Sykes Cottages Reviews

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

1.2 Rating 1,492 Reviews

4 %

of reviewers recommend Sykes Cottages

Company Reviews

Questions

Metrics

1.2

Based on 1,492 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 4 star review on 6th January 2025

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Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 17th November 2024

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Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 8th November 2024

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Sykes Cottages 1 star review on 2nd November 2024

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Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“How have they won British Travel Awards. Because they asked company employees to vote, not customers who are disgusted by their treatment of them during pandemic”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“If I could leave no stars then I would. I travel extensively through the UK and have enjoyed many UK based holidays with family and friends. This is my first and last experience with Sykes Cottages. After months of navigating a complaints system (which is a complaint within itself) I am left to decide whether to spend more money going through arbitrators to try and recover some of the deposit money which I lost for cancelling a holiday in August. My reason for having to cancel was that one of my party was in the 'at risk' category so we requested some basic information of how the property was being cleaned prior to our arrival. No reassurance from Sykes Cottages merely a point-blank refusal to provide any information leaving us with no alternative but to cancel and lose in excessive of £500 deposit. There are now clear guidelines on cleaning during these times yet they failed to either acknowledge them or comprehend how somebody 'at risk' would want to ask such a question. No acknowledgement of their 'duty of care' to a customer. So oblivious were they that they offered a £50 voucher off our next Sykes holiday by way of compensation. How arrogant can one company be. In 40 years travelling, they are without hesitation the most anti customer company I have ever experienced. A disgrace to the UK holiday industry!””

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Our holiday was cancelled because of travel restrictions due to Covid over 3 weeks ago, they still took the full amount of the holiday. When I asked for my refund that was promised I have not heard anything back from them and they won’t answer any of my emails now. I will never use Sykes again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Awful. This company appears completely oblivious to even the most basic elements of consumer law and, while I appreciate we are in very testing times, seem to be doing everything in their power to avoid their responsibilities. We made a booking this Easter, paid in full, were denied a refund, incurred a new booking fee and additional expense rebooking for a later date and are now being refused either a move to the booking or a refund. On top of that, it is difficult to get through on the phone (phones were turned off for most of April and May) and the call handling system continually puts you through to the wrong department. I genuinely feel sorry for some of the people I have spoken to who, let's be fair, are just doing their job, but the company should be ashamed of its appalling attitude to its customers. For me, the real test is not when everything is easy; I have used Sykes previously and had no issues. When things go wrong is the real test and, this year, things went about as wrong as it is possible to go. It is now I see Sykes true colours. No customer service, a willingness to abandon its customers and hide behind an illegal position - that my purchase is with the landlord and not them and using Covid-19 as an excuse to abdicate responsibility? So, despite full knowledge of Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act Sykes have refused a refund. I would strongly recommend that anyone making a booking with this company, particularly in such uncertain times, think twice. If nothing goes wrong then does it really matter who you have used to find a holiday cottage? I doubt most people even remember who they booked through. When things go wrong though? What you want is a company that is willing to help you. Read any reviews about this business when anything goes wrong: effectively its tough luck, you're on your own. Sorry Sykes but that's not how consumer law works and I'm sure you know that. Shame on you.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“After years of using Sykes cottages for my families holidays, I stayed in a property I had to complain about. The property was full of damp and filthy dirty. We spent our whole holiday out of the property, and the owner did nothing to help us. We put in an official complaint and submitted pictures. Upon recieving the complaint, we recevied abusive messages from the owner. After waiting 8 weeks for an outcome to our request for a refund - all Sykes did was phone the owner and ask for compensation. The owner refused, and that was all they did about it! The owner even made up false claims, that we had some how damaged his property. Sykes response to this was to tell me its my word against his!! Absoultely disgusting! We've never had a complaint made about us by any of the propeties we have stayed in through Sykes, and we have never put in a complaint before - showing we would not seek compensation unless entirely necessary. The outcome if that the property owner made money, Sykes made money - and we lost our money to a horrible break, where we had to eat out every day because the kitchen was too filthy to cook in. Sykes gave me a number to complain about them, and you have to pay £108 to make the application. Wheres the protection for customers!?! They wouldn't even let me cancel my holiday for next year with them as a good will gesture.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I’m a property owner. I’m leaving Sykes after nearly 6 years of complete incompetence on their behalf. It’s a complete sham how they run it. I’m sick of guests complaining about Sykes to me. When I finally get through because of an email saying I need to call them urgently about an imminent booking, no one has any idea what the call was about or if there was a booking! They deducted £600 of my money from what was owed to me after asking them to cancel a booking which had been made by a previous guest who was previously told never to return (police involved, after he caused over £1100 damage to my property and was very threatening towards me). Sykes were made aware of him and told me he’d been blocked from returning to my property. They still took another booking from him and after 4 calls and several emails they eventually cancelled the booking, charging me for the money they said they had lost, amounting to around £600. If you’re a property owner, I personally wouldn’t touch them with a barge pole again.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I am a property owner. They have messed around so many of my guests and failed to pass on messages about minor problems that I sacked them in May and the contract ended this month. Now they will not remove my listing and are showing it as full for the next year to prevent me getting bookings through my new agent. If you are an owner don’t use these people. They are crooks.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“I booked a short break with this company which should have been 5-days I stayed one, what this company need to realise is you don't want to buy the property, you want to rent it so there is no need for the misleading estate agents photographs and description . you want to know that what you see on the website is what you are going to get. It describes central heating which is a small electric heater on the wall which you can't have on as it is a fire risk being too close to one of the very small single beds. Was no Wi-Fi and no TV. The bathroom is very dangerous, the condensation runs down the walls forming puddles on the floor. if you use the toilet it blocks. The bathroom door is approximately 20 inches wide and has gaps of about 6 inches top and bottom leaving no privacy,, the head of one of the beds is right next to the bathroom. There is no storage and it says pets are welcome, unless you are going to bring a goldfish or a hamster don't bother as there is nowhere for your pet to go. The hot tub is heated by a log burner which takes 5 hours to heat up you get one bag of logs free if you need any more it is a cost of £5 per bag. The owners although they are new they need to be more helpful and not just pass the buck to others, some of the suggestions of the management company should be part of a Joke book. As I said I stayed for 1 night it would have been less if I could of navigated my way down the mile long mud /stone path in the dark. A very expensive experience.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Terrible or rather non existent customer care. Booked cottage early September arrived late afternoon only to find, in a Covid pandemic, cottage had not been cleaned. Hung about have the evening for it to be cleaned. No apology from Sykes nor property agent then nor any response from Sykes in the last almost 3 months despite numerous efforts to engage them. Would not use them again for these reasons.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We book a cottage for xmas week, as there is 8 people 4 different bubbles 2 elderly 2 with mental health problems and it's in wales we knew we couldn't go due to covid, so I tried to change the dates to next year to be told the minimum booking is £1800 for any week next year, I said that's alot more than xmas week they said if I dont want it I will lose my deposit of £524 or we can take the chance as the full payment is due pay the £1588 but if the government guidelines so we can go I will lose it all. They didn't care at all the stress it caused so we had NO choice but to lose our deposit. I think you should be ashamed of yourself nearly doubling the prices for next year, I hope you get no bookings.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Very bad refund policy. I’ll never use this company again. Very quick to take the money for your booking yet mysteriously it takes 45 days to issue a refund, even after the booking was cancelled by Sykes themselves. BEWARE THIS COMPANY WHEN BOOKING YOUR COTTAGE. crooks.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“wish i could 0, never again., the Christmas cottage for our foster kids was to be their best ever Christmas, Sykes casually and without any type of sympathy or empathy, phoned to say its cancelled and they will refund in a few days, no real explanation, claims its because of covid even though government instructions are not even out. kids are so upset, we will make sure this goes out on all the uk fostering forums and sites, Sykes is a fostering unfriendly company.looking at the terrible reviews on here i can see i'm not the only angry ex customer.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Would have given 0 if we could, please don't book anything with this company whilst there is a worldwide pandemic on, you will receive no empathy, sympathy or help from them whatsoever, which is utterly appalling under current, circumstances, felt quite sorry for the staff though as they clearly have their orders barked at them as what to say.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Please please read reviews before trying to book a place with this company. I have been trying to contact them consistently over the last two weeks so I can get a refund due to Covid. I was told that they would be sending an email out to those who have been affected and I have yet to receive an email or phone call. Do not book through this company. Very ashamed”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We - two citizens of Germany - booked a cottage on Crinan Canal with Sykes Cottages for the time from August 22nd to September 5th. We paid the whole amount of money for it in July. Due to the British government's decision to apply isolation measures to the Netherlands on August 15th we could not take our ferry from Ijmuiden/Amsterdam as DFDS was not willing to ship passengers from Germany. They paid the total refund for the crossing. Additionally, we would have had to quarantine in Scotland for two weeks. Taking the Chunnel was not possible, because British tourists had to go home and booking a passage was not possible. On August 18th we asked Sykes Cottages for a rebooking and they asked the owner of the cottage. The owner was not willing to do so. Thus we had to cancel the trip on August 19th. Sykes informed us they were not able to offer a refund as there were no restrictions for Germans to enter Scotland. The fact that we would have had to quaratine for the time of the stay was a British decision not a German one. Sykes did not care about that. As we could see on Facebook on August 19th the cottage we had rented could be booked again for the time between August 19th and September 5th. On August 20ththe cottage was no longer vacant. We sent screenshots to Sykes and the owner and asked for at least part of a refund because of a double booking/payment but were told it was just relatives of the owner helping her with some decoration work.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Much the same as other peoples comments, appalling customer service, if you have a problem, don't bother contacting them as you don't get a sensible response and the owners of the houses they manage couldn't give a hoot either. Also misrepresented the house and how it was advertised. Avoid at all costs, there are plenty of other reputable places to hire accommodation from.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“If you have any questions that will help you decide on booking or not, don't bother. You'll be told what you want to hear to make you pay and after the moneys in their hands they'll forget all about it and make no effort whatsoever to honour what you were told at the time of booking.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We love Padstow and the Camel Estuary and return to the area year after year. However, this October we were badly let down this year by Sykes Cottages and by the owner of Mount Pleasant. We cannot recommend Mount Pleasant or Sykes Cottages. The standard of maintenance at Mount Pleasant is low. We arrived to find the cottage had no hot water. The area of damp in the boiler cupboard was evidence of a leak that has been going on a while. The first 3 days of our holiday were spent on the phone, liaising with the owner, with Customer Relations at Sykes and with the Plummer. We were able to have a wash on the Sunday by walking to the other side of the village to use the shower in a hotel. On the third day it was decided that the property needed a new boiler and the heating needed to be turned off too. Sykes informed us that they were unable to fulfill the booking and that we would have to vacate the property. The fourth day of our holiday was spent packing up, reloading the car, cleaning and tidying up the cottage and travelling elsewhere. We were moved to a rather gloomy, damp house in another part of Cornwall, where we had not chosen to spend our holiday (we had booked to be Padstow to celebrate our son's 18th). Needless to say we are pursuing compensation for our aborted holiday. However neither the owner nor Sykes are willing to take responsibility. We are currently still battling with unanswered emails, endless prevarication and passing the buck. We need Sykes management to step in and resolve this issue immediately.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“Booked a holiday to Wales which was unfortunately cancelled due the Wales Lockdown. I was issued a refund within a few days of the announcement, and have rebooked to go to North Wales. This has now also been cancelled due to the England Lockdown so hopefully their refund process is just as smooth this time.”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

“We spent a week commencing October the 17th in Minehead at 19Quay street; Property 945599. This cottage is well appointed and in an ideal location just opposite the sea wall and backed by North hill. it is well appointed and comfortable for a party of 5 in our case. We have stayed at the property next door some years ago and this influenced our choice in covid times. Well equipped, in all respects only problem in that it took a little time to sort out the heating but resolved. On outside of main town but easy walking distance to amenities. Would rent again Malcolm Searle”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Sykes Cottages is rated 1.2 based on 1,492 reviews