Sykescottages.co.uk

A few months back I had to cancel my booking with Sykes Cottages due to family illness. I spoke to a wonderful lady in their main office called Sally and at a distressing time for me and my family she was more sympathetic, understanding and helpful than she had any right to be. At the time of booking I was offered insurance to cover cancellations but I knocked it back because I was willing to take the risk due to the price being less than 300 quid. I was trying to keep within my budget so I opted out of all the extras. It rankled enough that I had to pay a compulsory 35 quid booking fee. Not long before departure disaster hit in the form of a medical problem and there was no way I could commit to the dates booked & chiselled in stone.

Following the letter of the booking conditions law, I was in a word screwed. But luckily when I rang Sally she followed the spirit of the law. She went above and beyond and made several calls to the man who owned the log cabin near the Peak District we were meant to be staying at. To begin with it appeared like I would be out of pocket with nothing but a lecture on the merits of travel insurance. She obviously felt my distress as we’re not rich and it would hurt to be out of pocket and after a number of phone calls and emails the owner was good enough to let us stay at the cabin at a different date later in the year at no extra cost than what we had already paid.

We returned not so long ago and the first thing I did was send a handwritten letter to Sykes praising Sally who dealt with us right the way through. The log cabin itself was first-rate although the time of the year was a little colder than the time of the year we had originally booked.

In the interests of being balanced, if I did have to have a moan about something it would be the personal photos around the property. There were family photos and even a wedding photo about the place and while this wasn’t a major issue it did make the place feel like it wasn’t ours for the week we stayed. It made us feel a little bit like guests at a friend’s house who had to tip-toe around being careful not to break anything!