Holiday Cottages Avis 

Since writing the review below and have had contact from Leslie (complaints manager) who has been incredibly helpful, resolved the issue and is refunding all of our money - it’s a shame it was so hard to get in touch with right person but once we did she acted quickly and professionally.

We recently arrived at our accommodation in the highlands to be told holiday cottages had cancelled our reservation, we had booked in January and had had no communication about this and were left with no where to stay. HC denied all knowledge, sent some alternatives but said we would need to pay any difference ( one was £20k more!!!), since then we have been trying to talk to some one to get our £1000 refunded, but no one is coming back to us.

Booked a 4 night stay in North Devon. Very poor experience. Cottage not how it was described. Provided feedback on our return. Additional feedback on their website done twice. No one has had the courtesy, or courage to make contact. Not even sure they visit the properties for which they promote. Won't be using them again, they couldn't care less.

We stayed at Florida cottage on the Gower peninsular and although it was well equipt it needs quite a bit of work to bring it up to standard. The drive gates are not very secure and need replacing, the gutters and facia`s need cleaning and repainting they look terrible. There is a storage bin in the garden which is falling apart so should be repaired or removed for safety of children. The cottage inside requires a good dust as all of the downstairs lights had cobwebs on the and they were supposed to have been cleaned. The bathroom cabinate over the hand basin was too high for anyone under 5ft.6in. and should be replaced with a mirror. The shower riser was too low for my husband who is 6ft and struggled with it. Curtains wwould be advantagous in the bedrooms due to the early morning sun.

Do not use!!!
Paid £30 for cancellation insurance and unfortunately had to cancel.
Got told in no uncertain terms I will not get refund and was referred to Davies group to claim.
SCAM! claim was not entertained.
Crooks in cahoots.
Cancelled booking over 6 MONTHS in advance. You would expect some of your £278 deposit returned. Absolutely disgusting attitude.

Noticed that the person who followed us into the property complained about no water.
The owner said it was a surprise, funny because we had told her. Don't think that Holiday cottages check these properties!. Booked a holiday through Holiday cottages and wasn't happy with the star rating and cottage description. Emailed Holiday cottages two months ago and after several attempts they keep saying, need to wait for a property inspection for my review to be published. Don't think they like reviews that aren't positive. We were only pointing out the issues with the property to help others make a informed decision.

From a personal experience of booking a cottage directly with the owners (wherever possible) vs booking through holiday cottage company I would always recommend the former.

I very recently stayed at a cottage in Lake District (two weeks back) where I booked with the owners and I am currently in another property booked through Holiday Cottages and here are the issues:

1. Holiday cottages offer only a 3 / 4 / 7 days booking - so for a 5 night stay you have to book 7 nights. Its really a bad practice as it offers no flexibility. So you end up paying more

2. Extremely poor service. The focus is on selling more add on service instead of giving a good experience. In my previous stay, the owners met us and were able to resolve any issues throughout our stay. For the holiday cottages it always goes through an agent who are not very responsive or helpful - in any case they have to go back to the owner or claim refuge behind the unhelpful statement 'its our policy'

3. So here is a sampler of the unhelpful and not so user friendly policies of Holiday cottages
(a) The Wifi in cottage is not working - they are not able to do anything other than saying we need to go back to the owner - personally I can see the router in the cottage probably have not been upgraded in last 10 years
(b) Keys - they dont provide more than one set of keys - in this case we are staying in a cottage which can sleep 8 - still only one set of keys
(c) Accessories - not enough kitchen towels, no oven gloves, soap dispensers nearly empty - they say their self catering accommodation policy is to provide enough only for day 1 and you are supposed to sort yourselves out subsequently !!

To summarise I will never book a cottage through this company again