Welcome Cottages Reviews 

Like so many reviews on here I would like to give zero stars. The cottage was dirty and Had very little water from the second day of our seven day holiday. No response from owners, I did get through to Welcome Cottages, asked them to contact the owner,still no reply. I phoned Welcome Cottages on our return, was given a long winded excuse and told the request for a refund needed to be processed. I then pointed out that the cottage had four out of five stars on their website, but it was only when you clicked on the review that you realised this was four out of ten, at this point the line went dead I had been cut off. Still waiting for a reply from Welcome Cottages about a refund. Will not be using these ever again

If I could give zero I would! We were left stranded on the first day of our holiday with nowhere to stay as the property we had booked was disgustingly dirty! Despite the fact that we had received an email to say that apparently our property had signed up to their 'safer stays' initiative! I would like to say that the property was definitely not 'Covid safe', and I consider the owners to be negligent! My girls and I had self-isolated for two weeks prior to going to Devon in order to be able to see my parents and their grandparents. I would never have booked somewhere that I thought would put them at risk. Within half an hour of arriving I was in tears as I tried to work out the implications of having nowhere to stay. I tried to call Welcome Cottages for the next 2 hours while their phone lines were open... They shut at 4pm! I have since emailed and phoned numerous times but as in previous recent reviews, it is as if their customer service team have gone on strike! Customer service is non-existent! Still waiting to hear from them.

We booked a UK based cottage holiday 2-3 months ago and were informed 3 days before the start of the rental period they had cancelled our booking. The email said our money would be refunded in 3-5 days, we're way over this now and no money. Emailed to complain and receive an auto email saying 6-8 weeks expected response time. Called them (and their Group Head Office) and multiple occasions and left to wait on the phone in excess of an hour each time and never get through to speak to anyone. Emailed the CEO of the company and no response from him or any of his team. Currently trying to pursue getting our money back with our bank and have very little hope of ever speaking to/emailing anyone here. Also pursuing this with ABTA but they too have long timescales on chasing anything up! Absolute nightmare to deal with this company, no answers, no one to speak to, no replies to emails and no money back - do not go anywhere near this company!

I have used welcome cottages for many years. Will not be using tgem again. We had two holidays booked this year with them. First being beginning May in Cornwall which got cancelled because of covid. We were not allowed a refund we had to have credit note which we used to pay for our already booked holiday in September to Isle of Wight. Which is our honeymoon. Just had email our holiday has been cancelled no reason why. Three weeks before we get married and are due to go. Our ferry tickets are booked and we cannot get a refund for them. We have been treated appalling. Still waiting refund for our holiday and a reply to email as to why our holiday cancelled.

We booked a holiday in January and were looking forward to our break at the end of June. We received an email in April to say our holiday had been cancelled, which we thought was weird. Then we received an email the next day to say we had been contacted in error. Eventually our holiday was cancelled and we were asked to wait until near our holiday date to receive information on how to claim a refund. This never happened and we have lost count of the number of emails we have sent (just get a generic text saying to give them up to 48 hours to reply). We have never received a reply. I gave the two stars as to be fair they delayed the final payment. However, we would like to get our deposit back as we will never use this company again.

Have just read the review by Mark Brown and I could have almost written it myself as we had an almost identical experience. We only found out our holiday was cancelled when we contacted the owners 3 days prior to going and they told us they had informed Welcome Cottages 4 weeks previously that they were still shielding and their property would not be available . Even after WE had informed Welcome cottages of this we were receiving emails telling us to have a nice holiday. We are trying to put in our complaint, which we were informed by Welcome cottages goes to Hoseasons ! Is this true ? We may never know as we cannot get through to anyone. Many good companies are going under due to the current situation and many bad ones taking advantage of people

Pitiful, deceitful and woeful are three adjectives that come to mind when dealing with this company. There are others but not to be used on this public forum. I booked a cottage in Scotland last May and paid in full. Later I was sent a email with the owners/caretakers number and directions to the cottage. Three days before my holiday I contacted the owner for safe key code to be told he had cancelled my holiday and the booking three weeks previously. Bearing in mind I live in Dorset and with two children under 10 in my party this shower of doings would have seen me drive all the way there without telling me of the cancellation.
It then took me two days to get thru to the company at one time hanging on the line for 3 hours. I also sent 9 emails in two days again all unanswered. I eventually got thru by using the line to book ( coz they will always take your money) and spoke to a young lad (who was very nice but out of his depth) and he organised a full refund. I asked to speak to a line manager (held on the phone for 40 mins again- got fed up holding so rang off) and 3 hours later same nice lad rang me back to say managers were too busy to speak to me (Convenient)
After another day spoke to owner/caretaker again who said he would ring them as well. Owner/Caretaker said that this Company told him that after being told by him of the cancellation they immediately informed me by email and offered me various accommodation alternatives. (Actually never heard a thing)
Money in full was eventually returned but no communication just a bank deposit.
Moral of the story here???
AVOID this company like you would Coronavirus.
Don’t book with them.
I got back my money.
YOU MAY Not

Cancelled our holiday with less than a weeks notice because they had made an error in allowing the booking for 5 days - the booking had been made 2 months prior and confirmation had been sent for the stay in the week before. Late notice left us with nothing available to book. Impossible to get hold of to speak to - numerous phonecalls left on hold for 30 minutes and then cut off, never replied to any emails. Appalling customer service.

I have used welcome cottages and Cottages.com for many years for holidays in the UK & France. I will never use them again! I have sent over 20 emails since the covid outbreak in march regarding cancellation of my holiday to France in September and apart from the automated response, We will response to your email in 24hrs, NOTHING!! Were is the customer services???? You try to call and they advise you to email for a quicker response, it's a Joke! I don't call nearly 5 months quick.

Zero. We have a holiday booked and paid for in August. The property contacted us direct and stated welcome cottages had cancelled our holiday and rebooked the slot for someone else. They have our money and we don’t know if we’re going. You can be on the phone for hours with no reply and no answer to any emails. We sent an email 27/5 no response yet.

Had a weekend booked for the end of March, due to obvious reasons couldn't go. Was happy to take the voucher, but after unsuccessfully trying to use it on 2 occasions asked for a refund as the holidays that are left are seriously overpriced. Three refund requests not even an acknowledgement. As per the cma guidelines I will get this refund

Abysmal, in fact non-existent, customer service. I urgently needed to speak to someone about our booking in early September and have been trying to get through for nearly a week. Over four hours holding on the phone and two unanswered emails and still not able to make contact. What are customers meant to do?

They do not pay the host, please don’t use these scam merchants.

We booked our cottage in January 2020 for an August holiday and were pleased to receive an email to say we wouldn't need to pay the balance until 3 weeks before we were due to leave. When that due date arrived we wanted to speak to someone to ask if we could amend our booking to 1 week rather than 2 weeks due to a change in circumstances. I made 3 unsuccessful phone calls where I was on hold for nearly an hour, and my emails remain unanswered. In the end we just had to cancel it completely and have booked something else with Hoseasons. I understand Welcome Cottages must be extremely busy at the moment but this complete lack of customer service is poor. I would not recommend them.

Again zero stars, we were due to go on holiday tomorrow but we have been cancelled. We did not cancel, no correspondence. Spent two hours on hold trying to find out what is happening. Used email, messenger no luck. Are we going on holiday?
...., we have used this company for years but no more...

Steer well clear of this company. Terrible customer service. 4 emails not responded to. On hold on the phone for over an hour with no response on 8 occasions. Absolutely awful. They should be closed down.

We have been trying to cancel our holiday since the 24th June, i have sent 4 emails, 2 of which i received an automated response, called daily only to be left on hold for hours and still unable to get through and finally i posted on their Instagram page, still nothing. We are due to pay for it next week and i am sure they will be in touch then but this is really worrying me and i would like a response NOW!

My husband is shielding under the Covid-19 requirements. We have tried 6 times to contact Welcome Cottages to cancel our booking without success; 3 times by telephone waiting for over an hour on each occasion *not* to get through and 3 times by email receiving no response apart from an automated reply to our first email telling us they would contact us which they failed to do.
We were really concerned that this company may no longer be in existence until er received a reminder to pay !!!
Is there anybody there or is the computer just churning out random automated emails?

We are part of the Covid fiasco. Our Wales holiday was due to start 11th July. 2 days before Wales officially reopens. But even then I am still shielding so travel impossible
Ben from Welcome Cottages answered my concerns on Messenger & we have the requested e-voucher. The company have been perfectly pleasant to deal with from start to finish

I have booked with Welcome Cottages many times before and had 2 cancellations to organise. Had to wait a while to get through, but immediately offered and organised 2 full refunds. Hope to travel with them soon when we can all get about more.