Here's the first news of a very important new feature for My Favourite Holiday Cottages.

Guests - or those who've just fallen for your cottage by looking at it - can now post a review saying exactly what it is about your cottage and/or their stay in it that they really like about it.

Reviews will appear on your listing page.

We've been doing a lot of research into reviews, and it's pretty clear that they help to attract more bookings. Equally, they can be open to abuse, as we're sure you know. So, we've created a review format that allows people to focus on the positive aspects of your holiday cottage.

A reviewer writes about their 'Favourite' things about it. Moreover, they can also add an eye-catching photo, adding greater authenticity.

When a review is submitted, we'll moderate it first. If it's abusive or runs contrary to the principles of My Favourite Reviews, we won't permit it to be

First of all, before you read the reviews, make sure the cottage you’re considering is a cottage you’re quite happy to stay in before reading the reviews. Does it fit your criteria? Imagine yourself and your family or friends relaxing in the photos etc.

Still like the look of the property? OK, let’s check the reviews. These come in two types: reviews or testimonials on a property’s website or advert and reviews posted on independent sites.

“Wow! What a stunning property! We had a fantastic time here, and there is much to explore locally. We’ll definitely have to come back. Loved the fresh flowers and eggs from the chickens.” Thank you!    Jenny, Sue, John and Ernie the Westie. Hillcrest Cottage, Suffolk

You can pretty much guarantee that these will be positive. Occasionally some owners post comments that flag up the unsuitability of the property for particular types of customers, e.g. a

Starting this month, we're adding a page for every town where there is a cottage listed on My Favourite Holiday Cottages. Researching and writing a few hundred words describing around 700 towns in the UK has ensured the lights in office have been burning long into the night.

You can find the Town Search page on the main menu bar, the sidebar and advanced search pages. We've also upgraded the drop-down search bars to show how many cottages are in that town/county/location to aid bookers in homing in on their desired cottages.

As well as helping bookers find cottages more easily, new pages mean new traffic allowing us to send more bookers to your website.

We're still uploading town pages, so if the town where your cottage is located doesn't yet appear, don't fret - it's still being written and will appear as soon as it's done.

We've enhanced the appeal of the site to

Planning a last-minute seaside holiday but don’t want to be overrun by the crowds? Here are six ‘secret beaches’ together with recommended holiday cottages in the coastal counties of Devon and Cornwall. Of course, it’s impossible to find a beach so secret that no one knows about it, so I picked out those that look lovely, are somewhat off the beaten track and are recommended by locals, who instinctively know the best beaches away from the main drag on which to chill out on a summer’s day.

Lee Bay nestles on the rugged North Devon coastline between Ilfracombe and Woolacombe. Lee is one of those ‘time forgotten’ villages where you could be forgiven for believing you’d slipped through a time warp back to the 1950s as you descend through sleepy Lee village in the valley towards the beach.

The Bay has two equally appealing faces: at High Tide when the sea laps against the sea wall and the turquoise

First things first: We haven’t put our prices up!

Better still, we are giving a choice of 3 ways to pay when you next renew your annual subscription. Two of them will save you even more money.

Login to your members’ area and select the ‘Renew’ or ‘Buy New’ subscription button.

Select the ‘Subscribe and Save’ button and choose your preferred options:

1: Pay £12 every quarter

2: Pay £22.80 every six months (5% discount)

3: Pay £43.20 annually (10% discount)

NB: All figures are net of VAT.

Once you’ve set up your payment, all subsequent payments will be automated. You won’t be deluged with renewal reminder e-mails from us and have to spend time wading through PayPal each time a payment is due. We’ll send a single e-mail to let you know we are about to take the money via PayPal, and only if you decide to cancel will you need to do anything.

It's a jungle out there! But, with some insider knowledge, you can find your dream cottage at a reasonable price and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing your holiday is safe and secure.

We've compiled this list of eleven handy tips to help you get what you want with less hassle and even less expense. Use it when searching My Favourite Holiday Cottages for your dream holiday home and other sites we're also happy to recommend as purveyors of good practice like us.

1. Focus

Set your search criteria. There are so many lovely holiday cottages in the UK, and there'll be oodles that'll meet your criteria, so focus, focus, focus! Don't get overwhelmed by casting your net too widely. You'll spend hours searching for a perfect cottage if you do. Set up too broad a search, and you risk wasting your lunch break trawling through pages of unsuitable cottages and losing the will

Next week we will make major changes to your member area to make it easier to navigate and make amendments to your property’s listing. Log in to view the changes – and if you have a moment – send us some feedback.

We’ve also upgraded our Map Search. It now features better controls, street view and the “pin” can be placed more precisely. Why not log in and put it on your welcome mat? If you ever need help making amendments to your listing, do use the ‘Live Chat’ function if it is live; it’s usually online from 9.30 am – 9.00 pm during the week and frequently at weekends.

We recognise that half of you have more than one property. We’re introducing a new, more generous series of discounts. From now on, you can enjoy benefits for signing up for longer periods and better discounts for uploading two or more cottages. You can also directly upload up to thirty cottages. This ensures My

Here's an interesting fact: 92.6% of people say that the immediate visual impact of a website is a major influencing factor in their decision whether to book the property or not.

Colour plays a crucial part in that influence! So, is your website the right colour? If not, your holiday cottage could be losing the bookings it deserves.

Read our latest blog article, How to use Colour To Increase Holiday Cottage Bookings, for six of the best tips for you to use when updating or redesigning your website. Feel free to add your comments related to your own experiences.

Last month we explained how to use the free Late Availability function. This month we draw your attention to the 'Location' function.

Every cottage on My Favourite Holiday Cottages is listed by county. But is your cottage listed under one of the many UK locations or regions that

If you were web surfing in the wee small hours of Wednesday morning or first thing before breakfast, you might have noticed that the site was offline for a few hours while we rebuilt our server. This is part of our ongoing maintenance and development programme to improve the site's speed. The faster the site works, the more search engines like Google will like it. If you weren’t aware, this was happening. Hopefully, it was because the larger part of the downtime was during the early hours of last Wednesday morning when traffic figures were at their lowest. Although the site was back online by late morning, we have automatically added two days to your renewal date to ensure you’re not out of pocket.

We are also revising the subscription renewal process to make this simpler. As I write, Jason, our Web Developer, is playing in PayPal’s Sandbox, a virtual world where you can create and test new ideas to see if they’ll improve