Get a cancelled flight refund from Sykes Cottages during Covid

Sykes Holiday Cottages is one of the largest short-term home rental agencies in Europe. Sykes is owned by Private Equity firm Vitruvian Partners who bought Sykes Cottages in 2019 for £375 million pounds. During Covid, many millions of customers had holiday rentals cancelled and were left chasing refunds from Sykes Cottages and other online travel agents like BudgetAir, eDreams and Opodo. In April 2020, the BBC wrote an article exposing some of the cancelled booking refund problems experienced by Sykes customers.

The UK regulator the CMA is even conducting an investigation into whether airlines breached consumer rights laws during Coronavirus. But unlike airlines, travel agents aren't regulated.

How to get a refund on a cancelled Sykes flight?

If you're one of the many unlucky Sykes Cottages customers waiting on a cancelled flight refund due to Coronavirus travel bans, you have a few options. Some options require more time than others, and with varying chances of working.

What are all the flight refund options available during Covid-19?

Option 1: Contact Sykes Cottages

You can call, email or use social media to get in touch directly with Sykes. Unfortunately, this is what everyone else is doing (2 million others) so you'll have to join the queue.

Option 2: Use a complaints website

These sites help you send a polite letter of complaint, based on EU law. Unfortunately this can be like screaming at a brick wall (or banging your head against it), since a lot of the time the airline has already reimbursed the travel agent so they claim it's not their problem anymore.

Even worse, if you do win your case through a complaints site, they'll take 25% of your refund, leaving you with no holiday and no money to book one in the future.

Option 3: Chargeback on your credit card

You can ask your bank or credit card company to process a refund, also called a chargeback. During Coronavirus, this has become more difficult, and can take months.

Option 4: Take legal action against the travel agent

By using a licensed solicitor to commence legal proceedings against the travel agent, you can get them to sit up and pay attention.

1. The solicitor gathers details of the case using our online platform (5 minutes)
2. The solicitor prepares a letter before action (no time or effort for you, handled by a licensed solicitor)
3. The letter is sent by the solicitor to the travel agent (no time or effort for you)

If you want a licensed solicitor to take legal action against the travel agent, that's your strongest option. It's also more affordable than you think (starting at £149) by using Lawhive.

(Lawhive is the UK's largest online network of licensed solicitors, on average costing ⅓ of the cost of a high street law firm and consistently gets rated 5 stars by customers.)

With Lawhive, you get the advantages of a licensed solicitor helping you get your money back, but for a fraction of the cost of going to a law firm. Like a complaints website, Lawhive is completely online, but it's much cheaper since you won't have to give away 25% of your refund.

If you booked directly through the airline, you can ask your solicitor to commence legal proceedings against them instead.

What else can Lawhive help with?

Lawhive's network of solicitors can also help you resolve neighbour disputes, or a dispute with your tenant or landlord, create or dispute a will, get a divorce, and negotiate custody arrangements, all online at a third of the cost of a high street law firm.