Big Cottages Reviews 

Honest Opinion about using big-cottages, Snapfish/Expedia – DO NOT BOOK THROUGH THEM

This past weekend we had a booking at a lovely cottage in York for a friend’s hen party. We booked it well in advance via big cottages, I then called and made an amendment and found it was managed by Snapfish but the payment was taken via Expedia. We were all traveling a minimum of 2 up to 4 hours to the venue from different parts of the UK. Everything was going great until we turned up at the cottage just after 4pm on the Friday evening to find it had been double booked and the owner had no knowledge of our booking or the website we had booked it on. I called big cottages to be told firstly all they could do was offer me a “COMPLIEMTRY REFUND”. Thank you for not charging us a cancellation fee for your mistake, Such an unhelpful response from a customer service assistant, This would take up to 15 days to receive and after 40 mins on hold they could not give me any information to make a complaint or put me through to the department to do so. I also asked if they recorded there calls which they replied yes but would not give me a copy of the call. So, they left 8 women stranded with no accommodation hours away from home and gave no compensation for their mistake or any offer of assistance with accommodation for the night.

I do not recommend ever using or booking through big cottage, I would find a more reputable company with a competent customer service team and complaints procedures. Disgraceful company and worse customer service I have ever experienced.

Very easy to book online but had to ring for extra information. V helpful person on the phone but unable to be 100% sure of the answer on this occasion.

Booked a cottage in Wales and all seemed ok. Received confirmation then nothing from owners.
Rang up and they said booking was fine. Next day email received with different reference number saying not available anymore so rang again.
Was told that it was still on under original reference so quoted second ref and was told it was the same holiday.
I asked if it was on or off and they couldn’t say for sure but suggested I wait until the week before and see if I heard anything - by which time the free cancellation period would have gone by. Couldn’t get a definitive answer at all, no matter how I asked.
I was then asked if I had any other questions and wished a nice day.
Needless to say I cancelled and booked the same cottage on a different site.

It was a great setting and very well equipped also using the big cottages site turned out to be cheaper than using other sites!

Good selection of accommodation, easy to save favourites and straightforward to book.

Initially I was very happy with our booking for the Royal Retreat at Princes Risborough. It is advertised as “sleeps 17” which is the size of family party that is gathering to celebrate my mothers 80th birthday. Two weeks before I am informed by the property managers Home@Staybeyond that it has been advertised incorrectly and only sleeps 14. So you can imagine the stress that is causing. Not happy at all.

So easy to book even for a near pensioner.

I prefer having the option to speak to the owners to ask questions before booking.

The property we booked wasn’t actually available. The owner called as she doesn’t even list it with this website.

It was very easy to find a cottage that suited us and the whole booking service was excellent.

My holiday was cancelled due to a disagreement between yourself and the property owner, and it wasn't until the property owner emailed me two days ago to try toget Me to pay again for this weekend coming up. You have since not bothered to contact Me and when I rang you, you knew there was an issue and didn't seem to care in the slightest. I think your customer is very poor, and once you receive the payment do very little . Due to your policy of waiting 3/4 working days to refund my money I am now having to find £400 pound to secure my holiday again. I will not be recommending or booking with you again

Easy to book, confirmed quickly the deposit had been accepted
Lots of choice. The only comment I would have is more photos especially the outside space. Little people like a full view of were they can safely play.

Customer service was very helpful and efficient

Straightforward, easy booking system.

Very Efficient

Good range of larger properties to rent
Customer service was hard work for me. I had to ask repeatedly for basic information on the size of one of the beds in the property, despite being assured they would get back to me.

Very easy site to use great range of properties for every need

A very good Web site- easy to use and very helpful to be able to see the location of the property.

This house completely met the needs of our group. It was big and spacious. It had enough seating for everybody and the garden was a very good size for the children to play in.

We would highly recommend it!