Travel Chapter Avis 

Amazing experience from start to finish, easy to book, place was beautiful, had everything we needed, including a complimentary pack saving us a rush to the shop, stunning interior , highly recommend booking and will always be on my list when checking for my next break away.

Could not be better!! What a wonderful company to let our holiday cottages through for the past 20 years. We have always been extremely pleased with our bookings and have found Travel Chapter to always be supportive should we ever have any issues which luckily is hardly ever. Our property manager Carly Hookway is marvellous and always on hand if needed responding to any questions we have very quickly and professionally. We honestly couldn’t be happier and would never hesitate to recommend Travel Chapter to anyone. Jana Wonnacott

Travel Chapter you emailed me to ask me to contact you re the horrendous experience I had been through to see if you could be of any further assistance. You continue to waste my time and refuse further assistance. You ended your email back to me saying any further emails will not be responded to. You asked me to contact you only to be told yet again that you take no accountability other than a refund which has yet to transpire. You have been absolutely awful to deal with. Shame on you for leaving your customer in a very vulnerable situation with zero recompense. How utterly dire you have conducted yourself for such a large company. Awful in every sense of the word.

We had a meeting with Kayleigh from Holiday Cottages who was extremely friendly, knowledgeable, professional and personable.

We booked Seaside Apartment (Flat 16) Horizon View, Westward Ho! through Holiday Cottages.co.uk, which is part of The Travel Chapter, paying £1056 for a weeks stay in September 2025. On arrival, the bedding was stained and clearly not changed after the previous guests. The property had broken bathroom mirrors, mould in the showers, a washing machine that was still not fully sanitised (after we had to run deep cleaning cycles three times), rusted towel radiators that were unusable, towels with a strong odour, a toilet seat past its life expectancy, a broken door lock, and general signs of wear and poor maintenance, with an overall lack of cleanliness. The housekeeper changed a tablecloth, cleaned the toilet seat and changed the bedding. The problems remained unresolved despite promises that the owner would address them.

The issues were not resolved during our stay. The owner cited personal reasons for inaction and did not have any contingency plans. They have refused to refund £21.19 for cleaning materials required for us to make the apartment somewhat cleaner, despite receipts. Partial compensation (65% refund of £686.40) was offered only after lengthy negotiations once we indicated we would pursue legal action, even then this was not the full amount we thought was appropriate (75% given the state of the apartment).

Our experiences with Holiday Cottages.co.uk / The Travel Chapter have been disappointing. When problems are reported, they do not resolve the issues in our favour, even when clear evidence is provided. The complaints process is inconsistent and unprofessional. We had emails from multiple handlers who seemed not to be aware of previous correspondence. Communication was slow, and accountability was lacking.

Holiday Cottages.co.uk initially refused to provide the property owner’s contact details for us to pursue the claim, citing “data protection,” and only released them after we reminded them of their legal obligations, given the contract is with the owner, not Holiday Cottages.

It’s also worth noting that The Travel Chapter operate under multiple brands, including Holiday Cottages.co.uk, which may not be immediately apparent to customers. Always check when you're booking.

Overall, their customer service, complaints handling, and approach to guests fall short of what you would expect from a reputable holiday company. After two poor experiences, we will not be booking with them again and would advise others to consider carefully before doing so.

Update 04.11.2025: After posting my review and sending a final demand for the outstanding £21.19, this amount has now been paid. While the refund was eventually received and accepted, the process of getting back what was owed was unnecessarily difficult and time-consuming.

Based on my experience, I won’t be using any of the Travel Chapter’s brands again and would encourage others to consider their options carefully before booking.

We have been with Travel Chapter since 2021 and in that time the company have extortionately increased their prices. They are constantly making mistakes, that we end up having to pay for in the end. They have varying handling fee charges that were not there before (literally miney for old rope!), they increased their monthly payment from approx £43 when we started to 4 years later and are now £96: ready to go up again! They also increased their monthly fees. Their commission on each booking is 19.5% which you would think would cover more than it does. The amount we get has decreased, the number of bookings we get looks the same but the book 3 days bookings, so it looks like they have got the same but in reality it is a LOT less. I wish we had never signed up to them. I would highly recommend going with Sykes or one of the smaller companies. Just to add, we are not second home owners, our house is our only home but live in work accommodation. Do not be fooled by the websites the care that you get as a homeowner is SHOCKING. They do NOT look after you.

Very poor company to deal with. I had a new rep every six months. They were persistently unavailable to owners and made no effort to convert enquiries into bookings. They pretend to be interested in in you. They ask you for a review on their terms and don’t make any effort to improve. Stay away!

As a previous host has said one star is too many.
Awful Company to deal with as a host. Their calendar is completely unpredictable, double bookings with other platforms left right and centre. Then you get charged for their lost commission even though it’s their Calendar! They have change and lowered my prices without any discussion, they don’t adjust peak prices to cover the holidays.
No control as an owner, and no info on guests. The app has no information and the website doesn’t work for
Owners either. I have to ask”permission “ to unbook/ book off their platform,Despite being listed elsewhere before them.
They have listed my property on other platforms I already list at a lower rate then charge higher commission. I’ve asked to Leave as its cost me thousands in lost revenue and they want to charge me a£500pet property exit fee. My area manager barely responds to me, apparently it’s all my fault I dare list elsewhere! Avoid at all costs if you are considering them as a platform .
I’m considering getting lawyers involved it’s that bad.

Would rate no stars if I could. Tried to amend a booking totally impossible they just ignore your emails then tried live chat and left me hanging for 20 minutes. Just cancelled in the end as the easier option. Why would anyone not just book with booking.com you can amend and cancel free of charge right up until you go. I feel sorry for the owners they just lose a booking. Avoid! Plans change you have no hope of changing anything with Travel Chapter they just take your money and run!
This is my review as a potential guest. I have previously given a review as a previous owner. Both at one star! Needless to say we won’t ever book with Travel Chapter again and certainly would never have a cottage with them either!

Booking reference is 3791040.

Also they send the below email and you never hear a thing. Basically they don’t want you to change the booking because they keep your deposit if it’s more than 63 days till you go otherwise they keep the lot. Also they just resell where you’ve cancelled. Owners never get paid twice holiday cottages take it. I could go on …

Update: did receive a reply to amend the booking at 5 4/10 but had already cancelled the booking by email two days previously so had to reply saying it had already been cancelled. It would help if emails were acknowledged with an instant reply saying email received and being looked into. As it stands it simply appears you are being ignored.

Very supportive account manager, great media coverage. Very happy with the number of bookings we have received over the past several years

We stayed at The Haven, Saxonfields in Snape from September 13th 2025 for 3 nights of a 5 night stay.

We found the property to be generally grubby with old linen and towels, stained duvet and furnishings. We found a mite infestation in the kitchen. We left early after feeling uncomfortable to stay any longer. On returning home I was diagnosed with scabies which I believe to be a direct result of staying in this property.

I have since submitted a complaint, sent videos and received a standard email response to say it’s being investigated. I have called several times and asked to speak with a manager regarding these issues. I have sent a Trustpilot review on Holiday Cottages, no response from anybody.

Nobody from this company is responding and even an email to their CEO Jayne McClure has been ignored.

I have now written to East Suffolk council outlining my concerns about this property, as I do not want anybody else to be suffering as a result of staying there.

I am astounded at this lack of care or response from Holiday Cottages/The Travel Chapter. I would have expected a swift call back to discuss the issues as a minimum within 24 hours of my first email.

Surely a company of this size should have an efficient and responsive customer services? I feel very upset by this whole experience which has impacted both my health and my finances negatively.

Good advice, caring home manager, good bookings in the main.

Hendra Barn & HolidayCottages.co.uk – Unsafe, Neglected, and a Total Rip-Off
Hendra Barn in Cornwall is not a holiday cottage – it’s a disgrace and a health risk. Booking through HolidayCottages.co.uk only added insult to injury.
We arrived to filth: surfaces grimy, a stale smell throughout, and the clear sense nobody cares for this property. But dirt was the least of it. The water supply comes from an unmaintained borehole, a fact no one thought to mention until the water came out orange (see pictures) and the owner casually remarked, “Yeah, I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”
That is outrageous and dangerous. We had already used the taps for drinking, cooking, washing, and making bottles for an 8 month old baby.
The oven was dead for six out of seven days. The TV didn’t work either. We reported both faults on day one, but nothing was done until the day before we left—far too late to matter. That’s not bad service; it’s sheer contempt for paying guests.
And HolidayCottages.co.uk is no better. Our formal complaint has been “under review” for over a month, with nothing but vague emails and no resolution. Their approach is clear: delay, deflect, and hope you give up.
Let’s call this what it is:
Unfit for human use – dirty and unsafe water.
False advertising – basic facilities left broken for almost the entire stay.
Predatory business practices – a booking company that takes your money, then vanishes when things go wrong.
For the high price charged, this is blatant exploitation. Hendra Barn should not be on the market, and HolidayCottages.co.uk should be ashamed for hosting it.
On the upside, the grounds Hendra Barn are set in are great, shame this didn't translate to inside the place!
If you value your health, your time, or your hard-earned money, stay far away. There are hundreds of wonderful cottages in Cornwall—this is not one of them.

Booked the starboard watch in Polruan for two weeks. Upon arrival attempted to get to the quay carpark as suggested. We were faced with a steep gradient, extremely narrow road barely two car width. Half way down had to reverse back up as a grocery van was reversing up the hill. This proved an extremely challenging manoeuvre and led to my clutch smoking and I scratched my car. We abandoned getting to the quayside and parked at the top of the hill. This made us realise that it was impossible to face this walk up the hill every time we wanted to travel anywhere, particularly as my wife has a heart condition. Unloading the luggage and getting it down the hill was more than we could face. We telephoned the helpline only to be told we were responsible for parking and they could not provide any alternative accommodation. We were forced to book a premier inn, and travelled home the next day. The accommodation itself was as described leaving us disappointed that it was not made clear just how difficult the access was.

We are a party of 5 women in their 60’s. We made a booking for 1 week with a cost of over £2,300. On receipt of the booking confirmation, which identified the check in time as 4pm, I contacted this company and explained that one of the ladies was recovering from brain surgery and would need access to the property on arrival for medical purposes. I asked if she could access the property at 3pm (1 hour early), after a 3 hour drive and said I would be happy to pay extra for this. I was told NO, due to the cleaning schedule.
During our stay the owner of the property arrived at the property, I told her about our experience and she informed us that the property had been cleaned the day before and there would have been no problem with us checking in an hour earlier.
Why would you be so unkind and uncaring to lie about a trivial thing.
Please be careful when booking with this company, once they have your money, they really don’t care about anything else.
There are a lot of bad reviews, please check everything carefully there is no aftercare or customer service.

UPDATE: 8/9/2025
I received this email this morning, to which I have replied. I will update this post, if I receive a response.

Trustpilot
Hi Lesley Moore,

You’ve written a review for Travel Chapter, home of holidaycottages.co.uk, and they’ve asked for more details to better understand your experience.

If you provide some extra information within 3 days, it’ll help them recognize your experience and respond.

Add review details

If we don’t hear from you, the company may not be able to recognize your review as genuine.

Travel Chapter own Holidaycottages.co.uk - they sadly, also now own several of the smaller, regional companies.
They are not a good company to deal with, their modus operandi is to ignore the customer when something goes wrong.
I paid a lot of money to stay at WELL HOUSE, SUDBOURNE in August, with my granddaughters.
It was not as described in the details (or pictures), it was dirty! Too dirty to stay (including a beetle in the fridge).
Holiday's are meant to be enjoyable. Several week's later, I am fighting to get a response - or any kind of refund.
Look for a small company that gives good service, and still cares about the customer.
Don't book with this lot!

Edited; 8th Sept - 2 week's since any communication from "senior complaints manager", - Travel Chapter requested my booking details.
I'll update again if I get a resolution.
4 week's tomorrow since I arrived at Well House, and phoned the helpline about the filthy state of it, and the fact my granddaughter was having a panic attack, and refusing to stay. 😔
2nd edit on 8th September - post response from Travel Chapter: 19 pictures sent as evidence on 18th August (after I'd finished my holiday, elsewhere).
Already explained it's been with a "senior complaints manager" for 2 weeks, with no updates.
Many messages exchanged with Owner at the time - and the people after us made the same complaints, it's on here under "Mucky mansion", and they've posted a rating direct to Holidaycottages.co.uk.
I've made my requests very clear,
time and time again.
No one has responded. I've paid over £1,800 for ONE night! I didn't even get to sleep in a bed because of the state of 2 of my granddaughters.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE - 6 DAY'S AFTER TRAVEL CHAPTER'S RESPONSE: zilch, absolutely nothing at all - except to ask me to remove the name of the "senior complaints advisor" from my review, which I did, straight away!

As owners of Fair Skies based in St Merryn, Padstow, we recently move from another agency to holiday cottages. Our local account manager Tom lives in St Merryn so knows the area. He is proactive and very supportive. Our bookings have thrived under his guidance. Thank you.

We stayed at Hylands Holiday Cottages in Apartment 6. We are a couple with a dog and looked for a dog friendly cottage. This apartment was perfect for us in a good location. The views were good - looking down on Teignmouth and, as one window has a sea view, it was great to see both sea and sky. The apartment was cosy with a double bed, sofa, dining table and chairs, and firestick TV. The bed was comfortable. The hot shower in the bathroom was most welcome and the kitchen had everything we needed. Teignmouth has a back beach suitable for dogs all the year round and we enjoyed visiting here. We took the train from Teignmouth to Dawlish Warren where dogs can go also go on a few of the beaches and there is a park area for walks too. We also drove to Brixham for an ice cream. We stayed here in the past with our children. A very enjoyable stay. Thank you Keith & Lance at Hylands.

I just want to take the time to praise Helen Symonds (New Businesses Manager). Helen has very patiently guided us through the process in becoming a host on holiday cottages. We have found her supportive and encouraging with sound advice on what to do and not to do when starting out. We can’t thank her enough for the last six months of us starting out on our holiday cottages journey.

Thank You Tracy for your kind personal attention to detail.