Travel Chapter Recenzje 367

We stayed at The Haven, Saxonfields in Snape from September 13th 2025 for 3 nights of a 5 night stay.

We found the property to be generally grubby with old linen and towels, stained duvet and furnishings. We found a mite infestation in the kitchen. We left early after feeling uncomfortable to stay any longer. On returning home I was diagnosed with scabies which I believe to be a direct result of staying in this property.

I have since submitted a complaint, sent videos and received a standard email response to say it’s being investigated. I have called several times and asked to speak with a manager regarding these issues. I have sent a Trustpilot review on Holiday Cottages, no response from anybody.

Nobody from this company is responding and even an email to their CEO Jayne McClure has been ignored.

I have now written to East Suffolk council outlining my concerns about this property, as I do not want anybody else to be suffering as a result of staying there.

I am astounded at this lack of care or response from Holiday Cottages/The Travel Chapter. I would have expected a swift call back to discuss the issues as a minimum within 24 hours of my first email.

Surely a company of this size should have an efficient and responsive customer services? I feel very upset by this whole experience which has impacted both my health and my finances negatively.

Good advice, caring home manager, good bookings in the main.

Hendra Barn & HolidayCottages.co.uk – Unsafe, Neglected, and a Total Rip-Off
Hendra Barn in Cornwall is not a holiday cottage – it’s a disgrace and a health risk. Booking through HolidayCottages.co.uk only added insult to injury.
We arrived to filth: surfaces grimy, a stale smell throughout, and the clear sense nobody cares for this property. But dirt was the least of it. The water supply comes from an unmaintained borehole, a fact no one thought to mention until the water came out orange (see pictures) and the owner casually remarked, “Yeah, I wouldn’t drink that if I were you.”
That is outrageous and dangerous. We had already used the taps for drinking, cooking, washing, and making bottles for an 8 month old baby.
The oven was dead for six out of seven days. The TV didn’t work either. We reported both faults on day one, but nothing was done until the day before we left—far too late to matter. That’s not bad service; it’s sheer contempt for paying guests.
And HolidayCottages.co.uk is no better. Our formal complaint has been “under review” for over a month, with nothing but vague emails and no resolution. Their approach is clear: delay, deflect, and hope you give up.
Let’s call this what it is:
Unfit for human use – dirty and unsafe water.
False advertising – basic facilities left broken for almost the entire stay.
Predatory business practices – a booking company that takes your money, then vanishes when things go wrong.
For the high price charged, this is blatant exploitation. Hendra Barn should not be on the market, and HolidayCottages.co.uk should be ashamed for hosting it.
On the upside, the grounds Hendra Barn are set in are great, shame this didn't translate to inside the place!
If you value your health, your time, or your hard-earned money, stay far away. There are hundreds of wonderful cottages in Cornwall—this is not one of them.

Booked the starboard watch in Polruan for two weeks. Upon arrival attempted to get to the quay carpark as suggested. We were faced with a steep gradient, extremely narrow road barely two car width. Half way down had to reverse back up as a grocery van was reversing up the hill. This proved an extremely challenging manoeuvre and led to my clutch smoking and I scratched my car. We abandoned getting to the quayside and parked at the top of the hill. This made us realise that it was impossible to face this walk up the hill every time we wanted to travel anywhere, particularly as my wife has a heart condition. Unloading the luggage and getting it down the hill was more than we could face. We telephoned the helpline only to be told we were responsible for parking and they could not provide any alternative accommodation. We were forced to book a premier inn, and travelled home the next day. The accommodation itself was as described leaving us disappointed that it was not made clear just how difficult the access was.

We are a party of 5 women in their 60’s. We made a booking for 1 week with a cost of over £2,300. On receipt of the booking confirmation, which identified the check in time as 4pm, I contacted this company and explained that one of the ladies was recovering from brain surgery and would need access to the property on arrival for medical purposes. I asked if she could access the property at 3pm (1 hour early), after a 3 hour drive and said I would be happy to pay extra for this. I was told NO, due to the cleaning schedule.
During our stay the owner of the property arrived at the property, I told her about our experience and she informed us that the property had been cleaned the day before and there would have been no problem with us checking in an hour earlier.
Why would you be so unkind and uncaring to lie about a trivial thing.
Please be careful when booking with this company, once they have your money, they really don’t care about anything else.
There are a lot of bad reviews, please check everything carefully there is no aftercare or customer service.

UPDATE: 8/9/2025
I received this email this morning, to which I have replied. I will update this post, if I receive a response.

Trustpilot
Hi Lesley Moore,

You’ve written a review for Travel Chapter, home of holidaycottages.co.uk, and they’ve asked for more details to better understand your experience.

If you provide some extra information within 3 days, it’ll help them recognize your experience and respond.

Add review details

If we don’t hear from you, the company may not be able to recognize your review as genuine.

Travel Chapter own Holidaycottages.co.uk - they sadly, also now own several of the smaller, regional companies.
They are not a good company to deal with, their modus operandi is to ignore the customer when something goes wrong.
I paid a lot of money to stay at WELL HOUSE, SUDBOURNE in August, with my granddaughters.
It was not as described in the details (or pictures), it was dirty! Too dirty to stay (including a beetle in the fridge).
Holiday's are meant to be enjoyable. Several week's later, I am fighting to get a response - or any kind of refund.
Look for a small company that gives good service, and still cares about the customer.
Don't book with this lot!

Edited; 8th Sept - 2 week's since any communication from "senior complaints manager", - Travel Chapter requested my booking details.
I'll update again if I get a resolution.
4 week's tomorrow since I arrived at Well House, and phoned the helpline about the filthy state of it, and the fact my granddaughter was having a panic attack, and refusing to stay. 😔
2nd edit on 8th September - post response from Travel Chapter: 19 pictures sent as evidence on 18th August (after I'd finished my holiday, elsewhere).
Already explained it's been with a "senior complaints manager" for 2 weeks, with no updates.
Many messages exchanged with Owner at the time - and the people after us made the same complaints, it's on here under "Mucky mansion", and they've posted a rating direct to Holidaycottages.co.uk.
I've made my requests very clear,
time and time again.
No one has responded. I've paid over £1,800 for ONE night! I didn't even get to sleep in a bed because of the state of 2 of my granddaughters.

ADDITIONAL UPDATE - 6 DAY'S AFTER TRAVEL CHAPTER'S RESPONSE: zilch, absolutely nothing at all - except to ask me to remove the name of the "senior complaints advisor" from my review, which I did, straight away!

As owners of Fair Skies based in St Merryn, Padstow, we recently move from another agency to holiday cottages. Our local account manager Tom lives in St Merryn so knows the area. He is proactive and very supportive. Our bookings have thrived under his guidance. Thank you.

We stayed at Hylands Holiday Cottages in Apartment 6. We are a couple with a dog and looked for a dog friendly cottage. This apartment was perfect for us in a good location. The views were good - looking down on Teignmouth and, as one window has a sea view, it was great to see both sea and sky. The apartment was cosy with a double bed, sofa, dining table and chairs, and firestick TV. The bed was comfortable. The hot shower in the bathroom was most welcome and the kitchen had everything we needed. Teignmouth has a back beach suitable for dogs all the year round and we enjoyed visiting here. We took the train from Teignmouth to Dawlish Warren where dogs can go also go on a few of the beaches and there is a park area for walks too. We also drove to Brixham for an ice cream. We stayed here in the past with our children. A very enjoyable stay. Thank you Keith & Lance at Hylands.

I just want to take the time to praise Helen Symonds (New Businesses Manager). Helen has very patiently guided us through the process in becoming a host on holiday cottages. We have found her supportive and encouraging with sound advice on what to do and not to do when starting out. We can’t thank her enough for the last six months of us starting out on our holiday cottages journey.

Thank You Tracy for your kind personal attention to detail.

A very constructive meeting today with my regional manager to bring some of the website photos up to date and discuss ongoing improvements to the cottage. Linda was extremely supportive and able to answer all queries / make useful suggestions. I’d recommend Holiday Cottages to anyone who is looking to embark on a holiday let on that basis.

I booked a 5 star cottage named The Old Sunday School in St Just, Cornwall for my partner's birthday and mine. I booked it via Holiday Cottages, which is managed by TTC. I can't express our disappointment. The lack of hygiene and care for the cottage was shown throughout the property and the grounds surrounded. There was years of dust, snot on the doors, mould on the walls, broken windows, dirty and sticky floors and used chewing gum. There was an overgrown garden with a rusted inaccessible BBQ, garden furniture covered in moss and bramble. The sofa was stained, food splattered over the kitchen and extractor fan, which was also missing a light. We left the accommodation early in the morning having stayed only one night due to no other safe alternative in the middle of the night. The customer service is an absolute joke. Our stay was booked for 7 nights all pre paid. Staff refused to help with alternative accommodation or refund the money. Three months later and I'm still fighting to get a reply and an apology from TTC and Holiday Cottages, yet I'm still being ignored after multiple complaints and emails sent. Should you value your time and money DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY! The majority of the reviews are fake and my original reviews don't show anywhere on their websites or Trust Pilot! The property advertised doesn't look the same as advertised on Holiday Cottages website! Booking ref: 3621446

We host a holiday let through travel chapter and the team looking after our property is great and do a good job. Their tech lets them down though - there are surprising limitations on the customisability of the booking calendar, the owners app doesn’t have all the information for bookings on it, and we’ve had a couple of other problems.

I booked holiday accommodation with Holidaycottages.co.uk a subsidiary of this company. The place was Lugger Lodge, Swanage. The stay cost £992 for 7 nights. It bore no resemblance to the evocative photos and glowing description. It had a host of excellent reviews . We wanted to turn around and leave immediately but we had travelled 400 miles and it is peak time in the Purbeck area. We ma aged to get a room in a Travelodge and left Lugger Lodge after 2 nights. We were refunded for the 5 nights not used. I have been refused permission to post a negative review on the Holidaycottages website because I was not charged for not being at the property. I feel this is a disservice to other unsuspecting people. If negative reviews cannot be placed it is very misleading.

Terrible experience due to double booking at a cottage in Somerset. A serious error that meant that two families turned up at the same place, with the same keycode. Still waiting for some resolution.

My husband and I have just returned from the most relaxing and comfortable stay at Esk Escape in Longtown Cumbria. The hut was charming and set in an idyllic spot next to the river Esk. The hot tub was a very welcome addition and so easy to use. It’s not very often I’m not ready to come home but Esk Escape is the exception. Just beautiful and thank you to Ann and Peter, who were on hand if we needed anything. We tried two of the restaurants recommended by our hosts The Crown and Thistle and The Hidden River Cafe both definitely worth a visit. We will definitely be back. Just before we left a woodpecker and his wife came to say goodbye!

So pleased we decided to list our holiday let with The Travel Chapter. Our local manager is excellent, always takes time to suggest ideas to make our property better for our guests, easier to manage for us, and maximise the number of lettings we have.

Just listed our seaside property with Travel Chapter. Looking forward to a good season. Whole process is very easy to set up. Thanks to Sarah Keeling for welcoming us on board.

We get good quality bookings with efficient backup for all our requirements. Regular meetings with our Account Manager which are helpful in monitoring our annual return.

As such you don’t engage with the Travel Chapter directly as you’re still dealing largely with your own local agency. There are perils with being part of a huge group so it really depends how that agency was pre purchase by the TC and how successful the integration has been. In the end the quality of your experience depends upon the quality, experience and competence of your individual property manager/s. Suffolk Secrets are good here; other TC owned agencies less so.