Best of Wales

As a holiday cottage owner i just wanted to say that i am very happy how Best Of Wales have handled the coronavirus situation, yes, waiting times for e-mails and phone calls have taken time even for an owner, but this was inevitable, all my bookings during this epidemic have been refunded, and will continue to do so in future lockdowns. They have been working extremely hard in this very stressful time, and i would like to thank all the team for their help.

In all my time i have never dealt with a company as horrendous as this, they trade under many names so please do your research and look on trustpilot. We booked to stay in April which was cancelled due to COVID and then asked to move the dates, I told them we could move the dates as long as they were still within school holidays (like for like with our original booking) They offered an alternative and then tried to charge us and additional £400 which was clearly ridiculous. After countless emails and 0 responses and time spent waiting on the phone on hold, i finally get an email on 12th June saying a refund will be processed and i will be contacted. Well here i am on the 7th of July - another 3 emails sent and not a single word. These people are low-lives, thieves and criminals and have taken advantage of people and operated horrifically and illegally over the last few months. I am almost certain that if i tried to book one of their cottages right now i could do so in minutes and they would take payment straight away. Please do not ever consider using this company.

Looks as though my experience is no different to the countless others (have a look on Trust Pilot!). I booked via 'Best of Wales' Cottages which is a children company and part of the Original Cottages umbrella. Was originally told we could move our booking to an alternative date this year due to not being able to travel thanks to Covid-19, so I requested a weekend in November, only to be told it wasn't available (note- the property still showing as available across multiple websites a full 2 weeks later) Since my reply email 2 weeks ago asking what my options are seeing as they cannot accommodate our original booking and are now falsely claiming alternative dates aren't available I've been ignored. I sent a follow up email a few days ago which they are also ignoring. I'll follow in the footsteps of those that have reported them to CMA. Absolutely appalling company, not one to wish ill fortune on others but in this case I truly hope the business doesn't survive the crisis as I for one will never use them again. Charlatans and thieves.

I thought I would leave a review based on a booking in January which was unable to be fulfilled due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Wales being closed until Juky. The communications from the company were not great for the first 2 months during lockdown, but I understand why this would be the case with so many people to deal with. After making it clear (via the phone and a 1 hour wait on hold) that I couldn't rebook as the rental was for a one off special occasion I was given a refund as the cottage own had agreed. I think this should have been automatic given the contract couldn't be fulfilled, but that's a separate point. The staff I spoke to sounded very tired, but were helpful & polite. I was refunded initially in full minus the admin fee of £40 which I challenged as it's a bit unfair as I wasn't the one to break the contract. I would have much preferred to go on the holiday however that said the outcome for me personally was satisfactory to the point I would book with them again, but only on a credit card as I feel this does help protect you from a failure of contract. I hope everyone else has the same outcome. 🙏

Please don't believe a word they say. We had a booking for 20th of April via this company also trading as: Marsden Devon lets Original Cottages Discovery Holiday Homes Cornish Holidays Best of wales and many more names... Their behaviour during Covid was nothing short of illegal. -We contacted them early April to assess the booking situation (no reply) -We emailed and left vm (no reply) -They cut of the phones and blocked us on facebook and sent us an email saying they wefe busy and would get back to everyone!!! -Our booking date comes and goes.... NO REPLY!! -AFTER our booking date they replied to say they had cancelled the booking, but we couldnt get a refund only a TRANSFER (which by the way THE PRICE HAD GONE UP!) - emiled us again to say NO refunds at all -EMAILED us again and stated if we did not pay the balance we were liable for it! Still not had a refund it is 20th of JUNE. It is now the law to give a full refund due to COVID -they know this but they are still trying to trick people onto vouchers or re booking for the future when they are not liable by law to refund. We get a phone call today to say they will refund us but THEY ARE KEEPING £100 as we cancelled the booking!! We didn't they did!! They would have got the staff furlow pay, and the grants, as would the letting owners , plus they are likely to have a bumper year ahead with brute staying home, so there is no reason to keep our money for a service they did not provide and are obliged by law to refund in full. Please please heed these genuine warnings and book with a reputable company or even air bnb who issued full and immediate refunds in March!!!