Sykes Cottages Reviews

Name: Sykes Cottages
Address: Sykes Holiday Cottages Lime Tree House Hoole Lane, Chester
Rating: 1.20

1.2 Rating 1,484 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Sykes Cottages

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,484 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

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 November 2024

Anonymous

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 8th November 2024

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Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 2nd November 2024

Anonymous

Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 18th September 2024

Julie

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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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“Review Title: Poor Customer Service and Unfair Charges I am extremely disappointed with how Sykes Cottages has treated me as a customer. I followed their guidance to request a simple date change for my booking, using their online system as instructed. Despite doing everything correctly and providing plenty of notice, my request was ignored. Instead of actioning the change, they charged me an outrageous £526 cancellation fee without any proper explanation or attempt to resolve the issue. What’s worse is the lack of communication and accountability. I tried reaching out multiple times to address the issue, but the responses were either unhelpful or nonexistent. This has caused me significant stress and disrupted my plans entirely. It’s unacceptable to penalize customers for mistakes or delays that are entirely the fault of their system or staff. If you value transparency, responsiveness, or fair treatment, I strongly advise against using Sykes Cottages.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 day ago

“We booked Cart Barn through Sykes Cottages, looking forward to a relaxing stay. Unfortunately, our experience was far from what we had hoped for due to a serious issue with wasps. Within 30 minutes of arriving, we discovered numerous wasps inside the cottage. We managed to let most of them out and immediately contacted the owners. They were on holiday and informed us that wasps might be "normal" for this time of year but promised to visit the next day to investigate. We stayed the night, but by morning, the situation worsened. There were even more wasps inside, and it was clear the cottage was not a safe or comfortable place to stay. At that point, we decided to leave. We contacted Sykes Cottages for a refund, and while they liaised with the owners, we were only offered a 5% refund and a future off-peak stay. Unfortunately, after this experience, we have no intention of returning. This was a deeply disappointing stay, and we feel the response from both the owners and Sykes Cottages was inadequate given the circumstances. We would not recommend this property to anyone unless the wasp issue is thoroughly addressed.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 days ago

“At the end of our stay at a cottage near Bath, we discovered while stripping the beds something resembling excrement between the duvet and duvet cover. We complained to Sykes. They did not respond but when we persisted they denied any responsibility and the owner of the cottage refused to do anything. Since we booked the cottage from Sykes, they should take responsibility for any problems but they claim that the contract is with the cottage owner. Basically if you have a problem, Sykes will do nothing - so my advice is, don't hire from them as they have very poor customer service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 weeks ago

“Please be careful, this company are scammers and i believe they have fake reviews on here. I have an ongoing court case with them for their fraudulent activity. I booked with them over 2 months ago and later decided to cancel the booking due to a family matter. The claimed i would need to pay over £700. I couldn’t understand it as i had no information on this. They said an email was sent, no such email was ever received by me and even if it did, why would i pay over £700 for an accommodation that will not be used and was cancelled 2 months ahead. I asked them to provide the reason for that fee and how they arrived at it, no response on that from them. I also asked them to provide a breakdown of losses incurred which was caused by the cancellation and evidence of such - again no response on that from them. So from what i gather, they just wait for people to cancel and that’s the lightbulb moment when they decide to pop out a random charge our of thin air with hopes that you’ll get frustrated and eventually let it go. To make matters worse, i was charged TWICE so about £1500 has now been debited. You can’t make this up i tell you. I will leave a review on every social media platform i can find until the outcome of the court case.”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 weeks ago

“Really poor company to communicate with the property we rented was not as described and we left after only 1 night of a 7 day holiday after we received no help from the property owner and because we had returned home they were not interested and the feedback I left for the property was not posted ! Avoid this company is my advice !”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 weeks ago

“I am absolutely appalled at Sykes, my elderly parents booked a property thru booking. Com but managed by sykes it wasn't clear on the listing that the property was accessed by external metal fire escape type staircase , wasn't in property description, u physically have to click on the bit that says managed by sykes even tho it doesn't tell you to to get the info , on the sykes site it specifies the staircase but as my parents didn't book with them, they did not see the info until after booking & paying, I have been on phone calls & whatsapp to try to get a non refundable deposit, as I feel the info should of been there but wasn't, also no pics of the staircase so deserve their money back, sykes do not care that my parents can not go on holiday to this property as not safe for them to access & now losing £350 , they do not care about their customers, I will be taking this further I have included a pic of staircase that I found by searching the property from when it was up for sale”

Helpful Report

Posted 2 weeks ago

“Booking Reference: A4CJD-24-EN We booked 5 St Michaels House in Lyme Regis in October 2024 over the phone with Sykes directly, paid for it in full and had confirmation emails where to collect keys and have a great stay etc... Fast forward three days later, and we're sent an email to say the house isn't available now, on closer inspection it now appears to have been booked for a longer period, that included the duration of our stay. So it would appear a better offer came along and we were simply cancelled, even though it was paid in full and confirmed at least three days before this stay was organised. We contacted Sykes, many times and wasted many hours trying to get through to them, they never apologised, they didn't offer any other solution or compensation. It's fair to say they didn't care. We eventually got through to a young lady called Heather, who said she would get the manager to call us, when we didn't hear back from the Sykes manager we called again, we were informed the manager wouldn't call as it didn't require a phone call and wasn't important enough, yes really. We have been booking holidays in Lyme Regis for at least 15 years, through Lyme Bay holidays which have always been fantastic, helpful staff, shout out to Mia and great properties. Now Sykes have taken over and after this awful experience we will never book with them again. The last older gentlemen my Mother spoke to, in a last ditch attempt to book a new property was so patronising and point blank refused to help her, he simply said your money has been refunded, though we're still waiting, it left her in tears, unforgivable! We're still going to Lyme Regis but will now stay in the hotels in the area. So the losers in all of this are the property owners, as clearly Sykes are so big they can afford to treat their customers with complete contempt. This area is crying out for a genuinely local holiday property company acting in the interest of customers and owners. I would urge anyone considering booking to look at the countless genuine reviews about how Sykes deal with issues, it's pure brand damage for a company failing its customers and property owners.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 weeks ago

“Before you consider renting this holiday house offered by Sykes Cottages, I recommend you think again. My family and I rented this beautifully situated house overlooking St Ives harbour – but the house had big problems and the service offered by Sykes Cottages was completely inadequate. The catalogue of problems included an overwhelming smell of sewage pervading the upper floor which meant that the bathroom could not be used and a gas leak which trickled gas into a bedroom where a 5 year old was sleeping which we, the visitors, had get fixed one night because Sykes failed to answer their emergency ‘out of hours’ service! The owners and/or the Sykes team clearly knew there were noxious smells in their property because there were 13 pots of room reed diffusers strategically placed around the house to mask the stench. In addition the fixtures and fittings hadn’t been looked after which resulted in the nuisance of a broken downstairs toilet seat, leaking coffee machine and two broken hotplates on the hob. I asked for compensation but the answer I received from Sykes was to completely dissociate themselves from the problems and to state that the owners refused to pay. However, Sykes must bear some responsibility for not even running an ‘out of hours’ service.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 weeks ago

“If I could give sykes zero I would...I accidentally book the wrong dates and realised a soon as I booked..so after checking to see if the dates I that I need was available which they weren't (this was for August next year) sp we had cancelled..with in several minutesbof booking . The very next day we tried to find contact details for them and find an email address which I wrote to see if they can so something with the deposit I was accepting all the deposits to be refunded but if they cake back and said the give us a partial refund we would have been happy as we were aware it our fault...however the reason for such a low score is the attitude and the lack of understanding and empthy..1 the biggest one is that we were told that that the problem is that we did the booking and cancelling online..if we did it booked by phone and cancelled by phone within 24 hours they would have been able to assist us..I am still trying to work out why if they are unable or do not want to assist anyone that makes the book and cancelled within 24 hours using thier online facility..if this is the case they why offer the option to book online???..we was also told to claim on the insurance we book foe them..however it doesn't cover this and to make a claim we need a policy number which we haven't recieved...we were also told that they could not assist us as 7 days had pass before we made them aware of out situation? When in fact we emailed them the next day and had recieve a response from the email as well as managing to speak to them three days after the booking ..and by the time we received the message stating its been over 7 days this was actually 4 days after the initial booking...so overall customer service is bad and to he honest I would have probably dropped it if they just said so no..but feel i am being unfairly treated just because i book and cancelled online rather than phone so is still fighting this..but do not go with them but if you do DONT I repeat DONT boom online”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 weeks ago

“Sykes cancelled our booking a week before we were due to travel and the replacement accomodation was dirty - clearly hadn’t been cleaned for a long time. Thick dust in many places and used bar of soap with someone else’s hair on it in the bathroom. When I complained I was told ‘soap is hygienic’ so I shouldn’t complain?! Also left my keys at the property - called Sykes the next day and they said they would speak to the owner and try to locate them but 3 weeks later I still haven’t had a response after 4 more phone calls ‘we will call you back’ and I’ve sent 3 emails all of which have been ignored. Absolutely appalling customer service, will never use Sykes again and encourage friends and family to avoid too.”

Helpful Report

Posted 3 weeks ago

“They cancelled our holiday hours before we were due to leave. Will never use again!”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 weeks ago

“I've booked with sykes before, always had a really good experience, we have just returned from a 7 day break from meadow top farm Clitheroe. We all had a fantastic time the property was amazing. I will definitely stay again the whole family went, the grandkids loved the hot tub, thank so much for an amazing time x”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 weeks ago

“We booked a 3 bed, 3 bathroom property with a hot tub in Llangynog, North Wales. 5 adults and 1 dog were holidaying together. When we arrived there was only 1 shower room and a cloakroom with a toilet and hand basin. How does this add up to 3 bathrooms? The property owners seemingly class the cloakroom as a bathroom but even then this only adds up to two! We telephoned Sykes Cottages and were assured that someone would phone us back. No-one ever did! We phoned again after the end of our stay and could not get a resolution. Most disappointing!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“If a frozen house is what you are looking for, this is a perfect house for you. We arrived at Saturday night and the central heating was on for a couple of hours. Then, it was switched off and there is no way to control it from the house. Only the manager and the owner can control it. So I had to call the agency tree time. At the end, we had only one evening and one morning warm on five. So bring a good sleeping bag and a good coat and you will be fine. When asked Sykes holidays cottage a compensation, they replayed that was not their business because the contract was between me and the owner. Pity that I don’t know who he is, I don’t have is number and I paid Sykes holidays cottage the fuul amount. So they just took money and left me in a mess. Good luck”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Booked a holiday with Sykes Cottages Had to cancel due to operation ,although I had paid insurance along with my holiday Sykes refused to pay the money I had paid back BEWARE OF BOOKING WITH THIS COMPANY”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“I discovered that I had left an item at Fir Tree cottage in Llanrug, Snowdonia. I contacted the Owners on my return home only to find them particularly difficult, unhelpful and uncooperative. The Owners simply did not respond to any of my messages once the "review period" had finished. Given my experience of Sykes, I would not recommend them at all, book elsewhere. Sykes themselves were of no help whatsoever.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Please be aware that Sykes holiday cottages are the dearest platform, it is far cheaper to book through Booking.com or Airbnb. I received 20% Discount from the owner. After this was applied Sykes holiday cottages were still dearer than I could’ve booked on Booking.com. When complaining found they were most unhelpful would never use this company again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Would give no stars if I could. Property location completely different to description and photos out of date. Asked for a gesture of goodwill as holiday was not as expected and didn’t even get an apology. Am raising with Trading Standards. Would never book with them again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“CROOKS...I CANCELLED WELL IN ADVANCE OF DATES AND THEY KEPT MY DEPOSIT. THEY NEVER ANSWER PHONES NOR EMAILS....RUN FROM SYKES!!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

“Taking money off us when holiday is cancelled”

Helpful Report

Posted 1 month ago

Sykes Cottages is rated 1.2 based on 1,484 reviews