Cornwall claims bookings top spot
CORNWALL has been crowned the UK’s top staycation spot as accommodation reopens – with just 2% of holiday properties available to book, writes Lisa Letcher.
Matt Fox, chief executive and founder of Rest Easy Group, says that a very limited amount of properties remain available for this week in the county, as staycation businesses have been reporting high demands for self-contained holiday lets.
Mr Fox said: “As self-catered staycations got the green light on Monday, we have seen very limited availability for properties in the top UK holiday destinations.”
With his company hosting a series of UK holiday rental marketplaces including Snaptrip, Big Cottages and Dog Friendly Cottages, he cited the most popular destinations as Devon, Yorkshire, and Cornwall – which came out on top. He claims there is “an extremely low number of properties left” in these areas for this week.
“Only 3% of properties in
Devon are now available to book, followed by 5% in Yorkshire and 2% in Cornwall,” he continued. “It’s great to see the nation’s excitement for UK travel is back again this year. With this in mind, we would advise anyone wishing to book a staycation to plan ahead as much as possible, as availability is in short supply.
“We’ve also seen a stark increase in bookings for destinations outside of the typically popular areas. Bookings in Wiltshire have soared and we’ve seen the largest increase in bookings year on year, with a huge 343% increase. This is followed by Shropshire, with a 211% increase and Clwyd, with a 189% increase in bookings year on year.”
Mr Fox added: “As the public begins to enjoy another summer of domestic holidays, it’s brilliant to see new destinations becoming hot-spots, as the UK has so much to offer for a short, or long break.”
Another leading staycation company has revealed a similar trend. Cottages.com, which is part of Awaze UK, revealed that over 80% of Cornish properties have already sold out for the summer, with bookings “way ahead” of where they were this time last year, and the year before.
Simon Altham, group chief commercial officer at Awaze, said: “We’ve definitely seen a marked increase in demand and traffic to our sites over the last week or so, as we get nearer to restrictions being lifted and people look to lock in a UK getaway.” He added that Devon is “nearly 70% sold” for the holidays, calling the South West a “traditional honey pot location”.