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Exterior of a stone-built Dorset cottage overlooking a garden overflowing with shrubs and flowers.

News, Information and Ideas for Managing or Booking UK Holiday Cottages

View articles for holiday cottage owners and bookers. Many of these articles are mentioned in The Holiday Homefront, a monthly newsletter for holiday cottage owners that is published for free. 

Other articles help anyone interested in planning a self-catering holiday, from advice on planning and booking different types of property to information on cottages offering discounts. These are published in a Newsletter for people interested in booking holiday cottages and wanting to know more about booking procedures, discounts, and holiday ideas. To receive a copy, click the Newsletter button at the bottom of the page.

Contents vary but will include the following:

  • Tips on getting it right when finding and booking a particular type of holiday cottage - such as one with 'the right kind of pool' pool, or what to expect to be included in the rental price. 
  • Inspiring articles on our 'favourite holiday cottages' for holidays on a theme or particular location, such as holiday cottages for walkers' best luxury beach holiday cottages in Cornwall.
  • When to discuss (and when not to discuss discounts) and some great deals available at the time of writing. 

  • Sometimes, the best things in life really can be free. Here are ten suggestions for spending a day or more of your holiday creating beautiful memories (and photos), all costing absolutely nothing.

     

    Plan a Circular Off-Road Walk Using Local Foot and Bridle Paths. Take it, in turn, to be the leader and tour guide – inventing stories about the things you pass. “This must be the house that Jack built.” (Note: can be combined with 5 & 8). Get Your Feet Wet: Find somewhere to paddle: a tiny stream winding its way down the valley, a beach. It is refreshing in summer. Squealingly challenging in winter! Waterside locations are also an excellent opportunity to teach children how to skim stones – and see that you’ve not lost the knack too. Take a towel. Find Your Favourite Moments in Local History: Visit a museum. Every party member has to find and share their favourite artefact and the actual (or imaginary) story connected to it. Family
  • Eat Well! Fabulous Farmers’ Markets and Farm Shops in the Peak District

    Mouthwatering Local Produce at Buxton Farmers Markets

    You’re thoroughly spoilt for choice for farmers and other local food producers in the Peak District. Here is our list of favourite markets heavy on selling local produce. So, if you want a self-catering holiday where you can buy, cook and eat deliciously well while keeping your food travel miles low, view our recommended list of Peak District markets. You’ll find the necessary ‘what-where-and-when’ information for all the markets mentioned at the bottom of this article. 

    One of our favourite pastimes when holidaying in the Peak District, one of our favourite past-times when is visiting the farmers’ markets and enticing foodie shops.

    Bakewell Farmer’s Market is one of the largest farmers’ markets in the UK and generally takes place on the last Saturday of every month except for December. The market takes place

  • My Favourite Holiday Cottages is keen to encourage people not to fly to their holidays whether in the UK or further field. That's why we support the Flight Free UK campaign, which encourages people to pledge not to fly for a whole year.

    Some of the most beautiful corners of the UK are nowhere within easy reach of an airport but easily accessible by car or train. And in any case, why be responsible for dumping an extra tonne or two of CO2 into the atmosphere when you fly when there are so many friendlier alternatives to holidaying by plane?

     

    A Whole year without flying: Just think of the places you can go! 

    We invited Anna Hughes, Director of Flight Free UK, to explain why it's not just important to cut back on flying but absolutely essential in the race to cool the earth.

    Flight Free UK is a behaviour change campaign that encourages people to fly less. We run the flight free 2020 pledge, asking people to take a year off

  • It’s summer at Beer Mill in Clawton, and the temptation to head straight to the nearby beaches around Bude should definitely be indulged, but take a day or just an hour to sit in the garden. Wander the nature trails, close your eyes and listen to the true sounds of summer; the bees and insects are busy with their lives; use your sense of smell and get close to the flowers and the hay; look into nooks and crannies to find the hidden colours and observe the lifecycles of the wildlife around you – tell us what you see, we miss things every day so extra help from guests at Beer Mill is very welcome.

    As we have just passed midsummer’s eve, the ponds are teaming with wildlife, so have a go at pond dipping – at first glance, there’s nothing in the net but mud. 

    Take another look …….ferocious carnivores of the pond, the great diving beetle! Froglets, toadlets, and newts (yes, many do survive the attack of the predators) scatter at your footsteps,

  • A holiday where experiences are genuinely wild: Guests staying in Beer Mill at Stone Farm enjoy more than the usual comforts of a well-maintained rural holiday cottage. Where most countryside properties offer a lovely garden, this remote holiday cottage between Bude and Clovelly in North Devon gives its guests their own conservation area to roam. No matter in which month you choose to travel to this little West Country paradise, there’s always something to discover as you wend your way from the woodland glade to the chuckling stream of this natural (occasionally muddy) rural wonderland.

    Let’s start early in the year when things first begin to stir...

    January, February, March – you might be forgiven for thinking that there’s not much going on in the wilds of North Devon at this time of year; most wildlife is hunkered down or hibernating while we humans are huddled indoors waiting for the winter to pass! Well, think again! We venture out along the

  • Fancy somewhere different? Be a little spontaneous! Discover new corners of the UK when you book a weekend or midweek break in a holiday cottage somewhere at the end of the line.

    Juliet Cottage, Stratford-upon-Avon - the end of the line for Shakespeare? View cottage

    There must be hundreds of excuses to book a weekend break, from the desire to get away from it all in a rural retreat to a couple of nights being lulled asleep to the sounds of waves crashing on a nearby beach in a seaside cottage.

    But how about a voyage of discovery to a less-travelled corner of the UK?

    For travellers with a sense of adventure, here’s the perfect idea for a weekend or midweek getaway. Find and book a holiday cottage at the end of the line. Leave your car at home (or the station car park) and book tickets to a station at the end of a line. For those unsure where ‘the end of the line is’, there’s a list of thirty-one termini stations below. Each link towns

  • Are you buying a holiday property to rent out? 

     

    Before you start calling estate agents, here are ten questions you must ask yourself.

    If you need advice to answer any of these questions, contact us (our help is freely given). Just have a pen and paper to hand! We'll do our best to help you.

     

    1. Why am I doing this?

    What's your motivation? An investment? Annual profits? Somewhere to stay yourself? The answers will help you determine what and where you should buy, the implications for property management, and tax and revenue expectations.

     

    2. How will you pay for it?

    Work out what you can afford. Are you a cash buyer, or will you need a Buy-to-Let Mortgage? Cumberland Building Society offers useful BTL Mortgages for short-term holiday properties.

    Can you afford the monthly repayments? This will help you determine your budget and possible locations to search for a

  • Just occasionally, it will rain on your family holiday. If you’re staying in a holiday cottage, then being house-bound is better than being room-bound in a hotel on a rainy day where the only option is to venture forth for a soaking or to find a suitable indoor attraction to entertain all ages. Fun – but your wallet will lose weight.

    For those choosing to book family-friendly holiday cottages and - owners, please take an inventory note - here is the list of the My Favourite Holiday Cottages Top Ten Board Games to play on holiday with your family.

     

    Our Rules:

    We have chosen Board Games that

    1. Can be easily set up (and put away).

    2. Don’t need lots of fiddly bits, which, if any are lost, make the game unplayable (that’s why jigsaws, even if they were a game, would not be on our list).

    3. Can be played all day or just for an hour while a shower passes by outside.

    4. Allow children to compete with adults

  • Advertise your holiday cottage on a quality site with a reputation for being scrupulously fair to owners and bookers alike. Established in 2010, My Favourite Holiday Cottages is increasingly popular with owners who want to pay a single subscription to advertise – and don’t want their guests to pay booking fees.

    With up to 40,000 visitors a month looking for a holiday cottage to book, My Favourite Holiday Cottages is fast becoming a go-to website. Over the past 15 months, the number of cottages advertised on the site has more than doubled from 700 to over 1500.

     

    We Drive Visitors By the Score to Your Website

    Unlike many sites, My Favourite Holiday Cottages will drive hundreds of visitors to your own website, encouraging them to enquire from there. Why? Because you will convert more enquiries from your website to bookings than from an advert. On average, a cottage advertised with us will get over 350 click-throughs to its Home or