Sykes Holiday Cottages Reviews 

Amazing place would recommend

Our stays through Sykes Cottages have all been brilliant. However, one stay through Airbnb which is also advertised on Sykes Cottages, has not been so good. And we think our review is fair and think it should be there for potential guests to review.

Crummock, Frodsham.
Our stay was April 2026.

While the location provided a peaceful setting, our stay was marred by significant cleanliness & maintenance issues that made it difficult to feel comfortable. Upon arrival, we found the kitchen in a poor state the oven and cupboards were dirty & the cookware was so greasy and worn that we felt unable to cook, forcing us to eat out for the duration of our trip. This lack of hygiene extended to the bathroom, where we dealt with a heavily clogged plug hole full of hair & the garden, which had an odor of cat urine so strong we couldn't enjoy the outdoor space. Furthermore, the property lacked basic essentials; we were provided with only one roll of toilet paper & one bin liner & the provided cups were so stained that we chose to buy our own. Between the uncomfortable furniture, the sofa being covered in pet hair, and the fridge-freezer being turned off when we arrived, the home felt neglected. Given the lack of upkeep and general poor condition, we cannot recommend this property.

We did share our review on Airbnb, but we never heard from the owners.

All ok untill they help themselves to an extra £700. It's been months, calls in hold, email, chat bots, broken promises and they still have my money.

I'm writing this while on hold for customer service (20 minutes and counting).

And now they say "contact customer service", WTF do you think I have been trying to do for three months.

Rubbish.

Communication is near to impossible . Spent 2 weeks trying to change the dates of our booking . Still not sorted it
Will be leaving the same feedback after the holiday if I still can’t get through

"Stayed at 40 Skiptory Howe, thru Sykes holidays After checkout, the owner falsely accused us of floor damage using a generic, dateless close-up photo, with no context what so ever of where it is etc. Sykes automatically deducted £150 from our card and refused to look at metadata or provide proof. We did nothing wrong, i had no time to reply before the money was taken from my account. I've tried calling customer services and they say they have no supervisors to handle it and pushed me to an online complaint, no one cared or was interested. Only phone line they answer immediately is the sales one! . I complained online and they basically said 'we have this photo and we support our home owners and washed their hands of it, saying 'not their problem now' and closed the case! . This isnt good enough, they took their money with the booking when i know we caused no damage what so ever. Five days passed anyone could've done it! If this were a case in court, who would get fined for a photo with no date stamp on it? you cant just take money out of an account without my right to reply? I even have photos of the lodge as we left. I'm now in the process of getting this money back with an official complaint and going to my bank and possibly the small claims court and i will do so, as no one likes to be accused when they are innocent, but why should i be doing this? I am so unhappy to be accused of something we just didn't do. They sent this photo 5 days after we stayed, not the next day! Surely the damage would've been spotted the moment we left? Please be wary—avoid booking through Sykes." and avoid this property for now, something is very wrong here! I'm wondering how many other people get charged this as a way of making extra money out of innocent people? It was a nice holiday until this happened! It was a nice enough lodge. We left it clean and tidy, with bedding stripped and towels in a pile for cleaners and all washing up done etc, as tidy as it could be. I will adjust this review as and when i have this unfair payment refunded, but I'm really starting to wonder if this is a holiday scam, a way of making some extra money on a booking. Please be careful,

Extremely disappointing experience with Sykes Cottages
I am absolutely disgusted with the way Sykes Cottages handled our recent booking.
We had booked and paid in full for a lodge for the week commencing 17th August, and with less than 24 hours before we were due to arrive, we were contacted and told that Sykes had double-booked the property and therefore our accommodation was no longer available and had to be cancelled.
How can a major holiday letting company allow this to happen and then leave customers with less than 24 hours to find alternative accommodation during the school holidays?
To make matters even worse, there were no other suitable cottages or lodges available for the week we had booked. When I contacted Sykes, I was essentially fobbed off and told there was nothing they could do other than refund our money.
A refund is simply not good enough in these circumstances.
We had been looking forward to this holiday and had made arrangements around the accommodation. We also had four 15-year-old boys with us and had booked seven golf courses for the week, all of which had been carefully planned in advance. This wasn’t something we could simply cancel and rearrange at the last minute.
The stress, disappointment and inconvenience this caused us was absolutely outrageous. We had done everything right — booked our accommodation, paid for it and planned our holiday — yet because of Sykes Cottages’ own booking error, we were the ones left to deal with the consequences.
I find it completely unacceptable that a company can make such a serious mistake and then simply say, “we’ll refund you”, as though that resolves everything.
Sykes Cottages have completely let us down. I would strongly urge anyone considering booking through them to think very carefully about whether they are prepared to be left without accommodation at the last minute because of an error on their part.
A holiday that should have been something to look forward to has instead caused enormous stress and disappointment and a lot of extra outlay.
Absolutely outrageous and completely unacceptable customer service.

Very comfortable apartment, which was very well equipped and very centrally placed for getting around Beverly to enjoy everything the town had to offer

The house was very clean weve been away on holidays many times in north wales & we,ve never had holiday home as clean & tidy as this house. Its a nice spacious 4 bedroom home with 2 seperate lounges, lovely garden- its a perfect family home to enjoy your holiday & the beach is 3 min walk!! We would defianetly go again!!
The host response very quick & is happy to help! Avi Mill

Lovely clean, bright, spacious accommodation. Faulty kettle replaced same day. Friendly owner.
Good position for exploring the Peak District.

Good location,good customer service and nice clean cottage but beds and bedding need improving.See you in the future.

The location was just beautiful and the house had everything we could wish for as a family of twelve.
Some of the fittings were a little worn but did not
detract from having a perfect holiday.

Very difficult to speak to a person. Says amendments can be done through the portal but in truth hardly any can be.
Not an agent I would choose to use again even if the property was great sadly.

Full details of the property, which was a nice little place, with excellent hosts.Away from the crowds.

excellent accommodation, helpful hosts and beautiful countryside.

Sykes Cottages is running adverts on Facebook saying that it has been "shortlisted" for three award categories in the 2026 British Travel Awards. This suggests that Sykes has been through some kind of selection or judging process and that other companies have not passed the test.

The fact is that the British Travel Awards doesn't have shortlists (or long lists for that matter). All that Sykes has done is pay an entrance fee for each category, just like the other companies in the competition.

Why would a reputable company try to mislead its customers and gain an unfair advantage over its competitors?

UPDATE FOLOWING THE MISLEADING REPLY FROM SYKES COTTAGES

I haven't misunderstood the processes used by the organisers.

1. Individual companies nominate themselves for British Travel Awards and pay a fee to do so.

2. The organisers of the awards check that a company has entered an appropriate award category and (where appropriate) which size category they belong to. But that isn't creating a short-list.

3. There is no other process that can reasonably be described as being "shortlisted".

If there were a shortlisting process all other companies that appear on the public voting forms would say they have been shortlisted. But they don't.

FURTHER UPDATE

This is what Google's AI search says about the nomination process - no mention of shortlists.

"The nomination process for the British Travel Awards involves a structured system where travel companies submit their own brands to be listed on the public consumer voting form.📋 The Entry StepsApplication submission: Leisure travel providers apply online via the official BTA website, selecting their desired award categories.Nomination fee: Companies must pay a fee to be officially listed on the public voting form.Validity vetting: The BTA panel reviews applications and checks corporate websites to ensure legitimacy.Industry cross-referencing: Panel members verify applicant standings with established professional travel bodies such as ABTA, ATOL, AITO, and CLIA.Size grading verification: For size-specific awards, the panel reviews submitted corporate data or relies on market presence and SEO metrics to correctly categorize the company."

This all based on their customer service. Long story short, they are impossible to contact. They do not answer the phone, the email box is unattended and the whatsapps sit unaswered for days. To rub salt into the wounds you get bombarded with emails getting you ‘excited for your stay’ and saying that they are waiting on hand to help if there is an issue.

———
In response to your reply, I understand that Whats app is not 24/7 but you are taking over a day to reply to each message. It is impossible to have a meaningful conversation with you. Why do you not have an email address? I have no intention of hanging on for the best part of an our to talk to you on the phone.

Booking process very straightforward and no issues

Excellent communication, cottages are good value for money and of a really high standard, descriptions are very accurate and the booking process is simple to use.

Location was good ,booking process was quick and easy

The property is tired looking and could do with a freshen up. The property could also do with accessibility ramps to avoid using the steps throughout.