Cottages.com www.cottages.com

We are currently in the Covid19 pandemic. No ones fault that this has happened. You would think they would offer full refund. But no. They can only offer a voucher that expires. I booked this for my wife’s 40th (13/04/2020) so don’t need another date I need a refund. At this time they still quote T&Cs. This is uncertain times and more than ever people need their money back not vouchers. Who knows what will happen to members of family. They are an uncaring company and there are several people I have spoken to in the same boat. Disgusting and can not recommend them or hoseasons (who they are part of).

We booked a holiday cottage with cottages.com for my wife and I, our adult children and our grandchildren. This took considerable research as the house had to be large enough to accommodate a large family, be reasonably close to all family members, be available in school holidays and my adult children and their spouses all had to arrange time off work at the same time. It took a lot of planning, but we eventually found the ideal place for a rare family holiday together.

We had our bookings accepted and confirmed, paid the deposit and handed over our credit card details so that cottages.com could automatically take the balance due at the appointed time. According to the lengthy small print, this constituted a “binding contract” which we felt secured our booking and gave us good protection.

A month later we were astounded to receive a phone call from cottages.com informing us that the booking had been cancelled because the owner had changed his mind and wanted to sell. When I reminded cottages.com of the “binding contract” that they were now in breach of, they informed me that there was nothing they could do and that the contract was between us and the owner. If we wanted to take it further, we would have to deal directly with the owner. This is a real Catch 22 situation as the the owner is anonymous, hiding behind cottages.com who have not given us their contact details.

Putting a polite, factual post on the Facebook page of cottages.com was futile as they refused to post it. It seems only positive posts are permitted. Next, I tried the cottages.com website and was pleased to find reviews posted on something called Reevoo. However, on trying to post a review I could not find a way to do so. A quick internet search suggested that customers had to be be invited to post reviews on Reevoo, explaining the lack of ay negative comments.

Cottages.co.uk is just a quick directory of lots (over 100?) of smaller cottage agencies. The ones that maybe can't afford to advertise very much, but have nice cottages at good prices. There are several that appear to specialise in one village! (Elie, Appledore, etc.)