Southwest Holiday Cottages - www.southwestholidaycottages.com

The person we dealt with let us think that the holiday was cancelled due to coronavirus. He kept our deposit, told the cottage owners he had refunded it and told us the owner had kept it. We were due to go in late april, and the lockdown had already started, yet he claimed we had cancelled. We are now out if pocket. Dreadful outfit, give them a wide birth.

It is when things don’t go to plan that you see the true colours of a company. Sadly this was our experience. We booked a property from Southwest Holiday Cottages in March 2017 ready for the October half-term. Two weeks before our departure date we called to pay the balance of the holiday and were told that the property had burned down earlier in the year. The company admitted that they had neglected to inform us and offered us the deposit back.

When we pointed out that this was very poor customer service in response to their mistake the owner became dismissive. We needed 6 beds and wifi as my 17 yr old daughter would be studying for university entrance exams that week. As a token effort the manager offered a property without wifi and suggested she use the wifi in the local pub. We suggested that Southwest Holiday Cottages might like to find an equivalent let for us and pay any difference between what we would have paid and the actual cost. The manager said “It’s not my problem.” So two weeks before half term we were left without a holiday.

Our sense was that this is a company that cares little about its customers. A final insight for anyone unfortunate enough to have a problem with them…the manager sometimes gives a different name when dealing on the phone (especially if he doesn’t like the direction of the conversation). We will never be using them again.

My family and I use Southwest Holiday Cottages every year to book our holidays. We've been to 4 different properties now in Cornwall and we always have a great time. There are some really affordable prices for cottages and we always experience good customer service from the agency. They are quick to respond and friendly. Would recommend.

I booked a small holiday cottage in cornwall coded Bude 44 for 2 people on their site. Really cheap but good quality accommodation. Lots of good bargains on the site although some expensive cottages as well. Only bad point is there were other cottages on the farm but this didnt matter too much.