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I've been volun-told to find a nice large cottage for a family gathering. It's for 15 people + 2 dogs.
Does anyone know of a good website to reduce the time spent on this? Otherwise I'll be looking on 25 different websites.
Or recommend me a place to stay?
What I'm looking for:
- 15 people (7 couples + 1 teenager)
- 2 dogs
- max 3hrs drive from Manchester
- lots of bathrooms to avoid toilet queues
- decent kitchen to cook in (or hide drinking beer)
- large dining table so we can all eat together
- outdoor seating/garden just in case it's nice weather
- walking/cycling from the front door or very close to it
- not a bunk barn
Booking.com
Lots of SC places / sites both unaffiliated and via a letting agency like Sykes (and the smaller regional ones) also promote through them.
3 hrs from Manchester will you’re probably best searching at ‘county’ or region level, so Cumbria, Yorkshire, North Wales, Mid Wales, etc…
Air BnB or booking.com?
If using either of the above be sure to message and engage with the owner before just turning up. Our Airbnb has been cloned into booking.com a couple of times, both times the potential guests didn't communicate with who ever put it on booking.com.
Airbnb has a good search facility with pets etc included.
Prob looking at 600-1500 a night depending on facilities and location etc.
YHA rent a hostel?
Can't help with the how to book bit but we got a farmhouse on Ardverikie estate for a week over Hogmanay a few years back. Where they filmed Monarch of the Glen - was a great spot and about 2 miles from Laggan bike trails. Slept 16, I think.
The National Trust have plenty of big properties that you can rent.
Several 8+ bedroom ones, usually in interesting places such as old farm houses on their estates.
We have an annual long weekend with several couples/families and over the last few years have defaulted to NT places rather than spending weeks scouring booking/Airbnb/Verbo etc only to end up in a tired old house that has been poorly converted to cater for the Stag/Hen weekend market.
www.sleeps12.com is what we normally use.
National Trust is a good shout.
Sykes Cottages have got a terrible reputation over covid with their treatment of people who had to cancel due to Government mandates early on. But they do have a good search function, so I would use them to search and then look for places own web-sites or alternative booking platforms (though there aren't many independents left). Also the same for airbnb, which has a really good search and filter functionality if you use the map and flexible dates. I just try to book direct where possible.
Cost: if it has to be school holidays (teenager) then yes I expect £4000-5000+ per week for a 8+ bedroomed house. Your biggest issue will be availability this year. You may be better off looking for farms that have several converted cottages in the same grounds, and they often have games room or pool. But they won't have one huge communal kitchen and dining area.
Have a look at the Independent Hostels website.
A lot of them you can take the whole place.
Thanks some good ideas there.
YHA, bunkhouses & hostels are off the list as there's no way my pensioner parents would stay in one.
I mentioned NT earlier in the thread.
This is one of the places that we have stayed, seems to fit your requirements pretty well, although there is very limited availability in 2022.
https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays/southwood-house-farm-leicestershire
It is on the Calke Abbey estate, so there is plenty of wandering around to do, cafe/tea shop, and a few walkable pubs in nearby villages.
Edit. Forgot to say, that there is a small brewery about 50m away in one of the farm outbuildings.
@peekay - that's a nice place but not available at any convenient dates. I'll have to remember that for the next time I get volunteered
YHA, bunkhouses & hostels are off the list as there’s no way my pensioner parents would stay in one.
That's a shame, I've been to two weddings that hired exclusive use, including having the 70-yr-old parents staying on-site, they have lots of bedrooms with different set-ups and well sized communal space.
I have to say I can't find many places with a dining table that is big enough to seat all 15 of you. This is one example Chirk farm house
We stayed in the Parsonage in Ambleside for a family get together a couple of years ago. It was a good house, walk into town or out onto the hill. Was rented by Wheelwrights.
PS just checked and it only sleeps 14 sorry! Says it has 5 bathrooms though!
@cougar - I rode past that place about a year ago. It looks far too nice for riff-raff like me.
The Mill Yard cafe next door is fab if you're ever up that way
I owned a group accommodation business on the Yorkshire for 15 years up to January 2020 & the majority of our non-schools business came from the Group Accommodation website as mentioned in an earlier post.
A friend of mine has used https://www.partyhouses.co.uk/ a couple of times and they seem like decent places to stay. No idea what they are like to deal with, but worth checking reviews.
I rode past that place about a year ago. It looks far too nice for riff-raff like me.
Nah, it's great. I've been to a gathering of friends there annually for several years now. It's not pretentious at all.
Thanks all.
I ended up booking a house for 12 and a 2nd one nearby for 4 people