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?

Interesting that booking.com was good because I know that cottages.com use them to advertise their properties.

Have to praise Tregenna Castle in St Ives for their fab customer service. Before I'd got the chance they actually called me and offered a full refund there and then over the phone. The guy was absolutely lovely, and this means we will definitely visit them again once we can. Really impressed.

Rubbish Sykes cottages. Yes they have said exactly the same to me this morning regarding a refund. They are refunding just over half of what we have paid and keeping back as a ‘goodwill gesture’ the remaining £200 towards any further holidays we book with them. ‘Goodwill gesture ?? this is OUR money. Why oh why would we want to re book with this company that I’m sure will go tits up after covid-19 comes to an end. We are hopefully going to reclaim back on our credit card.

Loads of companies are doing this because they would go bust if they didn’t. It’s inconvenient but I don’t know why people refuse to understand this. The company’s own insurance doesn’t cover the losses either.

Offering to move it is the best they can do without winding up the business and making all staff redundant etc.

My company is in a similar boat, I was furloughed immediately and a skeleton staff is talking to customers. Our suppliers have not refunded us - there are no ongoing sales so refunds for all would scupper the business.

@Makegoodchoices and that may be so, but family finances are also on the brink. I respect the companies like some theatres that have been very open and said "you're entitled to a refund, but it would really help us if you took a credit note instead" but two travel companies I've had to deal with have been very deceitful and one outright lied about my rights, one even cancelled my flights without my permission meaning I would have to pay £400, so they can keep their commission (thankfully I got it reversed).

Unfortunately the ball is in the customer's court, we are entitled to refunds, lying or manipulating us to protect a business is not right, they should open up a dialogue with customers, and just be honest.

True - but they also don’t know the answers - that’s really the only thing they can say if you want truth. Most are delaying as they literally have no idea what to say.

They can afford to give a refund if only a small percentage of customers want it (but they don’t know how many will), or if they can start working again soon - but of course they don’t know that either. They’re in an impossible situation too.

And I say this as someone who was treated pretty shabbily by their employer, and will probably be made redundant due to all these unknowns.

I haven’t booked with Sykes but just stumbled upon this and had a read as I’m looking for something later this year. I fed won’t use them now and I’ll let others know on the holiday pages I admin.

The least they can do make is keep in touch with their customers. I was due to travel on the 6th April and they have ignore 19 emails from me since. that, by any standard is unacceptable. At the moment I view them as having effectively stolen my money.

@Piggywaspushed I agree, my company is doing a dreadful job of communicating and that will make things far worse and will be a contributing factor in me getting made redundant I expect. No excuse when you’ve contacted the company directly for them not to respond.

So many people are trying to use social media instead - skeleton staff will not be covering that.
At least having emailed you have a trail of non communication to show them how piss-poor they’ve been. I do hope you get your money back.

To be honest the only thing Sykes are responding to are Twitter DMs! But I am not getting into Social Media ping pong for all to see.

Thank you for your kind thoughts !

We had a holiday booked to travel in July and had only paid min deposit, despite calling, emailing and cancelling our booking well within the correct cancellation period, no reply!!. So for anyone affected please note the payment is set up to auto deduct from your bank or credit card!!. We contacted the bank and requested a stop payment and cancelled our debit card and requested a new card, this means if they try to take the payment they wont be able to!!. Also Regulation 55 of the payment services regulations 2009, Parts 3&4. States any card provider/bank that fails to obey customer instructions to stop any payment must refund any payments that occur after the request to cancel is made!. CAll Your bank and follow up in email stating this law and your instruction

@TalkingIntoTheEther I have sent you a pm

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-52483453

interesting BBC article saying the regulatory body has advised consumers are entitled to a full refund in these circumstances, sounds like they are specifically talking about sykes given the references to vouchers and rebooking during more expensive periods.

I was just about to post that link. The Sykes message has been amended to say they are “processing” refunds

Does anyone have an email address for Sykes? I want to cancel but if I try to do it online it wants me to click to agree the cancellation fee which I’m not willing to do

here you go once

[email protected]

good luck, no doubt they will try to find a way to behave unscrupulously with the refunds too!

See if the Martin Lewis site can advise you, it might be illegal, he opened up the airline issue

Martin Lewis is mates with the CEO of Sykes!

The CMA are taking up cases : they have said today that this is illegal: people are also having problems with wedding bookings and , separately, nurseries charging big holding fees.

I got a phone call form a nice girl at Sykes but nothing since.

Did anyone see Martin Lewis last night? The position on refunds has been made very clear, he mentioned Sykes by name, and it was stated despite what contracts might say refunds are due (I'm simplifying what was said quite a bit but that was the gist!)

I heard that was what he said. I still await news from Sykes.

Does this mean they can't hide behind 'but the owner won't..' ??

I've booked with English country cottages for end of July. So far only paid £25 deposit. Rang to cancel and I would be liable to £300 to make up the deposit. This is in their terms and conditions. I'm tempted to freeze my card. I asked the lady on phone what happens if I refuse to pay £300, and she said it's referred to their credit chasing team. Could there actually be any implications?
Not sure if to formally cancel yet in writing , refusing to pay the £300. Balance due in 3 weeks and is over a grand.

@CottonSock I think as it stands normal T&Cs apply as there's not reason to suggest yet that July will be an issue. If you cancel at this stage you are liable for the deposit, whether they would chase is another matter. If you pay the deposit and then it's cancelled you'll get a full refund, but if it's still open in July you'll be in the same situation now in that you are liable. If you know you won't want to go no matter what it's difficult decide what to do.

Haven't read the whole thread. Hope this helps.

www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/holiday-companies-face-legal-action-over-refund-delays/

Suggest involving your MP.

Our holiday cottage firm has said if we book next year it'll it'll be the same price. We've accepted.

CMA has issued very clear guidance on this. www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds