Choice Cottages Reviews 

Very poor customer service, no refund, no reply to messages/emails... as so many have commented. I am astonished by the arrogance of the agency in their replies to reviews (including mine). Not just 6 poor reviews, but nearly half (46%) of the reviews are from customers with poor experience. It is laughable that the agency claims to have asked their customers 'not to leave positive reviews' and blames Trustpilot for allowing critical reviews. Really??

Excellent customer service
Well recommended

On October 5th I booked a 4 bedroom property in Croyde with Choice Cottages, for a few days later via Homeaway. It was instant book and I received a booking confirmation and they charged the booking fee. I received an email from Choice Cottages (the property management company), confirming receipt of my booking together with a breakdown of the costs and the total amount payable.
24 hours later I received a further email from Choice stating that the owner of the property was unable to receive visitors on the date that we were due to arrive and therefore Choice had cancelled my booking. - There was no offer of alternative dates or suggestions of any other properties that might be a suitable alternative for our party.
I immediately emailed Choice (as they are currently not contactable by telephone) asking for resolution.
While awaiting a response I revisited the website to find that the property was still showing as available for the week I had requested, but the weekly rental had increased 5 times!
At this point I sent a further email to Choice, this time requesting a callback as I assumed there had been a pricing error and if so, to discuss this with Choice.
To date, I am still awaiting a response to my emails from Choice, so I have no other explanation for the price hike other than this was a case of blatant profiteering!

Some of this review is copied from the one below deliberately as the circumstances and actions are identical.

And before you claim “Covid” as a reason for no response, I have been working from home since Covid connected to a team and customers via computer and Mobile phone. Not having a phone operational is not a thing.

I can see that you have lots of great reviews but also an increasing number of poor ones. What a shame.

On September 8th I booked a 4 bedroom property in Croyde with Choice Cottages, for September 2021. I received an emailed reply that day, confirming receipt of my booking request together with a breakdown of the costs and the total amount payable.
On September the 9th I received a further email from Choice stating that the owner of the property was unable to receive visitors on the date that we were due to arrive and therefore Choice had cancelled my booking. - There was no offer of alternative dates or suggestions of any other properties that might be a suitable alternative for our party.
I immediately emailed Choice (as they are currently not contactable by telephone) asking if it was just that particular date that was a problem and also if the property was available the following week.
While awaiting a response I revisited the website to find that the property was still showing as available for the week I had requested, but the weekly rental had increased by £500!
At this point I sent a further email to Choice, this time requesting a callback as I assumed there had been a pricing error and if so, to discuss this with Choice.
45 mins later, having received no response from Choice I revisited the website again only to find that the property was still showing available but (to my horror) the price had now nearly doubled to over £1900!!!
To date, I am still awaiting a response to my emails from Choice, so I have no other explanation for the price hike other than this was a case of blatant profiteering!
I have since found a similar property in Croyde for our preferred week but I have booked this with Marsdens!

We recently stayed at High Tide in Croyde Bay. This was our third visit to this house and once again our family of six adults and six grandchildren loved it

From start to finish Choice Cottages were excellent.... great choice, pricing and service. Everything you could want from a holiday operator like these guys. We stayed in a lovely cottage in the middle of a forest in the heart of Devon - it was perfect! Property was clean, a high standard, and the owner had provided some really well thought out additions (games for kids, beach equipment, bbq, etc). My family had a fantastic holiday, thank you so very much!!!

They cancelled our booking, but refused to give a refund! Shameful.

We stayed at Croyde Hallgrein in July 2020 and really loved it here. There was 9 of us and lived comfortably for a week. Situated right across from billy buds so is in the heart of Croyde. The house is lovely and bedrooms are all good size. Would happily stay here again. Choice cottages even helped me retrieve some items I left there :)

A really nice house and garden 10 minutes through the dunes to the sea. 8/9 of us spent a week at Vitamin Sea from 4th July( my husband just came for a couple of days) Mixed age group from 18 to 70, all bar my husband keen surfers/bodyboarders/paddle boarders.

We thought the house very comfortable, lovely bedrooms, plentiful hot water. Very pleasant garden with nice barbecue etc. 10 minute walk to the beach was fine. We loved the house and its location.

BUT..
Kitchen size was good, but the utensils were lacking. Set of 3 quite small pans (9", 7" 5") , not sufficient to cook for 8/9. Just a couple of serving dishes, only 6 wine glasses and few other glasses, 8 table mats (nothing to put hot serving dishes on. No dustpan and brush, essential when coming from a beach(we bought one). Appreciate that some things had been removed due to Covid but not sufficient items left for 8 people. (We bought a large pan so we could cook enough rice/ pasta for 8). Also tbh fridge and cooker on the small side for 8 adults/teenagers.

And a suggestion....it would be really helpful to have a strong hanging rail for wet wetsuits to dry out, and ideally under cover for overnight drying. (Other properties in Croyde have this) A washing line is simply not strong enough. (A professional 6ft long heavy duty garment rail from Morplan costs about £45 plus postage, would be ideal).

In summary, a very nice house, which with a few tweaks, could be really great.

Meadow bank has everything a family could need. The house was so spacious and comfortable with everything we needed. A great location for village and beach and the large garden was a delight. Also Choice cottage staff very responsive by email throughout the pandemic.

Very restrictive cancellation conditions and completely inflexible. Don't recommend.

I have had several dealings with Choice Cottages regarding a booking of a cottage holiday letting in July 2020.When COVID struck and they had to deal with enquires by email , instead of a predictable delay as with other businesses they responded by return and dealt with every query I raised in a very informative and helpful way which frankly engenders massive trust and confidence. Very impressive.

What can I say. The staff have been extremely helpful with changing my holiday due to me shielding. Communication has been very prompt. Thank you so much Choice Cottages 💜

We have used this company several times over the years and found them very good, hopefully this years holiday will be to the same standard.
Choice cottages have been very helpful and due to Covid 19, gave us several options to choose from, one of those to transfer our deposit and secure a holiday for next year at no extra cost. In light of the problems to travel abroad, which will have a knock on effect to some degree next year, u.k. holidays will be highly desirable. We are however,settling for a transfer for a holiday this year.
It should be appreciated this company have an enormous task due to the amount of properties they deal with and the amount of clients who are like us, passionate about getting a holiday. I feel they are working there way through every booking as efficiently as they possible can. It appears judging from the time noted on the e-mails sent to me, they are working all hours. I wish them well and feel next year will be a great success for them. I certainly recommend them.

My booking had to be cancelled due to Covid-19 and Choice were brilliant!
They were super efficient and helpful dealing with my disappointment over the cancelled holiday. I've been booking through them for several years and love the variety of properties on their portfolio, especially the ones in Croyde where I've stayed the most. Look forward to having my booking reschedules when lock down is over! Thanks

No reply to notes through the office door in Braunton, phone number now appears unavailable - I fear the worst......Goodbye any monies you had with them.!

I have been trying to contact you since mid March as the promised refund has not come. However, despite not replying to any of my correspondence or picking up the telephone you have the time to thank customers for nice reviews. You said you had refunded me via sage pay - that was 6 weeks ago - where is it? It’s not good enough to say , as was your response on another customer complaint, it’s worldpays fault - YOU NEED TO SORT IT OUT

Very helpful at this difficult time. Dates were easily changed with no extra cost, looking forward to my holiday next year.

Great service, quick replies and friendly staff.

In a time like this when everyone is going through hardship choice cottages gave me clear instructions on how to move my booking to a different date free of charge. So now I can look forward to enjoying next years holiday when this is all over no extra cost.