Welcome CottagesReviews of welcomecottages.com

Mum paid a deposit of £25 for a holiday for my sister from Australia who was coming over to care for her whilst I was supposed to be on a break to Turkey with my partner for his 60th birthday. We cancelled today having booked in Feb for June. We were still outside the 70 days arrival at destination date but still they made up pay another £175 cancellation fee. Mum is 87 years old, this absolutely made her day. So if you do book, PLEASE PLEASE take note of the small print. If you need to cancel they can still take a 1/3 of the holiday price from you. Disgusting company!

We stayed at The Linhey, Emmet's Grange, near Simonsbath, Devon. Oh where do I start....? To get there, follow the long, pot holed drive (go slowly not to damage your car). On.first arrival I thought The Linhey was quite charming, a log burner freshly laid, a cute little kitchen and bathroom, clean linen, towels and tea towels, a radiator plus 2 panel heaters. In the bathroom a lovely heated towel rail plus some complimentary toiletries. On closer inspection however, the cleanliness wasn't up to my standards (I am a professional housekeeper) so things stood out at me, mainly mould in several areas of the kitchen, cobwebs in corners and curtains requiring hanging correctly in the lounge. Empty wine bottles had been left in bedside and kitchen drawers too, plus faulty dripping taps left watermarks on the sink and bathtub. These had been there a while, so to me, it had not been checked prior to guests arriving. To be fair, it looked cosy, but more attention needs to be paid. Outside, the patio overlooking the tennis court, once maybe a beautiful area, is now quite unkempt, a wooden gate hangs off its hinges and there is a broken security light. The whole outdoor space needs a complete overhaul to make it look welcoming because at the minute it's sadly just not, it's dark and neglected. Anyway... we set off enjoying our long weekend but accidentally set the fire alarm off boiling potatoes for our evening meal. We had no phone signal so couldn't contact the owner, however, it turns out they live in the adjoining property to ours as the lady owner came out. She knew where the fire panel was but did not know how to turn the alarm off or even where the panel key was kept. She stated that the noise was making her stressed - we were all stressed, soaked by the rain as the siren was too much for our dog to handle, and a bit spooked by how pitch black it was as there was no exterior courtyard lighting and the main house was deserted. Events then turned more bizarre as the owner practically then begged for alcohol from my partner to help her cope with the noise!! We did give her a nip of our brandy but then she asked if we had any lager or wine!, even suggesting we drive out to get her some!! Honest to God! Who does that?? Anyway, she said she'd wait by the phone, presumably to hear from her husband owner but didn't come back out. Meanwhile with the siren still sounding, surely heard by everybody and everything, we decided, effectively left alone, that we had no choice but to take another look at the fire panel ourselves, located in a pitch black unlocked entrance at the far end of the main house, by pure luck found the key above it and reset the system. Relief!! I knocked on her door to tell her we'd managed to reset it, she said thankyou smoking a cigarette but didn't seem too concerned that her customer's sorted out and got access to her fire system, just more glad the noise had stopped. We though, were left rather staggered. I've read other reviews (on our return stupidly) about guests being burgled by the owners, because of an adjoining interior door. Now we very thankfully didnt experience any theft, but just knowing there was this door made me uncomfortable and didnt aid my sleep, although on owners return home our sizeable dog let everyone know he was there, so all good. Would we return? Not at this point, but if serious changes are made, then it would truly be so lovely. Oh. And the kitchen needs a few good knives to make life easier! Out of 10, we give it 4.

I am a cottage owner advertising with welcome cottages. Further to my previous review complaining of the poor service from this company, nothing has changed, my entry on partner sites is still incorrect and shows my cottage is not available to book for 2019/20 and I haven’t received any bookings for 2019. I first told them of the problem on March 6 and, in spite of many apologies from them and assurances that everything possible is being done to correct it, nothing has happened. I have therefore cancelled my advert with them as I cannot put up with this any longer. I have always used BOOKING.COM and HOMEAWAY and what a difference - you actually speak to someone who can and wants to help you and things are done very quickly and they get you enquiries and bookings. I would advise any owner thinking of joining this group of companies (Awaze) to be very careful and use Booking.com or HomeAway instead.

Booked a cottage (dump) in wales for school holidays, took two 13 year old boys and dogs, arrived on the Tuesday, the cottage was more akin to a student house, dirty with unkept garden to the rear, we had a clean when we arrived then went out for the day, arrived back to the dump early evening, tried to cook but the oven just smoked, we had to open all the windows to breathe, a smoke detector was directly above the cooker, that screamed at us for an hour, so we decided to shower and eat out, the shower did not work, contacted the owner who said have a bath instead! Two adults and two children waiting for water to heat for 4 baths, took 3 hours just to get clean, cut a long story short we had 1 bath each in 3 days then decided to abandon the holiday and leave for home just to get clean, welcome cottages were very unwelcome in their handling of the matter, no apology or refund for a holiday from hell in a cottage from hell!

Booked a cottage through them several months in advance. Received confirmation emails both at the time of booking and a few days before it was due to start. Called the owner to arrange key collect, the day before setting off. She was surpised because she had cancelled the booking several weeks earlier (apparently she had cancelled all bookings with Welcome Cottages because of their poor customer service; I see why). I contacted Welcome Cottages who blamed it on short notice from the owner. When I told the owner this she was able to provide email evidence that they had known for weeks and hadn't bothered to tell me. As a result I was left with a very stressful afternoon desperately trying to find an alternative with just a few hours to go. I failed to do so and so all our annual leave etc has been wasted, as had 'special' food bought for the time away plus booked day trips etc. It was an absolute farce of a booking and such a waste of money and time.

A review of Welcome Cottages AND Rose Barn, Anderby, Skegness. Rose Barn is one of 3 cottages at Priory Farm, Sea Road, Anderby, Skegness. You will find information on this cottage on Welcome Cottages and Cottages.com. Firstly, let me say that the owners are very nice. However, I wouldn't be doing any future guests a favour by not explaining the issues we had this with cottage.. ​ DIRTY - On arrival at Rose Barn on Saturday the 21st; and after a 10 hour overnight journey from our first holiday week in the Highlands - it was immediately apparent that the property had not been cleaned properly. It was filthy! There were stains on the walls/skirting boards and the tiles in the bathroom were really grotty, the back in & around the toilet was filthy with old stains, the dining table was sticky, there were smears of what I hope was chocolate on the tv cabinet and my partner had to wipe what looked like bogey's off the back of the dining chairs. Tiles in the kitchen had sauce stains on them, the kettle had not been descaled in I don't know how long (we did this ourselves) and the inside windows were dirty. We had travelled overnight for over 10 hours and parked at a nearby supermarket until the arrival time of 4pm, so were devastated and shocked at the state of the cottage. ​ ​ I went straight to the owners house (on site) and complained and he came to take a look. He seemed very apologetic and offered to clean the property himself. He said he suspected the cleaner had just got too tired by the time she/he got to cleaning our property last, (there are 3 cottages on site) due to the heat! That's all well and good but we paid over £700 for this cottage and he, being the owner, should have inspected the property prior to our arrival, which he evidently did not. As for stating the cleaner got too tired, I can assure you that these stains do not just appear over one week, they clearly have accumulated over a period of time during which 'proper' cleaning has not taken place.​ ​ WiFi - Now, in the description of this cottage, it states that WiFi is available. It is not available at all. Not ONCE during our entire stay did we manage to connect to the WiFi. It was non-existent. Again, another visit to the owner, to be told that as the cottage was so 'rural,' the WiFi is intermittent. Intermittent it was not. It was, as I have already stated, non-existent! If we had known this prior to booking, we would have not booked at all! We had 2 teenage sons with us & I run a business that relies on WiFi connection. Yes, I was on holiday but I still have to deal with enquiries and emails and I was not able to do so. Therefore, I have lost sales over the time spent here. And just to point out again, that we had spent one week prior to this cottage in the HIGHLANDS, in the Wee Hoose (cottages.com.) No problems with the WiFi there...in the HIGHLANDS!!​ ​ LAUNDRY - In the description, it states there is a shared laundry room, between the 3 cottages. Great. Only the 'laundry room' is actually attached to the owners house and so you feel very reluctant to use it. Well I needed to use it and so asked the owner if we could. Of course, it was fine, but he offered to actually put our washing in to the machine as it was already in use! Sorry, but dirty personal laundry should be handled by yourself. I found this very weird indeed and made my partner go and put our washing in himself. We used the laundry facilities twice and, on the second occasion I went back to retrieve the washing, only to find the 'shared laundry room' locked! I was then forced to knock the owners door once again. He just said he was going to bring it back to me once done! This is clearly not a 'shared laundry room' at all. I prefer to handle all aspects of my washing in a 'shared laundry room' myself!​ ​ DOGS - We do not leave our dogs unattended in a holiday cottage without good reason. After all, it's their holiday too. And we were very aware that there were 3 cottages on site. However, it was extremely hot this past week. Because of this, we were limited to staying in during the day and taking the dogs out in the evening, once it had cooled down. This was not a problem but It did mean that our 2 teenage sons were very bored (and no WiFi remember!) As the days went by, we did notice that next door, (the guests in Clematis Cottage,) were out most days, and leaving their dogs in the cottage. We know this as we heard them barking when our dogs were out in the garden!​ ​ On Weds morning we decided to go for breakfast in a café 1.5 miles away. We did think about taking the dogs but our elderly Yorkie, who is 14, was beginning to get stressed with the heat. We knew we would not be long and as the 2 dogs next door were being left day after day, we thought a short period of time would be fine. ​ ​ We were gone approx. 1.5 hours. On our return a note was pushed through our door asking us not to leave the dogs unattended in the property! Apparently, they barked constantly the entire time. We were of course very apologetic about this and wrote a note back to the owners apologising, but also pointing out that the dogs next door were also left and that we could hear them barking! The next morning (Thurs morning) there was a tap on the door and the owner just said dogs were not allowed to stay in properties unattended, due to insurance/fire reasons. Okay, fine. But why was it one rule for us and another for everyone else? This has seriously angered me as I can absolutely assure you that we left them for no longer than 1.5 hours! And, to add insult to injury, one of the cottages was playing very loud music late in to the night! ​ ​ At this point in our holiday we felt we had had enough and no longer felt welcome. We left the cottage on Thursday the 26th July - 2 days earlier before our holiday ended. It has really upset us all, that we had such a horrible end to our holiday as our first week had been so good. ​ ​ This cottage was not even our initial choice. We had booked a cottage on the Scottish borders for our 2nd week, after doing a week in the Highlands at the Wee Hoose. Unfortunately, we were contacted by cottages.com a few weeks prior to our holiday informing us that the swimming pool at our 2nd cottage was out of action. At such short notice they struggled to find anything suitable as we wanted either a pool or hot tub. This was literally the only cottage left that they could find. We even had to pay another £50 more for it!​ ​ My family have enjoyed cottage holidays for over 10 years with this company and all it's affiliated partners. Only once have we been let down and now this is the 2nd time. We feel badly let down this time. After putting in a complaint with Welcome cottages they had the cheek to offer us £50 in compensation! They are FALSELY advertising this cottage as having WiFi. It really DOES not. I realise it does not bother some people but I would have never booked this cottage if there was no WiFi. There are laws regarding false advertising and I have pointed this out to Welcome Cottages. To date, the cottage is STILL being advertised as having WiFi! ​ ​ Welcome Cottages have ignored my last email and I am now obtaining a refund through my credit card. A tip for those larger purchases...always pay on a credit card if possible. There is a 'section 75' law whereby those who use credit cards to pay can claim their money back if the purchase is not as described or you have any problems. ​

what a horrible experience. I had to change the dates and I was charged, I have then had to cancel giving 5 months notice and again I am being charged or told I can transfer for a further cost! when I have said I am not paying any further monies I have been told I will be sent a letter chasing me for the money. they can resell this holiday and will not lose out on any money! con artist

I decided to book a February half term holiday this year through Welcome Cottages as I was was looking to book a family holiday with our dog. Their website showed a suitable dog friendly cottage, and even better if we booked straight away we would get a saving off the normal price and only have to pay £274 which included their £39 booking/admin fee, so we duly booked. After we had booked, we received confirmation and a breakdown of fees as follows, holiday home £210, Pet £25, Booking/admin fee £39 Total £274...No probs happy to pay them commission of £39, as we thought the holiday had already been discounted. Imagine our total surprise when we found out during our holiday that if we had booked direct with the owner the whole holiday would have only cost us £200. As I said before we have no issue paying the booking/admin fee of £39 as this was stated in the booking. So as far as we could see the cost should have been a total of £239, however, welcome cottages charged us £274 and said this was actually discounted from the normal rate. So we had been charged an extra £35 on top of the booking fee for the priveledge of booking early, not exactly a discount is it lol. It is extremely dishonest for companies like this to hide charges in this way, they added an extra £10 to the actual owners direct rate of £200, and not only that they charged us an extra £25 for our dog on top of this when the owner does not charge for pets, so to clarify, the same holiday, direct with the owner, £200, but if booked with Welcome cottages it cost £274, and this was supposed to be discounted and their advert only implied they were taking £39 extra for the booking.. I duly contacted Welcome cottages about my concerns and a day later they sent an email asking for a contact number so they could contact me to discuss my concerns, that was some 5 days ago and I have heard nothing back from them. If they actually take the time to read this review I would like them to refund me the hidden charges of £35 ASAP and explain on here for everyone to see how they justify these extra charges..I for one will never book another holiday through them and urge anyone reading this review to consider likewise, maybe if their revenue is affected they will start to treat their customers with respect and offer an open and transparent service.