In late March we booked a house to visit Chester for a trip about 2 and a half weeks away. Two days later my mum died suddenly, so that same morning I canceled the trip as we were grieving and I needed to care for my family. Explained the situation to cottages.com, even providing a death certificate to show I was being truthful. I wanted a refund of the £400 as we aren't able to travel anytime soon, had only just booked less than 48 hours before and there was still ample time for soemone else to book the property. Cottages.com offered us to change our booking but refused our refund, telling us we should have booked the travel insurance if we wanted a total refund. I don't care about policy, we have been through an awful situation that I wouldn't wish on anyone and cottages.com simply didn't care, they'd rather keep hold of £400 than show a tiny bit of human decency. Had they helped me out I would have been a customer for life and spent far more than £400 in future. Now I wouldn't ever use them again and will never recommend them to anyone else. I've since sent seversl emails to cottages.com asking them to reconsider, however these emails have been ignored completely. A greedy, shameless, callous organisation. Avoid like the plague.