A Holiday Cottage in Rural Herefordshire
A HOLIDAY COTTAGE IN RURAL HEREFORDSHIRE
Waiting for the arrival of the Visit England Inspector to look over Rose Cottage and award stars before the start of the first letting season. Vases of spring flowers, new bedlinen and towels, pretty flowery paper in the drawers and a brand new kitchen. The Inspector is very thorough - looking closely at the mattress, searching for grubby grout between the shower tiles and checking the kitchen cupboards for china and cutlery. He enquires about outside lights, smoke alarms and asks to see the Fire Assessment documents. Are we giving our guests enough information about the nearest shops, telephone boxes and hospitals?
Year One and Rose Cottage is awarded 3 stars. Advertising in the Visit Hereford Magazine brings in plenty of visitors. Two groups of guests book for the ten days of the Hay Festival. Among walkers, painters and dog owners a couple of music lovers book for the Three Choirs Festival in Hereford. A very good beginning and it bodes well for the future.
Year Two - several improvements mean that Rose Cottage is now a 4star Holiday Let. The visit from the Inspector goes well, due mainly to 5 year old Rosa, who takes charge of the conversation. A bright and cheerful website means that most of the bookings are now made online. Hay Festival is booked by a literature lover for the entire 10 days and there is a surprise from the past when a colleague from Bath University and his wife choose to spend a week here. City dwellers, they were taken aback and didn’t know where to turn when sheep invaded their garden. (This happened a couple of times before we could reinforce the fences!)
Half way through Year Three - still with our hard won 4star status and a dazzling report from the Inspector at the end of April. A good start for the season heralded by the return of last year’s Hay Festival couple who have now asked for ‘first refusal’ for Hay Festival 2012. So far, a two week stay to celebrate a 60th birthday gave visitors the chance to visit Hay, Hereford, Ross, Symonds Yat and Ludlow - starting with a birthday dinner with family at The Castlefields pub. Two sets of return guests are coming back in September - drawn once more to this beautiful county and they include keen birdwatchers, walkers and book lovers.
- Making Rose Cottage a welcoming holiday cottage has been a very rewarding experience. Meeting people from Japan and Germany as well as from all around the British Isles has been interesting and entertaining. Up to now visitors have booked only in the summer and autumn, but the social network Twitter is the ideal way of contacting and attracting people such as writers, in search of solitude and peace. A winter-let to a well known novelist maybe?
