Independent Cottages Avis 18

As a holiday cottage owner in Garlieston, Dumfries and Galloway I have been advertising with Independent Cottages for more than 10 years. AirBnB didn't even exist when we started renting out our garden cottage. We used another large online travel agency and had all manner of incorrect information passed through to us in the booking requests, and in return distorted information was fed to guests. We paid the agents 20% of the booking rental for the privilege of this poor service. As soon as we decided to offer booking direct we found Independent Cottages. I have just renewed our web advert with them for another year. Their whole ethos is to put the guest in touch with the owner. I have found the ability to communicate direct with prospective guests absolutely essential to our guests' expectations and it helps clear up any misconceptions often created by rigid online agents tick-box criteria, e.g. Galloway is not in Dumfries or in the Borders. We have had nothing but lovely guests through Independent Cottages. Equally, when I look to book a self-catering property in the UK I use their site to find like-minded property owners - If You Know You Know. Usually, if a guest has a problem they should contact the housekeeper or onwer as soon as possible to give them time to call in assistance if required. Remember if you arrive at the weekend it doesn't matter who you book with, things can stop working at any time and it might take a day or two to resolve it if a tradesperson has to be called in. We have hired top price properties for family gatherings through supersmart websites only to find on arrival one of the bedrooms wasn't prepared. The housekeeper was not given all the information because an agency had not relayed our additional bed request. And don't assume that the agency you book through have even seen the property you are going to, if they have, it may have been years ago and the photos and information are out of date. People's expectations of online booking agencies are unrealistic because the agency implies they can intervene with the owner. They rarely do. Save your money and book direct if that option is available. But take out travel insurance. That way you are covered. But at least you can discuss your holiday requirements with the property owner before you book, and if it doesn't sound right go elsewhere. You can see "Visitors Book" comments on Independent Cottages. These are genuine comments left in the Visitors Book at the property. Most properties also have a Google business page. You can also find genuine reviews there.

Absolute rubbish website. May look nice but will not actually list the prices for the stay you request - all just say from £x to £x per week. So you would have to ask each one seperately to get a price. Would take all day. Get your act together!!

Great company to advertise with. We've been with them now for 12 years and get lots of enquiries through them. In the last 5 years we have gotten between 20 and 24 bookings per year so definitely worth the price to advertise with them. They are also very helpful and give advice as well as remind host to update their adverts which does actually help make you check that you've done it. We hope to keep advertising with them for many years to come.

No6 Weymouth, Dorset is a 5 bedroomed holiday rental property. Nine family members stayed 4 days over Christmas 2024. Clean, spacious, well laid out, good quality furniture, beds and a well appointed kitchen. Warm, comfortable, good parking, nice garden Short walk to the sea front. Good joining instructions. Expensive but very good, and would recommend it as excellent accommodation for 9 or 10 people.

Independent Cottages is a marketing platform for independent property owners. They make it clear that they’re not a booking agency. This means that if you experience any problems with either the property they promote, or its owner, they will not take any responsibility nor intervene in any matters of dispute. This means that after your initial enquiry via IC, you deal solely with the owner. We booked SPARKENHOE HOUSE near Market Bosworth.
Upon arrival, there were no upstairs lights working and the house was cold. Therefore no pre-arrival checks were carried out (as there were also bulbs not working and cobwebs in the main living areas such as kitchen / dining). I contacted the owners who came promptly to deal with the blown fuse for the upstairs lights and they re-set the heating to stay on in line with the prevailing weather. We also advised the owner that one of the en-suite bathrooms had no water (again, suggesting no pre-arrival checks). The lack of water couldn’t be rectified during our stay, which meant that one bathroom was out of action. After arriving back home, I contacted the owner several times to discuss compensation / refund amount for the lack of a bathroom (which meant another en-suite had to be shared by two couples during the stay). Alas, I received no replies from the owner, not even an acknowledgement nor an apology. Despite asking them, Independent Cottages would not reach out to the owner to support my complaint. I think it seems that commercial gain is more important to IC than customer service if they are prepared to promote properties where they know, from client feedback, that the owner’s approach to their clients is poor.
Use this company with caution. In our case, the property owner was very quick to take payment for their property in advance of our stay and then goes silent after our stay. I bet if I was to email them to make a booking they’d be very quick to respond to my email.
Very disappointed with this owner’s level of care and service to their customer who spent over £2,000 to stay at SPARKENHOE HOUSE for a weekend.

Just returned from a weeks stay at The Mouse House in the Newlands Valley near Keswick in Cumbria. Although the location of the cottage is superb and it has been cleverly kitted out, our stay was spoilt by a very uncomfortable mattress on the super kingsize bed. It was well past it's sell by date and gave us backache. In addition the property was far from clean and the furniture was tired and rickety.
On the whole we were unimpressed by what is advertised as 4 star accommodation.

Advertised via Independent Cottage for several years, without a great amount of success like other sites I use.
Anyway they had a 1 year special offer on last minute cottages and to tie in with existing advert gave me a 3 month special offer instead, my reward for my loyalty and extra revenue for them, I contacted you for the year offer not 3 months during which was the dead season

As a host, this is the worst investment that I have made. I get a lot of bookings via Airbnb and the rating of my cottage is 5.0 across all sites. I was hoping to use Independent Cottages as a back-up to Airbnb and to promote specific weeks that were still available, but after over 3 months advertised on Independent Cottages, the statistics show no click throughs at all to my website. Unless you have a rental in a well known location that will be specifically searched for, like St Ives/Bath etc, then your advert is unlikely to be seen on independent cottages. I suspect part of their business model is to take new subscriptions (with a joining fee) from hosts every year without worrying about host retention on their site

Mill Farm Eco Barns from 20/10/24 to
27/10/24
Cottage, Hay Barn
Having booked the cottage late in the year we expected a chilly week. Not so, the cottage was warm and dry and full of utensils required for happy stay. A comfortable bed, somewhere to sit for meal times or rest. The weather was not too kind but we did get out every day to walk in the countryside, and go shopping[ I make no comments on shopping, for my partner it was wonderful]. The pub served lovely meals that were not too pricey. and there is no need to book at the Fishermans Return.
Emma and Neil were very helpful when needed and were very aware of the local area.
All in all we have to say this was the best stay in a cottage and we have stayed in many places up and down the UK.
We truly hope to stay here sometime in the future, to be able to explore the area better.
Trisha and Jim
Bedford

We had a wonderful safari experience in July 2023, the whole package was organised by AGA Tours (UK) who put us with Ben @ Glimpse Safaris they are a fairly new company with great hospitality, vision, with huge investment and scaling plans for the business. We flew to Kilimanjaro, Tanzania for a 4-day safari package, which started with Tarangire National Park for a game drive, Dinner and overnight at Country Lodge in Karatu Hotel lots to see and great dinner. Then early wake up with a good breakfast. Before starting our en-route journey through Ngorongoro Area to Karatu - Serengeti National Park (2 days) with Overnight and dinner at Embalakai Tented Camp run by the Masai who were splendid hosts with 4star tents with king sized beds and quality food local and international. Would recommend waking early to see the amazing sunrise along with lots of wild life, with a good driver the Serengeti has many chances to see most/ all of the top 5 and lots more. Our last Safari Day 4 we spent in a great wonder of the world the Ngorongoro Crater and its wild life, all a must see for anyone visiting Tanzania. Glimpse Safari even personally handle our airport collections, pickups and return to the airport with a driver holding named collection plaque, which made our journeys smooth and easy. We then flew to Zanzibar for the second part a dream beach holiday (total 14 days), Zanzibar is a must for anyone wanting great mix of hospitable local people, historic places to see, quality local seafood restaurants and fine hotels. Finally, we would give the GOLD STAR stand out person AWARD to our Glimpse Safari personal driver Hamisi Ramadhani who throughout the 4 days was so knowledgeable, informative about the animal groups and birdlife, the best routes/ places to spots the Big 5 and he even fixed our vehicle door overnight himself, all good the next day - a really great chaperone (host). We HIGHLY RECOMMEND Glimpse Safaris for anything Tanzania, forgot to mention they are multi-lingual! Also, AGA Tours (for Africa Group or Single Holiday package deals).

As a property owner this has been the very worst investment that I have made into marketing our holiday home in the eight years that we have been in business.

This over-priced advertising portal has resulted in one serious enquiry (but no bookings) over the last twelve month period which is both disappointing and unacceptable.

Part of the Snaptrip Group, my request to change from Independent Cottages to another of their websites early on in my advertising campaign was met with an unhelpful "not possible" response.

This site does not allow any reviews; you should be aware of possible consequences: we stayed in a lovely modern cottage (Hillhead Lane cottage in Scotland), but the cleanliness of the property does not meet common standards anymore. - Thus, the only way to complain is to approach the owner and hope there will be some change... - One comes to understand and value the function of reviews on platforms!

Agree with other reviewers that strange independent cottages don’t have a facility for reviewing properties. We stayed at Bridge House Cottage in Garnet Bridge for a week. Chris and Peter were lovely- they live in the adjoining house and meet you on arrival to show you round. Very quaint, quirky, oldy worldy dog friendly cottage, with secure patio garden, in small village. Very quiet area to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. House was comfortable, but worth noting you need to supply all your essentials- toilet rolls, soap etc. Given the low rental price, I wasn’t surprised. Also worth noting the stairs to the upper bathroom and bedroom are very steep and narrow. Our old arthritic dog couldn’t manage the turn in the stairs at the beginning, so couldn’t make it upstairs. This was a problem for us as she is used to sleeping on her bed next to ours. If you have a little one, you’ll also need a stair gate as their is no door on the bedroom/ bathroom, which is open to the stairs. Other than that, we were very happy and it’s a nice place to stay at very reasonable charge. Only a short drive to Kendal with all facilities you need and fairly central for other day trips around the Lake District.

Having just returned from a fabulous week in The Cotswolds, I was searching for somewhere to review the property. How strange not to offer this facility.
I was a little concerned before booking as hadn’t seen any reviews but I spoke to the owner on the phone at length and felt reassured by this. I’m not sure I would feel confident about using Independent Cottages again after reading the reviews here.

We recently returned from a 'holiday' at a property on this site (Toad Hall in Suffolk). We found the property very poorly maintained, the furniture was shabby and in some cases falling to bits. The kitchen and bathrooms were dirty and mouldy.
We asked to post a review on the Independent Cottages website only to be told they 'don't have the facility' to do this.
BE VERY VERY WARY OF BOOKING ANYTHING ON THIS SITE.

A really honest and trustworthy website for both owners and guests. As an owner, you are in complete control of the lets. As a guest, you can speak to the owner directly about any extra requirments you may have. I have owned holiday cottages in the past and this was always how it was done, an advert and contact with the property owner. The others are agencies who fleece both holiday cottage owners and their guests as they take so much in commission, often up to 20%, hence the prices are higher for guests. I have used Independent Cottages both as a guest and as an owner it's a very good company with good values at it's heart.

I don't recommend booking via this website. You don't get any protection on your money as you pay everything directly to the owner and if somethings goes wrong with the owner, you still need to make the complaint to the owner. We lost our deposit as the owner didn't reply to us.
The customer service did try to contact the owner, hence I give two stars. But they couldn't do anything apart from asking us to make the complaint to the owner.
Will never make payment to the owner directly again.

Great independent holiday rentals site for properties in the U.K. As an owner I like it as you get proper direct contact with the enquirer. SO much better than the bigger sites who are fleecing owners and guests alike!