Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

December is a good time to reflect – it has been a busy and enjoyable year at Karen’s Kottages.

This time last year we had just purchased Stanegate Cottage, which we renovated over the winter and opened at Easter. The cottage has been very popular in its first season including with our first overseas guests from Denmark and America who were visiting Hadrian’s Wall Country. It’s impossible to look after two cottages at the same time so we are very fortunate to have found Jayne from Housekeeping at Home to help us with the changeovers. She is doing a brilliant job.

Drakestone Cottage has had another successful season with some returning guests to the area. We were fully booked for several months over the summer and thankfully had some help in June so that we could take holidays ourselves.

We were delighted to be awarded ‘Cottage Accommodation of the Year 2018’ by Living in the Shires Magazine for the Northumberland region. This was awarded to us in recognition of the quality of services provided. We try very hard to make every customer’s experience a good one so it is nice to receive formal recognition for our efforts as well as the many thank you’s and positive feedback reviews from guests. We were also thrilled to hear that Northumberland won Gold at the British Travel Awards for the ‘Best UK Holiday County/Region’. This is great news for the county and all of the small businesses who rely so much on tourism.

We have spent a lot of time enhancing our website this year, recognising it will never be finished! We have added lots of information about the area and cottages including 360 views, and have integrated an online pricing and booking system, which accepts Visa/Mastercard payments. We do still accept bank transfer and cheques, which actually save us bank fees so very happy to take payment this way too. If there is anything you think we should add to our website, just let us know…

For those guests who hired our camper van, we are sorry to advise that we have decided to focus on growing our holiday cottage business, and have sold ‘Caly’. We will be using the money towards buying another cottage, hopefully in the early few months of 2019… we are looking now but haven’t found anything suitable yet. Watch this space!

Many thanks to everyone who booked with us this year, and to those who have already booked for next year. Your business is very much appreciated – there is a 5% loyalty discount when you book with us directly again.

Have a lovely Christmas and the very best of wishes for 2019.

Kind regards
Karen