Canopy & Stars Anmeldelser 

I can't fault Canopy and Stars for their customer support, but it all falls down as they are just middle men. If the holiday location is a complete rip off, (as ours was) they have to request a refund from the owner of the property, which in our case was refused, as the owner simply skirted around the multiple issues we had. Canopy and Stars offered a goodwill voucher for another holiday at least, but here is our experience of Straw Bale Barn.

As you arrive into the small wooded area you are greeted by a view of old gas cylinders, tarpaulins, paint tins and a neglected small wooden barn heavily shaded by mature trees. The open views mentioned on the web site from the bedroom window had long since been blocked by vegetation growing over the end of the building. Around the front door lay various broken solar lights and some wooden outside furniture that has seen far better days that added to the feeling of neglect and it quickly became clear that no work had been done to maintain this barn for many years. A metal chimney led up through the roof into the branches of a mature oak just waiting for the moment to set the tree alight if the log burner got over excited.

The inside looked like it had been the dumping ground for old carpet, curtains and odd furniture from a far grander house, all cobbled together to make it look " quirky". The heavily cracked walls were covered in various artworks, pictures and books to show it had once been an art studio. All the windows bar one appeared to be fixed shut and the place was littered with various air fresheners to try and mask the general musty smell, as ventilation appeared to be a problem.

The main feature of the living area was the log burning stove (with plenty of wood) and best to make do with reading a good book, or streaming something off the wi-fi for entertainment in the evenings on the very well-worn sofa, as there is no music, TV or radio.

The kitchen area had a blackening wooden sink surround and heavily blackened wooden drainer, (carefully hidden by a cloth) with a tap that was very loose on roughly assembled units. Underneath were wicker baskets containing the cutlery, plus odds and ends etc, which were quite obviously whatever was laying around at the time of making it a holiday let. A motley selection of plates and drinking vessels with left overs supplies from previous guests (some past their sell by date), were held in an old dresser. No niceties of fresh farm produce as mentioned in some other reviews.

The sleeping area was a huge clean and comfy bed on a mezzanine area in the roof space up a narrow wooden stair case. You then have to manoeuvre yourself through the roof supports to get to the bed. The tight bed space area was filled with an unnecessary large chest of draws making access to the bed really tight on one side, with no bed side tables on either side to put a drink or like. You can’t physically get dressed one side of the bed due to the bed position and the low ceiling. Faded plastic flowers covered the rough wooden strips that provided an open wall behind the bed.

The bathroom had an exposed large gas water heating system and lots of pipework, plus a very roughly installed huge blue plastic bath surrounded by lots of tired LED candles in jars, but no working shower as the mixer tap had long since failed. The white wash paintwork (with some faded plant artwork) was obviously many years old, with the mottled roof plasterwork showing though the old paint. The supplied liquid toiletries where so old they had solidified and to run a bath needed great forward planning as the water supply was poor and bath huge. A note on the toilet instructed guests to not flush paper as it was an eco loo. Confusingly, it was a water-based loo, and eco loos are dry so, presumably a cess tank that should take loo paper. I can only conclude that the drainage was so poor that loo paper was a problem, so instead of fixing it, its easier to call it "Eco" and be done with it. Having to place used loo paper into a bathroom bin is not what you expect for this price.

On the last night the water heating failed, and this being the final straw,we left for home a night early highly disappointed and mislead by the photos of the property on the Canopy & Stars web site. Generally, the place showed huge potential given some TLC and serious maintenance but there is a clear line between rustic charm and neglect and unfortunately this falls heavily into the latter with zero spend being the obvious approach to its running as a business. It would be fine if it was dirt cheap but at £150 a night it is a joke and simply saying something is upcycled or eco, does not make up for zero maintenance and decay. Don’t waste your money on this one!

I haven’t been able to book a stay yet and I’m already disappointed.

I’ve received a £200 voucher from ex colleagues to book a stay with Canopy & Stars. I booked for next week end September 10 but I had to cancel for unforeseen circumstances (house moving delays).

I cancelled about 2 weeks in advance and the dates re-sold almost immediately, to no loss by Canopy & Stars. My original voucher of £200 was only refunded for £145. So £55 was taken away for no real reason, but justified as an ‘admin fee’.

I’m now trying to re-book the same place for the same date next year, and the price for 2 nights is £60 higher than it was this year!!! OK nature and all, but I’m sorry guys I’m not paying £310 to stay 2 nights in a hut in Crediton that I have to cater for myself. I normally do this stuff for free in my tent.

I paid £448 to stay 3 nights by Saint Paul Cathedral last month. In comparison these fees are honestly insane. Also it’s not cool that you have a mandatory stay of 2 or sometimes 3 nights minimum.

To the pain of risking disappointing who gave me this as a gift, I may have to save myself some money and give it a miss.

Steer clear!

Not impartial, don’t care about the customers experience, just pass off any issues to the property owner - who in turn doesn’t care as Canopy & Stars will pay them the money regardless.

Dont believe any of the reviews that you read on their website about the places to stay. They aren’t the whole review and don’t publish any negatives.

During a compliant I received this information:

“We don’t publish 100% of the feedback we receive on the website. We’re not an impartial listings site, like trip advisor or booking.com, and as such, we don’t rely on guest comments to help people decide where to go.”

I will never use this company again, I’m sure some owners provide decent accommodation - but that has nothing to do with Canopy & Stars, they are just a money grabbing organisation that don’t give a damn about the customer.

Cancelled Bank Holiday Weekend away the weekend before we were due to go.
Very, very, very disappointing! Quite frankly, this is shocking behaviour to cancel our booking so close to when we were supposed to stay, especially as we received a confirmation email from you then 4 days previously. Our booking was made way back in April, so for C&S, or the owners, to tell us just 10 days till we were supposed to be there, that our booking is cancelled is completely unacceptable!

To add insult to injury, their "alternatives" are not alternatives at all. None of the options listed in the link that they sent have availability during our original dates. No doubt this is because our original dates were for the Bank Holiday weekend and of course, just 10 days to go, everything has now booked up. This has effectively cancelled our holiday as we will now find it nearly impossible to book anywhere on such a busy weekend, with just over a week in advance. We will also not be looking for another date to stay at The Greedy Gander as I would be extremely hesitant to book with people who are clearly very disorganised. Plus, these "alternatives" were nowhere near the same standard as what we had booked - no hot tub, not in the same area some adding significant distance to our journey, some weren't even structures, they were tents!

This has ruined our holiday and I would expect some kind of compensation after this monumental mess up, but on writing nothing. I am very disappointed in the company as we had a very good experience booking through you last September and were very much looking forward to our weekend away. But after this, I am not sure I will be booking through you again as I now cannot be sure whether my booking will go ahead or not.   

On another note, you can't leave a review on the canopy and stars page which gives the feeling they are definitely trying to hide the poor service.

Utterly disgusted. Booked on Sat, canx next working day-Mon as suspected covid, refuse to refd as not cancelled before 10 weeks-we did not have 10 weeks as only booked on the Sat and due to travel on the wed! No budge at all even when we emailed proof a covid test was ordered through NHS. Absolute rip off merchants not adhering to government guidelines or showing any compassion. Lost a lot of money, will never recommend or use again

Very frustrating search engine, the prices reflected in initial listing are always at leat x3 the price when you go onto the page. It very much feels like you're being deceived, this even happens when entering in the date you would like to go before searching. Their main competitor Air'b'n'b is much more transparent in their pricing and I will be using them in the future.

My Dad sadly passed away,so I had to fly to Poland then come back and quarantine for 10 days. Unfortunately we had to cancel our holiday 8 days before arriving!
We couldn't amend our dates for staying, our holiday didn't resold. So basically they take our 290£ for nothing. I think this company is owned by robots without any empathy or sympathy for people. We will never book with them again, or Hinterlandes.
Enjoy your free money!!

In May 2021, we stayed two nights in an awful pod in North Norfolk whose owners didn't have a clue what hospitality means (or were not interested in that part of their business). We had paid £120 per night when we reserved our booking for October last year. Due to Covid, we could change that (after a lot of hassle) to May. Current price per night is £105 so we would have expected at least some correction. Nothing was mentioned. It's only £30 but it is the principle.
The quality and cleanliness of the pod was so poor - we didn't even find any proof of it having been disinfected - that we wrote a long letter with all our complaints to Canopy and Stars (via the feedback email system on their website). We did not receive any response from them. We wrote another letter a few weeks later asking them if they had received the letter and, if they had, to confirm how they were going to follow up our serious complaints and comments. After a week, still no response.
Let's take just two of the self-promoting statements C&S make on their site :
1. Our friendly Guest Experience Team have one of the best customer service scores in travel
2. We have social skills.
They also claim to visit every place they offer on their site. That obviously doesn't mean anything when you don't know their criteria.
C&S are at the bottom of hospitality industry. All empty, wonderful words. Thinking about using them? We suggest that you re-read our review before you decide.
The pod we stayed in was way below the minimum standards we expect.
It's always disappointing when you cannot give zero stars for an organisation, the owners and their accommodation.
We've been ripped off big time. Hugely overpriced even if the quality had been slightly better.
Don't be fooled by their Eco jargon. That's for the gullible amongst us. The real Eco warriors would have been shocked. We're not gullible and felt conned.

Our cancelled trip due to our car breaking down on the way to accommodation. Head office and property both able to accommodate us another date. Disappointedly we won’t return to planned property or book through canopy again. Canopy are just another travel agency - unhelpful middlemen.

DON’T BOOK UNTIL YOU HAVE READ THE T&C which are unethical and immoral to lose full payment if your circumstance changes within 10 weeks is just wrong. I think you’ll find when a company has 50% of its reviews on the lowest score and 70% below average you have to question the competence and if they have an agender.

We booked a 2 day stay for 2 for our anniversary, 2 days later our child care advised us of a muddle and they couldn’t make the dates. we advised asap the next day and asked to change the dates as most of June was still free and July, august etc
We were told that its inside 10 weeks and that any changes were not possible but as a good will gesture they will allow me to rebook for £50 as long as they re-sold my original dates and if not I could rebook for £50 they later apologised for not being clear this was for the same dates that we had to change.
They advised me the process was to cancel to make the days available again, which they did and they would get the media team to push this property out. 3-4 weeks later I checked to see the dates had been resold only to find out they never released them to be sold on. They blamed a computer error which they conveniently advised they couldn’t be held responsible for in their initial mail of advice (you have to ask why they would specify this) I think I now know!!! Nor did they generate a single social media post adverting the property. It would appear they had no intention in trying to resell my dates and why should they if they are guaranteed the money.
We only had 2 weeks left and subsequently they were not sold. I was offered no alternative other than to lose the entire booking and there was nothing they could do as I cancelled my booking (that they advised me to do).
The way they word emails leaves everything open so they can chose what they do but in the long run they are only interested in getting the money and not helping the customer. They also have dodged questions and refuse to answer them as it would be admitting the poor service.

They lied on a few issues which was simply addressed as a misunderstanding (or cute wording more like) and they even changed the T&C’s after I pointed this out.

Just save your yourself from all the aggravation and use a proper outlet for you trip.

I expect them to reply with more dishonest trail of events, if only I could post all of the emails.

How they sleep at night taking people’s money hiding behind outrageous T&C’s is shocking.

I had booked a surprise birthday trip for my boyfriend to stay in the lost meadow treepod in Cornwall the weekend of 21st May 21. I booked the trip way back in October 2020 and had read the terms and conditions regarding covid so was happy that if there were to be another lockdown I would get my money back.

Cue 5 weeks before we are due to go (now knowing it was fine to go ahead as restrictions being lifted on 17th May) O get an email out of the blue from Canopy and Stars saying the booking had been cancelled because the owners 'are exchanging properties that weekend and can no longer accommodate us'.

I was beyond upset as I had had to take time off, so had my boyfriend, he was so excited for the surprise trip and obviously with everything going on with the pandemic we were thrilled to be able to go away.

Now I have several issues
1. Why were we only informed 5 weeks beforehand? We had absolutely no chance of being able to book anywhere else for that weekend because it's the first weekend of lifted restrictions. Also house sales in the UK take months and months. Given I booked this over 6 months in advance why wasn't I informed earlier?

2. It was a location in the middle of woodlands on the owners property a minimum 5 minute walk to the shower facility. We had instructions to take our own WATER to the site as well as food and provisions. The owners would not have had to provide anything for us, we would have been out of the way and the only thing I could see that would need doing is a clean of the shower - so hire a cleaner for the day. I, and everyone I have told about this, thinks it's an incredibly poor excuse to cancel so last minute and especially at this time during the easing of restrictions so we had no chance of booking anywhere last minute. I cannot believe canopy and stars allowed the owners to do this or this has been agreed in their cancellation policy.

3. I actually think this was prompted because I had emailed the owner a question the week prior to the cancellation and I had heard nothing from them. They had clearly forgotten about our booking and instead of honouring it just cancelled it instead. It makes me wonder what would have happy had we not tried/needed to contact them and had turned up at the site on the 21st?

There was no discussion to be had with canopy and stars or the owners and I was just issued a refund.
I am extremely disappointed with this company and their obvious lack of customer service and ensuring owners honour their bookings. I doubt the owners will have any reprieve from this and it will be the customers who continue to suffer in future.

I am sure if it had been the other way round and I had cancelled last minute I would have lost my money....

They cancelled our trip without notifying us.
Only when I reached out wondering why we had received no information on how to access the property, did they acknowledge their mistake and issue us a refund. My partner and I had booked off work for this trip and were completely let down by this company.

Re-booked after our holiday after it had to be moved due to COVID restrictions. After no contact from the company, we got in touch asking for details. They replied saying our trip had been cancelled due to a 'human error' and offered to move up to a tent (rather than a lodge) 250 miles away from where we had booked worth £200 less than our original booking.

I cannot stress enough, please avoid this company at all costs. If only we had seen similar reviews before booking we would have stayed far away.

We booked a 2 night stay with Canopy and Stars at a woodland gypsy hut for my partner's 30th. We had to make the decision to ask to amend the booking last minute due to my partner incurring a knee injury which made it hard for him to walk and some additional distressing family issues which required us to stay home. It all fell unfortunately and unpredictably on the time we'd booked to go away on this trip.

We emailed the owners initially, who passed us back to Canopy & Stars, who then said that because it's within 10 weeks of the stay and there's no time for them to resell the booking, they wouldn't offer any amendment. Their terms and conditions are very unclear on this front and suggest it is possible to amend bookings:

"2.4.2 In the event of cancellation within 10 weeks of check in the total cost of the accommodation including the deposit is non-refundable. In some circumstances it may be possible to swap the stay to another date"

The T's&C's suggest a £50 admin fee to amend which seemed fair enough, but it turns out that amendments are conditional on reselling the booking OR on the owner's goodwill - luck of the draw. Lack of clarity in the T's&C's mean you don't learn this until it becomes an issue for you - at which point the customer service team unhelpfully refer you back to the T's&C's as if it was obvious.

They've suggested that the last minuteness was the issue, however, I've seen on here someone else had this issue 5 weeks in advance. You could actually run into this issue 10 weeks in advance. We only booked after the 10 week mark due to the pandemic, so had we needed to amend the next day, the same issue would have arisen - pending resale or goodwill.

The customer service representative unhelpfully responded with: "We are simply trying to balance the needs of both owners and guests and unfortunately with this, sometimes comes compromise and disappointment." There has been no compromise.

If I'd have read these reviews beforehand, I'd have never made the booking. We won't be booking with Canopy & Stars again because of this, unless they change their T's&C's and support customers, not just owners. Plenty of other accommodation have much better, clearer, fairer amendment and cancellation policies.

We appreciate the need for small business owners not to lose revenue, however, we also had to cancel a cattery booking at the same time, a small business, who kindly waived the fee and let us making a rebooking. So this evidences that small businesses who have lost out during the pandemic can be kind and supportive and then retain customer loyalty. We'll always use that cattery.

Since writing this review, Canopy & Stars have said in an email that they've removed "In some circumstances it may be possible to swap the stay to another date" from their T's&C's. It doesn't make it right and means perhaps they already knew they didn't honour this statement. They seemed to think it should be obvious which circumstances, but it wasn't clearly stated and was very ambiguous. Removing it was acknowledgement that it was ambiguous and could mislead customers into thinking amendments are possible when they aren't, or only are if the booking can be resold from the 10 week mark.

There's also no clear complaints procedure on the website.

Lovely weekend at furnace brooke lodge in east Sussex. The lodge itself was spotlessly clean and in wonderful location overlooking a lake.great walks around the lake and with the bluebells out in the woods made it extra special. All amenities close by (pub) made everything that much easier.
Will go again and reccomend to friends and family.

Site displays dates that are unavailable. This has happened twice.

Christmas 2019 I bought a Canopy & Stars £150 gift voucher for my brother and part of their Marketing / Promotional deal they run each year was for every £150 voucher you got a separate £50 voucher as a gift. I assumed that with Covid wiping out 2020 Canopy and Stars would honour these gift vouchers for longer term but apparently not... disgusted with Canopy&Star's Customer Care having been a loyal and loving customer of theirs for years. Won't be using again - now fighting for my gift vouchers to be valid so i can book some trips out of lockdown!!

I’m surprised at the reviews as my experience with their customer service was excellent. I booked back in 2019 for a stay in 2020. That was cancelled due to lockdown 1. It was rebooked for 2021 which was cancelled due to lockdown 3. A refund was requested.

It’s almost impossible to get hold of them by phone as they are all working remotely due the pandemic so all contact was by email. As long as you are patient they get back to you (unlike some other companies I have dealt with), I fully appreciate these are unprecedented times and we have to allow for that.

They replied to my request to refund and asked for a good time to call, they called later that day and processed the refund immediately.

I will certainly use them again.

I wish I had read the reviews before booking with this company. There are a couple of reviews re: the level of customer service and the department being sarcastic.. I completely agree with this, they have a very odd tone to their emails which almost feels like they just want you to go away. I booked back the summer of 2020 to arrive for Feb 2021 as I wanted some things to look forward to for my 30th birthday. When it came to Jan 2021 we obviously realised that this booking would not go ahead and the booking was cancelled by C&S and we was asked to either cancel or rebook. We wanted to rebook and we was asked to email them with new dates we would be available and how many nights we was originally booked for. We had originally 2 nights booked and we offered a list of dates but advised we would be free for most weekends left for 2021. They came back to us and said it was preferred that we have a 3 night break now, which was not what we booked the reason for this is: that was the hosts preference for this time of year. I emailed them explaining we was happy to come in Feb 2021 however, we would be breaking the law, so it's not something we WANT, but more we had no choice but to do. I accept that they don't want to be closed either, but you don't need to take it out on people who are looking forward to enjoying a break at your facility. We was also told we would have to pay the extra on top as we wanted to move to a peak booking, I was happy to do this, but I wanted to know how much this was before agreeing to it. They did not take into account the financial impact of having to have another day off work for self employed people who had already had it bad this year. I wrote back to them advising they could not force us to extend the trip and they said they would ask the 'host' or told us to take a refund. There was a lot of back and forth, which was pointless due to the fact that we was waiting for the host to reply and advise if we could have the two nights and confirm what the price increase would be! The host did actually come back and accept the two nights and we paid the price increase, which shows that the back and forth was pointless. Since then I emailed them again, as I hadn't realised that this actually clashes with another event of mine, their emails are so confrontational and rude. He came back and stated that as there was no availability until November, I would have to cancel and forfeit my deposit. No consideration that I might be happy to move to November? I just find the whole experience rude, unprofessional and confrontational. I really feel like they just want the past bookings to cancel, and book new bookings. I wish I had cancelled in Jan..

Just awful service. I had a tech issue on their website where I got a confirmation saying you are going on holiday but I never received a confirmation email. Tech issue happen which I totally understand. I tried calling and calling. No one picked up. I tried their chat box. I tried emailing and messaging on Instagram and Facebook. Eventually I was informed that I did not in fact have a booking and someone had booked over the dates I needed. If I had not chased I would have turned up at the venue. They should NOT have a phone number or a chat box option if no one picks up the phone or the voicemails. It just frustrating!

On the email they even offered to call me and when I gave them my number they didn’t even call!