cornwallscottages.co.uk can (and did) cancel a booking

We made a booking with cornwallscottages.co.uk for "Rosevean" cottage near Bodmin, for 12 - 17 July 2016, at a price of £669.94. Cornwalls Cottages accepted the booking, and we paid the full amount to Cornwalls Cottages, who then sent us their booking confirmation.

Just six days before we were due to stay at the cottage, Cornwalls Cottages cancelled the booking. They were not willing or able to provide other similar accommodation at a similar price. They did, however, offer us two other properties priced at £1,322.30 and £1,469.30 respectively - approximately twice the price of the original booking!

The original reason given for the cancellation was that a cleaner could not be arranged for our start date. We told them that we could be flexible with our start date. The story now changed, and we were told that the cottage was now not available for the whole week that we had booked for.

We asked Cornwalls Cottages why the cottage was now unavailable. A supervisor at Cornwalls Cottages explained that the owner of the cottage had made the cottage unavailable because (in his words) the owner was stupid, and (again in his words) that some of the owners they deal with do stupid things.

This cancellation caused us great inconvenience, and we had to spend considerable time and extra expense to find alternative, last minute accommodation and to change train tickets. The supervisor at Cornwalls Cottages told us that, as per their terms and conditions, Cornwalls Cottages act only as an agency, and that our contract was actually with the cottage owner, and not with Cornwalls Cottages. He said that Cornwalls Cottages had no liability to us.

So beware when booking with cornwallscottages.co.uk, because they can (and did) cancel a booking at short notice.