 reviews which provide this firm with a score of 1.2 which really sums up the disgraceful and uncaring firm this is. Would strongly suggest they are avoided.”

Posted 4 months ago

“I wish we had read this before we booked with them. About to spend 50th birthday in one of their cottages we paid £1750 for, we have all come down with Covid, they do not care, no opportunity to amend booking to later date, they are an awful company with zero compassion, do not book a holiday…..we also spoke to a hundred different people but by far the worst was Stuart smith (I think he was lying to me about his name) who when I asked, so Sykes is happy for us to spend 4 nights in one of your cottages with Covid, he said fantastic.”

Posted 4 months ago

“Discussing company with no morals! I tried to re arrange a booking due to my farther being diagnosed with a brain tumour and suddenly taken a turn after a bleed on his brain he was taken to a palliative care hospice we lost him within two weeks. I spoke to to several different people and eventually they stopped answering me online. My sister also contacted them and when she asked if they could show some compassion and have a heart they said “we deal with terms and conditions not hearts” absolutely disgusting company.”

Posted 5 months ago

“THE WORST COMPANY IVE EVER ENCOUNTERED IN MY LIFE, they have caused so much upset, and are the lowest form of life out there”

Posted 5 months ago

“Very poor service for owners - Absolutely agree with previous owner comments I have seen; It is a relief I’m not the only owner that feels like this. Ran the let myself for 7 years as a profitable business, now with Sykes for 3 years and it’s running at a significant loss. Sykes control bookings and rental charges. Cancel bookings without authorisation. When something goes wrong, or you need support they wash their hands! Can’t wait to get free of them. Will be contacting a solicitor and the financial conduct authority to try and get my money back for cancellations and compensation for poor service.”

Posted 5 months ago

“VERY POOR SERVICE FOR OWNERS. The site works on algorithms that change the pricing and add discounts for no good reason and e Westbourne any notice so, despite their mantra that You the owner is in control, you are not! Very poor customer relations who just give platitudes. No help when they make errors. You get passed around to other departments and other advisors for it only to come back round to them. They say anything just to get you off the phone but do nothing to help resolve. If it involves Sykes making any refund, no matter how much proof you have that they slipped up, you just get ignored. My advice, take the complaint to the financial conduct authority/ financial ombudsman!”

Posted 5 months ago

“Shocking business! Check you T&Cs”

Posted 6 months ago

“I have managed my own holiday rental property for many years and decided to pass the online management to Sykes to avoid the calls from guests late at night asking random questions like some guests do and are intitled to do so. So I signed up with Sykes even though they charge a massive 17% to 20% commission for the bookings including VAT. After a totally disjointed onboarding experience being passed to so many different people at Sykes all asking the same questions and all of them had a different option on things such as the fire risk assessment which I was told i could complete a form for but turned out I need a professional fire risk assessment which took ages to sort out. There were to many issues to list with going with Sykes but one of the biggest issues was that no one at Sykes told me that their system would not allow different check in days for different parts of the year, I always had Saturday to Saturday in summer and any check in day for the rest of the year. I kept asking them why they were not getting many bookings and they responded that it was a slow year! Eventually I looked on their site and put in dates for a weekend (Friday to Monday) as this was most popular in the previous 7 years of bookings. As they had used for the check in/out day as Saturday the charge for a weekend was the price of 2 weeks as it bridged over either side of Saturday so charged double!! I lost thousands of pounds worth of bookings in the year I was with Sykes and I would never recommend them to any owner looking for them to manage their holiday rental bookings, their customer service to owners is terrible and I'm surprised how big the company has got. There was a guest that booked through Sykes that had a issue with the hot tub and the lady from Sykes that called just asked me do I have the guests number to call them and sort it out! So basically Sykes don't even help when there is a issue at the property even though they had the hot tub maintenance guys number to call in case the hot tub had any problems!”

Posted 6 months ago

“To the customer who wrote this please get in touch with Sykes unhappy customer page on Facebook Thanks https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=1798518660580366&set=gm.3471742119741740&idorvanity=1827406157508686”

Posted 7 months ago

“I have read most of the reviews about sykes cottages and I most say that there is a pattern to sykes ripping off people. i booked for april 2023 for the captains cottage scarbourough paid in full . I was offered a clean cosy relaxing well equipped cottage with parking .no mention of a school opposite parking so bad that your car cannot be moved if you do manage to get one. The smell of cannabis up and down the street that's before you enter the cottage through a door that doesn't lock cleaners that have not been in from the last guests. the stench that takes your breath away.the peeling wall paper the damp .the bags of rubbish in the back garden the decking covered in weeds the noise from next door all hours .sykes forgot to mention any off this in the advert .but you dare to point it out to them .that is if you manage to get through to the couldn't careless staff. but they are quick to react about how much they are taking from you for cancelling. Come on Sykes it should be us poor suckers taking money form you listening to your lies that made us book these slums they should be a law against you and to be honest I thought they was call trading standard but you cover your back so well . So people don't be another victim of unscrupulous company .like others never again .”

Posted 7 months ago

“If you want a bad customer service then book through Sykes Cottages. Our holiday was booked, paid for, enjoyed BUT THE ACCOUNTS DEPARTMENT PUT A SUBSCRIPTION ON MY BANK ACCOUNT FOR A HOLIDAY I PAID FOR. SAID THEY HAD I.T PROBLEMS AND INITIALLY BLAMED MY BANK FOR THEIR ACTIONS., AND SAID THEY COULD NOT REMOVE IT. MANY CALLS AND WHATSAPP MESSAGES LATER IT IS STILL THERE. LOTS OF PROMISED CALLS NOT RECEIVED. DO NOT RECOMMED. GO ELSEWHERE”

Posted 7 months ago

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Sykes Cottages is rated 1.2 based on 1,362 reviews