ukcaravans4hire Reviews 5,890

1 STAR REVIEW
PURELY SO I CAN WARN PEOPLE
BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY
NO COMPASSION
NO INTEREST IN THE SITUATION
STANDARD ANSWER "NOTHING I CAN DO"
DISGRACEFUL ATTITUDE

We booked a caravan through UKCaravans4Hire (sister company to Sykes Holiday Cottages) at Golden Palm Resort.

Heres our review of the entire experience:

If you want a confirmed holiday cancelled on the day of arrival, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

If you want to spend 2–3 hours on the phone on Good Friday trying to resolve a problem you didn’t cause, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

If you want “alternative accommodation” suggested two hours away from the location you originally booked, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire..

If you want to be told about several other local options but then informed that none of the owners can be contacted to confirm the booking, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

If you want to be told the team is helping find a solution but then discover the office closes at 1pm, leaving you unable to continue resolving the issue, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

If you want to spend the rest of the day calling other parks yourself because everything is fully booked over the bank holiday weekend, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

If you want to travel around 200 miles for a holiday that ultimately never happens, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

And if you want the only compensation offered for this situation to be 20%, choose Sykes Holiday Cottages / UKCaravans4Hire.

In our case the result was a cancelled holiday, wasted travel, and no accommodation available anywhere due to the Easter bank holiday weekend.

A confirmed booking should mean something. Unfortunately, that was not our experience here. If I could, this would be a zero star review.

** Edit following UKCaravans4Hire response**

Whether the caravan was sold or not, is irrelevant. Booking and paying 6 weeks in advance should have flagged somewhere with someone that the caravan was unavailable. It clearly didn’t. We even contacted 36 hours before check-in for key collection details, and it still didnt flag!

UKCaravans4Hire were responsible for their own handling of the situation, and to support and resolve the issue for their customer. Instead, they went home at 1pm and left us for with no choice but to drive 3 hours home at 8pm on Good Friday night with two children.

Four days later… and we had to chase them for a refund!

The lack of compassion for the situation by the customer support team is truly astounding.

I had a problem with my booking but it got sorted straight away thanks.

Suspicious they are rated much better on here than Google.

Cancelled out trip 3 weeks before we were meant to go. We had booked a 3 bed caravan ar a specific site where the rest of our family were staying, for the Easter weekend. They could not find us an alternative caravan so we were forced to book elsewhere for £100 more than we originally paid. I would have expected this cost to be covered since it was the fault of ukcaravans but no. This was an incredibly stressful situation and cost us extra money we were due to use on our trip away. Do not book with them!

Awful stressful experience with uk caravans4hire/ sykes cottages who bought them out. I was given confirmation on two caravans on the same site and my money was taken. Days later an owner of one of the caravans contacted me directly to apologise that she didn't know why I was given a confirmation as her caravan wasn't available after being on hold with sykes for 40 minutes then another 60 minutes I was offered to move into another available caravan it was over £100 more expensive and no compensation offered but I accepted as really want this break away with my children and grandchildren that I don't get to see enough. Then I contact to ask how I can get hold of the owners to get a code so I can pre book leisure passes to be put through to someone else who started the conversation with I apologise but your caravan has been cancelled I said no no that's been sorted she said no the other caravan has been cancelled I couldn't believe this she said she would get back to me with other options or to refund me.After not hearing anything for 4 plus hours I phoned back waited another 30 minutes on hold to be told there are four other available caravans I could choose from I expressed my surprise as said I had looked and not found another available caravan on the same site for the dates needed he said yes there's 4 I'll send them by email you can look at them at your leisure choose one and phone us back to rebook. I looked and yes 10 minutes later he had emailed me as promised with 4 caravans on completely different sites no use to me whats so ever. I phoned back again another 20 minutes plus wait I requested a refund for both caravans as I could not use either as one is no good to me and they are not offering the service I paid for they stated they could only refund me for the one cancelled and couldn't for the live booking as not their fault I at this time became quite upset and frustrated and asked to speak to a manager as it is their fault if they have bought out a company they are responsible for its service and it is their fault that they are taking peoples money and giving confirmations when the product is not available. I need a refund to be able to afford to book something else so can not wait a long time being messed around. I was told no managers were available and they would email a manager and get them to call me back. I stated she needed to ensure they call me back as have already not been called back when promised. I have now recieved a refund following several phone calls. If you book with them be aware there maybe some issues so have other options available to avoid stress.

Unfortunately the caravan owner cancelled last minute. The team called me and explained the situation and sent me a list of alternative caravans within 5 minutes. When I called to rebook, they offered me a significant discount (as the new place was more expensive) and sorted it all out within a few minutes. Very grateful for their swift response, it took the stress out of the situation and I can now just look forward to my holiday.

I would not use this Company!! I made a booking for my elderly parents in February and are due to arrive today. I called to check where we collect the keys and was told our booking had been cancelled by the owners. How are we just finding that out now. This company should not just be taking peoples money and not checking the bookings are going ahead.
Yes, I was offered alternative accommodation on the same park which will cost me a further £36.99. Who is to say that would be honoured as they would be arriving today and if you are not able to confirm a booking in February how can you confirm a booking for arrival on the same day. Not good enough!! Shame on you!!

Just had my booking cancelled with no reason except it was at the property owners request.
No automatic refund - had to call customer services, wait on hold for 10 minutes just to get my money back.
BE WARNED they are not bothered about the guests only the owners.

New
Since its take over its an absolute mess, the booking system, the customer service and finally the astronomical charges they use. I would avoid using this platform 1. For advertising your van / lodge and 2. Avoid booking a van or lodge …More

If I could rate zero I would. Absolutely terrible communication, terrible service and worst company I’ve ever dealt with. They cancelled my holiday because they told me they could get more money putting it back on their website at a more expensive price, which they did half an hour after cancelling my holiday.

Nice caravan, quiet site , dog friendly 👌

Had booked a Holiday with ukcaravans4hire and put down a large deposit but now have been left a message saying the caravan is no longer available. I have contacted the owner directly and no booking was ever made. I have tried to contact them many times over the last few day by phone and email with no joy so no option now but to look into legal advice.

Since sykes ctges took over everything's gone down hill,hard to understand there website,got no bookings till June last year which I was surprised at as I was right on front overlooking sea and my prices were very cheap,then realised they'd greyed out my calendar,if I tried to put a booking in Mon to Fri it wouldn't let me book next person in until the next day,such a stressful time,then they charge 10% that's more than an estate agent charges to look after a tenanted property just pure greed that 10% was the only money I made after other bills were paid,had no choice but to sell it,since covid everyone's gone greedy

great staff and great vacation they make you feel just like your home Thank you

Brilliant experience, great caravan and helpful responsive owners. Will definitely use again for a holiday

Holiday booked in a pet friendly caravan. Gets a whats app from owner who advises I have to hide my dogs in the car. It I cancel I'm charged £103 cancellation fee this is within and hour of booking a holiday in May What kind of scam is this? I've been caravaning for years and never had such issues. Its pet friendly or it isn't. Careful they will want you to hide your kids next. This was booked on caravans for hire and they want to charge the fee.

Terrible customer service ever since Sykes Cottages took over

They have lost hundreds of listings ever since the take over around October last year

They treat owners with complete disrespect, the customer service is appalling, you have no control over your bookings now like on the previous system, nothing works, they don’t respond to messages, don’t return phone calls and taken control of pricing.

No wonder they have lost a significant number of caravan listings

DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

I’m clearly not alone, just read some of the other owners reviews, and it’s all since Sykes took over! Shocking company, shocking service, shocking system.

I’ve removed all my listing. Use Airbnb instead, much better customer service, full control and they actually reply to messages!

Booked a van on the website at the weekend at the agreed price and 2 days later wanting to increase the price by £100……possibly be the last van I book using these.

After reading other owners reviews!!
Its horrendous now Sykes Cottages have taken over,
I am a Caravan Owner and rented succesfully through ukcaravans4hire with no issues at all but now .Sykes cottages have now taken over everything has gone down hill drastically. Towards the back end of 2025 they changed the ukcaravans4hire website and took complete control of our pricing. Before we as owners set the price we wanted per break/ getaway, now Skyes set this and we have no control of any bookings and pricing,this has gone extremely TOO CHEAP and coincidently since this change I have had to personally block book our Van! OR CANCEL BOOKINGS !!

SYKES THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE BELOW

For 2 month we worked with the PRICING SPECIALIST TEAM but to no avail! We sent you our day/monthly pricing for the year but you changed them sometimes halving the cost by 50%..The team was helpful and lovely. Personally i think its the system at fault!
when our van indicated available, you booked it at your own pricing.
We could cancel at a cost of £75? ..

Booked a caravan at sandy bay only for it to be cancelled a few weeks later.We have asked for our deposit back a number of times but have had no response from them and no refund of our deposit.We are in the process of taking out a county court judgement against them.Stay well away from them,We are not the only ones in this position,we will update the situation as the court action starts.We will also do reviews on any review sites we can find until we get our money back.