HOW TO BOOK A TROUBLE-FREE COTTAGE HOLIDAY

We all have our idea of the perfect holiday cottage or apartment – whether it stands by the village pond and has roses around the door, or a contemporary vibe and a view over the sea. But how do you realise your dream, and more importantly in these uncertain times, how do you make sure everything goes smoothly? Here is our booker’s guide.

1 Don’t hesitate much longer or you may miss out. The Prime Minister’s road map out of lockdown is subject to delay but is “irreversible”. Selfcatering accommodation should be open again on April 12, and even if there is a delay then surely it’s a racing certainty it won’t be pushed beyond the end of that month. Cottage agents in popular areas had virtually fully booked already for the school summer holidays and since the announcement on Monday, there has been another rush to book. Pressure on the first week in May (spring bank holiday) and the first week in June (school half term starts on May 29) is already building.

2 On the right we list a dozen of the best booking agents. The advantage of booking through one of these is that the company sets and monitors standards. If you have specific needs or questions, or if you have a problem while you are there, it should be set up to deal with these and answer efficiently. It is responsible for the description of the property and fulfilling the contract so you have more legal comeback if there are any problems.

3 There are plenty of owners offering excellent properties through platforms such as airbnb.co.uk and vrbo.com – in these cases your booking is direct with the owners rather than the website, so while you do have some protection, it is different from booking with an agency. One issue here is to avoid the risk of fraudsters who pose as owners on the sites and can perpetrate inventive scams. To protect yourself, the key thing is to be sure to follow the website’s booking and payment instructions to the letter. Always pay through the site’s scheme and immediately report any “owner” who tries to persuade you to pay in a different way – no matter how convincing they seem.

4

Check the small print. It’s boring, but you need to be sure what the cancellation and refund policy is in case you have to amend or cancel your booking because of Covid. Some agents and owners require you to have cancellation insurance – double check this too: does it include claims related to the pandemic?

5 Check online reviews – both for the property and the agency (which may flag up whether there have been issues over refunds during the pandemic, for example). When checking reviews specific to individual accommodation, it may be worth putting the name and address of the property into a search engine to see if that throws up any information – as well as looking at any reviews on the agency site. I always find it helpful to look at the one-star reviews as well as the overall average score. They tend to highlight any persistent issues which may or may not be problems important to you.

6

Location is critical and is worth triple-checking before you book. Not everything is mentioned in the descriptions. How close is the nearest road? Is the garden overlooked? Does the owner live next door? Zooming in on the satellite view on Google Maps is one of the best ways of doing this.

7

If you have small children, don’t assume the property will have been properly checked for safety. A good agent will do this, but it is always wise to double check, especially if there is a pool – either private or shared – or other water feature such as a pond or river near the property. Roads might be a risk. Check fencing, gates, steep drops, steps and staircases. As for cots, I always preferred to take my own travel version rather than rely on the one supplied.