Happy New Year! It's rather hard to say that, knowing that the holiday cottage business, along with others, is facing a not-so-happy start to 2021. Hopefully, when the Great Escape begins, as it surely will, we'll see the welcome surge in demand that we experienced last July to September. If this is the case, then now is the time to ensure you're prepared for it and ready to reap the benefits. 

The January issue of the Holiday Homefront contains some beneficial articles on all aspects of holiday property marketing and management. This should lead to you creating a healthy task list to complete before the spring and a return to business is upon us all.

In the meantime, keep your marketing going. As last year's lockdown proved for so many, it is a false economy to cut back on advertising your properties now. While people may not be booking, they are looking and preparing shortlists of favoured holiday properties to rent the moment they know it will

Well, here it is – possibly one of the most unusual Christmas’s many of us have ever experienced in an equally unique topsy-turvy year. So, for your more than casual interest, here is a compilation of the most interesting articles we have encountered in the past few weeks. This is also slightly longer than usual Homefront because it includes helpful ‘‘ow To’’tips.

We’ve broken with tradition and moved a couple of articles aimed at My Favourite Holiday Cottage subscribers because they are very important to know. If you’re not a subscriber, you might still find them of interest – especially the one about photo copyright. But if not, scroll down to the ‘‘Naughty or Nice’’article and continue from there. As ever – Where an item refers to another article, click on the title to upload it. Titles with links are in a brighter blue.

 

Read on!

 

Advert Management IMPORTANT! BROKEN WEB LINKS WILL SUSPEND YOUR ADVERT

I’d planned to write a blog to indicate the most desired facilities a holiday cottage should have to appeal to guests. Initially, my thoughts were turning to song and dance amenities such as hot tubs, heated swimming pools, remote central heating controls or maybe even the simpler things in life such as fluffy white cotton dressing gowns or smart TVs in all bedrooms. If not those, then some other of life’s little luxuries that temporarily elevate our status when we venture on holiday.

While doing the research, I expected to find any one of the amenities above riding high everywhere I looked. And, for the most part, I did. So, imagine my surprise when I came across a blog article on the Rental Scale-Up site, which listed the Top Ten Amenities in a Vacation Rental according to VRBO. If you’re a holiday homeowner, you’ll know about VRBO. They don’t publish lightly. So, here’s their list:

Shower  and bath at Made-of-Wood, near Attleborough in

NAUGHTY OR NICE: YOU CAN STILL HOLIDAY IN THE UK THIS CHRISTMAS

Now that the Government has issued new COVID-19-related rules for Christmas 2020, here's what you need to know if you are thinking of booking a self-catering holiday in the UK this Christmas.

Travel restrictions are relaxed from 23 – 27 December (inclusive) to allow people to travel between local authority areas and the four nations (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales) of the UK to join their bubble.

The good news is that your Christmas bubble (which for a few days can be up to three households) can come together in a cottage for up to four nights from the 23rd of December to the 27th of December.

You will be able to mix as much as you like inside the cottage and go on walks etc., outside.

While you can't all go to a pub or restaurant, one of the joys about booking a large holiday cottage is that it will have excellent kitchen facilities and dining

Having a pool at your holiday cottage is part of its attraction. Naturally, you want to have fun in it. However, you also want to be sure that it meets your particular needs and is clean, safe and healthy.

So, before you book purely based on its existence, you should do more research to ensure that it meets your expectations. Nobody wants to be disappointed because they omitted to check some essential information before they confirmed a booking.

Here are twenty-three questions you should ask the owner or manager of a property with a swimming pool. They shouldn’t have any difficulty answering them!

You don’t necessarily need to ask all of them, but you’re advised to go through them all and ask those that might be deal-breakers or to check your assumptions.

1.     Is the use of the pool included in the price?

2.     How large is the pool?

3.     What kind of swimming pool is it

Overseas holidays can be a tiring experience - more stress than relaxation. That’s hardly surprising as, while changes to your environment can be refreshing, coping with the myriad of tiny adjustments we have to make to our lifestyles to travel further afield is endless.

Here are twelve staycation holiday benefits: compelling reasons why self-catering holidays in the UK offer a more relaxing alternative to gite and villa holidays on the continent.

1. If things go badly wrong – you don’t have to rely upon the British Consulate to come to your assistance or struggle with translation when informing a property owner that they need to call a plumber straight away and that whatever happened wasn’t your fault.

The Old Apple Store on the North Devon Coast near Ilfracombe

2. Suntan preservation: Have you noticed how quickly that hard-won suntan fades almost overnight? This is something to do with arriving home completely shattered after-hours,

The Secretary of State for BEIS, Alok Sharma, gave a press briefing on COVID-19 on Thursday, along with Prof Steve Powis of NHS England, in which he confirmed that the Government will be distributing £2.2 billion to local authorities in England today, to allow them to make grant payments to businesses which have been affected.

Meanwhile, BEIS has published guidance on five grant schemes. Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG (Closed) Addendum)The Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG (Closed) Addendum) supports businesses in England that were open as usual but have been required to close due to the national restrictions between 5 November and 2 December 2020.

Eligible businesses may be entitled to a cash grant from their local council for each 28-day period under national restrictions.EligibilityYour business may be eligible if it: 

Is based in England Occupies property on which it pays business rates (and is the ratepayer) Has been

It’s Staycations UK Boom Time!  Tips To Help (Lockdown’s Permitting) Bookings Blossom in 2021

In 2021, people in the UK will have more holidays to take, as so many have accumulated or been able to transfer unused holiday dates as a result of Lockdowns in 2020. One of the impacts of the Lockdowns has been that more people are planning only to take one main holiday in 2021. However, lingering COVID-19 fears and concerns about travelling abroad now that we have completely left the EU mean that more and more people are looking to take that holiday in the UK.

Better still, self-catering accommodation, where there is no need to mix with people outside your family group or bubble, is proving more popular than hotels, B&Bs and holiday parks where social mixing is the order of the day. The beauty of holiday cottages, especially those with gardens, is that they give you your own private space.

For that reason, the chief UK Staycation beneficiaries are

COVID-19 has led to quite a change in holiday cottage guest expectations. It’s essential that you address these within your marketing—especially on your website—as many people won’t book a property or even enquire about it if they feel that the cottage will not meet their health and hygiene-related concerns.

Here’s a helpful 10-point checklist of some of the most frequently raised concerns for you to address.

1. Cleanliness – Written evidence that a cottage has been meticulously cleaned:

Post guest reviews that contain references to cleanliness, especially since March 2020.Provide a synopsis of your cleaning schedule on your website. NB: Many owners are duelling up on crockery and cutlery sets, removing one set and replacing it with the other that has been properly cleaned. This saves time cleaning these items during the changeover.

2. Things to do: Provide up-to-date information on generally what is open in terms of:

ShopsRestaurants and