Don't Be a Priceless Holiday Cottage

We have reintroduced the option for cottage owners to include their rental price list. It's always a good day when we can introduce an improvement to the My Favourite Holiday Cottages website, especially when it is in response to a suggestion from a cottage owner or potential booker. So, step forward, chief persuader Penny Thompson who deserves the credit (and we mean credit  - not blame) for its appearance. Penny, by the way, is the owner of the beautifully furnished Little Bothy in Shropshire, where there is an excellent Mistletoe Festival that makes for a perfect winter weekend break).

Anyway... We've been surprised by the number of people who use My Favourite Holiday Cottages (My Favourites), stressing the importance of prices - even if only as a guideline. So many of you looking to book a cottage said you were reluctant to send an enquiry if you weren't sure a property was within your budget.

It

What Can You Expect to Find in An Eco Cottage?

From humble, earthy beginnings to luxury chic, eco-cottages have come a long way in recent years in terms of living standards and comfort. Staying in an environmentally friendly holiday cottage these days is as much a pleasure as it is gratifyingly satisfying to be kinder to the planet than most kinds of tourism. Try one - it’s a pleasure and an education!

My Favourite Holiday Cottages invited Chris Burton, the owner of two enviously beautiful and award-winning Cotswold eco-cottages, to write about what makes them such a light touch on the environment without compromising on luxury.

Over to you, Chris…

 

How to Have An Amazing Holiday and Tread Lightly Upon the Earth.

When we opened The Chestnuts holiday cottage just over ten years ago, Eco Holidays had a touch of the worthy about them. ‘Eco cottages’ as they become known, were often dimly lit - using as few lights as possible, swaddled in

Here's the thing. According to Rentals.com, 82% of guests are more likely to complete a reservation for your holiday cottage if your listing or website displays evidence of Smart Tech items in your holiday cottage. Even better news, 60% will be happy to pay more for holiday homes using Smart Technology. What's not to like?

Of course, it's necessary to get to grips with what Smart Tech items you can install in your property (start with ones that will encourage better energy efficiency to keep those bills down). And then, of course, your guests will need to know how to use it...

So, read this handy guide from Rentals.com, which covers all you need to know about installing and managing Smart Technology in the home and ways to ensure your guests can use them properly. It's not simply a list of smart items but a perfect plan for managing your inventory without causing problems once in place.

Even (Holiday) Cottage Industries Need Plans to Be Successful

To have a successful holiday cottage business, you need more than just a holiday cottage and adverts on My Favourite Holiday Cottages and other leading self-catering directory sites. Your success will heavily influence how you market and manage your holiday rental business. For that, you need a plan.

Like many people, holiday cottage owners can prove amazingly resilient to the idea of setting aside a reasonable amount of time to prepare a business plan. And yet, it's equally impressive to hear people who have committed to designing a plan commenting on the increase in bookings and revenues they have achieved as a result. They also say that having a plan to stick to makes managing the business much easier and simpler.

When working on a task managing or marketing your holiday cottage, ask yourself why I am doing this. What will it achieve that is important to the success of my business? If

 

You're Welcome! Mouth-Watering Cottage 'Welcome Packs'

That's the title of a forthcoming blog article featuring images of inspiring welcome packs for guests. There's nothing better than arriving at a holiday cottage after a long journey and finding a little basket of snacks and perhaps something grander to get the holiday off to a cracking start. 

  Your Photos Wanted

If you provide a welcome pack that goes beyond tea, biscuits, milk and possibly a loaf of bread, send us an image. We'll display the best of them together with a photo of your cottage and a link to your listing on My Favourite Holiday Cottages. 

Include a list of contents as well as examples of anything else you do to make your guests feel truly welcome on arrival. 

 

Email them to The Holiday Homefront, and we'll do you proud.

 

Image Credit

Thanks to Claire Franklin at The Cottage Gillamoor for supplying an

When summer comes, the UK seems to go festival crazy. Across the country, tents, wellies and sleeping bags are thrust into cars, ruc-sacs and the occasional supermarket trolly for a 2-3 night shindig somewhere in the country with thousands of others.

But don’t think festivals are all about high-decibel music. There’s a growing breed of absolutely wonderful family festivals with events and activities for parents and children of all ages, from the tweenies to teenagers, to run alongside the music.

Most festivals have campsites, but if you don’t fancy sleeping in a sea of mud if it rains, let alone investing in a carload of camping equipment likely only to get one use, then why not combine your days at a festival with nights in a comfortable holiday cottage with clean loos, hot showers, fridges and Wi-Fi.

Here are our Top Ten Favourite Family Festivals with a suggested nearby holiday cottage in which to stay for the weekend.

 

1.

Want Help With Finding and Planning To Book Holiday Cottages?

Imagine you had a shop where the sole product on the shelves is your holiday cottage (or cottages). How would you market it?

Vacation Rental Supremo Alan Egan follows this line of thought in creating a very readable article on marketing your holiday cottage to get more bookings. Simples!

Read More...

 

Links to More Good stuff from the Holiday Homefront Newsletter

 

6 Surprising Stats to Help Advertise Your Vacation Rental

What Holiday Cottage Upgrades Will Your Guests Soon Consider Essential?

Boost Your Holiday Cottage's Website Rankings & Traffic with Google My Business Reviews

Is Google Chrome About to Block Your Holiday Cottage Website?

HomeAway To Stop Charging Guest Fees And Start Charging Owners 

You're Welcome! Mouth-Watering Cottage 'Welcome Packs'

HomeAway News: Hotels and Booking Fees

Why should you take time to keep a record of your stats? Obviously, the answer is that they deliver information that will help you manage your holiday cottage more efficiently and effectively. You'll see where it is worth investing time in marketing your property and where you can leave things alone. For example, do you keep tabs on how well your adverts are performing, such as:

The number of times your property has been viewed over the past year (compared to the previous year) The number of potential bookers clicking on a link from one of your adverts to your website The number of enquiries (and conversion rates How many positive (and negative reviews) you have received

Having these figures will help you to determine the value an advert delivers and whether you are ahead or behind where you were this time last year.

 

Well, if you think your stats are moving in the wrong direction or at least in need of improvement, this

Remember when going on self-catering holidays meant taking a fat cash bag of silver to feed the electricity and gas meters? Then things changed. Once upon a time, a prominent feature was 'electricity inclusive', then washing machines, followed by dishwashers, DVDs, Wi-Fi and lately, Smart TVs (forget boasting about 'flat-screen DTVs with Freeview'; they are a given). These facilities and items have shifted quickly from rare luxuries to standard items on a holiday cottage inventory list. Nobody will thank you for providing them, but they will drop a star or two from their review of your cottage if they are missing.

So what's next? What facilities and equipment are considered premium luxuries in a holiday cottage today but will be taken for granted within the next few years? To keep your holiday cottage ahead of the game (or work out how much money you will need to set aside), view this article from Vacation Cluster that considers what future guests will