I booked a weekend away through Sykes Cottages, and upon reviewing my account I couldn't find my booking. Contacting Sykes is incredibly difficult, every time I tried using their online chat function, I was presented with an error saying they were too busy and to try again later. The other options to contact them is text and Whatsapp. I tried both these avenues and after 48 hours received a text to say they hadn't responded because they were busy and to reply "YES" if I still needed a response. 3 days after originally reaching out I finally received a reply, and my account was fixed enabling me to see my booking. Upon reviewing this I realised I had booked this for the incorrect year 2025 instead of 2024, I tried to move my booking to the correct dates, but the property was unavailable, leaving me needing to cancel. I understand that booking the incorrect dates was my error and was fully prepared to lose my £20 deposit, however upon trying to cancel I found I was expected to pay a further £100 to "finish paying my deposit", this shocked me as I am giving over a year’s notice. This happened at the end of July and my booking is for the end of September the following year. I got back in contact via text asking if this was correct as surely with over years notice this isn't justifiable. I was told yes; I am still expected to pay the full deposit. I asked if I could transfer my booking to a different property, you can't as they are all individually owned. I am now left either having to pay over £100 to cancel (along with booking somewhere else for the correct dates), use the property when it is booked for or pay an additional £30 admin fee to change the dates (along with any difference in the cost, whish is understandable). I understand letting companies need to protect themselves from last minute cancellations and being unable to fill the booking and losing revenue, however with over a years’ worth of notice I would have expected to lose my £20 deposit but did not expect to then have to pay an additional £100 to cancel. This along with access to their customer service has put me off from ever booking with them again. Bare this in mind when booking!!