Cancelled family holiday with 2 days notice!!!
The Cornish Holiday Company cancelled our family holiday with less than 50 hours’ notice and left us with nothing.
I had booked Polmear Farm House for nine people plus our dog for seven nights. On Thursday 6 August at 14:13 I received a call from Emma at The Cornish Holiday Company informing me the booking was cancelled. We were due to arrive at 16:00 on Saturday 8 August — less than 50 hours later.
No personal responsibility was accepted. Emma simply blamed “a mistake from the third party who runs the booking system” and told me “I’m just as angry about this as you are.” That claim rang completely hollow. She said she had searched for alternative accommodation in Cornwall but, because of the late notice and it being one of the busiest weeks of the year, nothing suitable could be found. When I asked whether they would compensate us for the train tickets we had already bought from London to Cornwall, the answer was a flat no.
The only thing they did promptly was refund the accommodation cost.
This was not a casual break. My father is suffering from dementia. We had planned this holiday as a precious family gathering — very possibly the last chance for all of us, including his grandchildren, to spend proper time together in one place. The Cornish Holiday Company took that opportunity away from us with less than 50 hours’ notice, offered no alternative, refused to cover our non-refundable travel costs, and left my family devastated. My children’s summer holiday with their grandparents has been ruined. The distress this has caused, particularly given my father’s condition, is immense.
I will never book with The Cornish Holiday Company again, and I would strongly advise others to think very carefully before trusting them with something as important as a family holiday - obviously, this is a review of my personal experience of the Cornish Holiday Company, and not of Polmear Farm House, which I have not visited!
I have added this review to TrustPilot only after reading a response from them on Google reviews. They seem to feel that because I made a last minute booking that I was less affected. (You can read their response to me on google reviews). I would also urge you to consider their response to me - particularly their last sentence. In their words, after cancelling my family holiday with <50 hours notice they “acted immediately, searching not only our own portfolio but also other local holiday companies' websites in an effort to find suitable alternative accommodation. This was not something I was obliged to do.” - I’m speechless!