Hell hole of a holiday cottage

This has only once happened to us in many years of cottage holidays large and small. Unfortunately it was a big get together over Christmas week. We all left after one night and were lucky enough to find a similar large property through Rural Retreats though in a location much further away. We lodged a detailed complaint with the original booking company (also one of the big names) We were refunded in full.

Many years ago, 35 easily, we went to Cornwall with three young children to a holiday lodge. I had to clean the washbasin before we could even clean our teeth ☹️

After that we bought our own touring caravan which served us very well for many years in the UK and France 🙂

Nowadays we holiday in self-catering apartments through our timeshare: home from home standards and the same beds, linens, kitchen equipment etc wherever we go. Stress free holidays and very nice too 😊

We did pay with a credit card but it seems we broke the contract by not contacting the owner first with our problems. Which was in very small print, I told the agency that they should check the cottages they have on their books regularly and asked when ours had been last checked they could not answer me.
They did seem surprised when I said it was advertised with two other agencies and as an Air B&B and was actually on the market for sale.
I have had similar experiences before, once in my own county, you could smell the drains from outside and a wasps nest was propping a window open .DH complained to the company as we never even let the DDs in. They told him Cumbria smelt like that and he told them he was from there and he certainly did not smell as far as he knew. They completely refunded our money.

We also had a Gite in the Dordogne that was a semi. We kept saying "IT could only happen to us", then after arriving home "Absolutely Fabulous", did an episode which was our experiences exactly. We wondered why our DDs never complained until one confessed that a very rampant couple next door could be heard through the bedroom wall and proved very enlightening entertainment when they went to bed.

I booked a holiday cottage once when the children wanted to bring their stick insects with them. The cottage was ok but there were a lot of small flies around the windows so I sprayed the rooms but sadly forgot about the poor stick insects and they too died 😩

Kate1949

We had a similar experience a few years ago in a supposed 'gite' in France. It looked beautiful in the brochure. When we got there we couldn't believe our eyes. It was a filthy dump. There was a large hole in the living room floor. There were fly papers hanging everywhere complete with dead flies. The shower cubicle had bricks, rubble and brooms in it.
Me and my sister checked the beds. She sheets were wet with damp. We hung them on the line in the 'garden' which was full of cow pats, beer cans and rubbish.
The 'barbecue' was two house bricks one side, three the other with an oven rack placed on top . The windows were thick with grime. I still have photos somewhere.
We had two small children with us. We had no choice but to stay one night but had to find alternative accommodation the next day which wasn't easy in the middle of the countryside. We were two families and we could only find separate accommodation. Needless to say we came home early.
After a battle, we got our money back. The owner said 'You must have very high standards' !!

I would have replied “well you very clearly don’t!!”

We have had a couple of awful holiday homes in the past . One was dreadful dirty and uncomfortable -we just washed and cleaned enough crockery and utensils to use for a 4 day break . We put the mattresses on the floor and fortunately we had our own sheets and always took our pillows. We complained to the agency , got a partial refund and the “beautiful woodland house “was removed from the brochure . The other one was advertised in the Lady magazine so many years ago . We had toddlers then and just couldn’t stay it was so awful.we found a B&B for overnight and came home .I can’t remember if we got a refund but I think my DH would have complained vigorously.
We always used the Gite de France website and always had good very clean but basic accommodation. Often very unusual things in the gites such as jam making pans and equipment, lots of flan dishes and casserole pots ! Never enough comfortable arm chairs or sofas though .

We had a similar experience a few years ago in a supposed 'gite' in France. It looked beautiful in the brochure. When we got there we couldn't believe our eyes. It was a filthy dump. There was a large hole in the living room floor. There were fly papers hanging everywhere complete with dead flies. The shower cubicle had bricks, rubble and brooms in it.
Me and my sister checked the beds. She sheets were wet with damp. We hung them on the line in the 'garden' which was full of cow pats, beer cans and rubbish.
The 'barbecue' was two house bricks one side, three the other with an oven rack placed on top . The windows were thick with grime. I still have photos somewhere.
We had two small children with us. We had no choice but to stay one night but had to find alternative accommodation the next day which wasn't easy in the middle of the countryside. We were two families and we could only find separate accommodation. Needless to say we came home early.
After a battle, we got our money back. The owner said 'You must have very high standards' !!

Link for the advertising code www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/01.html

Contact the firm who advertised the cottage. List your complaints and include any photos you have. Tell them that in marketing the cottage as (whatever they used to describe it) they are guilty of misleading advertising Rule 1 of the advertising code is that it should be decent, honest and truthful, which the adverts for your cottage plainly were not. Work out what you think you should have paid and ask for a refund of the amount you paid over that. Tell them if you are not refunded that amount you will take them t the County Court small claims section.
I've done it in the past.
They will claim your contract is with the owner, but if they failed to verify the description before they advertised it they are responsible for the advertisement.
Good Luck

You really should have taken photos then there is no doubt that you are telling the truth. Take it up with the owner and if they don’t help then get on to the company concerned.

See how that goes and then put a full review of the company on Trust Pilot. I have had success with that when I had almost given up. Not holiday companies though.

We have a house we let for holidays and it is pristine and we have received a Customers Choice Award because all our reviews in the past year have been 9.5 and above.

I have never had a single complaint about anything to do with it and this is our third summer.

People must complain because we know of many around here that leave a lot to be desired.

A few years ago my daughter and I stayed in a hotel near a big city and it turned out to be right in the middle of an industrial state, with a vegetable oil factory across the road. The windows were covered in a film of oil. It wasn't very comfy and the shower was rubbish but it was cheap and the staff were really lovely and we hadn't the heart to complain!

Sympathies! It's a long time since I've had a bad experience, of late they've all been good, but I do remember being very annoyed about a holiday cottage in Devon, where the owners were asking for a commercial holiday let rent, but had left all their personal effects around the place. The cupboards were full of their food for example and to add insult to injury, they requested that we didn't help ourselves to any of it, other than a tea bag or two when we arrived Neither was it particularly clean. I complained to the agency, that if they wanted to let it in that way they should stick to "mates rates" instead of wanting top dollar.

I also remember a couple of less than perfect places in France, one down near St Jean de Luz, in spite of being mid August , it was damp in parts. Loved the area but the accommodation spoilt the holiday somewhat.

Back in 1968 we went on our first holiday after getting married, we had 3 young children with us. We`d booked a caravan on a site at Mawgan Porth in Cornwall, it`s not there now. The caravan wasn`t all that clean, but bearable, but we got a shock at night when we got out the thick army type blankets provided, to find they were a bit damp and had maggots crawling on them! We complained the following day, but nothing came of it, and we were very young and naive at the time, so just put up with it, I`m afraid.

One place we stayed at was filthy - just absolutely filthy everywhere. We had to stay the night, just too tired to do anything else, then we booked into a nearby hotel, had showers, complained (with photo evidence) to the agent - not the owner - and, eventually, got a refund and the cost difference of the hotel.

Your Tripadvisor review should reflect your findings and disappointment.

We stayed in a hotel close to Whitby some years ago.....it was filthy, thick with dust, curtains full of cobwebs, bathroom window wouldn't close, shower coated in limescale.......I could go on but I am beginning to feel rather nauseous.

Our review stated all the above as did the visitors book when we checked out. We did tell the proprietor, a rather odd man, but he just grinned and walked away. Needless to say we didn't leave a tip.

Always, always ALWAYS pay with a credit card. Even if you just pay the deposit with it the cc company are in law jointly liable. Then you can do a chargeback for at least part of the money you laid out. Only ever done about 4 chargebacks in my life but found it a straightforward process.

Alternately document all the issues with photos and video. Then send a "letter before action" with a photo of the court papers filled out but not yet signed. I find that concentrates their minds wonderfully.

Appropriate reviews on every platform.

Often you may find that just threatening a chargeback or small claims court plus bad review will get your refund.

I would have tried to get a refund if I’d paid by credit card.

Just one bad experience sticks in my mind, really grubby with cobwebs galore. Many years ago when my son was a toddler, as said above you just make the best of it then.

Just returned from the BBs and had such a wonderful time ( toilet paper aside)
So I really feel for you. Such a beautiful place and it should have been a wonderful time for you. On the whole everything was spotless and everyone extremely accommodating. Or perhaps the exercise exhausted us to not see anything wrong 🤪

My sympathy we had it as well years ago, a loch side cottage north of the border, “The Ghillies Cottage”, it looked like the ghillie had died the week before, cold, damp and horrible.

The cottage was in the Brecon Beacons
.Just after Easter We went to South Scotland and booked with a niche firm who had been mentioned to me. It was lovely. Everything you could wish for and I don't think we were expecting anything like we had stayed in years ago . When the children are little you put a smile on and try to find something outside to do.
I have checked the photos again today they must be very old as the tree in front of the window was only a bush!!
No, we can have no compensation as we did not tell the owner, who I might add told me he had been in the SAS and showed me a photo of himself with a rifle. Would anyone dare to complain? Hey ,Ho here's to next year.

Aah, Sparklefizz
And I bet you worried yourself daft about them

A hell hole, not a bonus hole then🤔
This is how many cottages we stayed in (in the past) but am surprised it’s happening today, was it in France?
The last cottage we stayed in years ago was just awful so I can sympathise with you.Holidays aren’t cheap and it’s a real disappointment.

how disappointing

So sorry, I can sympathise as we went last month to join friends in a cottage they had rented, it was grim and nothing like the pictures.
The pillows and duvet smelt the garden was overgrown, there were tacky ornaments on every surface, no instructions for anything and 1 cheap loo roll etc etc.
It was an expensive cottage, we couldn’t complain as our friends had booked and paid not us.
Interestingly this was the only instruction left, says it all.

Bella23 Sorry for your bad experience.

We had a horrible week in a cottage in France many years ago. The cottage was filthy and full of H U G E spiders. As I'm an arachnophobe, I was freaked out, but we had spent all day travelling and didn't pick up the keys until 7pm from Madame who didn't speak English. We followed her to the cottage which was in the middle of nowhere, and just didn't have the energy to find our way back to civilisation to find somewhere else to stay.

The bed was lumpy and u-shaped so we both rolled into a heap in the middle.

The only bonus for me was that one morning I had woken early and was sitting in the kitchen having a cuppa when there was a faint mew at the door and a small kitten was sitting there looking hopeful. We were miles from any farms/houses so I had no idea where this little sweetie had come from, but I found something for him/her to eat.

We went out for the day and when we pulled up outside the cottage that evening, there were two small kittens waiting by the door. I found something for them to eat and drink. The following morning there were half a dozen kittens and cats of all sizes waiting for us to open up. I bought some food for them and fed them for the rest of our week's stay. I love cats and they compensated for the horrific spiders.