Our Guides

How to Book

Booking with Coquet Cottages

Please read the guidance below on how to book with us, how to check availability, when your balance is due, how to pay, etc.

You can book online, by email or over the telephone.  Our availability chart is live and up to date.  We’ve made it easy for you to browse our holiday properties, check availability and book online without having to call us – however, we’re here for you if you have any queries, either about the properties themselves or to check availability or anything else you’d like to speak to us about.  We know all our holiday properties intimately and as we’re all locals, we know the area very well indeed, so should be able to answer any query you may have.

 

How to Search for Availability

Please use our availability checker on the home page or visit ‘Our Cottages’. Initially, you can enter the area you are interested in and/or the dates you would like. The next page will take you to a more detailed search where you can narrow down your criteria. If you are flexible with your dates but you have certain criteria the cottage must meet, then use the search filter for that and leave the dates blank. If you have set dates but you are flexible on location and criteria, just search for your chosen dates.

If you have performed your search above using specific dates, those are the cottages that will be available for what you have chosen. To check prices, click on the cottage page then click to check ‘Prices and Availability’. The availability calendar will then appear for you to see the prices.

If you have performed a search based on criteria only, you will likely have a selection of cottages which meet your criteria. To check availability for each one, you will need to visit each webpage and click to check ‘Prices and Availability’. The availability calendar will then appear for you to see the available dates for the cottages and the prices.   If you need any help, please don’t hesitate to email or call us or read on to find out more information on how to book with us.

 

How to Book your Chosen Cottage

Once you have chosen the cottage you wish to book, click on the availability checker on the right side of the page when on the cottage webpage. This will take you to the availability calendar for that cottage, where you can browse availability, check prices then book online.

Reserving Dates

We are very happy to hold dates for you pending confirmation that you and your party can definitely make it. We can hold dates for you for a maximum of 24 hours without any obligation (possibly less if the holiday is less than 14 days away).

However please note that payment of the deposit or full amount (depending upon how early you book) will become due at the end of that 24-hour reservation period and must be paid then in order to retain the reservation.

 

Short Breaks

Our short breaks are Weekend – 3 nights commencing Friday, and Midweek – 4 nights commencing Monday.  At some properties, short breaks may not be available at certain times of the year, including Christmas/New Year, peak summer weeks and some Bank Holiday weeks.  When you check availability it will show you the periods you are able to book.

In LOW season (only) at most properties, we offer shorter 2-night ‘Winter Weekend’ breaks at weekends (Fri-Sun or Sat-Mon).  These are able to be offered with an earlier check-in of 1 pm on Saturday arrivals and a slightly later checkout of 1 pm on Sunday departures.  Please verify this at the time of booking and we will confirm the times with you.  The standard directions information you will receive will show the normal arrival and departure times, which these special times will overrule – but this will be confirmed to you.

If you’re looking for a break that doesn’t fit with the above, please do get in touch with us as we can often offer some flexibility, especially off-season and last minute!

Paying for your Holiday

We accept payment by bank transfer or card. There is no charge for either payment. Paying by bank transfer is often easier if you use online banking, but you can also pay securely online by card as an alternative, or call us to make payment over the telephone.  When you book online, you are guided to the payment portal to pay securely where our bank information is provided if you wanted to pay this way, otherwise, you can pay by card.  We’re not able to accommodate international bank transfers, so you will need to pay by card if you reside outside of the UK.   If you book by telephone we will take your payment over the telephone.

For the payment of your final balance, you will be sent an email reminder.  You can pay your balance by bank transfer or card online, for which we will provide a link to our online portal, or of course, you are welcome to call us to make payment over the telephone if you prefer.  When booking online and paying by card you are given the option of ticking a box to ask us to take the payment automatically on the due date from the same card, which we will do automatically.

DEPOSIT – We require a deposit payment of 30% of the total rent, plus the booking fee and any extras you’ve ordered, in order to secure your holiday dates for you. This is required to be paid at the time of booking.  PLEASE NOTE that if payment is not received within 24 hours of placing the booking and you do not contact us to request an extension to the payment period, we will cancel your reservation, as we cannot reserve dates indefinitely without payment to confirm the holiday.

BALANCE – Having paid a deposit, the balance will become due 2 months before your holiday commences. If you are booking a holiday to commence within the next 2 months, the full amount is due immediately.

If the balance is not received by the due date – which is clearly advised to you in writing at the time of booking – we will send you a reminder by email and attempt to reach you by phone, but if it remains unpaid 2 days after the due date, we will assume you do not wish to proceed with your holiday and this will be deemed to be a cancellation by you and subject to our Cancellation Policy.  In this event, we will cancel the holiday and make the dates available to be booked by others.  See our Cancellation Policy for full details but please be aware that if the dates are not re-booked by someone else all monies paid by you are non-refundable unless the dates are re-booked, when a partial refund may be possible.

 

Booking Fee

A booking fee of £49 per booking will be added to your total holiday cost and is non-refundable.

 

Booking Conditions

Please note that we have strict Booking Conditions, particularly in relation to the acceptance of dogs to our holiday properties and the care of the property. Your booking is accepted on the clear understanding that you have agreed to adhere to our booking conditions. If any costs are incurred by the property owner or any other issue occurs due to a breach of our booking conditions, the person who books the holiday will be held liable and will be charged direct.  For this reason it is important that all members of your party are familiar with the Booking Conditions you have agreed to, so we recommend forwarding a copy of the Booking Conditions to them, or a link to our webpage containing them.  In the case of serious breaches of the Booking Conditions you may be asked to leave the property immediately and no refund will be due for unused days.

 

Changing your Dates after Booking

If you wish to change your holiday dates after having your holiday booking confirmed, we can only do this with the agreement of the holiday property owner and an administration fee of £75 will be added to your final balance to cover the work involved in making the change, this is non-refundable if the holiday is subsequently cancelled.

It is not possible to change your booking to a different holiday property without us having to treat this as a full cancellation. This is because the holiday properties are privately owned and we are acting as agents for the individual owners. When you book a holiday and it’s confirmed by us, a rental contract is entered into between you and the property owner.

 

Our Cancellation Policy

It’s essential that you understand our Cancellation Policy. Please see our full Booking Conditions for more information.

 

Cancellation Protection/Insurance

You are strongly advised to take out protection against having to cancel your holiday.   We offer a holiday cancellation protection product called ‘Booking Protect’ which provides cover for a wider range of reasons for having to cancel than standard holiday insurance which you may wish to take out.  Please see full details on our Booking Protect webpage. To take out this cover, which equates to 7% of your total holiday cost, simply tick the box on the online booking form, there is nothing else to do, the cover will be effective within 24 hours of booking.

You are strongly advised to take out holiday insurance independently if you do not wish to purchase Booking Protect Cancellation Protection cover.  Please ensure you are familiar with our Booking Conditions and Cancellation Policy before booking.  Booking Protect or your own independently arranged holiday insurance will cover you for most reasons for having to cancel your holiday.  Without suitable cover, you’ll not receive a refund unless the dates are re-booked and the refund amount will be equal to the amount received for the rental element of the re-booking less the £75 cancellation fee. The amount received for the re-booking may be less than you have paid if the re-booked dates are less than the cancelled dates or the guests are eligible for a discount or a discount is redeemed or offered and you have no suitable cancellation cover.

If your holiday is less than 2 months away – the full amount is payable at the time of booking.

 

Discounts

We occasionally offer ‘late booking’ deals or non-standard booking periods at special rates, however, some discounts or offers are NOT shown on the availability page. Take a look at our Offers page for the latest offers or follow us on Facebook to be notified of all offers as they are published.

When you click on ‘prices and availability’ on your chosen property page, any reductions or non-standard booking periods offered will be shown on the calendar displayed there.

We are unable to combine discounts, so if a holiday is already discounted, the highest discount will apply but not both.

 

Price Adjustments

We occasionally reduce our rates on an individual property basis, for instance, if we have a late vacancy. We also increase our prices from time to time in line with the market generally, our properties are priced on a dynamic pricing model which decreases or increases prices on a daily basis in line with market forces, so the price could fluctuate from day to day.  However, the price quoted at the time of booking is fixed until the next day and is the price you will pay if you book within this period.  If the rate for that period subsequently rises or reduces for any reason, the price is fixed on your booking so you will not be asked to pay more, nor offered a reduction.

 

Dogs

Most of our properties warmly welcome one dog, some can accommodate 2 or even 3 dogs, which is made clear on the individual property webpage. There is a charge of £20 per dog per holiday which will be added to the total holiday cost. Please see our Dogs Welcome webpage to find out more about our policy for accommodating dogs, as we have strict booking conditions in this respect.

 

‘Extras’

For each property, there are optional extras which may be chargeable – such as extra sacks of logs for instance – but most extras such as cots and highchairs are not chargeable and must be requested at the time of booking, we cannot guarantee the availability of such items if not requested at the time of booking.

 

A Sample of our Cottages

Bamburgh & Surrounding Area

Wynding Head in Bamburgh

Sleeps: 6 1 dog welcome

Holidays from £744

Warkworth

Tower House in Warkworth

Sleeps: 6 No Dogs

Holidays from £499

Alnwick & Surrounding Area

Apple Tree Barn

Sleeps: 6 2 Dogs

Holidays from £480

view all our cottages