Character Cottages Reviews 

I cannot backup all the negative comments (and I am a real customer!). I got very quick responses to my questions and emails. They were very helpful In finding a solution when I had to adjust my booking due to Covid. When the first solution that they offered wasn’t suitable for me they quickly offered me on that suited better. Did not receive my refund, but totally trust that it will arrive. Certainly will book with them in the future

We had booked a lovely cottage for September, unfortunately Covid left us unable to travel from the US to England. Charter Cottages was able to rebook the cottage and return our deposit. We are looking forward to rebooking next year.

We live in Spain and we rented a cottage last January for October 2020. It has been impossible for us to travel to UK since our flights from our city were cancelled and besides there was quarantine; impossible to travel. We were refunded in July when we had to make the big payment and after some weeks since the cottage has been used by other local people Character Cottages has refunded us the deposit we "had lost" in January. Thank you. Honest company. Just looking foward to travelling as soon as possible to UK. Hope this pandemic ends the sooner the better for the health of people and economy recover.

Good customer service - we unfortunately weren't able to make our visit to our intended cottage as we recently entered Tier 3. However Character Cottages refunded our money so we could rebook at a later date, despite it being late notice prior to our booked arrival date.

Thank you to the team for all of your help snd assistance this past week. We made a hassle free booking for ‘little culver’ and were so looking forward to getting away for a week with our children after working as key workers throughout this pandemic. However, we were just getting packed ready to travel that afternoon, when we received a text from school advising our son needed to self isolate for two weeks having been in contact with a positive pupil! To say we were devastated was an understatement.
Character cottages have been wonderful in attempting to rearrange for us, however being key workers we can only be guaranteed when we can next have time off out of school time. Thankfully the cottage owner has been amazing and offered us a full refund. We are extremely thankful and will hopefully get to the Cotswolds another time.
Thank you character cottages for your help and understanding, it is very much appreciated.

Thanks to Cassie for her friendliness, understanding, and "no fuss" refund of deposit, due to the Covid stuation. It restored my faith in human nature and professionalsm. Will certainly be back when it is safer for me to travel to the UK

We booked a property for May this year but due to Covid it was cancelled. We were offered a refund or the option to carry it forward to next year which we did.
Unfortunately due to further problems we have had to cancel completely and had no problems whatsoever in being offered a full refund.
Thank you Cassie for sorting this so promptly. We will certainly book through them again as and when things change.

We booked a week’s break via Character Cottages at Knoll Cottage for October half term and were really looking forward to the break away. The booking arrangements were completed with ease and we were kept well informed throughout. We received all arrival information from Character Cottages in a timely manner, but unfortunately this was at the same time as severe lockdowns were imposed by the government. We explained the situation to Character Cottages, who understood our dilemma and we received a full refund immediately.
Thank you to Leona and Cassie for their very prompt attention, we were very impressed. We have booked with Character Cottages before and will certainly book with them again. Very efficient customer service.
Thank you
Peter Haggart

Customer Review
Mount View, Childswickham
Our family stayed at Mount View from the 21/08/20 - 24/08/20. When booking our stay we were extremely cautious due to the current COVID 19 situation as two members of our party were vulnerable, age 78 and 79 years. We were reassured by Character Cottages’ Covid 19 Policy which stated that a deep clean would be carried out on the property. On arrival at the property however we were overwhelmed by a strong pungent smell which we would most liken to a sewerage smell. On initial walk around the property we noted numerous issues and could only describe the property as dirty, it was obvious that a deep clean had NOT been undertaken.
Issues included:
• Extremely unclean high touch points (e.g. finger marks all over fridge door)
• Stained bedding.
• Dirty/used towel left in drawer.
• Food residue in dishwasher.
• Food left in cupboards from previous guests
• Food spillages on shelving in kitchen cupboards.
• Cockroach infestation.
• Dust/cobwebs in all rooms.
• Dead flies on carpets
We believe the property to be COVID 19 unsafe and due to this our family were placed at risk.
Character Cottages were not available on contacting Out of Hours on day of arrival and did not address the situation on contacting them the following day. Following several phone calls and emails providing photographic evidence, Character Cottages responded by placing £50 in our account without our knowledge.
WE WOULD CERTAINLY NOT RECOMMEND BOOKING WITH CHARACTER COTTAGES.

I had booked a trip with Character Cottages, but unfortunately I had to cancel my booking as some of the guests were unable to fly to the UK from Spain due to the COVID restrictions.

The team at Character Cottages was very kind and responsive. They offered to re-list the property on AirBnb in attempt to give back some of the money I paid for deposit. I could not be happier!!

I would definitely book with Character Cottages again and hopefully next time I won't have to cancel.

The staff at Character Cottages handled our cancellation in a most professional and courteous way. Communication was swift and precise. The property owner was also most gracious in agreeing to a full refund. In this time when coronavirus is blamed for everything, Character Cottages proved that efficiency, thoughtfulness and kindness are still out there.

These are crazy, challenging time for the hospitality industry. Character Cottages were great during the booking process. And continue to show great hospitality by offering us full refund when we had to cancel our trip due to boarder restrictions. They could have charged us for half the stay but didn’t. We look forward to the day we can stay at your properties.

We stayed at Bobby Jo’s in Blockley over the bank holiday weekend in August & were very disappointed to find issues with cleanliness and mis-advertising regarding well equipped kitchen (which was anything but)
We complained to the company and they took 2 weeks to come back to say they had passed on our comments to the owner with a sorry!
In these times of COVID-19 the very least you’d expect is a clean,hygienic property to stay in.
Won’t be booking with them again for our regular Cotswold stays & recommend this company is avoided.

Lavender Cottage (Stowe) is beautiful with fantastic decor and interior design. We stayed in March 2020 (pre-CV19) and loved it so much that we came back in September! The only slight negative upon return may best be put down to "wear and tear"; some of the (wall) paintwork in both the kitchen dining and lounge sofa areas needing a "touch-up". Also, in March we noticed that a number of light-bulbs had blown and specifically requested that housekeeping checked the same ahead of our September visit due to a number of our party having restricted vision issues. Sadly, despite promises to do so, this hadn't happened; particularly in the kitchen. Finally, whilst acknowledging that CV19 has necessitated changes in all aspects of life, we were struggling to understand the need to remove / reduce the previously plentiful supply of mugs, glasses and cutlery etc. Five sets of cutlery (vs five adults!) quickly gets used. Other than that, however, a lovely, centrally located property.

A group of us recently booked a stay for a cottage in the cotswolds but had to cancel due to the restrictions/government guidance on sharing spaces with those not in your bubble.
The company were brilliant. They answered our questions promptly and efficiently and managed to secure a full refund for us, which was in turn processed very quickly.
We will definitely look to book through them again and are very pleased with the service we recieved.
Thank you to all at Character cottages for your help.

Booked the Copperbeech Cottage for the bank holiday weekend and had a fantastic stay. Cottage was spotlessly clean and very well equipped. We were hesitant after reading all of the negative reviews, however, our experience with Character Cottages was excellent.

I stayed at a Character Cottage in January and was so impressed with the experience I booked a different property for May. (The original was unavailable.) Then the virus struck and all travel between the US and the UK was effectively stopped. My final payment was refunded promptly and while it took a little while my initial deposit was refunded too. Throughout what must have been an awful spring and summer Character Cottages personnel have been unfailingly professional and polite and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to others.

We had a few issues whilst staying in our cottage in August 2020, and they were not dealt with by this company well at all.

First the power went off one morning just after 11am. Called them at 11.30am to report it, and advised we didnt know if this was a local issue (it was on a farm estate) or just the cottage. I advised them we were just about to go out for the day. Was told someone would deal with it and could i leave the key in the lockbox for them to get in?

At 2.45pm on our way back to the cottage i was concerned i had not heard anything from them, so called them to confirm if the power was sorted as we were nearly back and concerned at no communication. The girl i spoke to said it wasnt her who i spoke to earlier and she would have to get someone to ring me back. I told her my phone, which they had on file, has no signal at all in the cotswolds so gave my husbands number.

Arrived back at the cottage, to find that the lockbox with the key in had now broke. Nothing we could do, with the correct code, could get it open. So now we had 2 huge issues and no callback.

Over the course of the next hour, we made around 10 calls to the company, each angrier than the last one, to get someone to help us.

It turned out that the power issue hadnt been looked at at all.

The property manager flew onto the drive after an hour of desperate calls and confirmed the lockbox was broke, some of the keys were stuck. Cue a desperate call from himself to the owner to find out where the spare key was kept.

Once inside, he managed to pin the power issue down to the shower. My husband had taken a shower just before all the power went off, so by him simply turning it off it tripped the whole system.

We went the last 3 days of our holiday without a working shower, which at first didnt seem too big an issue - other than my 15 year daughter being annoyed we were invading her private space - until it transpired that the hot water must run off a tank. So, you can only run one bath every few hours or so. Didnt realise this until we tried to have a bath one after the other.

Which means we went 3 days with not only a shower, but having to work it so our baths were spaced far enough apart that we all got a hot one.

I feel for the new visitors arriving the day we left, as i highly doubt they fixed the shower and the keybox in the few hours they had inbetween us leaving and them arriving. In fact me and my husband suspect the poor people arrived locked out because of the broken lockbox, and then were faced with no shower for their stay.

We loved the cottage but the company dont seem to have any contingency plans for when issues arise. It is all dealt with in a very offhand, blase way. Like its not a major issue to be locked out of your holiday cottage when you are in the middle of nowhere, when its blowing a gale, and you have a tired daughter and puppy sitting in the car with nowhere to go?!?!

We originally booked a cottage in January for mid April but due to the Covid19 we contacted the company and rebooked the cottage for mid September. Due to the ongoing situation we decided to cancel the booking and request a refund. We were informed that the company was not issuing refunds but after further discussion 30% would be retained if the cottage could be re-let and the refund would be 70%, dependent on the re-letting.
I then read on the Martin Lewis website, moneysavirngexpert, that the CMA had stated that full refunds should be offered and Sykes Cottage (and other group companies) should refund any monies according to their terms and conditions.
The cottage was re-let after a couple of weeks and we were immediately refunded the full amount.
Throughout the communication the staff, Rosemary and Leona were first class, any information given was obviously company policy. Thankfully we had a successful outcome.
The information given on the Martin Lewis website was extremely helpful and they also mentioned section 75 for anyone who paid be credit card if the company did not adhere to their terms and conditions.

We were forced to cancel our trip to the Cotswolds due to travel restrictions from Ireland and travelling with elderly parents it was not safe to travel. We gave Character Cottages 3 months notice of our cancellation giving them enough time to re-let the property. They refused to give us back our £200 deposits despite Ryanair cancelling our flight from Dublin so we had no way to travel even if it was recommended that we could. We offered to take credit or a voucher and put it towards a booking next year which was refused. Vicky and the team have been extremely unhelpful and they are exploiting vulnerable travellers for financial gain. We have since found out that Character Cottages have re-let the property we booked for the period we were due to travel and have still refused to give us back our deposit, therefore profiting from our loss. Highly unprofessional, terrible customer service and we will never use them again. Do not book with this agent.