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?

Appalled at Sykes!

I had a booking for a large family reunion in May. I was told no refund but if I changed the date, I wouldn’t have to pay the balance until just before new date. I’m sure I did this and saw that the money wouldn’t be taken until March 2021. Have just found out that they took the balance last week despite being aware they can’t provide the holiday I paid for - this is nothing other than theft. I now find out that I can’t use a different date as various family members will not be able to co ordinate dates again in the foreseeable future. So that’s £1400 they’ve got for nothing.
I let a holiday cottage myself - both HomeAway and AirBnB have advised owners to try to be as flexible as possible in the circumstances and return customers money. I have returned all monies, including deposits, as that seems the decent thing to do. It would appear that Sykes think they are big enough to get away with not doing the right thing.

This copied and pasted from the Guardian live blog might be of interest to some chasing a refund....

2m ago 13:35
Martin Belam

Martin Belam

The South East Coast Ambulance Service has this morning issued a statement about a fake voicemail message that is being widely circulated on WhatsApp and causing distress.

The service say that “The alarmist information being shared in the message is not correct. We would urge people to disregard the message and not share it further.”

The WhatsApp message, which purports to be someone who works at the service makes a series of claims that from Thursday ambulances will not make call-outs to people at home suffering from Covid-19 related, that ice rinks are being used as makeshift morgues, and that a third of the deaths in coming weeks will be babies, children and teenagers with no underlying health issues.

While it isn’t possible to precisely forecast who may be affected by Covid-19, so far no country in the world has seen mortality rates from the coronavirus that have led to a third of the victims being young people.

The service’s statement goes on to say “In line with our ongoing plans during this challenging time, we are continuing to follow national guidelines regarding the ambulance response and thank the public for their ongoing support in following the government’s advice.”
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11m ago 13:25
Libby Brooks

Libby Brooks

Nicola Sturgeon has announced a dedicated email address for health and social care workers to report directly to the Scottish government their worries about PPE.

Addressing continuing concerns from healthcare professionals and care workers about the supply and adequacy of PPE, Sturgeon said that her health secretary Jeane Freeman and deputy first minister John Swinney would be meeting the local government association COSLA and other unions this afternoon to discuss in particular care workers’ provision.

Sturgeon said that she believed part of the issue was about building confidence in workers who were not familiar with using the kit, to assure them that the PPE being used currently was adequate.

Freeman insisted that all kit met WHO guidelines and that supplies were adequate for demand, and that “there is no reason why the supplies that we have are not reaching health and social care workers”.
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17m ago 13:20

I am currently look after the Guardian’s live blog. Please do get in touch with me via any of the channels below if you want to share any information or news tips.

Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarahmarshjournalist
Email: [email protected]
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18m ago 13:19
Second Nightingale hospital to open in Birmingham on Friday

The second NHS Nightingale hospital, which has been built at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, is to be opened on Friday, Downing Street has said.

The prime minister’s official spokesman said that it would initially have 500 beds to treat coronavirus patients, with the capacity to expand to 2,000.

“Huge credit should go to all those involved in getting the hospital set up so quickly,” the spokesman said.

He added that the third Nightingale Hospital in Manchester was expected to open in “the next week or so”.
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29m ago 13:08
Helen Pidd

Helen Pidd

Lake District MP Tim Farron is pleading with holiday let owners to stop taking bookings and asking visitors to stay at home ahead of what is usually one of the national park’s busiest weekends.

This comes after an investigation from Cumbria Police found adverts for 300 Lake District homes to rent this week.

Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and Mp for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said:

It’s frankly beggars belief that such a high number of holiday lets are still taking bookings.

To add further insult to injury, we’ve also seen outrageous examples of holiday let owners actively encouraging people who are in the high-risk category to ignore the government’s medical advice and travel up to the Lakes.

Most holiday lets will be able to access a £10,000 lump sum as part of the small business grant fund – so there is no reason to be putting lives at risk here

To anyone planning on making the trip up here this bank holiday, or any other time during this pandemic – the Lake District will still be here when this crisis is over, but your loved ones might not be if you choose to ignore the medical advice.

OOOOOPS! Apologies for accidental massive post! ill try again with just the relevant bit!

29m ago 13:08
Helen Pidd

Helen Pidd

Lake District MP Tim Farron is pleading with holiday let owners to stop taking bookings and asking visitors to stay at home ahead of what is usually one of the national park’s busiest weekends.

This comes after an investigation from Cumbria Police found adverts for 300 Lake District homes to rent this week.

Farron, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats and Mp for Westmorland and Lonsdale, said:

It’s frankly beggars belief that such a high number of holiday lets are still taking bookings.

To add further insult to injury, we’ve also seen outrageous examples of holiday let owners actively encouraging people who are in the high-risk category to ignore the government’s medical advice and travel up to the Lakes.

Most holiday lets will be able to access a £10,000 lump sum as part of the small business grant fund – so there is no reason to be putting lives at risk here*

To anyone planning on making the trip up here this bank holiday, or any other time during this pandemic – the Lake District will still be here when this crisis is over, but your loved ones might not be if you choose to ignore the medical advice.

Cottages.com have emailed me to say they’re giving me e credits to use against a future booking and refused to refund. I’ve replied asking for a refund again saying owners are getting rates relief and are concerned about the way customers are being treated which is bad for their reputation.

We have a similar problem with a cottage we had booked in west wales starting this Saturday. Cottage owners never even contacted us to cancel, they let us do all the leg work. I explained that we wouldn't be able to reschedule as this was a last family holiday for a while as the older kids fly the nest to pastures new from middle of this year and we had no idea what their new lives would bring. I've been told by cottage owner and agency that will only refund 70%, they refuse to refund deposit. Sent then a link to the 'Which?' article - which is clear that we have a right to full refund as the cottage is closed for business, but they refuse.

www.which.co.uk/news/2020/03/coronavirus-how-are-my-uk-holiday-plans-affected/

No idea what my next steps are! Small claims court? Any advice appreciated!

Small claims court is surprisingly easy and can be done online. I suspect once they receive the paperwork they’ll pay up.

We are having exactly the same problem with Oliver's Travels and according to Trust Pilot aren't alone. Say they're the agent for the booking, won't send us the contract that they say I am bound by with the villa owner, now not replying to emails... It's just appalling customer service. Will never use them again and would absolutely urge others not to.

Interesting read on today's guardian about Sykes and other similar companies....

www.theguardian.com/money/2020/apr/15/a-cancelled-holiday-cottage-but-why-no-option-for-a-refund

I paid minimal deposit with Sykes some months ago for July. Full payment due in June. I suspect we will be able to travel then but am obviously not sure how I will feel at that point. I have the Sykes insurance. Would it make sense to just cancel now do you think?

The bottom line is that all holiday cottages are CLOSED! Surely its pretty straightforward. In business, if you can't supply a service, you should refund or offer to reschedule? I really can't see what's complicated about it. The agents (like Sykes and cottages.com etc) and cottage owners refusing to fully refund are very, very short sighted. Most travel is by recommendation and reputation (either a personal recommendation or using something like trip adviser) and so by putting complicated rules/costly in place, these companies and businesses aren't doing themselves any favours!

I think those companies who don’t refund should be blacklisted, names and shamed in every way possible.

If you pay by credit card, will that not get you a refund?

It shouldn't matter how you paid under these circumstances.

That aside, it seems to me that even those who paid by credit card aren't getting results.

There was actually a really unsympathetic piece about this in The Guardian yesterday : it seems the uber middle class press only have sympathy for people who were due to go abroad. They basically said accept the credit note, whilst not seeming to understand that this will get a bad company repeat business and that Sykes have pushed the price of bookings up so much that a rebooking would get you nothing like a relative property. It made my blood boil to be honest. They actually named cottages.com as if they were good guys!
www.theguardian.com/travel/2020/apr/16/can-i-get-refund-on-uk-holiday-accommodation-travel-insurance-covid-19

In addition, I am not in the mood to rebook a holiday anywhere when no one knows when we might re enter lockdowns.

I heard from Sykes on about the 9th April, 3 days after my booking commenced saying I was due a (partial) refund . Not heard anything since. I suspect the owner is not paying ball, especially since she doesn't pick up the phone.

I used to work for a ticket agency which frequently refused refunds, often we would get something called a 'chargeback' whereby the card holder (credit or debit card) had asked their bank to retrieve the money. There was nothing we could do to stop it, the banks simply took the money back and credited the customers themselves- might be worth doing with your banks?

Here's a bit more info on chargebacks -
www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/visa-mastercard-chargeback/

A lot of people have been unsuccessful with this. It seems Barclays are doing this ; other banks are less responsive. I might try and see what happens.

Just to update on where we are at with Sykes - we cancelled our card so they couldn't take the remaining balance (only paid £20 deposit). Initially we did this as we hoped it would prompt them to ring us so we could discuss our options in light of next year's increased costs/reduced availability on our part. However, they never rang us so we emailed them explaining why we were struggling to rebook and their response didn't address our points at all.

Since then the 'credit note' crap came to light, I couldn't believe how shifty they were being towards both customers and owners so there is no way we are going to complete our booking now. It's a shame as we really liked the cottage and we would have gone at another time, however there was simply no effort on their part to even discuss the booking despite phone calls and emails from us.

Ah that's a shame piggy, we used to get it from all banks so I wonder if they are currently being cautious with this in light of fragile Corona-economics. Fingers crossed for you though.

There's a cottage we use that is advertised across multiple platforms, we used Sykes last time, from now on I will use hotels.com, they refunded (a different) break no issues whatsoever all online, even got my points back from Tesco.

Useful posts, thanks.

Been following this thread as I've a cottage booked with Sykes in July. I follow them on instagram and they've updated their page, I will try to screenshot it.

You couldn't make it up... they have just sent me an email pointing out that I am 'due to travel before the 14th April'....

I booked holidays with YHA, booking.com and Airbnb and got all my money back no quibble. I think we all need to remember who the goodies are for future reference! (And Airbnb have been getting such bad press recently).

Yes booking.com excellent with us too

Hotels.com refunded our accommodation as well, it was part paid for with tesco clubcard vouchers. Even though tesco said in the smallprint that they dont refund points if a hotel is cancelled, they did refund them straight away when i requested it.

Airbnb started off a bit dodgy with my booking ie. said the owners had declined a refund for my booking when I had previously emailed the owners and explained my situation (3 month shielding) and the owners had been more than happy to offer full refund.
However, Airbnb did come good in the end and with further form filling, I got a full refund.

Looks like Sykes are changing tac, possibly due to adverse publicity.