Sawday's Reviews 

Tor ar Menez - Bihan, Finistere, France, Cottage

The location is the only positive thing about this property, surrounded by countryside and the view from the terrace is lovely and very quiet.

The ‘drive’ was up a grass track to the back of the property.  It was very narrow and tight and when we had to turn our car round to go out we had to reverse onto the farmers field, luckily the weather was fine, but I can imagine if raining it would be very muddy. There was a gate from the gravel parking area at the front of the property to the cottage,  which was locked, which would have been better.

The kitchen is adequate and the lounge area is ok.  The shower room and toilet rooms are extremely small, and the toilet is very shabby and dirty.

The bedroom is not fit for purpose.  Due to the severe sloping ceilings close to either side of the bed, we had to crawl to get into bed. You have to be very careful when getting out to not to bump your head on the sloping beams. The bedroom is very shabby. The whole cottage smelt damp

There were mice in the walls and the sloping ceiling which were very active at night.  We did not sleep well at all and hoping that there were no holes in the walls to get into the bedroom.  There wasn’t a headboard so our heads were right against the wall.  There was also a lot of very large hornets which were nesting in the chimney, when they would come down the chimney into the lounge area.

The photos on the website have been altered to make it appear lighter than what it really is. It was quite depressing being in the cottage.  Rustic and old fashioned should not mean shabby and dirty.
We emailed Sawdays about our experience and whilst they say they take our review seriously, nothing has changed on their website. They need to be more proactive and actually visit these properties. This is our first experience of staying at a Sawdays 'Special' place, and it is certainly our last!
Just to add our second week in France we spent at a gorgeous cottage, roughly the same age as the Sawdays property, but this one was clean and had been renovated whilst keeping the charm of a old cottage, a total contrast to the Sawday's cottage!
FOOTNOTE
Sawdays have replied and this sentence jumped out at me -

"and to a certain extent the low price point, make it clear it is a simple, rural cottage, with very few bells and whistles".

To clarify, £1000 a week in middle of September is not exactly low price!

Also a rural cottage with very few bells and whistles should not mean dirty and shabby. I don’t consider a mirror in the bedroom as a luxury!

We stopped for 5 nights in Bergerie de la moutonniere france and were very warmly welcomed by Hetty and Ruud . The accommodation and food was superb and their kindness and dedication provided us with all the support for a very happy holiday in the most beautiful and peaceful gardens .
Alan and Audrey

Glendurgan House , near Falmouth

We stayed for two nights B&B at this delightful, elegant house, looking down through the most amazing gardens to the little cove of Durgan. Our hosts, Caroline and Charles Fox were wonderful.
We will definitely stay again!

Would not want to give them any stars due to the lack of compassion and their condescending attitude. We chose a holiday based on their description of “languid dreamy beauty outside and in”. No fault of the interior but the exterior was neither dreamy or beautiful. Old, stained, dirty furniture. No cushions except for 3 thin seat cushions covered in stains. “Loaf under the fruit trees”..well the garden had not been maintained and the pathways were full of weeds, rotten fallen fruit, pine needles in piles everywhere. The pool was not cleaned before our arrival and full of debree and stained. The bbq area was dirty and unusable. Clearly no love and care for this property in quite some years. We called Alistair Sawdays to let them know that we had notified the owner we were not staying after 1 night there but when we were eventually called by the Manager Nicola it was clear she did not care about our experience, our disappointment or financial loss. She was condescending and implied we should have realised what we had booked, being a country property with “antique furniture”. We are experienced travellers and have used Alistair Sawdays before over many years but the lack of care for us was frankly upsetting and shocking. I will never use this company again.

My daughter and I stayed in the delightfully named Piggery in the Orchard just outside Loddiswell in Devon. It has been beautifully and tastefully renovated and is situated in a quiet rural spot, surrounded by apple trees and sheep. Two ensuite bedrooms, fully appointed kitchen, dining area, and sitting room on two levels leading out into the garden. The location was great for getting around the Devon countryside and coastal coves and bays.

Booked a B&B in London through Sawday’s. 6 days before arrival I was contacted by the B&B owner to cancel the booking as she had decided to have friends to stay instead.

We have used Alistair Sawdays Special Places to stay for many. In England and Europe.
We have recently returned from a charming three days in a lovely country house surrounded by the most beautiful countryside.
Chipperkyle in Castle Douglas, owned by an equally charming Willie.
He has created an atmosphere of conviviality, attending to your needs as required. Your rooms are so spacious with plenty of seating and also the use of the sitting room. The peace is idyllic. We chose to have an evening meal and it came with casual elegance.
We would certainly return.
Thank you very much Willie.

What Sawdays does is fake. We rented accommodation in North Devon in August. Very charming in the photos! On entering the house, we were met with the smell of drains and mould. The cottage was in a dilapidated state. We were able to prove everything with photos, but Sawdays refused to put the review online.
Obviously, only top ratings are allowed. This damages reliability to the extreme.

An additional comment on my part to your response: even if you prefer to contact the owner directly, your refusal to post real customer reviews falsifies a real review. The customer who has had the bad experience has no right of recourse. He can only write a factual and accurate review. Rating portals are primarily intended for prospective tenants, but they no longer fulfil their purpose if the wrong influence is exerted on them.
By the way, the property we have booked for a two-week stay, was Philham Water Cottage in North Devon. We stayed only one night, because it was not bearable to stay one more night.

Be wary of this guide. Booked into a place with glowing reviews. Took a peek at the kitchen and was absolutely horrified. Have never seen such a disgusting mess - filthy floor, cooker and pots and pans piled up in disarray.

Sawdays gives you the opportunity to find very special places which would otherwise be hard to find, and the experience is always good

I'm only giving Sawday's one star because there isn't an option for minus 5. Avoid! In April 2024 we booked a hotel in France through Sawday's for August 8th 2024 ((Le Clos de Ligré, 22 rue du Rouilly, 37500 Ligré, France - found it on their website, they put us in contact with the hotel). We had several e mails with the hotel including one where we offered to pay for the room. We called on the day to see if we could eat there and were told they’d recommend somewhere when we arrived. When we did arrive, having driven 10 hours, they said they had no booking for us. We showed them the emails. They then said we had booked too long ago! When we eventually stopped laughing and got annoyed, they apologised, shrugged and said they were full. Eventually they called another hotel in town where we stayed - it was hideous. When we complained to Sawday's and shared the e mails, she said we should have paid in advance and it was a 'misunderstanding'. It was quite clear she hadn’t read the e mail correspondence with the hotel. When we pointed this out she said she had, even though there was very clearly a mail from the hotel telling us to pay on arrival. We won’t use them again and if I were you, I wouldn’t either.

Livraison très rapide et conforme à la commande

A Bed and Breakfast to remember, Chipperkyle nr Castle Douglas run by Willie. Fabulous old style ciuntry house with a fabulous interesting and very amenable host. If you hanker after a TV and a hot tub its not the place for you, but for timeless grandeur, pastoral views and an easy way of life it is perfect.

Paws & Stay subsidiary of Sawdays. I booked a holiday and paid for it, I received confirmation of my stay then 5 weeks before the stay they cancelled my booking unless I wanted to pay a further £4000!!!!! Apparently there was a computer blip and my booking was cancelled. Disgusting practice. Would not recommend booking with them

Very poor property that Sawdays lauded and insisted on sticking to its guns without taking any responsibility for promoting a place that was unclean and poor value.

Quintessential B&B Abbotsbury,Dorset.
Angela,our host, made our stay at Quintessential B&B very special.She was attentive and very informative.She obviously knew the area well and was able to advise us as to where to visit and understood our taste in restaurants and recommended some exceptional pubs/restaurants which we will visit again on our return.
Angela’s breakfasts were delicious and she managed to vary the menu each day.She offered cereals, fruit and yogurt together with a perfectly cooked traditional English!
I had the best night’s sleep in the most comfy king size bed.
We were made to feel like friends not strangers. We have already started telling our friends about this exceptional B&B in the charming village of Abbotsbury,Dorset.
We will definitely return!

What a wonderful experience staying at the West Compton Manor Bed & Breakfast. The service was exceptional, with Ashley providing outstanding breakfasts, evening cocktails and stories from his prolific family history. The gorgeous buildings, spacious room and the most comfortable bed, we have slept in for years, all made for a super Easter break in Dorset. The electric car charger was also a big plus. We will be back and recommending to friends.

We have stayed in many lovely properties Sawdays and thought a listing would be some guarantee of quality. This is not the case. We had booked a week in La Goziniere and on arrival were shocked at the state of the property. Dismal, everything so old and tatty and almost no kitchen facilities. No heating despite nightime temperature forecast that week for 6 degrees. After trying to sleep on the mattresses (shapeless and lumpy with extreme age) we left the next morning. The owners were away but made an attempt to be helpful though were unable to do anything substantial. Whilst I understand that the booking is not with Sawdays I did email with some feedback about the property but they do not have the courtesy to reply.

Unfortunately we found out the hard way that Sawday’s is just a “marketing platform” to connect villa owners and guests. There is no booking contract with Sawday’s, it is just with the individual who owns the villa. This means when things go wrong Sawday’s takes no responsibility for the accommodation and provides no booking protections. They told us all they can do is try to get the villa owner to communicate - which may or may not work. I did not feel this was made very clear on Sawday’s website (the only reference I could find was at the bottom of a “Why Sawday’s” page) so I post this in the hope others will become aware of the arrangement they would be entering into. Sawday’s goes to great lengths on their website to say that they are a good company founded on principles of how people should be treated. When our booking went wrong we found dealing with Sawday’s frustrating and disappointing as they refused to get involved.