Welcome CottagesReviews of welcomecottages.com

Easy booking and good owners

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.

Booking process was pretty simple, and the pet friendly search was good. However the description of the cottage wasn't exactly accurate. Linked rooms were mentioned between two twins; it didn't mention anywhere that one of the ground floor doubles could only be accessed through another double room unless you went outside. It also didn't mentioned that one of the twins could only be accessed either through the single on one side, or through the other twin on the other side. This is a pretty important factor when considering who might be staying there! We knew the decor of the place was old fashioned from the pictures, but at the price paid we had no idea quite how old fashioned it was. Bathrooms were not only unclean but out of the 70's. The rest of the house was pretty shabby too. I really feel like the price we paid was very high for the standard of property we got. There was literally no linens except bedding. No soap, no towels etc. Again, at the price, I would expect such basics to have been provided. I feel really disappointed. I think the company should be visiting more of their properties in person and resolving such obvious issues before they support the advertising of them.

I contacted Welcome cottages to ask about refund conditions when an unforeseen circumstance made it impossible to go away. This was not covered by travel insurance so it was at huge cost to me. I had 2/3 days from contacting them before I lapsed into an even greater loss. In this time I asked around to see if anyone else would like to go. No-one did so I called on the Friday night deadline just after 8pm to cancel. According to their website their call centre is open until 9pm on a Friday night. I tried various numbers assigned to the company and got the same dead end each time saying that the call centre would open the next morning at 9am. I immediately emailed to make sure I have evidence of trying to contact them before the deadline. The next morning I called and explained to the member of staff. I was told that I'd missed the deadline so I could no longer claim 25% refund. I had to get considerably annoyed in order for them to look into my email. Eventually the email was confirmed and it was agreed I was entitled to a 25% refund. The member of staff said their emails didn't work at the weekend and I would therefore have to wait until Monday for confirmation of cancellation. Monday came and went. I had no email. I emailed after to ask what was happening. I was replied to. the next day I had a 22.5% refund in my account. They add in an extra rip-off charge by making the booking fee non-refundable. The cancellation process most certainly cannot be described as "stress-free."

Booked a holiday cottage for 4 nights in June through welcome cottages. Found welcome cottages website fairly simple to use and particularly liked their pet friendly search feature. Booking was simple with confirmation and details all emailed in advance. Like the fact a few days before the trip we had an email suggesting things like cancel your newspaper deliveries. The cottage was as stated on the description, very nice, great facilities and equipment. Cottage owner was pleasant, introduced himself and explained a few things then kept out of the way. Complimentary bottle of wine, milk, tea, coffee and sugar on arrival. I tend to have quite high standards, especially being internet savvy and working for a web company myself. Found the website very good and the cottage meeting expectations. Very impressed.