The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
‘We are able to go on more holidays a year and travel further afield’
With their children grown up, Catherine Banner, 61, an interior designer, and her husband Rod, 67, an innovation catalyst, had been toying with selling their family home of 30 years and buying a holiday home abroad. It was Catherine who had the idea of listing it as a holiday let instead.
“We’ve been to Mallorca twice this year, to explore whether it would be a good place to buy a house,” she says, “and we’ve checked out the Canary Islands too. But we’ve decided to have the flexibility of seeing more of the world, rather than going back to the same place every year. By renting out our house, we are able to keep an investment in London, which is usually a safe financial bet, and it’s easier to manage because you have the infrastructure of your own cleaners and tradespeople.”
Renting out your house can be an emotional experience, however. “I was slightly horrified by the prospect of renting the house out at the beginning,” says Catherine, “but I came round to it and convinced Rod it was a good idea.”
Rod was also reticent initially: “It does slightly test you. But then you get the house back in one piece, and you meet the people staying in it, and you realise that actually it’s almost like having friends over.”
The couple took their first booking with Plum Guide in 2019. Launched in London in 2016, this luxury holiday rental service vets and curates homes in the UK, Europe and the United States, using rigorous 150-point criteria.
The couple’s stylish home has been a big hit on the site, as Catherine’s design background shines in the interiors, which blend sleek modernity with warmth and creative colour.
Spacious hallways, three immaculate bathrooms and large bedrooms (there are five) make up the upper floors, while downstairs a cosy sitting room is packed with books and board games for rainy days. The kitchen and dining area is the real showstopper, though, with fullheight patio doors opening on to a vast terrace and garden.
When it comes to the hosting, Catherine likes to include personal elements in the service, such as adding fresh-cut flowers or creating breakfast baskets of fresh croissants, coffee and jams.
“I like it to be a little surprise rather than expected,” she says. “I might bake a cake, leave a bottle of wine in the fridge and put nice soaps in the bathrooms. Those personal touches go a long way.”
The pair have also created a house manual. “It talks people through their onboarding process,” says Rod. “We greet the guests if we are in the country, offer them a drink and go around showing them how all the appliances work, from the washing machine to the TV. We probably spend an hour, if not two, with them.”
Costa Rica is the next destination on their list. “We are able to go on more holidays a year and go further afield,” says Catherine. The couple’s own travelling habits have also changed, and they now prefer to use home-letting services over traditional hotels.
“When you are somebody who rents your house out, as a tenant, you sympathise with the challenges,” says Catherine. “It makes us better guests as well as better hosts. It feels like we are part of a new nomadic community, and it’s very nice.”