OWNER'S GUIDE

Contents

• Introduction

• What West Country Cottages can do for you

• Letting Your Property with West Country Cottages

• Our Team

• Financial Matters

• Introductory Offer

• Request printed copy of Owner's Guide & Brochure

Local Knowledge

Holidaymakers prefer to book through a company whose staff are familiar with the properties and who know the West Country well enough to advise them on how best to enjoy their holiday. Over the past two decades, our staff have visited every corner of the West Country; laid on the beaches, tried out the pubs, visited the tourist attractions, gardens and historic houses – it's tough work but we feel it's our duty!  We love our area and find it easy to pass on our enthusiasm.

Experienced Marketing

To ensure that our marketing maximises the bookings we achieve, we monitor its effectiveness on a weekly, monthly and annual basis. The majority of our bookings are secured via the Internet, so this is where we concentrate the largest slice of our marketing budget. This ensures that we appear near the top of the major search engines, which drives traffic to our website. We also advertise in selected printed media; newspapers and magazines such as the National Trust Magazine and RSPB 'Birds' Magazine.

Your property will be featured in our eye-catching brochure, which has been consistently praised for its ease of use and attractive photographic displays.  Many of our holidaymakers return again and again and recommend us to their friends.  Everyone who has booked in the recent past is sent our new brochure each year and they account for a large percentage of our bookings.  When you join us, you tap into that huge, ready-made market. If you join us too late for this year's brochure, don't worry,  our colour Supplements are published in-house and updated throughout the year. As soon as your property is under contract, our booking office team will be recommending it by phone and e-mail.

Our online brochure gives us the opportunity to display even more photographs of the best features of your property.  It has also proved to be the most effective way to produce bookings.  Our website is published in-house, so we can rapidly make amendments, add new properties and update photographs whenever needed.  This also allows us to monitor and modify our site to enhance our natural search engine positions. The result of this and our marketing – over 85% of new customers come via the web and Internet bookings continue to increase year on year.

We handle all reservations, bookings and payments on your behalf.  New booking notifications for your property are sent out on a regular basis and we will pay your rents, in full, directly into your bank account at the end of the month before your holidaymakers arrive.  Once you have been notified in writing of a booking, we guarantee to pay you even if the holidaymaker has to cancel their holiday.