Sykes Holiday Cottages Reviews 

Extremely disappointing experience with Sykes Cottages
I am absolutely disgusted with the way Sykes Cottages handled our recent booking.
We had booked and paid in full for a lodge for the week commencing 17th August, and with less than 24 hours before we were due to arrive, we were contacted and told that Sykes had double-booked the property and therefore our accommodation was no longer available and had to be cancelled.
How can a major holiday letting company allow this to happen and then leave customers with less than 24 hours to find alternative accommodation during the school holidays?
To make matters even worse, there were no other suitable cottages or lodges available for the week we had booked. When I contacted Sykes, I was essentially fobbed off and told there was nothing they could do other than refund our money.
A refund is simply not good enough in these circumstances.
We had been looking forward to this holiday and had made arrangements around the accommodation. We also had four 15-year-old boys with us and had booked seven golf courses for the week, all of which had been carefully planned in advance. This wasn’t something we could simply cancel and rearrange at the last minute.
The stress, disappointment and inconvenience this caused us was absolutely outrageous. We had done everything right — booked our accommodation, paid for it and planned our holiday — yet because of Sykes Cottages’ own booking error, we were the ones left to deal with the consequences.
I find it completely unacceptable that a company can make such a serious mistake and then simply say, “we’ll refund you”, as though that resolves everything.
Sykes Cottages have completely let us down. I would strongly urge anyone considering booking through them to think very carefully about whether they are prepared to be left without accommodation at the last minute because of an error on their part.
A holiday that should have been something to look forward to has instead caused enormous stress and disappointment and a lot of extra outlay.
Absolutely outrageous and completely unacceptable customer service.

Very comfortable apartment, which was very well equipped and very centrally placed for getting around Beverly to enjoy everything the town had to offer

The house was very clean weve been away on holidays many times in north wales & we,ve never had holiday home as clean & tidy as this house. Its a nice spacious 4 bedroom home with 2 seperate lounges, lovely garden- its a perfect family home to enjoy your holiday & the beach is 3 min walk!! We would defianetly go again!!
The host response very quick & is happy to help! Avi Mill

Lovely clean, bright, spacious accommodation. Faulty kettle replaced same day. Friendly owner.
Good position for exploring the Peak District.

Good location,good customer service and nice clean cottage but beds and bedding need improving.See you in the future.

The location was just beautiful and the house had everything we could wish for as a family of twelve.
Some of the fittings were a little worn but did not
detract from having a perfect holiday.

Very difficult to speak to a person. Says amendments can be done through the portal but in truth hardly any can be.
Not an agent I would choose to use again even if the property was great sadly.

Full details of the property, which was a nice little place, with excellent hosts.Away from the crowds.

excellent accommodation, helpful hosts and beautiful countryside.

Sykes Cottages is running adverts on Facebook saying that it has been "shortlisted" for three award categories in the 2026 British Travel Awards. This suggests that Sykes has been through some kind of selection or judging process and that other companies have not passed the test.

The fact is that the British Travel Awards doesn't have shortlists (or long lists for that matter). All that Sykes has done is pay an entrance fee for each category, just like the other companies in the competition.

Why would a reputable company try to mislead its customers and gain an unfair advantage over its competitors?

UPDATE FOLOWING THE MISLEADING REPLY FROM SYKES COTTAGES

I haven't misunderstood the processes used by the organisers.

1. Individual companies nominate themselves for British Travel Awards and pay a fee to do so.

2. The organisers of the awards check that a company has entered an appropriate award category and (where appropriate) which size category they belong to. But that isn't creating a short-list.

3. There is no other process that can reasonably be described as being "shortlisted".

If there were a shortlisting process all other companies that appear on the public voting forms would say they have been shortlisted. But they don't.

FURTHER UPDATE

This is what Google's AI search says about the nomination process - no mention of shortlists.

"The nomination process for the British Travel Awards involves a structured system where travel companies submit their own brands to be listed on the public consumer voting form.📋 The Entry StepsApplication submission: Leisure travel providers apply online via the official BTA website, selecting their desired award categories.Nomination fee: Companies must pay a fee to be officially listed on the public voting form.Validity vetting: The BTA panel reviews applications and checks corporate websites to ensure legitimacy.Industry cross-referencing: Panel members verify applicant standings with established professional travel bodies such as ABTA, ATOL, AITO, and CLIA.Size grading verification: For size-specific awards, the panel reviews submitted corporate data or relies on market presence and SEO metrics to correctly categorize the company."

This all based on their customer service. Long story short, they are impossible to contact. They do not answer the phone, the email box is unattended and the whatsapps sit unaswered for days. To rub salt into the wounds you get bombarded with emails getting you ‘excited for your stay’ and saying that they are waiting on hand to help if there is an issue.

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In response to your reply, I understand that Whats app is not 24/7 but you are taking over a day to reply to each message. It is impossible to have a meaningful conversation with you. Why do you not have an email address? I have no intention of hanging on for the best part of an our to talk to you on the phone.

Booking process very straightforward and no issues

Excellent communication, cottages are good value for money and of a really high standard, descriptions are very accurate and the booking process is simple to use.

Location was good ,booking process was quick and easy

The property is tired looking and could do with a freshen up. The property could also do with accessibility ramps to avoid using the steps throughout.

We had a fabulous stay and the booking process and contact with the owner all went very smoothly.

Booking all went very smoothly very happy with the cottage would love to return one day, and we were very well informed with information and where abouts of the cottage thanks for all your help.

We needed to get clarification on an issue to do with the cottage. The chat line was stationary and I waited for hours without a response. Then at the end of business it just dumped me because nothing had happened. I couldn’t get any response from you whatever I tried.
We will now look for a company who has real people available to help with questions and problems.

Sycamore Cottage in Foolow was a lovely place to stay. Was nice and quiet. Cottage comfortable with access to the garden and pond which was a pleasant place to sit and have coffee. Easy access to all the places we wanted to visit and an excellent pub 2 minutes away with good food