Why Choose Us As Your Holiday Lettings Agency?

We are a unique, full service Cotswolds holiday lettings agent

Please tell us about your existing holiday home, or your planned purchase, by completing the form below:

Character Cottages was founded by two holiday home owners who wanted more from their holiday lettings agent. We have created a fresh alternative to the established holiday let agents, with a business developed specifically to provide a better service to guests and property owners alike.

We provide a unique offering to holiday cottage owners:

• We treat your property as an individual business, rather than a commodity, and our specific objective is to maximise your profits;
• We provide the broadest range of services in the holiday letting industry, from property acquisition advice, through to establishing your holiday let and onto all aspects of managing your property;
• We avoid imposing onerous terms and conditions on property owners, such as limits on owner booking weeks, preferring instead to "go with the grain" and ensure that our objectives are aligned with yours.

For guests, our mission is to enhance the traditional holiday let process, by wrapping a broad range of guest services around our portfolio of exceptional country homes. Combined with unparalleled standards of personal customer service, we aim to create a complete and distinguished holiday home experience.

How will you maximise my profits?

By allowing Character Cottages to act as your holiday cottage agency, we aim to maximise your profits and provide an unrivalled return on your investment by:

• Constantly updating prices to reflect demand; identifying and charging appropriately for special local events; and creating special offers to sell late breaks or "stub" slots (eg. mid-week periods between weekend bookings);
• Providing flexible arrival and departure dates to guests, who do not always want to be locked into a standard Saturday to Saturday break;
• Targeting the luxury end of the holiday market, attracting the more discerning holiday maker who is prepared to pay a bit more for a higher quality experience;
• Using innovative internet marketing techniques (see below) to drive high enquiry volumes;
• Providing a range of value-added guest services, such as luxury hampers and mobile chefs, to transform a cottage rental into a relaxing and enriching holiday experience, and sharing the profits from these services with property owners.

How will you market my holiday let?

Character Cottages' business processes have all been designed to work with innovative new internet marketing channels, in order to generate a strong volume of high quality guest enquiries. These inter-related methods include:

• Automatic integration with the leading internet holiday rental portals, both in the UK and in key geographies worldwide;
• Listing all properties on Trip Advisor, today's de-facto site for travel and holiday verification;
• Social network integration, with individual pages for properties, fan clubs, service updates and regular promotions;
• Tailored voucher codes and cloud discounts, advertised on well-known websites across the internet;
• Cost Per Application (CPA) internet marketing, to tap into specific groups of potential customers, such as local wine clubs, communities of walkers, or local history clubs;
• Internet re-targeting to serve specific adverts to potential customers at various calculated points along their purchasing lifecycle; and
• Affiliate marketing, to ensure our brand and your properties are marketed far and wide across the internet, on all the most relevant travel and holiday sites.

What management services do you offer?

Unlike many other Cotswolds holiday letting agencies, we can provide ALL the services that you require to let out your holiday home – it is then entirely up to you to choose which of these services you want from us. Some owners literally hand us the keys and tell us to "get on with it"!

Examples of some of the holiday home establishment services we provide include:

• Health and safety advice;
• Furnishings advice and acquisition;
• Kitchen equipment advice and acquisition;
• Advice on housekeeping and storage requirements;
• Advice on sleeping arrangements and layout;
• Completion of Business Rates applications;
• Security and access advice;
• Advising on and undertaking any initial building and maintenance work;
• Preparation of guest information packs;
• Initial photography and marketing;
• Advising on and obtaining appropriate holiday letting insurance;
• Purchase of initial consumables;
• Establishment of laundry arrangements;
• Establishment of essential services (eg. electricity, gas, water, sewerage, telephone, broadband, HomeCare, TV license).

Once your property is up and running, examples of the on-going management services we provide include:

• Management of cleaning and laundry turnarounds, including Housekeeper invoicing and payments;
• Management of gardening services, including gardener invoicing and payments;
• Management of waste disposal;
• Replenishment of household goods and consumables (eg. logs, glasses, plates, toilet rolls, tea bags, etc);
• Management of annual spring clean;
• Management of any necessary property maintenance and decorating;
• Monitoring and settlement of utility bills, TV license fee, telephone and wireless bills, business rates, etc.;
• Management of British Gas (or similar) home care cover;
• Taking guest calls and managing "emergency" situations;
• Reviewing and responding to guestbook feedback, including trip advisor;
• Monthly and annual accounts preparation;
• Keyholding;
• Liaison with tax accountants.

What do you charge for your services?

We strongly believe that you should only pay for success and that our rewards should be linked to your financial objectives.

We charge a percentage of any letting revenue that we generate for you, however, unlike some holiday letting agents, we do not charge fixed annual fees or fees for services linked to letting your property, such as taking photographs.

Management services are typically provided on a fixed monthly fee basis and, where appropriate, we are happy to link the level of our fees to your profits, to ensure that our interests are aligned. We don't push traditional "cost plus" fee structures, as these incentivise agents to spend as much of your money as possible, rather than to save you money.

How do I find out more about Character Cottages?

It's simple. Please contact us using the form at the top of this page, call us on +44 (0) 844 870 8532 or send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , or write to us at Owner Services, Character Cottages, 4 Ember Lane, Esher, KT10 8ER. We will discuss your property with you, understand more about your situation and ambitions, and share our experiences with you.

We look forward to your contact and the start of a new and rewarding partnership together.

Character Cottages: Your Cotswolds Holiday Let Experts