Sykes Holiday Cottages Reviews 

My husband passed away a week ago , no sympathy must stick to their policies of refund, now trying to let my freinds go , ive spent neally 2 hours to get through no joy have they blocked me because I gave a bad review before

I had a booking for a property in Mablethorpe 11th - 18th September unfortunately I have to have cancer surgery on the 10th September so had to cancel the only way of contacting sykes is via WhatsApp and they either don't respond or wait 24hrs answer you then disappear again eventually because my holiday was fully paid for i had the cottage contact so informed them I couldn't attend and they were really pleasant but sykes only tell me I can change the dates but as I have no idea how long recovery will be that is not an option Sykes customer service is a joke and I definitely won't be using again or recommending the company

We found the cottage information informative, and reflected our experience, and we received clear and concise information for key collection.

I have been trying to contact Sykes for 3 weeks about them returning an overpayment. The WhatsApp number never gets an answer and E mails have not received any response. We have not yet been on the holiday but I would not be recommending them as their customer service is non existant. If a Sykes employee reads this please get in touch before I consider using my solicitor.

Hassel free booking which is Just what you want

We booked a stay via Sykes at Daisy Cottage for 5 nights as we previously stayed at a cottage in Wales via your system and it worked really well.

This time however it not only failed but it highlighted that Sykes' emergency system doesn't work and the WhatsApp channel doesn't work on a Sunday.

We couldn't check in until after 3pm on Sunday. With the food shops closing at 4pm, we went shopping beforehand and spent £60 on food to last us our holiday.

At 15.50 we arrived at Daisy Cottage and tried to gain entry via the lockbox but the key wasn't there. I tried calling the emergency number but no one answered. I knocked on the door and a lady opened her door next door and I asked if she knew who owns/runs Daisy Cottage. She said it was her.

I introduced myself and asked where the key was and she said that she only had one room available. She had contacted Sykes and let you know the issue but had no reply.

She explained that she had rented out one of her rooms on a long term let until the end of August so only had 1 double bedroom available. I showed her the booking and the advert of her page and it said she had 2 rooms for rent and she said she had told Sykes and that you hadn't updated her page. We advised it was her responsibility to make sure her listing was up to date.

I was left with no accommodation at 4pm on a Sunday and no contact from Sykes despite numerous calls to the emergency number and voicemails left requesting contact. No whatsapp messages replied to. I tried booking another flat via Sykes and it wouldn't go through. In the end we booked an instant booking on Airbnb, 45 miles away.

We feel extremely letdown by Sykes, the service we have received was very poor and our cheap holiday has now increased by an extra £272.

I made a complaint 10 days ago via the customer relations email and have not heard anything back.

BUYER BEWARE!

Great when it works, but when you have a problem customer services on Chat are very unhelpful. I’m a long-standing client of Sykes Holiday cottages, and love the ease of using the website. I book 7 day holidays about 3 times a year. But I have a problem with my latest booking. My booking is for this Wednesday, and I’ve been trying to get a sensible response via chat for four days now. The owner of the property I’ve booked doesn’t wish to give contact details. They usually do in case of problems. Last year I couldn’t get into a property on arrival, but I contacted the owner and the issue was resolved. So I have asked Sykes via Chat to ask the owner who I can contact if I have a problem on Wednesday. The chat facility has been awful, not responding appropriately, repeating the same words, as if they haven’t bothered to read my request. I’m now getting worried about my booking. One hears of scams. Sykes is NOT being helpful. One shouldn’t have to worry about a holiday booking.

20th August. I’ve now contacted Sykes by phone. It was actually answered quickly (first thing in the morning). The gentleman I spoke to was very helpful and told me what I should do if there is a problem. I feel reassured. So forget chat, it could have told me the same information but it didn’t. It’s useless.

This is the real review of the stables st just.
The accommodation is very nice well designed.
But the truth of the matter is how it’s described the pub a short stroll yes over 4 stiles through a field.the open top bus to st ives we were told left the bus stop outside the property one day we checked the times on the bus stop no bus when we approached the owner who informed us of this he said they stopped running end if last year strange that as he only informed us the day before of this service.hope he has repaired the sink waste thats been broken a while.
He said it was near impossible to get a plumber on changeover days to repair we said they could come in anytime while we stayed there even if we were not in he declined that offer so had to leave taps on while shaving etc what a waste of water.if you don't like dogs do not visit here they jump up you and the owner thinks everyone is a dog lover.how would he like it if he didn’t like kids stayed at my place and a 5 yr old kicked him in the nuts.

We loved our stay at 39 Mariners Quay in Port Talbot! The home was perfect for our stay - comfortable, so close to the beach, and everything we needed was close by. There were so many lovely things about the house that made our stay extra special including plenty of toys for our little child to play with, lots of cookware and spacious kitchen and eating area, and the whole home was exactly what we needed and hoped for. Many thanks for everything! We would love to stay there again. :)

We have used Sykes on several occasions. Unfortunately we had to cancel a booking with 2 months notice. We were still charged the second deposit being told by customer services this was because it was too short notice. To say we are disappointed is an understatement. I have fed this back with no response. We will not be using or recommending Sykes in the future.
Bev, Scott and the boys ( pooches)

Update 23/08/2026: Sykes' customer service team is so automated that they responded to a formal legal Letter Before Action with a copy-pasted script. I have now dispatched the legal papers via Recorded Delivery directly to their corporate headquarters in Chester. See you in court.

Our holiday was completely ruined by arriving at a filthy, unhygienic cottage. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a service must be provided with reasonable care and skill - Sykes completely failed here.
Sykes refused compensation, claiming we did not give the owner a chance to put the issues right. This is entirely false. We phoned the owner numerous times to report the issues, but he failed to answer. Any other suitable accommodation in the local area was fully booked, so we had no choice but to stay in a substandard property. I have full, video and photo evidence of the filth and call logs proving the owner was unreachable.
It took Sykes over a month to respond via their online form, and with a lot of toing and froing they came back to offer a token £150 "goodwill gesture" (on a total booking fee of £699) which I have rejected as a final settlement. I have now escalated this to a formal regulatory complaint against the payment providers to recover the remaining balance. Shocking handling of a clear breach of contract.

Having booked to stay at Gilfachwydd in Wales (near Dolgellau) through Sykes Cottages several months in advance, we drove nearly four hours arriving on the evening of checkin day only to get a text from the owner telling us the stay was cancelled because of no functioning toilets, no water. The place was disgustingly dirty with blood on some towel, dirty bedding on the floor, unwashed surfaces, grime in the bathroom and one toilet was blocked up and stinking. They said the cottage relied on water from a spring which dried up in the drought. Nobody told us about that. Nobody told us it was cancelled. Sykes had sent me several emails confirming the stay and advising of how to checkin. I phoned Sykes who could not find suitable accommodation. Owner ignored message requesting a cleaner, and Sykes told us the owner refused to take their calls. We spent ages cleaning the grubby kitchen and one bathroom, even had to clean all surfaces as there was dust. We spent ages fetching water in a bucket from a tap at the campsite about 20 minutes round trip each time. By Monday Sykes said the owner refused to issue any plumber or water supply or cleaner and demanded they cancel our stay. Sykes said they had thereby cancelled our stay, asked us to leave early the next morning, and said they would issue a full refund. It was a very demeaning and disgusting experience and two days later no refund. I phoned Sykes to hear them tell me the stay wasn’t cancelled and they will charge for the days spent there. Now on the phone for yet another pointless waste of time to Sykes. I would never book anything with Sykes ever again, and never ever recommend anyone stay at Gilfachwydd either. We have had to deep clean our clothes after arriving home and feel very upset by how Sykes and the owner treated us.

We booked via booking.com in June, but necessary extras that were essential to our party had to be booked via Sykes Cottages. This proved IMPOSSIBLE.

Access to Sykes Cottages portal didn't work. They didn't respond to any messages (from June to August!), including via their advertised Whatsapp channel. They don't ever pick the phone up (regularly waited over 35 mins).

Eventually with one week to go before our stay, I got booking.com's own customer services involved (who were great), so Sykes Cottages miraculously responded to me to arrange the necessary extras, but they refused any token gesture of compensation for the months it has taken me to sort this out.

Appalling customer service, appalling systems and processes and an incredibly difficult and stressful customer experience, compounded by a terrible official response to my complaint which amounted to "Thanks for bringing this to our attention and we apologise, but you've booked them now so there'll be no compensation for the months you've had to spend trying". - Except their response had no spaces between any of the words in each sentence. I kid you not.

Such a shoddy outfit. I will definitely avoid booking with them again.

Price that I paid ended up being more than was advertised. Staff in the call centre were argumentative and would not acknowledge the details that were displayed on their own website. Our holiday was fantastic but the service from Sykes has put me off in future.

Arrived at a property with a tiny waste bin under the sink and no additional bin liners. Sykes were completely unable to resolve this - here is the diary of my attempts:
Day 1 - contact via WhatsApp - no response
Day 2 - contact via WhatsApp - no response
Day 3 - contact via phone - promised replacement would be sent
Day 4 - no replacement arrives, contact via phone - promised replacement would be sent
Day 5 - no replacement arrives
Day 6 - no replacement arrives, contact via phone - told they won’t be able help now

Shocking.

Very disappointed with Sykes’ handling of our complaint

We paid approximately £300 for a two-night stay in Southport and unfortunately experienced numerous issues with the property, including damp towels, non-working sockets, very poor Wi-Fi, maintenance and cleanliness issues, problems with the key safe, incorrect bed configuration and misleading parking information.

Most concerningly, our booking information clearly stated an 11am checkout, yet at 10:45am the owner opened the door and told us we should have left at 10am. I have evidence confirming our checkout time was 11am.

I raised a detailed complaint with Sykes expecting them to investigate the issues fairly. I waited days at a time for a response from the chatbot, before eventually having to submit a formal complaint. Sykes’ final response largely repeated the owner’s version of events and dismissed our concerns. They even stated that checkout had been amended to 10am – despite the evidence (supplied to us by Sykes) showing 11am.

They also stated that roadworks affected access to a driveway. This is simply not what we experienced – there was no off-road parking available to us at all. We parked on the road outside.

I wasn’t expecting Sykes to automatically agree with everything I said or simply issue a refund. I expected them to look objectively at the evidence and properly investigate clear discrepancies.

Instead, no compensation was offered and the matter was closed.

The problems with the accommodation were disappointing, but Sykes’ handling of our complaint has been even more disappointing. It has left me seriously questioning what protection or meaningful support customers receive when something goes wrong.

I will not book through Sykes again.

Terrible company! Avoid like the plague! We booked a holiday cottage on the 2nd of June, they took our money and cancelled the holiday. There was no communication about the cancellation and we were all packed and ready to leave when we searched for the cottage and found out about the cancellation.
They have still not given us a refund!
We tried to get the money back via my bank and the scammers have managed to get it back. I have lost £320.00. They do it so you have no way to contact them as they keep saying that my reference is not valid.
Please be warned about this company.

We've booked with Sykes 6 or 7 times over the last 5 years and generally had very positive experience. The app is great and having reviews of each property is helpful. 99% of the stays have been wonderful. One was not so good and we had to complain about various issues with a cottage in Windermere, it proved difficult to contact the company over the weekend and took a few days of us ringing and messaging to get a proper response. The complaint was eventually dealt with but as with many companies they seem to need more customer service staff and a bigger team, not just rely on useless pointless AI to respond to customers.
We've just had another brilliant holiday in Cornwall and would highly recommend on the basis of ease of booking, price options and range of properties available.

The house that we rented was amazing! There was plenty of space for our party of fourteen, with a variety of bedroom configurations that accommodated us very well
The facilities were of a very good standard, with something for everyone- especially the children.

The Sykes website was clear and easy to navigate and the property listing was detailed and accurate. Only 30% deposit required to book with good communication on booking and before our holiday.