Character Cottages Reviews 

I’m also using the platform to leave my feedback as my previous review had been removed from their Facebook page.
Fortunately enough people had seen it and also shared their experiences so we could offer forms of help on how to resolve their terrible experiences.
Anybody thinking of booking a holiday with Character cottages please please reconsider. I’ve never experienced such a disloyal and untrustworthy company in my life. For somebody who holidays in the UK at least 3 times a year I’ve never faced an issue before with other providers.
Complete mixed messages to get out of refunding money back to us and others.
We were asked to leave our holiday cottage early as Covid 19 was gaining traction. They insisted we leave immediately which we did within the hour and would not refund us for the part of the holiday we did not see out. We then found out the owners of the cottage had returned once we left as they had used our Netflix account even though CC had told us the property would stay empty.
The main excuse was if we’d told them 24 hours before we didn’t want to go a full refund would have been granted. Now this was completely untrue as others are losing money for this reason and we’d notified CC before we left within 24 hours to ask if it was ok for us to commence the holiday which they said of course.

First and last time we’ll be using Character cottages and legal action is still underway.
Richard

As someone who had a holiday booked with them, the way that we’ve been treated is disgraceful. We couldn’t go to the cottage we’d booked because of the lockdown. Not once has this company taken the time to contact us personally about the holiday we’ve lost. Yet they have our address, phone number and email address. We havn’t had a single phone call to advise us of the situation. Yet we paid over £800 for a holiday we couldn’t have. It’s caused a lot of stress. As we’re having to self isolate due to health conditions, I’m not in a good financial position to lose that much money. UK law states that we are entitled to a full refund. In legal terms the contract is “frustrated” because the goods/service can’t be provided. However, Character state that the contract is between the cottage owners and the guests. But as they don’t give out the cottage owner’s names to guests, the owners can’t usually be contacted. We don’t know who the owner of our cottage is, we were just given a key safe number. Without even discussing this with us, the cottage owner was asked to refund our money back to Character Cottages, which they’ve now kept. We were informed of this by automated email. Our money, which they’re holding on to, is now a credit voucher, which has been forced on us with no chance to discuss it or refuse it. A credit voucher is absolutely worthless if they go bust, because they’re not backed by the UK government. In other words, they’re keeping everyone’s money, banking it and having all the interest earned on it - for up to two years. So they profit, while we can’t use it, because no-one can go on holiday because of the coronavirus. Some cottage owners have disclosed that they were advised not to contact their guests who had booked with them, and not to refund guests directly. CC were part of a cottages group that was bought by the Sykes Holiday Cottages group earlier this year. Sykes in turn are owned by the Vitruvian group (and they are a very large group who own a whole chain of holiday companies). Sykes group have been all over news sites for not issuing refunds. But since the celebrity lawyer Dean Dunham got involved with this, and Martin Lewis mentioned them, Sykes have been shamed into issuing refunds. (Though they havn’t been fully refunding everyone). You would expect Character Cottages, being owned by Sykes, to follow suit. But they havn’t changed their policy. They’re still not giving refunds, despite the CMA clarifying the law. Their Facebook reviews were full of angry comments from customers who wanted their money back. As other people have said, it’s true that they ignore emails. We couldn’t contact them either, they weren’t answering. When their Facebook ratings went right down, their solution was to hide the evidence, so they just deleted all their reviews. They even blocked people on Facebook who had complained. They are ignoring the CMA, who said they will prosecute companies found to be acting unfairly. The lawyer Dean Dunham has said that the Sykes group’s “force majeure” terms are unfair, because they weren’t specific enough to cover a global pandemic. The CMA also says these terms aren’t enforceable in law. It also says no-one should be forced into accepting a credit voucher. The so called “good will” credit voucher comes with ‘blackmail’ terms, saying “you will lose your credit if you try to take legal action” against them, etc etc. I think people have a right to complain if they have been treated unfairly and also the right to be heard. If a company removes all their reviews on Facebook, including the ones written before the Covid-19 pandemic, then this is dishonest - because they’re not being transparent. Blocking people from complaining is censorship. This is wrong when the internet is supposed to be about freedom of speech. What they’re doing is tricking potential holidaymakers into thinking they don’t have any unhappy customers - but obviously they do.

Rip-off merchants who have profiteered from the Covid-19 pandemic and have refused to refund customers. They have also clearly been posting fake positive reviews on this site.

For goodness sake - DO NOT BOOK WITH THIS COMPANY unless you want to be conned out of your money.

This company has taken advantage of COVID-19 and has ripped people off refusing to refund any customers who were affected by this crisis. Our trip was cancelled by British Airways and they are refusing to refund us during this time. DO NOT book with this company.

We booked a cottage last December for a family party in June 2020. Due to the virus with restrictions on travel it proved to be impossible to travel on the dates reserved. The company said we could change our dates to later in the year but on condition we paid the full amount immediately. They could not guarantee any date in the future, and these had to be before the end of the year, so we have no option but to cancel. The website now says that no bookings can be taken before the 14th June, indicating they do not wish their properties to be used and that travel is not advised. In our opinion we had no option but to cancel, not doing so would have left us with the possibility of losing our deposit and the balance, a total of over £700.
A goodwill gesture would have been to retain the deposit for use in 2021 when hopefully all travel restrictions and concerns will have been lifted.

I had booked a cottage for my daughters wedding in May but due to the Coronavirus it has been postponed until next year. Character Cottages have been attentive, kept me up to date with emails, and we have managed to re-book the same beautiful cottage for the wedding next year.
This pandemic has surprised us all, especially hitting small businesses, so to receive an email stating that they were working in date order and would prefer to be contacted by email as opposed to phone due to staff numbers was very understandable. We worked together sorting out the dates needed and I have the reassurance that everything is sorted out for next year.
I will definitely be using them again, thank you.

We booked a gorgeous looking cottage in Bourton on the Water in order to visit the RIAT airshow at nearby Fairford. When they made the decision to cancel the airshow due to the Coronavirus pandemic I contacted Character Cottages to cancel the booking as it was no longer required, due to the Coronavirus situation and asked for my deposit to be returned. I was told I could not get my deposit back as it was against their terms and conditions (it was). I then asked them to move it to a date in 2021. 14 months before our new stay date they have contacted me requesting the balance for the stay! I contacted them to query this, and they do expect us to pay in full for a stay in 14 months time!
It feels very much like they are trying to force us to cancel our booking so that they can pocket our deposit. I will be contacting my credit card company to see if they have any liability through Section 75.
We own accommodation of our own and have contacted all the guests that had booked in the next 3 months and refunded their money regardless of the terms and conditions they booked by.
We also had another cottage booked for an earlier stay with Sykes Cottages and they moved that to next year with no request for any further money now.
I would definitely not book with Character Cottages again and would never recommend them to anyone.

I wish I could award less than 1 star. Our holiday cannot take place because of the global pandemic and despite giving Character Cottages 2 months notice of our situation they refuse to refund our deposit. They are the only company through which we booked accommodation that has adopted this immoral and despicable position. Avoid these shysters, they are not to be trusted.

I have to agree with the other reviewers here. I booked a cottage for early May 2020 and obviously we now can't go because of the coronavirus lockdown. Under their terms and conditions we are entitled to a 50% refund (which under the circumstances is a joke, I understand they have business costs but I think 90% would be more reasonable). However, although they originally confirmed this refund, they have been silent for weeks and won't reply to my emails. The lack of courtesy is one thing, stealing my money is another. Shocking company and I'd recommend to anyone you steer clear from them in the future.

I have a cottage booked with these crooks this month and they are refusing a refund, despite the clear government advice not to travel. As well as an e-mail from them saying do not travel (but also we will not refund you). On top of job losses and illness this is the last thing we need. Character Cottages only seem interested in money. Had they handled this situation respectfully we would of rebooked in the future when things hopefully improve, we just need this money back now as are not in a pleasant situation. Narrow minded management and ridiculous policies. I hoped they may revise their policy as insinuated in their e-mails but after reading other reviews i am no longer hopeful.

We also got the general email. We are all in this position because of the extraordinary circumstances brought by Covoid-19. Character Cottages have shown no character, no empathy and no common decency. They should be ashamed of themselves. Our family also has (one) cottage we rent and we are offering 100% refunds on the advice of HomeAway, to comply with government measures and for the general safety of guests, and the people in the village, including the person who looks after the cottage. We booked the Character Cottage through HomeAway, but this seems to have made no difference. They are -like the people who charge a fortune for a small bottle of sanitiser- simply exploiting the crisis for their own greed. Disgraceful.

I don’t recommend Character Cottages. We had a cottage booked in a few weeks time and can’t go because the UK government have imposed travel restrictions. We havn’t heard a word from Character Cottages. Up until now there’s been no direct contact or email updates, not even a phone call. Today we received a generalised email which says they won’t refund their customers. We booked this holiday last year, well before the corona virus scare started. Yet they won’t give anyone a refund, despite the fact that other companies have been doing so. It seems to us that their profits matter more than their customers. If we have to amend the booking dates to the same time next year, this is going to cost us more. At a time when people are losing their jobs. The Government have defined holidays as “unnecessary travel”, so it’s not our fault that we have to cancel. Yet Character Cottages won’t refund us, or pick up the extra cost of having to amend the booking to a later date. We no longer want to holiday with this company, but they’ve forced us into a situation where we now have to pay extra for a holiday, because they won’t refund us. Our travel insurance swiftly backtracked too, and won’t pay up. All we want is our money back so we can book with a company that can be trusted to refund us if there’s a problem. I urge everyone else who has booked with them, and suffered the same appalling treatment, to leave your reviews on the web. People need to know that if they book a holiday they won’t refund you, even when it’s due to circumstances that are unforeseen and not your fault.