Introducing Lyme Bay Holidays

Lyme Bay Holidays has been successfully letting holiday homes in the Lyme Bay area for more than 20 years. We are essentially an experienced family run business, with additional staff who have been with the company for several years. Since taking over the business in 2000 we have seen a 50% increase in the number of owners we act for and we are still growing.

Lyme Bay Holidays is a specialist agency, concentrating on the West Dorset, East Devon & South Somerset areas, all within about a 10 mile radius of Lyme Regis. This offers a number of important advantages in terms of the service we can offer you:-

• Targeted marketing of your property - We concentrate our marketing strategy on a very specific area, targeting particular groups of potential holidaymakers drawn to this region for self-catering holidays. The result is that we can let your holiday property for more weeks and over a longer period.
• First-hand knowledge of your property - The service we offer our owners and holidaymakers is a personal one. Our staff will have visited your property and can talk with confidence to potential holidaymakers about its merits.
• On hand to deal with problems - We are on hand to deal with problems when you are unable to. When necessary, we use a small band of local tradesmen, all known to us, as well as being able to use our own handyman for minor maintenance issues.

Marketing Your Property

• Brochure - Lyme Bay Holidays produces a full colour brochure annually. We also publish regular colour supplements so we can introduce new properties that join us during the season. We use our large database of customers and enquirers to ensure a large circulation and the brochure is also sent in response to new enquiries generated from our various marketing campaigns.
• Web-site - The website is our brochure on-line. It shows the current availability and allows online booking. It is also used to advertise late availability, special offers etc. We can also target interest for specific properties and areas. It never ceases to be amaze us how important this form of marketing has become in such a short space of time.
• National advertising - We advertise in the quality national press both with regular classified and occasional targeted display advertising. An excellent response is generated from the quality press whose readership seems to reflect the typical Lyme Bay holidaymaker. We also advertise regularly in specialist magazines.
• Regional advertising & marketing - As well as advertising in the annual holiday guides for West Dorset and Lyme Regis, we find that targeting holidaymakers who are already here but not staying with us is important. To this end we sponsor local events and try to make sure that the Lyme Bay Holidays name can not be missed by anyone visiting the local area.
• Loyal customer base - A large proportion of our business comes from repeat bookings and recommendations. Without a doubt the most important aspect of our marketing strategy is keeping our current holidaymakers happy so they keep coming back!

A commitment to quality assurance means that we arrange for all properties to be independently inspected by VisitBritain. Based on our experience of the increased letting potential offered by high quality properties, we have taken a decision to let only properties that will achieve a grading of at least 3 stars in the VisitBritain scheme. We find that the VisitBritain grading is an extremely important marketing tool, our experience suggests that todays holidaymakers are concerned with quality and find that the independent nature of the scheme offers them the assurance that they require. Part of the service we offer all new owners is to advise them on the VisitBritain guidelines and to organise a property inspection by a VisitBritain inspector on the owners behalf.

Our Service To You

At Lyme Bay Holidays we aim to be flexible, we can do as little or as much as you want us to and there are 3 basic levels of service available to you:-

• Booking agent - marketing and securing bookings for your property
• Booking agent - some management services, key handout, organising cleaning and gardening services etc.
• Booking agent - full management services, repairs, bill paying, TV license and insurance organisation etc.

We pride ourselves on working in partnership with our owners and tailoring our service as required, therefore the commission we charge is dependent on the service provided.

Lyme Bay Holidays operate an inclusive cancellation plan benefiting both owners and holidaymakers in the event of a cancellation. The cost of the plan is paid for as an inclusive charge built into the brochure price chart.

The Lyme Bay Holidays office is staffed six days a week from 8.30am until 5pm, there is a 24 hour recorded service for brochure enquiries and a 24 hour telephone number for holidaymakers to call in the event of an out-of-hours emergency. You have already found our very active website which generates a large amount of business. Our seven members of staff all live locally and are trained to provide a friendly, helpful first point of contact for prospective holidaymakers on the telephone. We make sure that our bookings staff visit all new properties as quickly as possible in order to be able to answer holidaymakers enquiries with confidence.

If you would like to talk to us about holiday letting please call 01297 443363 during office hours and speak to David or Jim Matthews. Alternatively email us and we will call you at a convenient time.