Holiday Cottages Anmeldelser 57

Booked a cottage in Holkham Hall Estate in Norfolk. After 4 hour drive we arrived to find the cottage had not been serviced. The place needed all the laundry, bed linen and towels changed and place needed a thorough clean. At 4pm we got through to the answering service and someone took note of the situation. 45 mins later nothing had been done. Rang again, spoke to song else on the system who I asked to call us back with an update in 10 minutes. No call back. Rang again spoke to yet another person who this time did try and contact the Holkham Estate but by this time it was 6:30pm and their offices were closed.
We couldn’t find anywhere else to stay at such short notice so had no choice but to make the 4 hour journey home.
Now we have a fight on our hands to get our £900 for 3 nights refunded.

Unable to use a cottage due to ferry cancellations- the company offered no recompense or solution other than to rearrange the dates at a further cost to me. The cottage would have had no services used or cleaning required, a small refund would have gone a long way to good will. No warnings were given that this was a common occurrence either.

Revolting and horrendous are 2 understatements for this day time robbery of a company called Holiday Cottages.
PLEASE READ THIS REVIEW BEFORE YOU LOOSE YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY!!!

1. My partner and I booked a lovely cottage in Cumbria with Holiday Cottages for a week and we thought at that point the service and the cottage was wonderful.
2. Last night we decided to book another cottage for Christmas for a week.
3. Today we checked on the reviews for this property and the reviews were horrendous.
4. We had so much confidence in Holiday Cottages so we explained that the reviews for this property were bad and we wanted to switch over to a different property and use the £566 deposit we paid.
5. This was the beginning of our nightmare with this company
6. Ami the agent explained to me that their company policy is that there’s no refund whatsoever whether you booked in less than 24 hours or not. However, she assured us that she would speak to the cancellation team and see what she can do to help us out.
7. We then got a missed call from the cancellation team and an email below.
8. Please read “Good Afternoon Ms Waite

Thank you for contacting us and I am so sorry to hear that you may need to cancel your booking at Valley View Barn.

Should you cancel, as the booking was placed under 24 hours of you contacting us we can cancel under cooling off which would incur a £75 admin fee. 

There is also the option of requesting to transfer your dates to another date in the future, if this is something you would like to consider, this would be subject to a £75 transfer fee and should you choose more expensive dates the additional cost, this is of course at the discretion of the owner.

We could also discuss the option to change the name on the booking so that a family member or friend could take the booking in your place. This is also subject to a £75 administration fee.

Please consider the options I have outlined for you and let me know how you wish to proceed, I look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Mandy

I review businesses for a living. Mainly fashion and hospitality. I must say I was truly disgusted as to how this company deserves my £75 for doing nothing. My partner and I did not ask for a refund. We asked for the money to be transferred to a new cottage we were going to look for.
There’s a reason why hotels give you time to cancel for free. I’m talking about transferring money to another property and you seem to think you deserve £75 for doing nothing. We have contacted our bank and to say the list they were horrified. One thing that I want to stress to you is that, you will not get a single penny off this booking but infact loose customers for your greedy and selfish policy. We will not be coming back to this greedy company for good. Please do not book with this company incase you have an emergency within your family where you have to cancel. We found a beautiful property on Air B an B that comes with a guaranteed 100% full refund policy. Kind regards. Chantell

We stayed at Tideswell in Braunton in December 2025. The heating was not working and it was extremely cold. We had to take a day out for someone to look at he couldn’t get two radiators working also we had a leak in the bathroom due to the extractor fan being caked with muck!! The single room was full of dust and the kitchen cupboards were dirty. The electricity testing was over a year out of date. They gave us a £50 refund which is not acceptable!!

I booked a holiday cottage for July 25-August 1st yesterday but got a booking confirmation for July 3rd-10th today. I do not know what went wrong. Anyway, I had to pay an administration fee of £75,- to either change the dates or cancel the whole booking. Such a bunch of thieves! I canceled!!!!

Whilst the company did respond to our complaint about a cottage we felt was abysmal, grim and dire they did not resolve the issue, a holiday ruined. They explained the owners were going to refurbish but knowing it needs it they are still advertising it without mentioning this. Im not even able to put a review of the cottage so I cant let others know. (its Courtyard Cottage, Lauder). We were refunded the two days we didnt stay, which was not good enough. They dont check on the cottages they arrange lettings for. Worst cottage we have ever stayed in. I wouldnt use this company again.

Great location! Our accommodation was in the grounds of a golf course about 5/6 miles from Edinburgh. The owners live in the adjoining cottage and were friendly and helpful.
They explained the golf course was originally a dairy farm but this activity ceased about 20 years ago.
We specifically booked a pet friendly property for our dog. This worked well for us and her.
The accommodation was spacious and comfortable. The extractor fan in the bathroom wasn't working so we mentioned this and a new one was fitted within a few hours.
Plenty of places to eat out nearby and local shops and supermarkets within a short drive too. We certainly enjoyed our trips to view e.g. Roslin Chapel, Portabello Beach and a few Outlander filming sites as well.
Overall, we were really pleased with our stay.

Tried to book.
Account login not working.
Rang. Someone to ring back. Never happened.
No payment link sent .

Sent SIX emails all ignored! If I was a cottage owner with holiday cottages I would want to know customers can’t book.

Accidental Damage £25.00 not refunded after the stay, even though it stated this would be refunded after 10 days of visit. This has soured our whole experience and believe this element of the contract is a con! I had no choice but to take out £25.00 accidental damage but this was not clear when booking that this was non refundable! Shame as the cottage was lovely and most of the interaction was good/positive. Refusing to refund the £25.00 so becareful if you use this company to book cottages as they refer to the small print but when booking we had no choice but to take this out believing it was refundable! Holiday Cottages you need to review your policies and make it much clearer when booking what your charging! The cottage itself was lovely the issue is with Holiday Cottages and your policies, we won't be using you again to book any cottages!

Holiday Cottages rung us less than 24 hours before we were due to leave for a holiday in Cornwall that had been booked 9 months earlier, to say that the owners of the cottage could no longer honour our booking as the house was in the process of being sold. We were offered three alternative properties, two of which were unsuitable due to our son being allergic to dogs. In order to have a holiday at all, we felt we had no choice other than to accept the third property, which turned out to be extremely small, was miles from where we wanted to be and did not have the amenities we needed.
We complained several times and were alternatively lied to, ignored and fobbed off. We pursued compensation and were eventually forced to accept just 20% of the cost of the property.
We were treated throughout as irritating customers who they could ignore in the hope that we would go away.
We will never use this company again.

Holiday was a disaster. Cottage got cancelled when I arrived on doorstep. Travelled 8 1/2 hours to get there. Reps told pack of lies. Company took weeks to answer emails then basically threatened me to accept a sum as compensation or no further contact would be accepted. This was despite advising them that ConsumerDirect Scotland were advising me of my rights. Avoid this company at all costs.liars, cheats totally uncaring about customers.
Also stay clear of cottage called Uphouse, kinlochbervie, Scotland.

Very poor service, no emails at 3 days 1 day before with directions. Misrepresented with the name of the cottage. It was supposed to have a watermill view and secure garden for the dog..... No to this as well. Complained as soon as we returned. Still no responce 3 weeks later poor...

I agree with other customers, that if you give a poor review for holiday cottages, they do not put it on. The place we stayed at in East Sussex, could have been better.The photos and description were not accurate

We have not been away as yet, but their customer service is non existent. I deleted their email with details of our holiday on it by accident, I then phoned and left a message to ask them to re-send the email, that was over 6 days ago and not heard a word.

Will never use this Company again.
We paid 1300 pounds for a week stay at Ty Nain Denbigh .
It was advertised as 20 mins to beaches etc, it wasn't, it took 45 mins.
On arrival the house smelt terrible, we also saw a mouse on the 2nd day, we complained to Holiday Cottages, told them we were leaving but they did not care, we had no refund or apology.
They even removed my review of the cottage because I told the truth.

We booked and paid for a week in a lovely barn conversion that we have stayed in several times before, without any problems. I received an e-mail yesterday saying there's been a mix-up with the booking and it is now unavailable!
It does make you wonder whether they tried a "bait and switch" on me. Anyway....I have requested a refund (why should it take 4 days?...they took it in 2 secs) and would be wary of using this firm again.

WELL HOUSE, SUDBOURNE
An absolute nightmare of a holiday (only stayed one night).
Filthy kitchen, cables across walkways, mattress in the garden - BEETLE IN THE FRIDGE!
I am trying, unsuccessfully to get a refund, minus the one day, booking and dog fee.
I am being ignored!
I have supplied, many many photo's as evidence, but nothing.
Please see my "Manky Mansion, the prequel" review under "Holidaycottages.co.uk".
The reviews here are for that company - I've checked.

We stayed at a holiday cottages.com accommodation in July 2025 called the Old pottery in Burton bradstock. The place was really unclean but because this company doesn't except negative reviews it's hard to communicate with them

We have realised that our review of a recent cottage stay had not been posted. Our review was honest and detailed, however unfortunately not 4 star due to various issues.
When looking at the reviews for the cottage (only 20 odd of them?), a cynic may come to the conclusion that less favourable reviews are simply not posted. This gives, as in our case, an untrue picture of the accommodation.
As a customer spending in the region of £1500-£2000, honest reviews are welcome, warts and all. I imagine most customers would rather make an informed decision.
Disappointing.

Just booked a property this was confirmed and 2 mins later I was sent an email saying that this property was not available for these dates!! My money was taken and was told that someone would phone me to discuss this, nothing to discuss. It 's an old trick to advertise some thing good but then told its not available so perhaps I would like a different property. I also find that the property which I booked instead is also under Holiday cottages, if I had known I would not have booked it. Dreadful company I hope they go out of business.