Dorset Cottage Holidays Reviews 

Just completed our booking of a "chocolate box" cottage near Lulworth Cove. Nice and simple! The cottage looks gorgeous and whilst this area is not far from where we live, it's too far to explore in a day trip, so we're treating ourselves.

Lovely cottage. Good location. Clean and well equipped. Very comfortable beds. Perfect for our group of 5, including 2 children.

Lovely cottage that was beautifully finished and well equipped. Everything was as we would hope on arrival, instructions good and cottage was very clean. We enjoyed being able to watch the wildlife from the lounge window and were grateful of the excellent Zeiss binoculars. Communication with Dorset Cottage Holidays was good and I would consider using them again.

Lovely little cottage, well equipped and perfect location

Ideal cottage for a week's holiday (with border terrier), convenient for local out-of-season walking attractions such as Corfe Castle, Lulworth Cove, Durdle Door and Studland Bay.
All arrangements made by Dorset Country Cottages worked very smoothly, and the property was immaculate and nicely warm for February!

A clean, comfortable, warm and very well equipped cottage in a good location in Wareham.

We had a great time in Swanage staying at Below Decks. Booking was very quick and easy and the price was very good. Below Decks was very clean and tidy, well equipped and the layout was excellent. The location is 2nd to none, less than a minute to the beach and high street. Dorset Cottage Holidays were fantastic, the staff were very friendly and extremely professional, we felt nothing was too much trouble. They kept us updated with all the relevant information we needed, and checked up regularly to make sure we were having a good hoilday. I really can't fault anything, and would definitely recommend both Dorset Cottage Holidays and Below Decks to anyone. We loved it so much we've booked Below Decks again in September.

Booked our holiday cottage for the 2nd year again through Dorset cottage holidays.Lovely cottage and exceptional service.We were kept well informed upto and during our stay,useful to know they were on hand if needed.

Dorset holidays were easy to book with & would book with them again. Everything was efficient & professional.

Booked a holiday with DH Cottages at a cost of £960 for 4 nights; the photos of the cottage on the website were phenomenal. We really looked forward to our stay.

Unfortunately the cottage and its cleanliness were a huge let down. Issues raised included:

- Broken bin with a lid which wouldn't close
- One JCloth to clean up with for our whole stay
- Dirty coasters for drinks
- Marked armchairs; with dirt/use clearly visible
- Broken shower in the ensuite rendering it unusable
- Heating and hot water off with instructions only to use the 'extra hour' feature
- Missing grout from around the bathroom and broken tiles on the floor

Some of these issues were reported to the company during the stay. Instructions on how to turn the heating and water on were provided - however, the point, that they were permanently off and instructions not to change the settings provided - was missed entirely.

We actually left our stay early. On returning home all issues were reported to the company along with photographs. A week later an email was received detailing how each of the issues had been remedied for the next guests - which is great, but no apology or offer of a partial refund (as requested) for our inconvenience. The issues experienced would have clearly visible to the housekeeper on change over of residents and yet they were not remedied.

All in all a far from positive experience with this company. The accommodation was tired and overpriced. Unfortunately customer service was also also lacking.

Cytringham Cottage, Isle of Purbeck, Dorset, England: Clean, well-furnished, tastefully decorated and excellently equipped modern terrace house in quiet area close to lighthouse so would have been totally satisfied, but why oh why did owner provide only a scratchy, hessian sack-like French throw as double bed top linen? What anybody wants first and foremost in holiday accommodation is a good night's sleep. When we arrived and saw what was on the double bed we naively thought it was some covid precaution and suffered for three nights of disturbed sleep. After the third night we could stand it no more and complained to the agency. It took five calls before we were supplied with a new polycotton top sheet to put between us and the French throw and then had restful nights but it had spoilt our experience there. If that happens to you and the owner tries to leave just that horrible 'sack' make sure you complain immediately and get proper bedding. Why did the agency not ensure proper bedding?

We urge you NOT to use this business. We have recently stayed at Miller Cottage, Lulworth Cove and whilst the location of the cottage was great (5 minute walk to the cove and coastal walks on the doorstep) the service provided by Dorset Cottage Holidays (DCH) was abysmal!
We arrived in the evening after a long journey, found somewhere to eat and then settled down for the night. It wasnt until the following morning that we began to see real issues with the cleanliness and general maintainance of the property.
A picture tells a thousand words and if we could post the photos we took, we would!
From unclean kitchen cupboards and drawer fronts falling off to peeling wall paint. Cracks in the ceilings, rusty garden furniture not fit for purpose, a disgusting bathroom that had not been sanitised correctly, shower not clean and the shower door not shutting so a flooded bathroom everytime we showered. And then we inspected the shower plug🤢. It couldn't have been cleaned for months with the amount of congealed hair! There were pillow protectors missing off the beds, shabby decor and carpet throughout with brick dust dropping from behind the kitchen cupboards where they hadn't been fitted properly. We found ourselves cleaning the filth off of the table before we could sit down to eat and it was complete guess work as to how the oven worked as all the symbols had worn off! Hazards such as mop, buckets and vacuum cleaner left leaning under the stairs and loose radiator covers that could topple...so not a safe environment for toddlers.
There were a few other issues ,that in fairness are beyond the control of DCH but nevertheless are worth mentioning, like a constant loud humm from the hot tub in the neighbours garden, rats running around between neighbouring bird feeders and a jack hammer and building noises starting at 8.30 every morning from a property to the side. It's worth mentioning because a rural idyll it isn't! ...fully surrounded by properties with a narrow overgrown passage to access it. We paid a substantial sum of money for a weeks stay and the condition of this property does not reflect the price ; or any price for that matter as it's really not fit for purpose. We could go on and on, but our main issue is with DCH and with how they have dealt with us as paying guests. We agree with a previous review, that they seem to act no more than a glorified letting agent, with more interest in the property owners than the holiday makers. But then we fail to understand why any property owner would use this business either, as they represent them badly too. They fail both parties terribly and, in our opinion, fail to honour a contract they enter into with both parties when letting a property out to paying guests. They fail to do regular property checks to feed back to property owners. They fail massively on their housekeeping standards which makes a mockery of the token Covid posters dotted about the property. They have totally failed to listen to our feedback and act on our concerns. They passed all responsibility to the property owner who then felt obligated to offer us compensation. They have completely washed their hands of their part to play in this but when pushed on the matter we had a "sorry" passed on to us from the housekeeper!...which in itself was an admittance of their failings! Frustratingly they have stopped responding to our emails as we have pushed to hold them to account. We really would not want other happy holidaymakers to feel the disappointment we have felt.
Fortunately for us the weather was fabulous during our stay so we were able to spend as little time as possible at the property.
DO NOT STAY HERE OR USE DORSET COTTAGE HOLIDAYS! They have no interest in providing a good service to paying guests and just see the properties on their books as cash cows.
We gave them every opportunity to have their right to reply before leaving a damaging review and ,whilst we received some communication and a promise of an inspection after we left🤔 they clearly did not want to take any responsibility and we feel they have handled the situation badly.
We have tried to give a balanced review but unfortunately, for them, all we have to say is very damming. The biggest con in all of this is their review system that means they get to 'vet' the reviews left for their main website. So unfortunately this may not reach all of their target audience.
We hope this is helpful!

We had a similar experience to the other reviewers. We booked before covid and so couldn't take our original holiday dates of April 2020. DCH refused to refund our payment, but offered the same dates in April 2021 - however they then charged us an additional £20 booking fee for the privilege.

When the time of our holiday arrived, lockdown hadn't been lifted which meant we couldn't take the full 7 nights we'd paid for. DCH therefore charged us a significantly higher daily rate (£158 instead of £108 per night) and refused to honour the original price, although we protested.

When we got to the cottage itself, we found it had a lethally steep staircase that wasn't mentioned in the advertisement and which made the property a challenging place to take young children. We also started finding rusty nails in the garden from repair works the property owners had had done. When we contacted DCH to ask if they could make a thorough search of the garden they did nothing about it and didn't even respond directly to our call.

The problem appears to be that DCH is a letting agency, whose customers are the property owners - and not the holidaymaker. The people who rent the properties are effectively just "the product" being sold by DCH to the owners. Therefore all DCH's customer service is directed to supporting the property owners (who are their clients), and not the holidaymakers - and it shows.

I will absolutely not use this firm again.

We have had the same problem with dhcottages as the first review had during lockdown 2020. We where told the same information as they had been told. We have been told that we will not receive our money back.

We booked a cottage with Dorset Cottage Holidays for a week’s holiday commencing 22 May 2020 which was subsequently cancelled by the company due to the government lockdown. Dorset Cottage Holidays then gave us options which included swapping to the equivalent week in 2021 which we wished to accept. However, the company said that they would be charging an increase on the hire fee and an increase on the booking fee which is unfair according to the Competition and Markets Authority. In view of this we requested a full refund in line with the Competition and Markets Authority’s Cov19 guidelines issued with regard to consumer rights which states that a full refund should be given. To date Dorset Holiday Cottages have not issued a refund to us and have repeatedly stated that any refund would be subject to reductions for the owner’s “reasonable costs” and 50% of the commission for the full cost of the booking, which again goes against the ruling made in a test case by the CMA. The company ignore emails requesting the return of our money. I have given them one star because I can’t give them none. Beware.