Move over city breaks and hello cosy Cotswold Cottages! With tourism on the rise in the Cotswolds, Burford based holiday letting agency Manor Cottages shares the top trends for 2023. If you own a second home in the Cotswolds, you’ll be thrilled with the results.
Each year, Sykes Holiday Cottages (parent company of Manor Cottages) release their Staycation Index which offers insights and trends into the holiday letting landscape for that year based on booking data.
This year, the UK gains an extra bank holiday due to the King’s Coronation in May, giving another opportunity for staycations. According to Sykes Holiday Cottages’ staycation index, the Cotswolds ranks 8 out of 10 for the fastest growing region for school holiday bookings in 2023.
The top villages to stay in the Cotswolds rank as: Bath, Castle Combe, Bibury, Stow-on-the-Wold and Burford, where the Manor Cottages’ office resides.
Booking trends have changed since Covid, with more bookings becoming last minute and the duration shorter. Sykes Holiday Cottages dubs these guests “staycation snackers” who are looking to book more breaks throughout the year, instead of investing in one showstopping holiday.
Head of regional marketing for Manor Cottages, Nicole Dewar said: “It’s hugely beneficial to have this insight that we can share with our property owners and other tourism-reliant Cotswold businesses. The Cotswolds is such a diverse area, and we are proud to work with so many passionate accommodation owners and local companies to maximise the positive impact that holidaymakers can bring.
Over the last few years, the travel industry has been majorly disrupted, at times making visitor numbers uncertain and hard to predict, so we're thankful to share such a positive outlook for 2023. The growing demand that Sykes Holiday Cottages are seeing for short breaks also open up gives opportunity for us to encourage more visitors in the quieter months, when our villages and businesses would benefit most from increased visitor numbers.”
According to the consumer research of 2,000 UK adults conducted by Sykes Holiday Cottages, 48% are planning to re-visit a destination so they accurately plan costs. In the same breath, 50% of those adults surveyed were looking to stay in the UK for a staycation over an abroad holiday.
As always, the landscape of holiday letting is ever changing. Manor Cottages has the advantage of being a local company with the national backing of a national holiday let agency. This means they can provide local support, recommendations and holiday let management such as cleaning and property maintenance.
Manor Cottages offers free pricing appraisals and property visits along with mortgage letters if you’re looking to invest in your first property.
You can download a free owner pack and read the full staycation index by visiting www.manorcottages.co.uk.
