English Country Cottages

I have spent the last month trying to contact this company - over 4 hours on telephone calls which were never answered, 4 emails which were automatically responded to saying they would reply within 48 hours at the most and finally a letter to Vacation Rentals head office, again no response. Yet today I get an email asking for the balance of my booking payment with the option to cancel online - something not offered previously! Basically they are demanding payment 3 months in advance for the larger properties whilst the smaller ones do not have to pay until 3 weeks before. In other words they are collecting large sums of money for properties it is likely will have to be cancelled due to the Covid 19 restrictions and given the difficulty in contacting them so far, no doubt it would take forever to get the money back. I will never use this company again and I will certainly never recommend them. Do not trust them!

Totally and utterly rubbish company. They don't reply to emails or phone calls. They cancelled my booking - I paid a deposit months ago - because I didn't pay the balance within five days of them requesting it (over 2 months before the vacation date) despite the fact I had sent them an email query which I wanted answering before I paid the balance. I have emailed them three times since and tried calling every day, often being on hold for 40+ minutes, with no response. They pocketed my £25 booking fee. Utter crooks.

Having tried for the past four days to contact the company by phone to arrange alternative dates for a property we want to visit next year, we decided to drive over to the office in Earby this morning. The website states that it's open until 6pm, and the phone line says how very busy they all are.

It's closed, and appears to have been for a considerable time.

Why can't they just state that on the website and on the voice message?

Never use this company. Today with 1.5 hours notice before leaving for a cottage they cancelled it! We had hired a car for the journey, two families with young children all massively let down. My wife spent ages on hold and in her words tonight feels “broken”. I think its a diabolical thing to do, ruin a family holiday after so many lock downs and with everyone looking forward to it. Never us this company what a disgrace! I will be seeking damages….you have done this to a person that will not give up until you put this right.

Returned funds in full when Landlord double booked. We appreciate that protection which may not have happened if we had booked direct.

Don’t book with this company. I lost my deposit as the reminders for paying balance went to my junk & came from peculiar e mail addresses. The minute I got notice I rang and tried to reinstate booking ( it was for a wedding party so large property) they told me it had gone, they were completely unhelpful. I have never experienced such poor service form a holiday company & think they are dodgy.

I would never use this organization again. It takes at least 30 minutes to reach any customer service, if you are lucky. They obviously have a lot of booking issues as after finding a very special house we had booked over a year previously had been double booked we were told they have a dedicated Relocation Team to sort these problems out. Not what you want to hear just a week away from a very special family birthday. A lot of stress and upset resulted. Don't use them.

Shame there isn't a zero star option to select. Never received confirmation of the insurance cover for our booking. Impossible to contact by telephone or email. Thank goodness we didn't have an emergency whilst away. Totally unacceptable. Avoid.