Holidaycottages

A cottage was booked last year with Holiday cottages near Bourton on the Water before the COVID Virus for 2020 by my wife as a surprise for me as I love that area. I am disabled but would have been able to go. We even had our own Christmas tree to take with us.
A 拢300.00 deposit was paid and all was fine.
Later in the year as the pandemic increased with added strength, my Son who is a Doctor told us that we would not be able to go because of this as it was going to carry on throughout Christmas and beyond.

At a later date my wife duly cancelled and we found out as their cancellation policy states, because the property was re-let, we were entitled to a full refund of deposit which was great.

Were we heck as like. These people seem to twist their own terms and conditions to take your money and not refund although their re-let policy states otherwise. Not worth the paper it is written on.

After various return emails from Stacey, Gemma, and numerous others dismissing our rightful claim of refund, we were then sent, (to add insult to injury) a glossy email inviting us to book up for another holiday! You must be b#***#鈧?joking!

To be fair (if that is possible in this instance,) we did get a refund of 拢130.00 of the 拢300.00 we had paid so I suppose should be grateful for small mercies. Although even if there was going to be a cancellation fee of 拢60 or 拢70 we would still be around 拢100.00 out of pocket!

I mean, how can a company just keep customers hard earned cash and get away with it?
This went on for months with excuse after excuse coming back to us, until in the end a email came to us saying the case had been closed.

I expect what they really meant to say was they had run out of excuses! And looking at all the feedback of one star entries, we are among many others who have had this same problem.

No wonder this company can have large fancy offices no doubt helped by the unreturned deposits of genuine people who were looking forward to their holiday.

I really do not know how they get away with it.
Fob off after fob off then when there are no more excuses, terminate all co-respondance.

How lucky that we did not pay the full amount!
Absolutely disgusting. I cannot write here what I am feeling otherwise it would be edited out.

But 鈥榟ey' way to go man. What a great way to make money and get away with it!

Yes, go ahead and use this company, but if you have to cancel, even for a valid reason, do not expect to see any of your money back!

To mention, there are obviously some people who book and have no problem with their holiday bookings (assuming that the 5 star feedback is genuine) but woe betide if you have to cancel your booking. I seriously doubt that you will get any money refunded.

Avoid this holiday booking company unless you want to lose a shed load of cash if things go wrong for you.
I will definitely 鈥楴ame and Shame' on as many reviews as I can find. Although as the old saying goes, would be just 鈥榳ater off a ducks back' to them.

Honestly, they make D鈥擪 Turpin look like a saint.
Really angry and annoyed by their attitude.

The worst customer service i have ever expereinced, it is now mon 19th oct still waiting for a phone call back from fri 16th oct, good job we did not do as instructed and wait outside of the cottage for a phone call back, would still be waitng there.

We stayed at one of their properties which was nothing like what was described. Left a negative review which never got on to the site. Chased company and no response. Not a company to be trusted.

My advice to anybody TRYING to book with this 'company' is – DON'T. They have just re-sold a booking I made on behalf of myself and 8 friends in October 2019 for 11th September, 2020. Despite many hours, days and weeks trying to pay the balance via the impossible to get through telephone number, Email was no better. I outlined my problem on 9th June, received an automated reply saying it would be answered – it wasn't. In desperation I 'phoned the owners who assured me my booking was secure and that I could pay them directly if the problem was not resolved. They have verbally offered a full refund and yes you've got it! – NO REFUND HAS ARRIVED! They are not to be trusted. Take a look at the many similar comments on FACEBOOK.

As others have clearly found cancelling a holiday (which it is impossible to take) is an expensive business with these people. To cut a long story short we have had to cancel and cannot re-book because the cottage we want is not available next year but nevertheless they seem to feel entitled to keep our deposit and to add insult to injury to ignore emails and phone calls (in the unlikely event you can get through) I shall start small claims court proceedings and suggest others do the same. Disgusted.

They cancelled holiday due to covid 19. Dead phone line, 2wks later got a call asking to rebook. Three families, hard to get a date plus 拢300 more for same date next year. Wont give a refund, only offer 20% of 拢800 cost. Shameful company response using customer money as cash flow. Don't book with these.

I have had a terrible time with these people. When the COVID 19 crisis first came up, I contacted them proactively to reschedule for next year. My original booking was for May 16-23. I got numerous form-letter type emails that looked like they hadn't even bothered to read what I wrote. When they finally contacted me to tell me they would rebook for next year, the price increase was 拢220, which is a 27% increase. This is downright extortion. I can't believe a company can stay in business this way. I felt I had no choice but to pay the additional money, or lose the money I had already paid them. Profiting from a crisis is absolutely SHAMEFUL. The increase in the price hit me very hard in the pocket book. I am a single senior citizen, and have never been treated so poorly. I will not be booking with these people again, even though I holiday in Scotland frequently. Ref: 1476333

My family and I arrived at Scarah Cottage at 4pm on 2nd Aug 2019, we left at 4:25pm.
As we drove up the drive to the cottage we were impressed and keen to settle in for the week – from the outside it looks magnificent.
To describe the awful condition of the inside of the cottage in words would take too long.
I have attached some of the photographs that we took, showing mould in the shower and the fridge, dirt in the bathrooms, the table in the bathroom along with the dirt in the corner of the bath, the cover hanging off the boiler and the filthy Ironing board, If you don't have time to check out all of he photographs, just look at the Bedside Lamp to understand why we decided to return home within 25 minutes of arriving at Scarah Cottage.
The cottage is described on the holidaycottages.co.uk website as 5star Luxury.
The Cottage owner states that he feels these could have been rectified at the time'
Holidaycottages.co.uk visited the cottage and stated In light of your comments our property manager Jessica has visited the property and once the issues you have raised are addressed it will still meet the criteria of a 5 star luxury property.'
5star properties should not require any rectification when the guest arrives, and NO property (irrespective of grade) should require this magnitude of rectification just to make it a clean, safe environment for families to stay.
We paid over 拢1900 to stay there for the week expecting it to be as it was depicted on the website, it was not.
Holidaycottages.co.uk and the Owner have refused to refund any of the cost of our holiday.