Forest Holidays Reviews 

GLENTRESS 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
FANTASTIC.. group of mature men on a Mountain Biking week.
Weather, trails, golden with tree house SUPERB.
Retreat great service. (BBQ Gas delivery, you know who your are.. THANK YOU 🤩)

Number 11….
ONLY issue we had was me personally when the downstairs communal shower head ‘spray’ part blew off twice, first time splitting my toe nail with such force !!
Plus NO shower mats… OMG.. skating rink bath and shower trays !!

Ive got a family booking at Delamare in November… we will be taking shower mats.

Arrived at Cropton forest after travelling most of the day!!! Just wanted a shower & relax!!! NO HOT WATER!!! Even the hot tub wasn’t ready!! Reception was closed. Had to boil a kettle & have a strip wash!!!
Also WiFi was ridiculous, more off than on even though we paid extra!!
Reported to reception, after there couldn’t care less attitude, sent someone, got hot water on only for it to go off again!! And again!! And again!!!
Found a bowl under the boiler!!! Obviously a leak that they knew about!!! Why put us in a lodge when you are waiting for a part for the boiler!!!!
Dangerous or what!!!
Two days left then offered to move us!!!
Got a refund for the WiFi. No apologies & still waiting for your customer service to acknowledge our complaint. Been waiting a month now still nothing.
Will never step foot there again!!

So where do I send the booking reference number?

Okay, positives first. The Strathyre site is in an amazing spot, next to a loch, surrounded by forest and mountains and about 5 miles away from a lovely little town called Callander. Hot tub, log burner, gas powered BBQ are all excellent. The staff, or at least everyone we met, were fantastic. Certainly a 4 possibly a 5 star experience.

So why is it one star? The not so good.

1. We paid for premium TV and WiFi. For three days of a four day stay half the TV channels were unavailable (no BBC1, ITV, channel five and a whole host of others). Met a lot of staff who explained a third party provider was looking to fix but nothing they could do. Not a huge issue, as assumed management would just apologise, maybe provide a partial refund of the additional premium paid. Nope, nothing. Management apparently not interested.
2. Cabin a little shabby and in need of some TLC. Outside is a bit dirty - cobwebs, old leaves, generally needing a tidy up and a power wash. Inside is just a little tired looking. We had marks on the woodwork, a freezer not defrosted and full of ice, a patchy DIY job on the staircase, a kitchen blind that was broken and you had to physically roll up and balance on the window handle to keep it up. Not huge issues just maybe a lack of investment and upkeep which is a shame as having used Forest holidays a few times in the past it's a little sad to see the decline.
3. On our last day, my wife had a bath (in the main bedroom en-suite) before we were meant to be heading out for a nice meal in the town. Unfortunately, the bath overflow pipe wasn't connected properly so all the bath water going through the overflow was simply pooling on the floor and then going through the ceiling and light fittings in the bathroom below, flooding the room. Couple of lovely maintenance guys came out, confirmed the problem and asked that we not use the bathroom downstairs (what with water running through the light switches) or the upstairs bath and shower because of the hole where the overflow pipe should be. Not ideal an hour before we were meant to be getting ready and going out🤦. The maintenance man did say he spoke to management and said we could use another cabin nearby for showers etc if needed. Possibly all they really could do in the circumstances but just not a great way to end our 4 day "relaxing" break. Again, no direct contact from management, no apology, no offer of a partial refund for the inconvenience. Nothing at all.

When we checked out I mentioned the problems and the receptionist, who was very nice, said she'd make management aware (I'm pretty sure they already knew) and they would get in touch. Guess what, they haven't 🤣. I'm genuinely wondering what "management" do there if they apparently don't deal with customer issues. It's certainly a novel approach to customer service (simply ignoring the customer) but perhaps it needs a little rethink as I don't think repeat business is going to something they have to worry about based on my experience and some of the other reviews. The reality is that these things sometimes happen and if management had engaged properly (or even just engaged at all) we could have had a sensible chat, agreed on a sensible partial refund and everything would have been fine and a 2 star review would have been a 4 star review.
And just to reiterate, it's a huge shame as the location, amenities and the staff were all wonderful.

I would give zero stars if I could.
Stayed in Garwnant Forest Holidays for a long weekend. The maintenance and cleanliness of the cabin was very poor. We had food still left in the fridge, with a broken door and mould growing around the inside,dirty floors, walls and furniture. The kitchen cupboards were so dirty that we had to clean before use. We had sockets coming out of the walls and one bathroom we could not use as water wouldn’t drain when we showered. We have never stayed anywhere so dirty and poorly maintained. We reported so much it was embarrassing but judging by the reviews and the timescale of replies from customer service they are obviously inundated with complaints. I’ve been offered a 15% refund! We didn’t even stay the whole weekend as it was so uncomfortable. Stay well clear of Forest Holidays. We ve since had a £200 refund which doesn’t even cover half the cost of the weekend away and an apology reply! Honestly was the worst weekend away I have ever experienced. It’s an absolute shambles. If people had any sense they would never stay at Forest Holidays. I’m going to contact the CEO as it needs shutting down totally!

Meant to book Centre Parcs, accidentally booked this. £250 mistake.
I booked with a £25 deposit and when I realised my dumb error, naturally I wanted to cancel. The booking was for 5 months in the future, so I was quite surprise that I was then made to pay £242 to cancel... a scam and a rip off. As if they wouldnt be able to get a new booking in 5 months. Disgraceful. Hope their cabins burn down lol

Shocking experience with Collette who answered the phone. Me and my husband booked a lodge holiday 2 days ago and yesterday we found exact same holiday with exact same offers much cheaper on different website. I called Forest Holiday and asked Collette who answered the phone what is the benefit booking though Forest holiday and what are you offering more compare to other company as you are charging more but she wasn't able to answer the question.

All she said was i can not speak to you due to data protection and we will charge for cancellation. Call handler agent who doesn't know benefit of products that she is selling and not even try to understand and empathise customer's frustration.

Very disappointed with this company as price of the lodge is overpriced and customer service on the phone was terrible! Not recommended and do your search before booking with them. Surprised to see how many bad reviews on trustpilot. I don't write reviews as i have no time for this but the way how i treated on the phone by Collette was shocking!!

Went to Blackwood Forest 7th to 11th April cost of £1389.
Door did not lock and resort was closed by the time we discovered this. Place was very dirty I spent 3 hours cleaning it. My bed was full of someone else's hair and there was a stench of sewage. Made a complaint in the morning of the 8th Door was fixed they did offer to clean the lodge but i had already cleaned it. the were very dismissive of the swage smell woman just shrugged her shoulders. That evening once all lodges were occupied again the smell was so bad it was making us feel sick. I checked on my youngest and he was covered in red ants biting him so we packed up and went home. complained to the head office and they addressed each concern I had but dismissed them all and gave me no compensation or even a good will gesture. No one leaves an expensive holiday after 1 night if everything is acceptable. in the resort lodge we also witnessed them serve food to the wrong customer then 5 minutes later collect the food from that table and return it to the rightful owner. when the customer asked for a fresh meal he huffed and 3 minutes later returned with the same plate of cold food.
Shame really as our last experience at sherwood forest was amazing.

We have stayed at a few different sites and some were fantastic deer park, blackwood forest and delamere staff were brilliant cabins clean and any issue delt with quickly.
Sadly the same can not be said for forest of dean and garwnant, cabins are basically illegal having many safety issues decking falling apart and smoke detectors missing and when you Contact customer relations they just say sorry we will do better but when your spending decent money you expect a safe and relaxing stay I would advise to spend that little bit more and get what you deserve.

We were really looking forward to this break in Thorpe forest. We were not impressed by what we found on arrival. The bathroom was not cleaned but fortunately I had cleaning supplies in my car. There were brown marks under the toilet seat,the sinks were not clean and lime scale everywhere that could have been removed with proper cleaning. The decking had not been swept and there were copwebs everywhere, even in the bedroom. Every time we put the outside lights on the whole lodge tripped out. We didn’t sleep as you can’t turn the heating off so felt like sleeping in a sauna even with the thermostats turned off. We paid so much money for a wasted weekend. We came home early just to get a good nights sleep. We stayed in lodge 19 from 25th April. The only good thing about our experience was the staff they were so friendly and helpful.

Support from the onsite team was excellent.
An immersive experience of staying in the forest. Surrounded by trees and lying back in the hot tub, knowing there is a real fire inside the well stocked cabin.

Was a lovely experience, staff friendly and helpful, lodges were in a great condition and of course the hot tub and surroundings made you feel so relaxed. We immediately booked again for next year.

We have tried ‘cheaper alternatives’ but always come back to Forest Holidays because nowhere else beats them.

I wrote to this company about finding a pair of women’s knickers with a sanitary towel in our lodge under a sofa at Sherwood. We gave these to reception and advised they need to clean lodges better. We were advised ‘you will receive a response within 21 days’. Nothing. If you want quality cleaning & quality follow-up to a fair comment, avoid this company. We won’t be going back. Four hundred pounds a night for cigarette ends on the jacuzzi decking and red pants under the soda? There’s better ways to spend your money.

I would add the staff we dealt with were fantastic & helpful - and in this case, mortified.

Awful holiday company, no bereavement skills what so ever.
Had to cancel our Holiday at the forest of dean due to my mum on palliative care and only had a few days left. We booked a week to celebrate our beloved mums birthday back in Sep for this Aug with the cost of £3500 for 5 of us. Due to the current situation with mum and all the upset and distress we have had to go thru as family to then cancel the holiday for my mum no words can express the amount of grief we are going thru. The person or persons i was actually dealing with was quite straight to the point, no compassion at all.
Was told that we would loose 30% of our money due to the cancelation policy.
I was horrified that this was booked a year in advance paid in full only for you not to have only gained the interest on my mothers money but now your to re-sell the cabin at a higher rate due to inflation and price increases. Absolutely disgusting and disrespectful !!
I asked them to review their policy in certain circumstances as its not just like a normal cancelation. They got back to me and said there manager is not budging an inch and stated its their cancelation policy, I was told i could move the holiday to the following year at 2026 but would have to pay that years prices so we will not only have to pay more but it would cost me another £50 admin charge for the pleasure of them doing this for me. So sadly my mum passed away 2 days after the cancelation of the holiday with a loss of £1050 and their gain. I would not book with this company ever again. Its sad because we had a lovely birthday celebration for mum last year at the forest of dean the company itself is shameful and fell like they need to review there policy for bereavement cancelations!!!

The night before I was due to check in my dad had a massive heart attack. He was very sick. He was stabilised & I called to ask what options I had. Given it was less than 24 hours before check in I was told there wasn't much they could do. I told them it's fine I'd try get up on the Saturday & drive back & forth to the hospital. I was advised to cancel it & they'd put it back up for sale! Of course it didn't sell & they kept every penny of my £700! Absolutely no remorse. Not a bit of empathy. I didn't expect the full amount back but possibly the deposit or credit note to rebook! Thieves & the girl who advised this should be disgusted with herself!

We were leaving to go and hand in our keys to check out and a kind gentleman called Rob kindly offer us a lift as we had a lot of luggage . he was kind enough to drop us off at the visitor centre and had a great chat on the way . He is a kind person and deserves all the recognition he gets.

We stayed at the Strathyre cabins in Scotland at Mount Ben Ledi. The cabin was very clean and very cosy and beautiful and the views of the snowy mountain peaks all around are absolutely breathtaking. Very peaceful and relaxing environment and the perfect place for nature lovers. We loved it so much and we cannot wait to go back again.

The whole trip from booking, communication with the team, when there the whole experience was fantastic. An amazing cabin and a wonderful spot to enjoy the countryside and nature.

Everything we expected and the area was great to explore. Lodge looking tired and really wish the windows had been cleaned. Such beautiful views and dirty windows!

Really enjoyed the holiday, have been coming back here for 10 years, love the place. The staff are so friendly and helpful and the food was excellent and arrived at our cabin hot and on time.

This was our 19th year staying at Forest Holidays. already booked again.
As always lovely cabin in a great location with very friendly and helpful team :)