Holiday cottage for 16 in September - help!

[UndercoverMother]

Unwisely I have found myself in charge of organising our annual get together for my uni friends. This year there are sixteen of us + four babies.

All great so far except I know I have left it rather late and am now really struggling to find a cottage that can accommodate us all - preferably for under £1800. The weekend is fixed as 19-21 September, location wise anywhere no further than 2.5 hours drive from London.

I have trawled the most obvious websites but nothing suitable is coming up, so if you do know of anything or anywhere that might be any good, I would be very grateful!

Many thanks

Peak District do you? It's only just big enough for 16 adults though - 2 would have to use the sofa bed.

Has a shared pool with a private session too!

Very nice.

It's a shade over £1800 but there are loads of places which offer discounts - some alumni associations do, some credit cards, NUT, RSPB if any of you are members - ask round your group. If you only got 5% off it would make a difference!

There is one near Ipswich too but the website's fallen over again (it does it a lot lately)

Ipswich one.

Under £1400 (but no pool)

Oooh, mmj's first one has almost all en suite bathrooms - I do like that one

Hoorah - thank you so much, these look fantastic! Am going to email to aforesaid uni friends and tell them this is the one (St Audreys).

And have learned my lesson the hard way....I only offered to organise as I was about to start maternity leave and (ha ha ha) thought I'd have loads of free time!!!

through MN discounts you get 7% off @ cottages 4 u

click on "discounts' at top (white text out of blue)

ring them and ask them what is available and what would be suitable - then beat the price down. Don't pay a deposit until everyone has agreed.

the one looks lovely, if there is any space left I don't mind sharing I'm free that weekend

beat the price down???? Surely you jest, Wotz!!!

Am that I forgot MN does a discount too

That property is also with bookcottages dot com and some others, just google the name and see who's marketing it.

I would ring around and "ask" nicely for their best price

Well this just gets better and better!

Thanks so much for the discount info, will do as you all suggest and will report back

I will be thinking of you all as I relax in the "elegant drawing room" in September. SNoraWotzThat, sorry no space for you unless you want to be nanny / butler for the weekend, I'm sure we could squeeze you in!!!

Thank you again for all your help

Wotz, it's all the same company, just different websites - if you look carefully they all have the same screen layout and all go back to the same address.

I work for them, and we don't do deals, I'm afraid.

lol

You sneeky lot having different websites - lol
Are the rates the same on all of them?

We had a family booking which we had to cancel and I think their T&C's are rubbish TBH (not personal your T&C ww)

The full balance had to be paid prior to 6 months in advance unlike a flight package holiday @ approx 10 weeks before travel. And I can't find the T&C's Booking Conditions on the sites now to check it. Arrgghhhh.

Well they should be, but I just looked at bookcottages.com and it quotes £2800 for St Audry's that weekend - we have been having website problems but I think that one (although "powered by C4U") isn't actually maintained by us.

Who did you book with, Wotz? Ours are due 8 weeks before you go. (Unless you book flights with us, those are payable in full upfront) Why have you had to cancel? If illness or something cancellation insurance should cover it.

family rift long story
anyway, it was loss of deposit - might have been english cottages, I can't remember as my mum booked it.

I really can't find any links to Booking Conditions on the MN offer page or on the cot4u pages.

how about oxfordshire
or this in lyme regis - pool table!

They are hard to find - took me ages and I am quite used to the site - anyway here:

scroll down to section 7, there's a box with cancellation charges - if you cancel other than for illness/bereavement/jury service/other unforeseeable reason you forfeit your deposit if it's more than 8 weeks ahead, and then more on a sliding scale as you get closer to the start date. I think that's pretty standard with most holiday booking companies?

If you look at it from their point of view, if you book at one point and then change your mind you may well have stopped someone else booking for that week, and there's no guarantee they'll be able to re-let - we never hold properties while people to go away and talk to other party members, for the same reason. Obviously with some properties people are queueing up to book them but we can't differentiate (there are 1000s on the system).

Shame you had to cancel (and for such a tiresome reason )

Oooh, those are lovely, popmum - I'd forgotten about holiday-rentals (we've used them in Spain)

lol at the chateau in Chipping Norton though

i know they have some great places - we've used them in hereford and in france, both v good and v accurate descriptions.

WW - umm flight inclusive holidays? Are they AITO or something?

Was it an overseas trip then?

We are ATOL bonded I think - if an airline goes bust you are covered with us - but otherwise we just act as an agent and book flights for you, eg with easyjet, and they are payable in full up front as if you booked yourself on the internet, and that's down to your individual travel insurance (which also won't cover you for changing your mind)

We're not a package tour operator; we book accommodation/ferries/flights/car hire but as separate items.