Sykes Holiday Cottages - refusing refunds

[inmylifeIlovedthemall]

I am wondering if anyone else is caught up in the ‘no refunds’ policy that Sykes Holiday cottages are adopting in relation to Coronavirus.

Despite Boris imploring us to stay at home and numerous representitives of the Travel Industry asking us not to travel to tourist hotspots, Sykes are refusing to allow cancellations and refund holiday payments. They are offering rebooking options, but at massively increased prices for the same period in 2021.

They have sold Insurance alongside their holidays, but those policies do not cover the current situation.

So for me the choice seems to be ‘do the right thing’ and stay home, losing the total cost of the holiday.

I was travelling to meet a group of friends & family and all have been able to cancel at no loss to themselves. It just appears to be Sykes taking this stance.

Is anyone else caught up in this? Are there other holiday companies taking the same stance?

I paid by debit card. Sykes are also saying they wouldn't refund unless you had their insurance : we always insure separately (as DH has pre existing medical condition) and hadn't done it yet.

Beginning to worry about much more expensive villa holiday in August now.

I think you can do a chargeback if you paid by debit card.

I didn't take out Sykes insurance as I've already got it through my bank account. I might give them a call tomorrow, although I presume they'll say I can't claim as I've got the option to rebook.

I think their call centres are closed!!

Sorry, I meant Barclays travel insurance! I haven't got a hope in hell of speaking to Sykes!

Oh , got you !

very critical article from the owner of a holiday cottage in Cornwall...

www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/sykes-holiday-cottages-pocketing-money-3992789

There's a thread on the MSE forum complaining about Sykes as well. They aren't coming out of this looking good at all.

Well, good! Hopefully, this will make them see sense.

TalkingIntoTheEther that's shocking. Surely that's theft if they are taking money back from owners and hanging onto it?

I've had a reply from Sykes, nothing they can do so no refund. I've contacted my credit card company to see if I can claim from them so I'll see what they say. Unfortunately it's Virgin so I'm not optimistic!

What twats.

By contrast, the YHA, who are a charity, refunded us in full for the break that we had booked in Cornwall for Easter. It was technically a non-refundable stay, we cancelled before lockdown and they offered without us needing to ask.

We gave them some of it back as a donation.

Please support them when all this is over: they have been nothing but ethical over this.

I had to cancel another holiday tonight, with Booking.com. Again I got an Immediate refund. AFAIK they are also an intermediary and hold the money until after the holiday, then pay the owner.

Just emailed them to request my 'refund' . Very reluctantly. It really grinds my gears that they are calling an account credit a refund.

Canopy and stars are even worse. No refund or rebooking! Just tough luck and claim on insurance.

Our holiday insurance has wriggled out of paying any claims. We've had the same annual policy for several years but as it renewed in January, after the existence of Covid19, they state that it means we are not covered. A lot of these insurance companies are showing their true colours and they are not good.

We've managed to move our holiday in Norfolk from Easter to February half term. The holiday cottage company have also hiked their prices. We had already paid a lot for Easter as we were splashing out a bit and had chosen a lovely cottage on a farm with it's own hot tub. We've had to pay another £200 for February 2021 which should really have been a cheaper date.

We would have been going on holiday this Saturday. I was so looking forward to it. I know it's not a huge sacrifice to have to delay a holiday compared to what some other people are experiencing right now, but it is just another sad thing on top of other sad things.

@PinkSparklyPussyCat re taking money from owners....yes, that's exactly what is happening.

I'm a cottage owner, with Cottages.com. I have shut my cottage for April, 75% certain I'm going to be shutting for May, talking to visitors coming in June.

Cottages.com meanwhile, have already taken the full payment for holidays in April and will pay none of it to me, even where customers have moved their holidays. And yes, they have asked me not to speak to guests and make any offers directly.

So 1) I've lost 40% (minimum) of my revenue for this year. Probably more. And 2) I have lost (valuable) dates for next year.

In that situation being painted as a money grabbing risk to my local community does sting a bit....

I’m astounded that as a past customer of them, I’ve just received this email with promo code encouraging me to book a holiday cottage in the next month:

Time for your next Sykes holiday?
It's been a whole 14 months since your last Sykes booking, we don't know how you've lasted so long without booking another! As a little treat, we'd love to offer you £25 off your next Sykes holiday when you book by 21/4/2020.

Does anyone have an email address for Sykes? I obediently contacted them about asking for their 'refund' and have heard nothing.

The contact us link on their website simply does nothing.

I just got a full refund from Aspects Holidays (Cornwall)

Piggy I used the link and it sent as an email. The email address is [email protected].

We've decided to grudgingly rebook for next year so I'm going to look for a date that's around the same price. It'll be interesting to see what they do if the week we've already postponed to September can't go ahead.

Coffeepot Aspects are really good and have lovely cottages. The only reason we didn't use them this year was because they didn't have the dates we wanted.

Thanks pink . I had a different email address so I'll bombard that one, too!

Piggy are you trying to get your deposit back or your total payment?

There’s a Facebook group set up by unhappy Sykes Cottages customers affected by the cv shutdown. You can find it if you search for Sykes Cottages on Facebook. I’m not affected (although have used them in the past) but noticed it earlier this evening.