


North Cornwall Holiday Cottages | John Bray Cornish Holidays
Based on authentic user experiences
James
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Lovely Place let down by sub-standard cleaning poor communication
Paid over 2000 to stay in Albany House in Cornwall The property was well appointed comfortable and well preseneted We were travelling with our two children 1yo and 3yo On our arrival on the Friday afternoon we noticed a few things that suggested that the place hadn t been cleaned thoroughly there was a dirty used glass on the shelf in the living area a broken bowl on the shelf in the kitchen and the worktops in the kitchen were sticky After we had unpacked we noticed that our 1yo s hands and knees were black from where he had been crawling on the floor in the kitchen living area I attempted to contact Sykes John Bray to raise the issue as we just presumed that it had been missed however by this time the office was closed We contacted them again the next morning and the property inspector very quickly arrived to inspect and see what could be done The property inspector was very dismissive of the issues and implied that we were making a fuss out of nothing blamed the sticky tops on the cleaning product used and the dirty floors on the fact that they were slate wood and thats just how they are The property inspector begrudgingly agreed to get the property re-cleaned and that this would happen towards the end of the day which we were happy with The cleaner s turned up at approximately 3pm and asked we just need to hoover yes we explained that no we would like the floors cleaned and filthy rug removed By this time we d cleaned the kitchen ourselves with some Mr Muscle we had brought with us The cleaners then proceeded to vaccume the floors and then wipe them over with a Refillable Flash Speed Mop the kind of thing that you would use every day in between cleans and promptly left We attempted to contact Sykes John Bray again to explain that this wasn t satisfactory but by this time it went to an out of hours service I explained the situation and that we wouldn t feel comfortable letting our 1yo crawl around on floors in this state The operator said that there was nothing more that they could do until Monday half way through our holiday I contested that I wasn t happy with this and asked if I were to get the floors cleaned myself if I could be reimbursed for this I was told that I would be if I kept receipts for the products used and took photo s to evidence this I went out and bought cleaning products spent over an hour thoroughly vaccuming and cleaning the floors got through five mop buckets of water flash floor cleaner solution the floors were clean and we were happy that we could walk about without getting dirty From then on we continued to have a great time enjoying the fantastic Cornwall coast On the Thursday evening we received an email from Sykes saying that the property had already been cleaned twice and that there would be no reimbursment I went into the local Sykes John Bray office to mention this I explained that I had photo s etc clearly showing the state that it was in however there seemed to be no way of getting these to the office staff Although they had email addresses these all go through the Sykes systems first and get filtered processed depending on the nature of them The property inspector turned up at the end and rolling their eyes said what s wrong now In the end I gave up I m not out to try to get money off I just wanted my family to be able to enjoy our holiday I won t be using John Bray Sykes again as this is the third place that we have stayed with sub-standard cleaning and it just lets the places down Hopefully more owners will take heed of this and either manage them selves through Air B B or go to Port Isaac Bay Holidays who actually seem to care
Helen
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Customer service disappointing and unprofessional
The customer service we have experienced has been very disappointing although I am not completely surprised by this We have stayed at the property a couple of times and are aware that there are numerous maintenance issues that need addressing and not much care shown to the occupants eg no milk or teabags and not even salt this time Various kitchen equipment not working including coffee machine and grill bedside light broken top bedroom window hard to open but we decided to live with this as we didn t want to disrupt the holiday However on our final night we had a flood in one of the bedrooms with water pouring through the ceiling resulting in the occupants including a baby having to move rooms in the early hours coupled with the fact that we had to leave by 9am the following day not a good end to the holiday On our first day at the property John Bray brought a bottle of wine as a gesture of goodwill for a damp patch that had been repaired but were awaiting the decorators in the bedroom The leak had obviously not been fixed We reported it at 9am the following morning our last This was the earliest we could report it I emailed on our return as it caused a lot of inconvenience and a bad end to the holiday The reply we had was very unprofessional just stating that as we didn t tell them during the stay they could do nothing no customer care shown at all I kept explaining that it happened on the last day so this was not possible and I was only expecting to be compensated for the inconvenience of the flood They continued with this response even stating that as we accepted the wine and had been told of the repair the owner would not compensate us This is completely untrue as we never would of accepted the wine if they had told us there was the possibility of a flood They then advised that we should take the owners to court as they could do nothing Its a very sad situation and if I had read these reviews I probably wouldn t of bothered contacting them as I have completely wasted my time We are obviously not going to waste more time by taking them to court The property is one of the only old ones left in Polzeath and we are very fond of it and feel very sad at the lack of care given With the amount of rental generated by the owners there should be no excuse in maintaining it to an acceptable level to rent out At the moment this is not the case and I hope that the owners are fully aware of these issues
Mrs M Smith
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Unhelpful customer relations
I have just tried to cancel our holiday due to serious illness They were cold unpleasant and unhelpful
Mike Hazell
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Sykes holidays disgraceful customer care
Sykes holidays who now own John Bray holidays have destroyed the excellent customer care experienced when this was run as a family business rather than a money making machine We occupied Meggizy a stunning property overlooking Polzeath bay for one week in June 2022 The house is purpose built with many integrated features heating blinds security etc all controlled via an iPad However the previous occupants took the iPad home with them and John Bray were aware of this before our holiday week commenced Despite this we were left to constantly progress resolution It took John Bray six days to deliver an unusable iPad it only had a 7 charge and no charging cable Shambolic customer service including calls from members who had no idea of our problem Since returning home we have received an extremely weak apology that included a compensation offer of 75 Our holiday cost just under 5k and we were without any ability to control the complex integral accommodation systems for six of our seven day hire I rejected the compensation offer on 16th June 2022 John Bray Sykes holidays have failed to make any further contact
James Weaver
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
John Bray Holidays now operating as
John Bray Holidays now operating as Sykes Cottages have gone downhill we are about to go on holiday with them and no picks up on their help desk you have to communicate with them on their new portal which doesn t work and even if you get through to reservations they cannot connect you to their support team If you are looking to let your house you should use another firm
Christina
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Shocking Utterly shocking
We paid almost 1800 pounds for a self catering rental in Port Isaac Cornwall with John Bray known as Folly 2 Despite multiple issues at the property both John Bray and their parent company Sykes have refused to engage The contact details provided at the property itself weren t even in use The emergency contact number was unobtainable I have followed their complaints procedure even though it is hidden and submitted photographic evidence I even emailed their Chief Executive Graham Donoghue who has also so far failed to respond to any of my messages We have had an utterly shocking experience and I would strongly urge any other customer to exercise extreme caution when booking with them based on what happened to us
Mark
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
No idea where to start -10 stars
No idea where to start The house was not cleaned properly the fire and fire pit were full of old ash the garden was not maintained the laundry bags were left on the floor the dishwasher was full the nespresso machine was full of old dirty left over water and a previous person had plucked their eye brows and left the lashes on the wall Our daughter sat on her bedroom floor to unpack her bag was we have what looked like sand fleas or bed bugs jumping all over her Now to be realistic problems do happen in holiday rentals and we as a family are very accepting of that However it s how the paid and expensive professional agency that represents the holiday home owner responds that counts John Bray lied constantly let themselves in twice unannounced did a re-clean that was not even a clean said they d come and washed the wall that had the eye lashes on it and hadn t didn t clean the fire pit and it took 4 days to action anything Such a shame for the Port Isaac lovely holiday home that was let down by a disaster called JOHN BRAY NO SERVICE
SDA
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
The trouble is
The trouble is the reports provided to owners are almost incapable of reconciliation perhaps deliberately so and sadly the staff at JBCH Sykes can make head nor tail of them either perhaps also deliberately so The net result is that significant sums are taken from the owners illegitimately and nobody and I mean nobody at JBCH Sykes can work out how much or why This is a problem for JBCH Sykes because one day someone will work it out I did and get the staff to understand the scale of the problem I did not At that point they ll understand they owe the owners so much money they ll fold Sad really but I feel lucky we identified the problem reported it to them were ignored and got out Bon chance
Ian Robinson
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Awful Support Desk
Wish i d looked at TP before booking just want an answer to a simple but important question prior to going on holiday yet they don t actually seem to respond to any queries Now hoping the holiday is ok as I have no faith in this lot if anything goes wrong -
Gini Gregory
6732 reviews
N/A
10 months ago
Awful experience
Since being bought out by Sykes holidays I can only say how poor the service is Systems that are not fit for purpose and people that just don t care when they make a mistake No willingness to address their errors just corporate clap trap higher fees and incapable agents What a shame as John Bray had such a good name but no longer