Staying with us

Answers and advice when choosing a holiday cottage

Our office is in St Ives, specifically on Park Avenue. We are open 6 days a week.  To meet the team behind Orange Roofs holiday accommodation, click here to put faces to names. We are all regularly on foot in St Ives visiting our holiday homes and so can provide you with up-to-date information from what the weather is doing to which restaurants or shops have changed hands on Fore Street or along the harbour front.

Being a small team means you will always chat with the same person, and you won’t get lost in a phone system. We love to form long-lasting relationships with our guests so we can cater to each person’s needs when searching for the best St Ives holiday cottage. The closeness of our team also translates to us all being familiar with what is happening with enquiries providing a seamless and uninterrupted service to our guests.

What would you like to know?

• How far away is your chosen holiday cottage from a beach?
• What deposit do you need to pay if you book now?
• Where is the best place to park in St Ives?
• Looking for a pet-friendly holiday cottage in St Ives?
• Is there a coffee machine in the accommodation?
• Can we arrange for balloons and birthday cake for a special day?
• Where is the nearest surf school to the holiday property booked?
• Which restaurants are open in the winter?
• Where can I book for a Sunday Roast in St Ives?

The answers to the above and so many more are what we love to help with. We care. For that reason, we want to make sure you choose the best holiday cottage in St Ives and, when you arrive on holiday, you are fully ready to relax and recharge your batteries.

We are very familiar with the St Ives holiday cottages we manage. They are each visited by a member of the team every month. Each of our holiday cottages are documented and presented to guests as a Property Folder via our Orange Roofs App. This way, by the time a guest arrives, it feels like a home from home experience with a real sense of holiday self-sufficiency. However, if you get stuck, one of us is here to help quickly!

The care and support continues once you’ve booked

From the moment we hear from you, we care. We are not the bish, bash, bosh kind of agency that takes a booking, processes your payment and then forgets you. For us, your guest journey starts from the very beginning, and we like to be on hand to help every step of the way so, by the time the countdown to your holiday starts, we have all bases covered and are ready and waiting to make your holiday the best it can be. The keys to your holiday cottage are placed in the key safe once the property is professionally cleaned, and your welcome goodies are placed in readiness for your arrival. Welcome hampers are individually bought by the owners who wish to offer you a welcome gift on your arrival, we have made suggestions on what sort of minimum hamper foodie gifts they leave so we hope you like them.

The art of providing a seamless holiday experience where guests relax and unwind from the moment they arrive is, according to our team at Orange Roofs, down to the preparations. The work that goes on behind the scenes is all done to ensure the holiday cottage of your choice is safe, warm and operational. Our team spends their working year ensuring all legal holiday compliance checks are carried out and signed off to keep guests safe. That’s chimneys swept, fire alarms tested and updated, boilers serviced, and gas safety certificates issued to name a few checks. We speak regularly to the owners of the holiday properties about maintenance and manage tradesmen visits and DIY jobs. We put ourselves in your shoes to make sure that every experience at one of our managed properties is the best it can be which goes down to the finer detail of kitchen utensils and spare bulbs.

There is no guesswork on the day of your arrival, or beforehand to that matter, thanks to our comprehensive and super handy Orange Roofs App. Once booked, visit your App store, and simply search for Orange Roofs. The App is free plus quick and easy to install. Here is a photo of what you will see once logged in. Each header collapses, when selected, to give helpful guidance and easy direction. A digital welcome folder is accessible with specific information per holiday home plus really helpful tips and hints on local information from restaurants, taxi firms, surf schools and local vets. Each digital folder has a property inventory so you can check what’s provided before packing up the car and using valuable space in the boot. If in doubt, we are happy to receive a call or email from you to answer any specific questions you have about any of our self-catering accommodation in St Ives and West Cornwall.

On your arrival day to Cornwall and during your holiday

Each of our holiday cottages in St Ives and West Cornwall has a key safe box. This means you can let yourselves in as soon as the key safe code is released and you are notified via an Orange Roofs App notification. It’s always a great idea to download the App before leaving home; so, even if you are in an area of no mobile reception, by opening the App and refreshing you will see your key safe code. What we have also found brilliant about key safes is, leave a set of keys in the key safe box during your holiday, and you will never be locked out.

Check-in at our holiday cottages is from either 3 pm or 4 pm depending on which one is booked. Why so late in the day you may ask? And it’s a good question. Check out is 10 am and so that leaves those available hours to mobilise the troops and get your holiday property properly cleaned after the last guests who stayed, carry out any maintenance, top up the inventory (if anything has been broken accidentally or batteries need changing) and then finally checked with the finer details ticked off such as fire alarm testing and welcome goodies delivered. Quite often the housekeeping teams (employed by the owners of the holiday homes) clean more than just one property per changeover day and so they may arrive to clean the home after having cleaned another. Our communication with each of the housekeepers, who dedicate their energies to making holiday cottages sparkly clean, is top class! Billie and Torrie are in constant contact with them and so, if a holiday home has had every box ticked, we release the key safe code notification before 3 or 4 pm. That, we know, is often THE best news to hear on arrival day. Until the key safe code is released, the practice of patience (we are afraid) is what is needed.

Let yourselves into your chosen holiday home, put your feet up and take that well-earned exhale of holiday happiness. Know that the team are on hand to help if you need anything and, if we’ve gone home for the day, there is an emergency phone number for any maintenance issues that need to be fixed as a matter of urgency.

After you’ve stayed and you’re homeward bound

We have already mentioned a squad of housekeepers descend upon holiday homes across Cornwall on changeover days and quite often it means they too are scrabbling around to find parking if it is a busy town like St Ives. They are laden with heavy clean laundry sacks, cleaning materials and sometimes a spare hoover! For this reason, we do ask if a holiday home comes with parking, this is made available soon after the check-out time of 10 am to make their jobs as bearable as possible. Any forgotten belongings at holiday homes are normally stored for a period of two weeks by the housekeeper (or Orange Roofs) and then, if not claimed, are donated to local charities. If contacted, we are very happy to return left items, all guests need to do is simply send us a pre-paid parcel bag and we will pop down to the post office to get it sent back with their belongings.

We positively thrive on guest feedback. As a team, we take all comments seriously, they are taken onboard and reinvested in our efforts and commitment in delivering excellent and note-worthy customer service as well as providing immaculately presented, fabulous holiday cottages. We work closely with the holiday homeowners who are equally invested in helping make your holidays through Orange Roofs as special as possible so, your considered feedback about their homes is certainly passed on and acted upon. We send an invite for a review via email, text and App notification and that review gets published online. Other feedback that you feel is worthy of our attention is very much welcomed via email to holidays@orangeroofs.co.uk and Torrie promises to give it her full attention.

We have an active presence on Instagram and Facebook often sharing beautiful scenic photos of St Ives and West Cornwall so, after your holiday, be sure to give us a follow and stay topped up on your ‘great holiday endorphins! Billie will often do Reels of properties as well as Live tours so you can interact online and get to see properties ‘virtually’ first-hand. If you want to sit and gaze at St Ives harbour views from your office computer or tablet at home, Orange Roofs webcam may well keep that itch scratched until your next holiday with us.