The Old Piggeries · a warning
A holiday-let warning · August 2025

The owner let himself into our holiday cottage. Our children were inside.

We booked a week at The Old Piggeries near Bridport through cottages.com. On day five the owner used his own key to enter the property without notice while our family - including two young vulnerable children - were in it. We left the same afternoon. This site explains what happened, what cottages.com refused to do about it, and what the ABTA arbitrator found.

Property
The Old Piggeries
Upton Manor Farm, Uploders, nr Bridport, Dorset
Booked via
cottages.com
Awaze Vacation Rentals Ltd · ABTA L4801
Stay
15 – 22 Aug 2025
£2,075 · seven nights · peak season
Family
Two adults, two children
Children aged 6 and 8 · both vulnerable
The Old Piggeries - courtyard view showing the long stone-built single-storey cottage with red-tiled roof, picnic bench and flagstone patio. The Old Piggeries - view across the rear lawn showing the cottage behind a tall beech hedge.
The Old Piggeries - photographs taken by us during our stay, August 2025.
The story in sequence

What actually happened, day by day.

This is our account, in plain order - drawn from the notes we made at the time, the cottages.com chat log, and the email trail with their customer-relations team.

Fri 15 Aug≈ 3:00 pm - arrival

Owner's son arrives within ten minutes of check-in.

A man identifying himself as the owner's son turns up at the property and asks to access the indoor pool. There is no prior notice. We allow it on this occasion and think no more of it.

Unannounced visit #1
Tue 19 Aug≈ 2:00 pm - day five

A faint knock - and then a man we did not recognise inside the house.

Expecting a delivery, my wife goes to answer. By the time she reaches the hallway, a man we don't recognise is already inside the property and walking towards the pool area. He identifies himself as the owner. When asked, "So you just let yourself in then?" he confirms that he did. Our two vulnerable children are in the house.

Main incident
Tue 19 Aug≈ 2:10 pm

We contact cottages.com via live chat.

We tell the agent on the chat that the owner let himself in with no warning, that we no longer feel safe, and that we will be leaving. We say we believe this has happened before. The agent says they will leave a note on the booking.

Tue 19 Aug2:29 pm - chat closes

No call back. No alternative. No owner intervention.

We leave the keys under the mat and drive home, losing three nights of a peak-season holiday.

12 Sep 2025Cottages.com - letter one

Cottages.com acknowledges the entry - but offers nothing.

Their reply accepts that the owner entered without prior notice or consent, and that guests should have peaceful and uninterrupted use of the accommodation. It then forwards the owner's account in full and declines any refund or compensation.

16 Sep 2025Cottages.com - letter two

Same answer, same apology, still no remedy.

After we push back, cottages.com restates the owner's version and apologises again "that your holiday did not meet your full expectations." No refund. No compensation. No change.

26 Nov 2025Escalation · Stage 1

Formal complaint to ABTA.

We send a full written complaint to ABTA asking them to investigate cottages.com's handling under the ABTA Code of Conduct, and to require a meaningful remedy. ABTA treats this as the Pre-Action Notice - Stage 1 of their ADR process.

18 Dec 2025ABTA - Stage 1 closes

ABTA passes the message on. The member declines to move.

ABTA writes back to say the member has reviewed our Pre-Action Notice and is "not looking to change our position." ABTA themselves take no investigative action and offer no view on the merits - only the choice between accepting the existing offer (there is none), going to court, or paying £150 to take the case to Stage 2 arbitration via Hunt ADR.

ABTA: no help
Jan – Apr 2026Stage 2 · documents-only arbitration

We register with Hunt ADR and pay the £150 fee.

Awaze files its defence, citing clause 18 of its own booking conditions and the owner's account that he "only opened the door slightly." An independent arbitrator is appointed and reviews the documents.

8 May 2026Final Award · Claim A185900

The ABTA arbitrator finds in our favour.

After a documents-only arbitration under the ABTA Scheme, the arbitrator rules that the customer's claim succeeds in part: the owner should have given notice; the lack of notice caused avoidable distress and undermined our sense of privacy. £50 compensation and the full £150 registration fee are awarded against Awaze.

Claim succeeds
ABTA arbitration · Claim A185900 · 8 May 2026

The arbitrator's own words.

On 8 May 2026 a sole arbitrator appointed under the ABTA Arbitration Scheme Rules 2026 issued a Final Award against Awaze Vacation Rentals Ltd. The findings, quoted word for word below, speak for themselves.

I do not consider routine pool maintenance to be an emergency.

Final Award · §8(viii)

The Owner attended for routine pool maintenance and opened the door to the accommodation without having given prior notice to the Customer.

Final Award · §8(vii)

It was reasonable for the Customer to expect prior notice before routine pool maintenance took place.

Final Award · §8(ix)

The lack of notice caused avoidable distress and undermined the Customer's sense of privacy during the stay.

Final Award · §8(xv)

The arbitrator awarded £50 in compensation plus reimbursement of the £150 ABTA registration fee. The unused-nights refund was declined on the procedural ground that we had not given Awaze a full opportunity to resolve the matter before leaving - see the advice section. The finding that the entry itself was a breach is unambiguous.

Two versions of one afternoon

Their account, and ours.

Cottages.com forwarded the owner's account to us in their complaint response of 12 September 2025, and repeated it in their arbitration defence. Side-by-side, here is what each of us says happened.

Our account

The owner was already inside the house.

  • A faint knock at the front door. We were expecting a delivery.
  • My wife went to answer; by the time she reached the hallway, a man we did not recognise was already inside the property, walking towards the pool.
  • He identified himself as the owner and said he was there for pool maintenance.
  • I asked him, "So you just let yourself in then?" - he confirmed yes, and continued through to the pool.
  • Our two young vulnerable children were in the house at the time.
  • We contacted cottages.com via live chat that afternoon to report it.
Source: notes we made at the time · live-chat log
Owner's account, via cottages.com

"I opened the door slightly and called out."

  • Routine pool maintenance, performed halfway through every guest stay; takes about ten minutes.
  • He says he knocked, got no answer, knocked more firmly, still no answer.
  • He says he then "opened the door slightly and called out" without entering fully.
  • He says he saw the female guest walking down the path outside, and the gentleman appeared in the hallway shortly afterwards.
  • He says no children were present or seen, and that no concern was raised at the time.
  • He says he is an elderly man and "always tries to be respectful of guests' privacy."
Source: cottages.com complaint response · 12 Sep 2025

The arbitrator did not need to resolve every factual difference: on either account, the owner opened the front door of an occupied holiday let to attend to non-emergency pool maintenance, without prior notice. That is the breach.

Live chat with cottages.com · 19 August 2025

The chat we sent the moment it happened.

Cottages.com's complaint response claims they 'were not made aware of these concerns' during our stay. The screenshots below - timestamped on the day of the incident - are part of the evidence submitted to ABTA.

Screenshot 1 of 3 · 14:24
Cottages.com tells us by chat to email complaints to CR@Cottages.com.

Cottages.com tells us by chat to email complaints to CR@Cottages.com. We tell them this isn't the first time - the owner's son also turned up unannounced on arrival day.

Screenshot 2 of 3 · 14:31
We say we are leaving the keys under the mat and going.

We say we are leaving the keys under the mat and going. We ask cottages.com to inform the owner because we do not wish to confront him in front of our children.

Screenshot 3 of 3 · 14:32
The agent replies that they will leave a note on the booking.

The agent replies: "I understand, I will leave a note on your booking to explain." Nine minutes later the chat auto-closes. No call back, no alternative offered, no owner intervention.

Cottages.com's handling

What cottages.com did, and didn't do.

After the incident, cottages.com accepted in writing that the owner had entered 'without prior notice or consent' and that guests are entitled to 'peaceful and uninterrupted use' of the accommodation. They then declined to offer anything to put it right. We had to take it to ABTA arbitration to get an independent ruling.

01

Refused a refund for the unused nights

Three nights of a peak-season let, abandoned because we no longer felt safe. Cottages.com offered nothing in compensation for the stay we had to cut short.

02

Relied heavily on the owner's account

Their response leaned on the owner's claim that he "only opened the door slightly" - even though we found him already inside the hallway, and even though, on his own account, he opened a guest's front door without notice.

03

Said we hadn't raised concerns during the stay

We contacted them via live chat immediately, told them we felt unsafe, and said we were leaving. They closed the chat with no escalation, no call, no alternative.

04

Defended the entry as contractually permitted

In their arbitration defence, Awaze cited clause 18 of their own booking conditions - the "right of entry" clause - to argue the owner was entitled to attend for pool maintenance.

Your rights as a holiday-let guest

Even on a short let, the property is yours for the week.

UK law gives everyone staying in accommodation, including short-term holiday guests, a right to "quiet enjoyment" of the property: the right to use it as a private home for the term of the let, without unreasonable interference from the owner.

In practice that means an owner or their agent may only enter the accommodation for non-emergency purposes - inspection, maintenance, repairs - after giving you reasonable notice in writing, getting your agreement, and attending at a reasonable time of day. Walking in unannounced because something needs doing is not lawful, and is not what reasonable notice looks like.

Cottages.com's own booking conditions include a "right of entry" clause that permits unannounced access in "special circumstances or emergencies." The ABTA arbitrator was clear: routine pool maintenance is not an emergency, and the owner should have given notice.

If this is happening to you, or could

Five things we wish we'd known before we booked.

1

Read the right-of-entry clause before you book

Many UK holiday-let agents include a clause allowing the owner to enter "without notice if not practical." That phrasing is broad. Ask in writing how it is applied in practice, particularly for properties with pools, hot tubs or other on-site maintenance.

2

Get the maintenance schedule in writing before you arrive

If the owner will need to attend the property during your stay, insist on a fixed day, time and contact name in writing before you travel. No exceptions.

3

If someone enters without notice, write it down immediately

Write it down straight away: time, what was said, who was present. If the agent has a live chat, use it then and there - it timestamps your complaint and preserves a written record.

4

Don't leave without giving the agent a real chance to fix it

This is the part of our story we'd do differently. The arbitrator found we left too quickly. Even if you don't feel safe, ask the agent in writing for a firm promise that no one will return without notice. If you still leave, your refusal of a remedy is on the record.

5

Don't expect ABTA itself to help - go straight for arbitration

In our experience, ABTA's Stage 1 process operated as a pass-through. Their "Pre-Action Notice" forwarded our complaint to cottages.com, who replied that they were "not looking to change our position," and that was the end of ABTA's involvement. ABTA themselves did not investigate or offer a view on the merits. The thing that actually works is Stage 2: a documents-only arbitration via Hunt ADR, costing £150 (refundable if you win), with a binding award against the member. That is what found in our favour.

Right of reply

If you have a story like ours, or a response to ours.

Other guests with similar experiences, journalists, and - through their representatives - cottages.com or the property owner exercising the right of reply, can write to us at the address below. Messages go to a forwarding alias that protects our family's primary inbox.

We will publish any reasonable response in full alongside the original text. Nothing else is ever published without explicit written permission.

Email av7a7xoz​@​anonaddy​.me This is an anonymous forwarding alias - used to protect our family's privacy. Messages still reach us; replies will come from a personal address only if and when we choose to engage.

All documents referenced on this page are available to journalists on request.