THE PERFECT GIFT FOR CHRISTMAS!

Travelling can be expensive! But it’s the little additional charges that get you. When you turn up to that attraction and payout for tickets, you almost don’t notice it’s happening! But fear not. There are ways of drastically cutting these costs and making that holiday outing a little bit less painful.

We all know that friend or family member who can’t seem to get enough of the world! And being so adventurous, they don’t care much for your average Christmas gift. So instead, get them something they will appreciate... Experiences.

National Trust Membership

The National Trust is arguably the most influential force in preserving the UK’s most precious treasures. They are a non-profit charity, but those fees on the door will still set you back quite a bit! Of course, like most things, there’s a way around this. For Christmas this year, buy a loved one the gift of Membership for free access to hundreds of sites and hundreds of thousands of acres of stunning national treasures! Prices start at £60 for a year and go all the way to a life membership for around £1480. Don’t worry though; if you buy a shorter package, you can delay its start date for up to 3 months until the weather improves!

Waddesdon Manor in the heart of Buckinghamshire

With the National Trust stretching so far and wide, we cannot suggest cottages for every location – but Waddesdon Manor seems like a fantastic place to start. So here are two cottages from Buckinghamshire that you can use as a base of operations!

A beautiful cottage in a sleepy village. The cottage is in an area of outstanding natural beauty, so you can never be bored!

SCOTTISH HERITAGE PASS

If you’re looking for something a little more specific, or maybe more single-holiday focused, then the Scottish Heritage Pass will be a fantastic present! The pass will be valid from April to October and grants access to wondrous attractions all around Scotland, helping you save over 25% if you visit as few as five attractions. The £49 adult pass will be available for seven days, so there’s plenty to see!

Edinburgh Castle

If you want to make the most of those seven days, you will want to book a wonderful Scottish cottage; here are a few of our favourites!

HISTORIC ENVIRONMENT SCOTLAND EXPLORER PASS

The Historic Scotland Explorer Pass will provide free entry to 78 properties, as well as daytime events and money-off audio guides at Edinburgh Castle. However, the most appealing thing about this pass is how you can skip the queues and get right on with your Historic adventure! You can get an adult pass for £24 or £32, depending on if you want the 3-day or 7-day deal. But don’t think you must see all of Scotland in 7 days! Instead, you can spread those seven across two weeks. That leaves plenty of time to experience Scotland at your own pace.

The York Pass

If the previous passes and memberships seem a bit daunting, or if the receiver is more of a city explorer, then the York Pass should be right up their street! Being a small, confined city, you should have no trouble getting your money’s worth from this 1 to the 3-day ticket. Prices start at £19 a day if you get a 3-day pass.

The magnificent Castle Howard is one of the attractions included!

We can’t offer you a cottage In York this big, unfortunately. But we can provide you with a choice of North Yorkshire holiday cottages nearby!

Theatre Passport

Maybe all this standing and walking is too much – perhaps they are more of a nightlife person and would much rather watch a play! Well, this is the pass for them. This Passport entitles you to the best available seats in a selection of musicals and plays in London.

Thanks for reading our guide to exploring the UK; I hope you got some great ideas for Christmas presents or are even considering treating yourself to some time away! If you do get away next year, check back on our site for some fantastic Holiday Cottage offers to set your mind at ease.

Dear Owners!

Well, the short dark days of November are upon us with thoughts of long hot sunny days little more than a memory, hopefully, kept alive by the number of bookings already in your diary for summer 2016. If your availability calendar is still vacant, this month’s Newsletter contains valuable tips on attracting more visitors to your advert.

Get Better Stats

No - this isn’t a ‘Get Well Message’ to your old mate Stats - but it is a recommendation to those who’d like to find a way to improve the statistics for their advert on My Favourite Holiday Cottages.

We regularly analyse the site’s traffic flows and try to understand why some properties do better than others. Aside from the usual factors such as location, our analysis often yields exciting results. We have noticed that owners who have invested in uploading a complete portfolio of 20 high-quality photos enjoy more enquiries and click-throughs to their own cottage’s website. Here’s why...

More photos = More Visitors

To begin with, the more high-quality photos you can display, the more it appeals to those looking to book a cottage. Note the use of the phrase ‘high quality’. If you want to turn prospective bookers away, try uploading poor-quality images (dark, poorly dressed rooms, out of focus or just plain dull images that give away little of the holiday pleasures you can offer your guests).

You can display up to 20 images on your listing. Even if you don’t have 20 rooms, you can always add some eye-catching close-ups, photos of the garden, or nearby places and attractions for your guests to visit (make sure you own the right to display the image when doing this).

As well as enhancing your cottage’s appeal to those who land on its page, you’ll also be increasing the number of people who find your page in the first place. Google ranks a page using several factors, including two relevant ones: ‘Dwell Time’ and ‘CTR’. Dwell Time means that the longer a visitor looks at your page, the more Google assumes it is relevant to that visitor’s needs and the higher your advert page will be ranked. As a result, more people will find it when using search engines to seek a suitable cottage.

What Does ‘CTR’ Mean and Why Is It Important?

CTR stands for ‘Click Through Rate’. Google and other Search Engines use this to measure a site’s relevance to those landing on it. If page visitors click on a link in your page, such as opening up a photo to enlarge it, that is a ‘Click Through’ and is perceived by Search Engines as relevant to the visitor. The more click-throughs your page enjoys, the higher it will rank and - you’ve guessed it - the more people you’ll find looking at your cottage on my Favourites.

I hope that makes sense. Anyway - to achieve this, if you are not already doing so, make full use of the option to display up to 20 images on your listing. DO make sure you use good quality images, though (we cannot stress this highly enough). If you’re only a happy snapper, invest in a professional photographer. They are not that expensive, and their cost will be more than outweighed by the increase in bookings you should enjoy. I’m sure those who have done this will endorse this shrewd move. We are happy to offer our photoshoot services at a discounted rate for My Favourites subscribers. We can give you links to websites featuring examples of our work if you are interested. Equally, for those contemplating venturing forth with your own camera, we are happy to provide a free set of guidelines for preparing your cottage for a photo shoot - you’d be surprised at which little things make a massive difference!

E-mail us if you’d like a copy of these guidelines or if you would like to enquire about a photo shoot for your cottage.

Kittiwake Cottage - One of our newest additions, Photographed by us!

Time For Testimonials

Excellent Reviews were posted on My Favourites this month, including Ford Hill Cottage in Devon and Gwenoldy Cottage in Flintshire—clearly, both are beautiful places to stay.

Potential guests do take note of these (as do the search engines). Let’s face it, folks - if you are looking at 2-3 listings for some cute cottages - are you going to prioritise the one with a healthy handful of visitor testimonials saying what their favourite things about your cottage were or the one in which reviews are conspicuous only by their absence? Don’t forget: More Reviews = More Click Throughs = ... You should know the rest if you have already read the ‘More Photos = More Visitors’ section above.

In the quiet days of winter - spend a little time uploading a testimonial or two to your listing on My Favourites to help it stay at the top of the food queue. Do, and this is very important, only post a review you haven’t already put on another website elsewhere for, as you should know by now, the Great God Google frowns upon duplicate content. So, if you have a handful of great testimonials, share the love and spread them around a little rather than cramming them all on your own site.

ASSC Outcomes

For the uninitiated, ASSC stands for the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers, which held its annual conference in Glasgow earlier this month. My Favourite Holiday Cottages went along to see what we could learn regarding future improvements to this site. One thing that emerged was a discussion with several delegates on the wide range of charging models for advertising holiday cottages online on sites such as My Favourites. There is a range of possibilities, from a straightforward annual fee to payment by commission. But which is the best model? We want to determine which options owners investing their money in an advert would prefer. So, we will set up a focus group or two with cottage owners to solicit their views. If we find a better, more mutually beneficial way of working together than our present format, we’ll be happy to look into it. While we need to make the site pay its way, we want it to be seen as a no-brainer of investment by owners, helping us become the go-to site for those seeking a holiday cottage to book.

Join One of Our Focus Groups

Our offices are based in Devon, so the groups must be based there. If you’re a My Favourites subscriber with an opinion on subscription models, know what you want from a site like ours and would like to share them with us, then e-mail us so we can add you to the shortlist. We’ll offer some incentives to thank you for attending and provide pretty darned decent teas, coffees, biscuits and a Devon Cream Tea to get you through the hour. It’ll also be a chance to meet and share thoughts and ideas with other cottage owners as well, so everyone should learn something from the session. If you’d like to attend, call Rick on 01598 710631. They’ll be in the New Year, and we’ll work out dates to suit those happy to come along.

Another ASSC Conference avenue of interest for those of you with a cottage in Scotland needing a good photo was a session with a leading Scottish photographer who specialises in photographing and videoing holiday cottages. Paul Saunders presented an exciting and nicely put-together session on tips for those planning a photo shoot for their cottage, including a video option that proved to be very successful.

You don’t have to miss out just because you are not in Scotland. Ask us for a copy of our own Top Tips for Holiday Cottage Photoshoots - or, indeed, to come along and do the photos for you. Just E-mail Rick

Forthcoming Blogs

Our most recent blogs include ‘Holiday Cottages for Christmas’. Thanks to those of you who submitted suggestions—you’ve been included along with other cottages close to suitably seasonal activities for Christmas breaks. You might want to check which cottages are mentioned in case one is yours!

For those of you who’d like a different plug for your holiday cottage online, here are the latest blog topics and deadlines for future News Articles to be published on My Favourite Holiday Cottages.

• Winter Walks
• Spring Flowers
• Cottages with Gardens for Easter Egg Hunts
• Pet-Friendly Cottages (you must offer special facilities for dogs - not just allow them!)
• Romantic Escapes for Valentine Breaks

If your cottage fits with a particular theme, then let us know. E-mail us and include a photo of your cottage if you can. We’ll include it as a recommended place to stay.

Thanks to Wendy at Riverside Cottage in the Peak District for her suggestion on Cycle Trails. We will add this to the late spring list and ensure the Monsal Trail features. All other cycle trail suggestions are most welcome.

Our Christmas Blog! Read it by Clicking Here

Carbon Monoxide Alarms in Scotland

For those My Favourite Holiday Cottage subscribers in Scotland, you may want to take note of this: As subscribers, you are naturally an honest, well-informed group of cottage owners, so you’ll probably know this, but just in case...

As a holiday property owner, you are, in effect, a private landlord. The law requires you to ensure your cottage meets the ‘repairing standard’ at the start of a tenancy (or, in your case, a holiday) and throughout its duration. One of the requirements is to have a working C02 Alarm fitted (or possibly more than one if you have a large shooting lodge).

Thanks to the ASSC (See ASSC Outcome article above) for conveying this. There isn’t a law that says if you have a Scottish Holiday Cottage, you should be a member of the ASSC, but it’s an excellent organisation, and we are happy to recommend you subscribe! The ASSC offers valuable, sometimes vital, information and assistance, from scam warnings to handy Guidance Sheets, Tourism Webinars and an annual conference (attended by more than 200 self-catering owners). Click here to view the ASSC Website. And don’t forget to check that C02 alarm. English and Welsh owners should do likewise whether the law requires it or not!

In conclusion...

Your tasks for November are to:

• Add or update photos and testimonials.
• Consider investing in a professional photoshoot.
• Install (or check) your C02 alarm.
• Suggest details for blog topics and/ or nominate your cottage for inclusion in one of the planned topics.
• If you have a Scottish self-catering property, join ASSC if you haven’t already done so. We’ll see you at the conference in 2016.

Have a great month!

CHRISTMAS BLOG

On the twelfth day of Christmas, My Favourites gave to me

• Twelve months a year
• Alleviated Fears
• Ten search options
• Nine to nine calling
• Late Booking Discount
• Seven days a week
• Six Santa’s helpers
• Five Star Reviews
• Four bedrooms
• Three en-suites
• Two parking spots
• And a cottage for my family and me

Welcome to our ho-ho-homely Christmas Cottage blog!

This week, we’ll look at some lovely lights and yummy bites around Christmas time. And while we’re at it, we can let you know which Christmas Cottages you can stay at to enjoy them.

MOUSEHOLE CHRISTMAS LIGHTS

Let’s get the snowball rolling with the Mousehole lights in Cornwall! Which is apparently pronounced ‘Mouzle’; that’s not helpful. Maʊzəl? also not helpful if, like me, you don’t happen to know the International Phonetic Alphabet! Look, it’s probably best if you wait until you hear a local say the name before attempting it. Maybe engage them in some chitchat about the town’s remarkable history before some of the most amazing Christmas lights in the UK illuminate the town’s harbour on Saturday 12th December at 7 pm. Over 30,000 people are expected to attend this year, and that many people cannot be wrong!

Before you hop on your sleigh and ‘up, up and away’, let’s look at some nearby cottages, you can stay in!

Meadowside Manor House Cottage and Bew Cottage

A single-storey 2-bedroom barn with stunning views across Lamorna Valley. They feature an indoor swimming pool and games room! Sleeping 12 A charming Cornish barn that sleeps 6 in a beautiful coastal region.

LUDLOW MEDIEVAL CHRISTMAS FAIR The kids will be hungry after all that carolling! Christmas Markets are a fantastic place to pick up snacks, and you can grab some decorations while you are at it!

Even if you are not planning to buy, you can be sure the stall owners will put in an effort to make the place look fabulous. But we aren’t going to bore you with traditional markets! Okay - we are. But not just yet. First, let’s go back in time to Ludlow Castle and its Medieval Christmas Fair.

This lovely event does exactly what it says on the Christmas Cake tin, from local crafts and cooking in the market to the Plantagenet Knights’ Tournament and falconry displays. But, of course, if you do not have responsibilities, you’ll be more interested in wassailing! All this takes place on November 26th and 27th in Ludlow, Shropshire.

Here are our favourite places to stay nearby! 

Little Bothy Dick Turpin Cottage A cute, pet-friendly holiday cottage for two with tranquil gardens and plenty of space to explore Shropshire, Herefordshire and Worcestershire! Another spacious cottage for two with fantastic walking opportunities and stunning views! 

WESTONBIRT ARBORETUM

If Christmas Trees are your thing, look no further! The Westonbirt Arboretum throws a fantastic mile-long trail of luscious lights at looming heights as their real-life towering trees are lit up like no others. Of course, Father Christmas will be there, donned in his green garb and ready to delight your kids, along with stilt walkers, fairies and carol singers. Rest assured, you won’t be going home hungry either, as there are plenty of opportunities to grab some festive food and drink along the 45min wheelchair-friendly walk.

The adventure occurs every Friday, Saturday and Sunday evening from the 27th of November to the 20th of December. You won’t need a booking for Fridays or Sundays, but Saturdays are in high demand, so you’ll have to book for that! It starts at 5 pm, but you can arrive as late as 7.

Nobody wants a long miserable walk home in the dark to their house! So look at these inviting cottages to relax in after your nativities.

Broadway Cottage Clematis Cottage Stanway House

Located near Broadway, this house for two is perfect for exploring the local area’s beauty! Again, on the same farm as the previous two, this house offers eight bedrooms and various activities on-site! The large farm is ideal for large families and groups in an area of outstanding natural beauty.

LEEDS CASTLE CHRISTMAS MARKET

I know I promised you a dull old regular Christmas market, but I’m feeling ye olde Christmas spirit, and you’re getting another castle! This time our magical Christmas stocking takes us to Leeds Castle and its sensational Christmas Market. You can take a spin on the fairground attractions, meet the reindeer, dodge the birds of prey, watch some live performances, and put the star on the tree from the big wheel, with a fantastic view of arguably the prettiest castle in the UK!

Talking of pretty things beginning with C, here are some cosy Christmas cottages you can relax in! 

The Old Forge

 A large holiday barn sleeping 8 in 4 bedrooms with a 4-star rating in the Yorkshire Wolds. This house can comfortably sleep 8 with a large kitchen!

There you have it! Our favourite things to do for Christmas, and our favourite cottages to stay at! Don’t forget, Christmas books fast, so grab yourself a perfect Christmas cottage quickly!