Unique Cottages Avis 

We booked Gortneorn Bothy for 2 weeks at end of June 2022. The property was remote and spacious, and apart from smell of damp in bedroom the bothy was as expected. No fuel provided for wood burner and woodshed locked to prevent guests using, even though Unique cottages stated honesty box available to pay for any wood used.
Our dog unfortunately caused small amount of damage to laminate trim around fireplace. We reported this to cleaner , as had no phone signal to contact owner .
On our return contacted unique cottages for our security deposit to be returned. They informed us owner was waiting for quote to repair damage to flooring/ trim. This took over 6 weeks for Unique cottages and owner to concoct quote of £100 for repair. The damaged trim was cheap laminate and would have cost less than £10 plus cost of glue and needed measuring and cutting . I had offered £50 which was extremely generous as could have easily repaired myself in about 10 minutes .
Unique cottages claimed materials were £50 and labour £50 . This is daylight robbery , no one would pay this out of their own pocket and price is exorbitant as we have no comeback to the cost they decide.
I have read several other reviews of unique cottages where they withheld security deposits without justification and I would not book with Unique cottages again .

We were disappointed when the holiday we booked at one of the newer properties had to be cancelled, for reasons outside their control. These things happen and it’s how they are handled that counts. We were given a full apology and explanation by the company and a generous discount on a future holiday by the owners themselves - not something to expect and a wonderful gesture. The company - especially Lanna - bent over backwards to work something out for us. Thank you to Unique Cottages. The Old Smokehouse looks an absolute dream of a place. .

I've read the extremely mixed reviews for Unique Cottages and I guess it depends on which cottage you go for. All I can say is that the cottage we stayed in - Lagarie Garden Cottage - was absolutely gorgeous. In Rhu, right next door to Helensburgh, we've just had one of the nicest, most idyllic week-long holidays we could have asked for.

Obviously the recent heatwave helped; the skies were blue, 27°C temperatures, but regardless the cottage, garden and location is absolutely superb.

We were a party of five (two adults, three teenagers). We used the cottage as a base to explore Helensburgh, Loch Lomond Shores and Glasgow.

The cottage is spacious with a classic look to the downstairs and a modern upper floor accessed by a spiral staircase.

The kitchen is well equipped but you might find it tight if you have several people wanting to be in at the same time.

The front and rear gardens are surrounded by trees giving a lovely private space to enjoy the peace and quiet. The first night we stayed a deer wandered in for a mooch around the back garden, much to everyone's delight.

The village (town?) of Rhu is just utterly gorgeous, with mansions nestled in acres of manicured lawns and 100ft trees on the shores of the loch.

There's a nice pub a short walk from the cottage. Very friendly (but perhaps avoid getting into a discussion with the locals about which whisky is best in case they buy you one too many...)

A visit to the Hill House is definitely recommended.

Loch Lomond Shores was only 20 minutes away by car along decent roads. Parking is free. There's a SeaLife centre on the shores. We didn't go in but did go to the restaurants, shops and the Birds of Prey centre around the shoreline. All very nice.

We hired a pedalo, rowing boat and paddle-boards and had a great time on the Loch.

Parking at the main railway station, we caught the train into Glasgow and visited the art museum amongst other sight-seeing stuff.

We visited the castle at Balloch. It's not particularly noteworthy (nice to look at but you can't access it), though it is surrounded by a fabulous park.

All told, we had a fantastic time in Scotland at Lagarie Garden Cottage.

The Bothy, Lauder - beautiful one bedroom cottage. Delightful interior. The garden as advertised on Unique Cottages website is SO NOT what we got! We booked The Bothy based on the photographs on the website (we have two dogs so the garden would have been ideal for them). We didn't get a lawn, we got GRAVEL, GRAVEL and more GRAVEL and totally overgrown bushes / plants! No "Information File" regarding the cottage and its appliances - no nowt! An outdated "Walks around Lauder" folder (2016) and leaflets that I could have taken with me - lots of info about Northumberland and County Durham! Co. Durham is where I'm from and Northumberland is where I live! I even had to contact the owners the very day we arrived to find out how to shut the Velux blinds! Would recommend The Bothy for a couple without dogs but otherwise - nah! If you do go to The Bothy check out The Lauderdale Hotel for excellent food and good chat from the owners and bar staff.

We will never use this company again. They said we damaged things within the cottage and refused to give our bond back. The cottage was old, dated, unpleasant and had overgrown gardens with many weeds etc. The outside bins had not been emptied when we arrived and they blamed us for not putting the bins out during our stay. I could go on and on about the property and poor customer service from this company.

Please beware that if you book with Unique Cottages you will not get your deposit back unless you get a medic to fill in a form for their insurance company. They are unable to take medical notes and discharge papers from a hospital as proof.
We have lost £150.00 as I am not prepared to pester very busy surgeons to fill in forms.
Very disappointed in this company’s attitude in these difficult times for everyone.

Black Isle Cottage, Balquihidder. This property is not listed on TripAdvisor and since I have already complained about it, it is unlikely I will be invited to review on Feefo. We had four nights booked, left after one. Before I continue, I'll point out that my family regularly takes trips around Scotland in a variety of accommodation and have never had to leave early. I also spent a decade living in Soviet rental apartments in Moscow, so not a novice in dealing with old and outdated properties.

Black Isle Cottage was dirty - ingrained dirty and stank of grease and damp. Black cobwebs hanging on the walls where you are expected to dine, a tiled floor that our feet were sticking to in the kitchen, a frying pan left in the sink with splodges of grease still on the handle, etc etc. Given that we were asked to check-in late and check-out early for a 'COVID deep clean', this especially takes the mickey.

Then the heating - maybe it is okay in summer, I don't know, but it is heated by a coal fire (for hot water and the radiators). We had it roaring for an entire evening without the chill lifting. They also ask you pay for electricity above £10 or £30 (not sure which as there were two cards with different figures). That seems okay until you realise that the plug-in heaters (ancient) have to be going constantly as it is so utterly freezing. They also ask that you go and buy coal after the first bit is used up (fast) - we were in a hire car, were we supposed to go and find a coal merchants then hump bags of coal into it? Why couldn't they provide coal and add it to the fee? My guess would be that people just wouldn't pay more for this place up front.

They also ask that we clean the property before leaving which I'd just do anyway. But, in particular, you need to clean the solid fuel stove inside so that there is no black soot on the interior of the glass. First of all, it was black when we arrived. Secondly, how? I had a small sponge for washing up, no bucket, nothing else. Was I supposed to sit there with this sponge trying to scrub caked-in soot and coal dust off it? All before the 9am in the morning when you're supposed to leave?

Very shabby, inadequate heating, damp extension with the kitchen and bathroom and the smell pervades every room. Also the attitude from the owners and the agency that they couldn't care less pervades everything.

Unique Cottages know these issues as after staying there we found the cottage's Feefo page. The same complaints I have just made are there time and again. The only response from Unique Cottages was to one person saying they were 'surprised' to hear these things. Judging by the number of negative reviews, they must be surprised a lot.

They told us we should have asked for a team of cleaners. So, on Day 2 of a four-day holiday, we were supposed to start wrangling with them to get cleaners in? Then wait for this team of cleaners to show up (presumably they are not just waiting there ready to arrive at the drop of a hat), then have the place overturned - by the end of all that it would be time to go home! And, in the end, it should have been clean from the start - if purely from a COVID point of view (it had not even been aired - we could smell the fish and chips with lots of vinegar from the previous tenant's dinner!).

So, we lost about £400 and I'm still waiting for my £100 deposit back, no word on that. We won't ever use Unique Cottages again, which is a loss to them as we do take Scottish holidays a lot and would have been a good customer. We had a nice time doing day trips from our own house for the rest of the holiday and made the best of it, so happy to lose the money rather than stay in that place.

We always use Unique Cottages to book our holiday to Scotland. The properties they advertise are stunning, located in beautiful environments. Fortingall Schoolhouse is our favourite - we go back here as often as we can. Wonderful, friendly, helpful hosts and such a warm and homely property set in beautiful countryside. We highly recommend Unique Cottages!

lovely cottage and well kept. friendly owner who was very helpful. we really enjoyed our time here and will return.

We had a super stay even with the wild weather. The cottage is comfortable and cosy with the central wood burner stove that heats the whole house. Hosts are very helpful and friendly. Definitely would recommend, particularly to nature lovers! Cant think how our stay could have been improved!

We booked to stay at The Gardeners Cottage in 2020, but moved the holiday over due to Covid. The staff at Unique Cottages were are kind and helpful as every and made this whole process very easy for us. Again, as we have always found with Unique Cottages, the booking process is very smooth and efficient. Everything is provided in good time, including payment reminders and holiday information. The cottage we stayed at was perfect, in stunning surroundings and even better than we thought it would be. We have already booked with UC next year and will be doing so in the future.

A beautifully presented property in an idyllic hamlet.

The house itself is very spacious, immaculately presented and uncluttered. It was also warm throughout.

We were a couple plus young children and an elderly mother but would recommend to anyone.

Always use Unique for Scottish Holidays, great service

I was aware by the photos on the website that this cottage was dated but felt confident that by booking through Unique Cottages it would be of a certain standard. Sadly this was not the case, the property is beyond dated and in desperate need of repair and refurbishment! The frontage of the cottage was far from appealing with weeds around the building and flaking paint on the woodwork. The interior was very disappointing, kitchen units shabby, the lounge carpet soiled and stained, wallpaper lifting off in the bedrooms. So much enamel was flaking off the bath we couldn’t use it. The fridge freezer leaked, it was totally frozen up so I spent a morning defrosting it, cleaning grubby drawers and mopping the floor. It appeared to be working when switched back on but then food in the fridge was freezing and had to be thrown away. I could go on! I did phone Unique to discuss the problems and asked when they last inspected the property. I was told all properties are inspected regularly which leads me to think that this standard of accommodation is deemed acceptable for paying customers. On the positive side the property is in a lovely position with beautiful views over the loch.
I forwarded a letter of complaint to Unique along with accompanying photos but received no acknowledgement of receipt. As I had no response I rang to ensure they had received them. 6 weeks later and after couple more phone calls I have had no feedback. Poor customer service in this instance. Sadly disappointed as previous bookings and service with them has being positive. It seems the complaints procedure is non existent!

If only we could have stayed longer... view out from the cottage is worth five stars alone! Cottage is well equipped - freezer and washing machine make the difference, full kitchen makes self-catering easy (just remember to plan and bring a weeks worth of food with you!). Rooms are a good size, living room is very comfy. Cottage is warm, spacious, quiet, everything you want from a holiday cottage. There are a few options for eating out nearby. Deposit returned quickly, no problems there. We'd love to return!

AVOID UNIQUE COTTAGES.
The cottage itself was alright, apart from it was in woodland and no lighting what-so-ever from a long walk from the car to the property, so take a torch!
Also, the shower tray is so shallow that the water starts pouring over the floor after 30 seconds in the shower…

As for Unique Cottages they are appalling…

Started with their website payments not working which somehow ended up in me booking the wrong cottage (or maybe it was a problem on their website, not that they would admit to that!) and then had to pay for it to be changed - this cost me £75!!!
I also paid for cancellation insurance which turns out it’s completely useless in protecting me from any Covid related problem (including any lockdowns). Severe weather, or pretty much anything else that could have affected my holiday, so don’t bother with their cancellation policy. You can’t cancel!!

Finally my £100 deposit took 3 weeks of contact with unique cottages despite an email telling me I’d left the property in good condition and would be refunded within 7 days of leaving the property - I’m not convinced I’d have got my deposit back at all if I hadn’t constantly contacted them for it.

Save your time and money and book through someone who actually gives a c**p about you and your holiday.

Really good service from Unique Cottages. Friendly and helpful, easy to book and a great range of properties in some great locations. Will definitely book through them again.

Superb service and correspondence we have experienced with Unique Cottages when we hired the most wonderful house in Fortingal, Perthshire. If all their properties are to this standard you won’t be disappointed. We were given clear instructions and directions for the start of our holiday and correspondence after our stay was good too. We will defiantly use the company again.

We have used Unique Cottages to book our holidays before and have always found them to be excellent. This time was no exception. The cottage we chose was lovely. We asked Unique Cottages to approach the owners of the property to ask if we could bring our elderly Burmese cat with us.
They did: the owners were happy and we all had a great holiday, especially Madam Cat !
We will certainly use Unique Cottages again .

Along with location and a beautifully presented house to stay in we all agreed that we had the best holiday ever.