Dorset Holiday Letting Insights for 2024

More than 50 Lyme Bay Holidays owners and visitors gathered for a fully-booked holiday let insights event in January, centered on Dorset holiday letting and featured a retrospective and future forecasts.

Attendees enjoyed an engaging evening featuring guest speakers and gained insights into holiday letting trends from 2024, as well as projections for 2025. Last year, Lyme Bay Holidays alone welcomed 20,000 guests to Dorset for vacations, including some furry companions, boasting an impressive summer occupancy rate of 83%.

A snapshot of the Dorset holiday letting landscape

The Dream Cottages and Lyme Bay Holidays team revealed they are collectively the first holiday let agencies in the industry to offer flexible cancellation terms at no cost to their owners, thanks to Sykes Cottages new terms.

Guests to the evening enjoyed learning about booking trends including how 29% of bookings were made within 4 weeks of travel and 40% of bookings were for short breaks.

2024 bookings were made up of 40% couples, 31% families, 27% adult groups and 2% solo travellers.

Most Sought-after Destinations for Staycations in Dorset

According to the Sykes Cottages 2024 Staycation Index, Dorset was he 9th most popular staycation destinations in 2024, according to consumer research of 2,000 UK adults.

Following this, Weymouth was the number 1 most popular locations for summer 2024 bookings with Lyme Regis ranking 6th out of 10.

Review and Predictions for Bookings

In the past 12 months, we at Dream Cottages have seen some notable changes in the way that customers book, their intentions and what they desire from their holiday.

Dream Cottages, part of Sykes Cottages, data showed that top three most desirable features when looking to stay in Dorset and Devon were:

1. A sea view

Although always popular, we received a 6% increase in clicks to pages on our website for properties containing “sea views.” Searches for “luxury sea views” also grew by 140% in 2023.

2. Parking

Off-road parking is one of the most popular features on our website. The phrase “self-catering in Weymouth with Parking” gets an average of 90 Google searches per month.

3. Close distance to a beach or town

In our recent study, 34% of people said they consider proximity to a beach when booking a property. Customers also consider proximity to a supermarket or shop (33%) and pub (25%).

Dorset holiday letting made easy with Lyme Bay Holidays

Domestic tourism significantly contributes to the UK economy, with the South West region, particularly rural areas like Dorset, accounting for over £7 billion of the £28 billion annual spend.

To learn more about Lyme Bay Holidays, download your complimentary owner pack for a free pricing appraisal and book a no-obligation property visit.