Quality Self-catering Holiday Accommodation

The last few years has seen a radical shift in the holiday market. There seems to be a trend away from formal luxury hotels towards a more relaxed style of holiday, unbounded by set mealtimes and dress codes. The image of self-catering has changed from the “cheap and cheerful”, for those who couldn’t afford hotels, to a fashionable alternative for a carefree holiday. It offers a chance to blend in better with the local lifestyle of an area than being behind a gated complex. There is still a big hangover of self-catering accommodation from the old days, when quality was compromised because it was simply assumed that those staying in self-catering accommodation would be undemanding in their standards. Mark’ Places is dedicated to changing that.

As the Credit Crunch has hit we have found that self-catering has come into vogue for many more. Many holidaymakers who have been staying in hotels for years are now considering self-catering once more as an economical alternative, but they have been put off by memories of poor self-catering experiences in the past. The proverbial damp cottage with inadequate heating or holiday home that is little more than a mobile home lingers on. We aim to provide an alternative

Our story is that when we first had children we realised hotels just weren’t flexible enough to meet their needs. Suppose a child wants spaghetti, not the menu choice, at 6.00 in the evening when the hotel restaurant is still closed? What about warm milk at 10.00 at night? We tried a few specialist childcare hotels. They were astronomically expensive and the standard of the accommodation itself was often poor. The self-catering we tried was frequently very basic. In the end the only solution was to buy our own holiday home.

We bought our own chalet in Switzerland because we love to ski and it doubled up as a fantastic summer holiday too - two holidays for the price of one. To help fund the purchase we started to let it, and discovered rapidly that a lot of other holiday makers found themselves in a similar dilemma. Short of huge luxurious villas for the rich, luxury self-catering just didn't seem to exist. The chalet has been a great success, and what also struck us from the comments in the Visitors Book is that many others seemed to like our taste and choice of location. Many guests have stayed more than once.

Several families who have stayed with us asked if we had any other destinations. In the end we took the plunge and bought a ruin in southern Italy. Puglia is still very undeveloped compared with the north. It’s like Tuscany was 30 years ago before hordes of tourists arrived. It took almost three years to renovate the property and create a second family dream holiday home. The guiding principle was the same. It’s somewhere we wanted for our family to enjoy our holidays. It had to be good enough for us, and on that basis would probably satisfy others. Don’t aim at an “investment” property, just create our dream, and there is a good chance it will be popular with others.

After those three, long years we finally had our first family holiday there in 2008 – everyone loved it. We are following exactly the same recipe as before. Choose a really good location (we looked at more than 100), make sure the house has a totally authentic local architecture (actually there are two properties). Furnish them in local style, but with a lighter, airier twist. Make sure all the luxury items and conveniences are there, but make it suitable for children if there are any, so everyone can relax.

But we have also discovered our properties are popular with another group. Couples who just want to sink into the local life. Some want to paint – the scenery surrounding both properties is spectacular. In the case of Italy, several have been keen to get involved with the olive tree farming – all help welcomed! Some just want to chill the pool or read a good book whilst watching a mountain sunset. All of the properties are set in areas of natural beauty that has encouraged many to go walking. Often two or three sets of friends want to travel together. They want enough space to give each other room, but still be together. Our properties are perfect for that.

So now we have three properties, one in Switzerland and two neighbouring trulli in a large grove in Italy. Mark’s Places is hardly a giant holiday company, but it’s so much fun that I intend to expand it more. A really rewarding highlight is reading the Visitors Books and discovering compliments, of which there seem to be many.

The hope is to add at least another couple of properties, but only when the right place comes up. It would be great to create a business out of this, but the first motivation will remain perfect dream holiday destinations for my own family. It takes a lot of time to find exactly the right places. Rush it, and I’ll compromise on standards, something I’m not willing to do. Holidays are a big item for all of us, and we all travel with high expectations. We are entitled not to have any “snags” such as a motorway hidden round the back or a noisy nightclub a few doors down!

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