Holiday cottage companies

WeAreGhosts

I'm looking for something a bit special for a group of 6 people celebrating a few special birthdays next year. Can anyone can recommend any small holiday cottage companies that are not part of the Sykes group? Not bothered about location, can travel for the right place, but not South East England or rural Scotland.

Locations already debated Yorkshire (coast), Wales, Dorset ...

daveyjp

Rural Retreats, Unique Holiday Cottages if you are considering Scotland as they aren't all rural.

Air bnb is always worth a look, although it can be overwhelming if you don't have a location.

gwynlas

Just set search for areas you are looking at and see what comes up as some large national companies use local trading names in different area. Gottages.com seem pretty reliable and are not part of the S group.

daveyjp

Cottages.com is part of Hoseasons. Plenty of complaints about them online.

sheramber

Cottages and Castles

National trust holidays

p00hsticks

For yorkshire you could try  these

https://www.yorkshireholidaycottages.co.uk/about-us

WeAreGhosts

daveyjp said:

Cottages.com is part of Hoseasons. Plenty of complaints about them online.

A lot of small holiday cottage companies are selling out to larger companies who just take the money and don't care when something goes wrong. It's not always clear on the smaller company websites that the booking is actually being made with a large company of a different name. Holiday cottage industry seems completely unregulated at the moment and there's getting to be less and less choice.

I used to book a lot of holidays with Menai Holidays in Wales, they sold out to Sykes just before I had a holiday on which I had problems. The result was I couldn't speak to "Menai" who I had booked with but had to speak to Sykes' ... whose staff, comically, couldn't even remember who they were working for when they answered the phone.

MrsStepford

Don't use Sykes Cottage.s. They refused to refund us when Lockdown 1 happened. Lost the entire holiday even though insured. 

Dark_Star

Toad Hall Cottages are based in Devon. Had a lovely cottage in May half term that was not extortionate. Owner left us glorious flapjacks & a vase of fresh flowers 💐 
I hope to book again next year.   Have used Sykes twice & never again. Used to do home & away who might now be vrbo…..prices were rocketing so didn’t use them.