Cottages4you Reviews

Dojones's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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We went to Boot Cottage in Whittington near Oswestry, with Cottages4you from 13th to 16th November 2009

The first thing we found was that the living room was lit by a solitary 40-watt light bulb. There are two wall lights in the living room each with two bulbs but three of these had blown.

The cottage sleeps eight but there were only four beakers (no cups and saucers) one of which was chipped and all a bit grubby.

I telephoned the owners and asked about the cups, the response was "oh, there should be eight; the last people must have broken them". I asked where spare light bulbs might be and was promised they would drop cups and spare bulbs off first thing Saturday morning. When, by 4:00pm Saturday afternoon neither the cups nor bulbs had arrived, we drove to Oswestry and bought our own.

At approx 6:00pm Saturday, a man knocked the door and handed over two plastic bags, one with beakers one with bulbs, which he claimed he had delivered the previous night and left, hidden under a box, (!) by the side door though he had not bothered to knock and tell us they were there.

The property "boasts" a games room. This is slightly misleading as it consists of a (multifunction) pool table (the floor being uneven the balls take on a life of their own and roll at will) with one full size and one half-size cue, a dartboard and various broken children's toys.

The full size cue can only be used at one end of the table, the opposite end the cue catches on the window blinds and the room is too narrow for the cue to be used along the sides of the table.

The living room fireplace can only be described as filthy, filled with various bits of old un-associated junk (why would one have a blowlamp in a fireplace?) and has clearly not been cleaned in months.

The dishwasher does not work, but leaves dishes dirty and dishwasher tablets a soggy gooey mess in the bottom.

In the garden, there are two wheelie bins, both of which were absolutely overflowing with bursting bin bags, so bad we took our rubbish home with us.

There was old food left in the fridge and in one of the kitchen cupboards, proving, along with the missing cups and light bulbs, that the place had not been cleaned prior to our visit and, probably worst of all, a used tissue on the floor next to the bed. I am avoiding thinking what the tissue might have been used for.

I could go on about broken wardrobes and showers that don't work properly but just writing about it is bringing the whole dreadful experience back to me and I don't to think about it too much.

I would have written all of this on the Cottages4you review sheet, but they don't provide one. I wonder why?

On returning home I emailed: pointing out that their web site doesn't appear to offer any method of commenting on a cottages4you holiday, that I would welcome the opportunity of providing some feedback on my recent experience and asked how the star rating was arrived at. Boot Cottage is four stars.

They responded saying I should shortly receive an e-questionnaire to complete, alternatively just email my comments to them and they would forward them on to the relevant dept. Ignoring completely the question about Star Rating. 24th November and the e-questionnaire has still not arrived so I am sharing my review with the world.

As a postscript, elsewhere I've found a 'four key' rating for Boot Cottage which apparently means: a welcoming, relaxing property with a high standard of quality, and attention to detail, throughout. Wow!

Guest's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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For many years we went to the same Welsh cottage through Country Cottages, but despite excellent owners we stopped because noise from passing coaches/traffic and a downright nasty neighbouring farmer forced us out. The site is still being 'sold'in 2009 as adjoining'quiet country road'' .
As a change we went to a well specified set of Barn cottages with interior swimming pool. It was filthy ,previous guests (over several years )had commented on 'mice droppings ', poor quality furniture (ie broke ...

adale's review has yet to be rated - Be the first!
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We have used Cottages 4 You on five separate occasions and have found the descriptions of properties to be generally accurate.
However careful study has to be made of the EXACT requirements of the individual, as we have found that some descriptions leave un-wanted detail out, i.e. noisy roads close to cottage, farm buildings and machinery cropped out of photos.

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Cottages4you are not expensive but poor value for money
Translations when reading descriptions
secluded = horrendous by pass traffic noise
well equiped = the cheapest nastiest fittings
full linen provided = no towels or blankets

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Good points, Don't have to go again. Brochure description needs to be specific. i.e. private swimming pool - should read - pool is in owners garden and is accessed through their garden. Owners dog roams free - keep the door closed during your occupation of the cottage. However, Provence is lovely.

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A lot of holiday cottages and villas on offer with Cottages4you www.cottages4you.co.uk. Helpfull staff on the phone. Overall a good service