Holiday Cottages Avis 

We were having a good holiday until the owner of the cottage came to us on the day before our leave to accuse us of breaking a drying rack outside that we hadn't even used. He had a security camera outside so knew full well we hadn't touched the rack. The pole of the rack looked old and completely rusty, yet he kept blaming us.
Seems like a clever scheme to get guests to pay for new things.
Aside from that they kept a little dog outside that kept yapping all day, starting at 6 am, waking us up. Completely disturbed the peace and quiet you'd expect to have at a cottage out in the country.
DAMSON ANNEX Burnham on sea, avoid at all cost!

Had to jump through hoops to get a confirmation which, I think, should be automatic. For some reason they had my husbands name and even though I used my email and my credit card they professed that they couldn't speak to me on the chat bot thing

Have used Holiday Cottages for many years, at least the last fifteen years.

Have always found customer service to be excellent... Until now!

Have called HC on several occasions in the last couple of weeks enquiring about houses and asking if possible to contact owners and see if they would consider an extra dog. Explained our dogs are every small and don't moult ... To be met with a curt NO WE DONT CONTACT OWNERS. I explained in the past that HC Owners have allowed us upon asking and they don't want to know.

In the current climate I would imagine that owners can ill afford to turn bookings away, hey ho. I guess I'll book with a more helpful company in future.

Laurel Cottage Grasmere
Shambles of a Company.
I would give '0' stars if I could.
Rubbish Customer Service
My review with Holiday Cottages has not been published as I gave them as above '1'.
And now:
The cottage on arrival was filthy, cold and uninviting.
No Christmas decorations (Owners choice apparently).
No Logs provided. (one bag should have been provided for arrival).
Hoover pipe greeted us onto top of the log burner.
Then it all appeared filth upon filth upon filth it continued in every room.
Kitchen : Coffee pot still full of dirty coffee pods/ bread bin full of crisps and tissues.
Cooker thick of grease/ kettle full of grease/ chopping boards full of bits of food.
TV and CD Player in the lounge cleaned in a half moon!
Lampshades had cobwebs on them.
Sofa in lounge had never been turned it was filthy under the cushions full of food.
Bedroom (1)TV you could right your name on the TV screen.
Cobwebs hanging from the loft vent over the bed.
Bathroom (1), Glass table you could right your name in the dust.
Toilet seat thick of dust/grease.
Low/high dusting on on door sills thick of dark dust (been there a very long time).
Same on staircase it just kept on going.
Garden had never been attended to in the summer plants all dead and needed cutting back.
Basically this cottage was a disgrace.
Holiday Cottages cleaning staff should be dismissed in my opinion, never mind getting a ticking off.
I paid £922.00 for the week in December 2024.
I have been offered a £100 refund not even the cost of one day's fee.
It took me two days to clean what I need to use and take pictures of the cottage.
I feel that my complaint has not been taken seriously and they have no comprehension of what it was like to live in that filth for a week.
I would not recommend Holiday Cottages to anyone.

Trying to book a holiday. My Norton anti-virus blocked access to the site as dodgy (i.e. not just a warning that I could override). No telephone number to call. Tried messaging through Facebook. Auto response along the lines of "unprececendented volumes of enquiries blah-de-blah-de-blah and some stuff about Covid. Booked successfully through Original Cottages instead.

Stay away from this company. The cottage we stayed in was great but the company is awful. They took over £400 on a miscommunication when I spoke to staff they told me what to do without letting me know the charges. Do not use they have no integrity. I’ve been fighting with them over this since October and been told nothing I can do. Shame on them

Ignore the positive reviews of cottages this company proudly shows off on its site - strange how the less favourable reviews are not shown eh? Rubbish customer service. Poor and couldn’t give a damn about resolving issues raised. Don’t waste your money!! You’ve been warned.

If I could I would give a Holiday Cottages NO stars! After booking, my husband became gravely ill and it would have been impossible for us to travel to the cottage. They would not refund our deposit and kept quoting their Ts and Cs. No compassion and no empathy whatsoever. I’m disgusted with their attitude and they should be utterly ashamed of themselves. DO NOT book a cottage with them. They are also part of other smaller companies so watch out!

We booked a holiday cottage through this company in Duns, Berwickshire. One of the main draws was the fact it had a hot tub. On arrival, we found the rear garden area to be in an unkempt condition, bore no resemblance to the photographs on the website and the hot tub, did not work properly, was dirty and the cover was ripped and broken in two. We complained but did not receive sufficient satisfaction from the accommodation owners. It’s quite clear, because of the condition of the outside space that holiday cottages don’t inspect the properties they advertise to ensure they are of a suitable standard. This led us to cut our holiday short and return home. Poor experience.

I booked a property with this rabble for my wife's birthday. The day before we were due to leave for the property (a Tuesday) I received a message from the owner to say there was a problem and asked if HC had been in touch. I replied No, they hadn't been in touch. I rang them to find that there was an issue with the water supply. I then found out that the owner had notified HC of the problem on the Monday. So HC had sat on the information for at least 24 hours and no-one had a sense of urgency to contact me even though our departure for the property was imminent. In fact, we had been out on the Tuesday morning to buy items we would need for our stay. Unnecessary if HC had got their finger out and informed me the booking had been cancelled. I made a formal complaint and have received the usual apologies etc, etc, but no reason as to why there was such a delay. If the owner of the property had not put me wise to the problem when would HC have got round to doing it?
Customer service was shoddy, perhaps non-existant. I won't be using them again and advise others to steer clear.

I rented a beautiful apartment in Southwold because it had a balcony overlooking the seafront. It was a treat for my sister before she went in for a cancer operation. The balcony had been removed and we were not advised. The apartment was dirty. I complained on both counts only to be emailed from the complaints dept with promise of action. One month later, nothing!! Appalling company, do not use.

Booked my cottage and paid the extra to take my dog, unfortunately my dog died shortly after booking and I mailed customer service to remove the dog from the booking, I never received any kind of response.

So once booked you are on your own, you can cancel everything or continue.

I had to leave my home in an emergency due to the discovery of damp and mould issues and being diagnosed with a life threatening illness. Yet, I needed to stay as close to home as possible to get to medical appointments.
I had my last minute booking of a week confirmed at 5 High Street, Bollington and I packed up my car and my dog to find someone else in the property who was incredibly rude and informed me they had booked the property for one night on Airbnb.
I returned to my car which was like an oven with my dog whilst I attempted to contact the owner.
No apology, no responsibility accepted, just "Sorry our guests are there until tomorrow 2pm". And I was informed that I should find somewhere else for the night.
Given the situation I had found myself in, and believe anyone would be feeling this way, I responded to the owner, Beth Jones with "how charitable of you"
The next 4 hours we're spent driving around in a very hot car trying to find somewhere else to stay.
Luckily, despite not being suitable, I managed to find a dog friendly hotel room nearby, expecting I would be checking into 5 High Street the following day. Later on that evening I received a message from Beth "so sorry for this inconvenience", when I had asked to check on earlier than 2 as I had to leave my hotel room at 11.
So imagine my surprise when the following morning, after explaining to the owner the reasoning behind my stay and why it was so inconvenient, just as I'm checking out, I receive a phone call to tell me the owner no longer is allowing me to stay due to me daring to state that her double booking and telling me to source another place for a night was far from charitable.
It remains to be seen whether the fault was that of holiday cottages or Beth Jones but I can wholeheartedly say the owner is borderline psychopathic and holiday cottages refused to take any responsibility or help

After our week's stay in Stour Mill Barn, Nr Blandford Forum, we were asked for a review by Holiday Cottages which I submitted. I believe it was fair, but they have decided not to publish it, leaving only those reviews of 4 stars and over. This gives a very false impression. I commented on the cleanliness which wasn't great. Serious cobwebs meaning lots of spiders. Also, cottage is advertised for four adults because there are two double beds. In reality, the barn is too small - only 1 x two seater settee, and 2 x small cane chairs. Not ideal in my opinion, grossly overpriced.

Property was described as dog friendly after arriving we read the rules regarding dogs and it was designed to put you off brining a dog the property was NOT dog friendly. the dog exercise area had horses in it. The bed was only 4'6 small. The Wi-Fi was only 3mgb and there was no tv aerial so tv was over wi-fi and did not work. Don't believe there write ups on a property. Will never use again. I complained but with no actable reply.

Very very disappointing that they don’t publish negative reviews to make other holiday makers aware of poorly maintained properties. Be aware if there’s big gaps in reviews as they are missing.

Complained about Hailey cottage, stayed there last September, holiday cottages didn't want to know, I wrote a review on cottage, they wouldn't even print it, and not even an acknowledgement! Shocking, goes to show they only post good reviews.

I booked a cottage in north Devon. I paid and they confirmed the booking. Less than a week before, they cancelled the booking and (rather than being helpful), sent me a list of possible alternatives and made it very clear I would have to pay the difference. They did offer a refund but would NOT guarantee that the refund would happen BEFORE the holiday start date (making it near impossible to book another venue-I am not flush with money). Disappointing response which shows little awareness/contrition/responsibility

Fern House Tansley hot tub gave us bacterial infections requiring medication.it holds 4; the house sleeps 8. Microwave situated dangerously high and complicated to use. No mirror in 2 bedrooms. Not enough electric sockets in small bedroom. House dark requiring lights on in the day. My headboard was dusty. Heating noisy at 06:30am. There was one challenging walk otherwise we had to drive to find one. One local expensive busy pub House situated on a
housing estate with young families.
I took the hot tub concerns up with the owner (worrying that other users especially children could suffer similarly) who said it was checked the day before our arrival and implied we had introduced things to it such as food. I took this up with holiday cottages who said they could liaise with the owner on my behalf so got me nowhere. The review I left on the website 2 days ago has not been added.

Took up a compliant with cottage Deagh Mhonadh
Dechmont, Edinburgh and Lothians which should not be advertised as a holiday let,
They did nothing about getting anything back saying my contact was not with them!!!!
i,paid them they didn’t take up any of my complaint
I got a small good will payment