“Needed to cancel a trip over 2 months in advance. Took over £600 for the privilege to cancel even though it will clearly be rebooked by that time as May half term.
Customer service woman extremely unhelpful and rude. Will not book through cottages.com again.”
“I booked a cottage for 6-7 months time for £25. I cancelled within 2 weeks and they told me I can’t without paying them the deposit they didn’t charge me for that would be thousands of pounds.
The cottage I booked is sold out all the time and I have given them 6 months notice. There is such a thing as fairness.
I said I didn’t have that money and the man on the phone told me that they would chase it until it ended up in court!
I had to hang up I was so stressed. Right now I am still booked as I can’t cancel even though if they let me cancel they could sell it again!
I will be contacting the cottage itself (which I won’t mention here to be fair to them) direct as well to check if they are actually getting the money cottages.com are trying to charge me as well as a re-booking! I will also be contacting consumer affairs.
I do not recommend you book on this site!!”
“Just returned from a wonderful week at Glebe Cottage in Caister-on-Sea. Thank you Julie and Steve for allowing us to spend time here, and for being so helpful and engaging. The area is great for exploring and we did plenty! The cottage is really peaceful and we would definitely recommend staying here. Thanks once again!”
“Booked a cottage on line charged twice for this, they have no interest in helping me reclaim this amount .Had a very rude manager call me after a week, very unhelpful spoke over me the whole time ! No customer service at all. Unable to speak to accounts as apparently they don’t have access to any telephones? Dreadful experience be warned seems a dodgy company”
“Terrible service. Booked with Airbnb (this is something new: don't use this) during Covid. The service of Cottages.com and Airbnb is really bad. If you need something they point to each other. This makes it impossible to cancel or reschedule without loosing your entire bookingfee.
What annoys me is that Airbnb changed there default cancellation rules (normally these are pretty relaxed, but they implemented the cottages no refund possible).
Stay away from Cottages.com.”
“DO NOT BOOK DURING COVID!!!!
I was unable to travel to the UK due to COVID and the refused to discuss the matter at all. I was refused at the border. They were not willing to discuss the matter at all. I understand there are complications but they were not willing to be flexible at all. The owner BTW was completely flexible.”
“A beautifuly modern and recently refurbished cottage when walking in......it ended there unfortunately!!
All tv’s don’t work (found out it has been like this for over 2months but not on listing when you book)
Broken kitchen tap that is hanging of and a flood waiting to happen.
Toilet seats all loose.
Road noise terrible after 6am in top bedroom
No hot shower water in main bathroom (so be prepared to use the tiny en-suite ones)
Smell of dog urine on the Astroturf in the small courtyard at the back.
This cottage had clearly not been cleaned from previous guests apart from change of beds and fresh towels........there was old milk spilt in the fridge, crumbs on carpets, coffee stains in the kitchen etc...... but WORST OF All......urine and pubic hairs around the toilet in the first bedroom en-suite and poo still around the toilet in the top bedroom en-suite!!! DISCUSTING!!! ....
We rang the housekeeper and he was actualy brilliant and came round the following morning to rectify parts of it at our inconvenience as we had to wait in. But at least he came.
Cottages.com didn’t want to know. Having rang them, they replied and said they have logged our complaint......well that’s not good enough!! When you are paying £100+ a night, especially in the current times, you expect better customer service than that.
All in all, the cottage is in a great location and it is a really nice cottage, just a shame that the owner is letting it go downhill and not sorting out the problems. And it is clear that cottages.com are not interested.
££££ on both parts I feel!!!
We are regular visitors to filey but will be staying elsewhere for future visits.”
“I had a 3 day break booked at the height of the petrol shortage crisis. With no guarantee of having enough petrol to get there or back I contacted Customer Services. Despite paying £25 for additional insurance there was no provision for unexpected events and I would only get 5% of my £400 back.
After booking through them and Hoseasons for 4 years this will be my last booking. I prefer to give my money to companies who are able to accommodate events beyond their customers control.”
“Had to cancel my holiday. Cottages.com are failing to provide information required for me to claim through my insurance despite being promised at least 10x now going to Abta. Customer Services at its worse.”
“Lack of transparency on cancellation costs.
FAQ on cancellation policy says a sliding scale - the link to Booking Conditions does not take you directly to cancellation sliding scale.
Cancellation fees hidden in small print - could as easily put the sliding scale in the FAQs for transparency.
No meaningful customer service when querying cancellation and fees.”
“We stayed in Felix Portus cottage in Filey. There were significant problems with the cottage. The electrics failed twice. The doors and windows do not fit so it is very draughty. The kitchen tap is about to fall out of the sink. The TV’S do not work. Interestingly most of these faults have previously been commented on and obviously not resolved. Not somewhere I would recommend to anyone.”
“When it goes wrong
When it goes wrong, they have no interest and will past you from pillar to post.
Never rent a property from an owner that wants the deposit in their account because, if they choose not to pay you it back, Cottages, com, will do nothing about it. Even if the owner is in the wrong.
They have no interest in resolving complaints made by the customer and will happily leave you hanging.”
“We booked a cottage called "Waters Edge" in Pentley Lakes, Norfolk through cottages.com. Helpful staff. Excellent location,lots of water fowls. 2 swans decided to rest in our garden it was so good for the soul.
Super helpful and pleasant owners nothing was too much trouble for them.
Hot tub was out doors even at the end of September so enjoyable and warm water temperature and lovely to move on to the indoor sauna to finish off.
Thoughtful extras like picnic plates,dishes and cutlery.Plenty of fridge and freezer space.
Water skiing lessons for youngsters not for us! We enjoyed the beautiful lake side walks.This is a lovely place to have a family or friends get together in.”
“Booked Colbridge Cottage in Docking. Beautiful characterful cottage. Spotless and just as described. Previous reviews had complained about the stairs and the church bells. Well if you read the description it says the stairs are very steep as it is a 19th century cottage and as for the bells they were lovely. So typical of an English country village. Slept well . In fact it was an owl that woke us up. Brilliant. Looking to book next Feb loved it that much.”
“Booked Primrose Bank in Sockbridge, Penrith for weekend in September back in March. Paid low deposit. Cottage was totally as described, in fact better. Very clean, perfect for us 4 ladies on a hiking weekend to Ullswater. No issues with the service from Cottages.com Will use again.”
“Cottages.com insurance - a cautionary tale
This review submitted as a quiet warning to anyone booking with cottages.com to read the fine print of the insurance this company offers very carefully and make sure it is appropriate for your own situation.
We were unable to take our booked holiday back in April 2021 when our dog died suddenly a few days before the holiday start. I contacted cottages.com (many times, was ignored or stuck waiting on the phone for over 20 mins) to ask if the insurance we had taken out with them (£35) would provide us with a refund, especially if they were able to re-book that week - a strong likelihood given staycation demand in 2021. Put simply - I wanted to know if cottages.com had made money by rebooking that property which just felt immoral and wrong given it was caused by the death of my dog. Cottages.com finally replied to me declining the refund and refusing to confirm whether they had rebooked the property on that week of 16-23 April. My more recent emails to them have simply been ignored.”
“Totally disappointed!!! We had to cancel the holiday 7 days before, we didn’t have a choice my wife father died we have to go for the funeral At the same time as we have the holidays. They didn’t want to even listen what is the reason of cancelling this holidays and they charge as fee 95% of full payment. Im not recommend that company please try to look somewhere else”
