Holiday Let Market Insights for 2026

Coast & Country Cottages are delighted to share our latest Holiday Letting Market Insights Report!

Produced using our own holiday letting statistics and information from our parent company, Sykes Holiday Cottages, the report aims to help holiday owners better understand current booking trends and patterns in the South Devon holiday letting industry.

As well as analysing the 2025 season, we’ve highlighted ways holiday home owners can boost their average holiday let occupancy and income in 2026.

Read on for a summary of our findings, or click here to download a free PDF of the full report.

Use the quick links below to learn more about a specific part of the holiday letting market, or read on for an overall summary of our Market Insights Report:

• An overview of the holiday let market
• Top performing properties
• Boosting your property’s occupancy and income
• Value-adding property features
• The latest trends in UK holiday letting
• Marketing your holiday home
• Download your FREE Holiday Let Market Insights Report

An overview of the holiday let market with Coast & Country Cottages

2025 was a year of resilience and growth for Coast & Country Cottages.

Despite wider economic challenges driving lower search volumes for self-catering stays, our Devon portfolio outperformed expectations, achieving higher occupancy than last year and delivering consistent revenue per property.

Spring, summer, and autumn were standout seasons, with average summer occupancy reaching 82% and overall bookings per property in our South Devon portfolio climbing 5% year-on-year.

Here is an overview of how Coast & Country Cottages is currently performing, and how our 2025 season looked:

• We now have 483 properties in South Devon
• In 2025, 34% of our bookings were made within four weeks of the holiday start date – a 4% increase from the previous year.
• Lead time for bookings are decreasing. Some months in 2025 saw 2% of bookings made on the holiday start date.
• 40% of our bookings were for short breaks last year. This is an 8% increase from 2024.
• Bookings were made up of 42% couples, 26% families, 29% adult groups and 4% solo travellers.

Top performing properties

Below are some of our highest performing properties for 2025. Figures are correct as of 15/12/25.

14a Courtenay Street
Salcombe
47 bookings in 2025, 8 already for 2026

Kings View
Dartmouth
46 bookings in 2025, 8 already for 2026

Lee Shore
Salcombe
44 bookings in 2025, 12 already for 2026

Leeside
Dartmouth
42 bookings in 2025, 23 already for 2026

3 Dartview
Dartmouth
39 bookings in 2025, 24 already for 2026

Boosting your property’s occupancy and income

Increasing your average holiday let income

In addition to excellent marketing exposure, Coast & Country Cottages offers dynamic pricing tools, giving owners an advantage in today’s holiday let market. These tools enable owners to maximise their income as well as their booking numbers. We automatically adjust prices in line with demand by analysing searches, booking trends, and individual property performance.

Owners who take our advice and utilise these dynamic pricing tools, see an average of 7 additional bookings and 26% higher revenue.

Similarly, those who take our advice on where their base price should sit earn, on average, 41% more revenue than owners who set their own pricing.

Accept short breaks

We are seeing demand for short stays consistently grow year on year.

40% of our South Devon bookings in 2025 were for short breaks of three, four or five nights. This is a significant 8% rise from 32% in 2024.

Similarly, our average length of stay in 2025 was 5.5 nights, a decrease from 5.6 nights the previous year.

Last minute bookings

Last minute bookings are no longer the exception, they’re the rule. With the weather typically unpredictable, people are hesitant to commit early, preferring to be spontaneous and make the most of sunshine by the coast.

At Coast & Country Cottages, 34% of our bookings in 2025 were made within four weeks of the holiday start date. This is a 4% increase from 2024, showing a clear shift in the UK holiday let market, with significant growth in the trend for impromptu getaways.

In some months, including August and October, 2% of all our bookings were made between 4pm the day before arrival and 12pm on the day of the holiday start.

If preparing for these last minute bookings is hard for you as an owner, why not consider using an agency like Coast & Country Cottages? We can help you manage the changeover and linen requirements, enabling you to accept more bookings, and improve your income.

For more on this, read our guide to holiday let cleaning, housekeeping and laundry.

Accept pets

At Coast & Country Cottages, 27% of all bookings in 2025 included a pet. Properties accepting pets earn an average of 8% more bookings and 16% more revenue annually than those that don’t.

For those considering opening their holiday home to guests with dogs, read our owner advice blog, Should i make my holiday home dog-friendly?

Value-adding property features

For owners looking to optimise their holiday let income, here are our most popular search and booking features in 2025:

1. Pet friendly
2. Hot tubs
3. Large properties
4. Sea views
5. Swimming pools
6. WiFi
7. Garden/Outside space

By adding or incorporating any of the above into your accommodation offering, you will increase both customer appeal and earning potential. Installing a hot tub could boost your revenue by 40%!

The latest trends in UK holiday letting

Coast & Country Cottages has observed several emerging trends from the 2025 holiday letting season. We expect the following preferences to affect British holiday makers’ decisions in 2026:

• Two breaks are better than one
  Of those planning a staycation, almost 50% plan to take 2-3 UK breaks this year, favouring flexibility and variety.
• Home advantage
  35% of UK adults are more likely to choose a UK trip over going abroad, while 56% say UK holidays are easier to plan.
• Gen Z leads the way
  71% of 18–28 year-olds planned to holiday in the UK in 2025, with nearly half choosing a staycation as their main break. This generation is driving the trend for holidays at home.
• The rise of ‘Tastecations’
  Food is becoming a travel motivator. A third of Brits have chosen a destination for its local cuisine or a must-visit restaurant.
• Solo staycationing
  Reflecting a growing appetite for independence and self-care, one in three Brits say they’re more likely to take a solo break now than five years ago.
• Increased AI usage
  The number of customers finding our website via AI platforms grew greatly in 2025, while 70% of UK holiday makers are now using AI for holiday planning. Usage varies generationally, with 25–34 year-olds remaining the most active, though older generations are catching up.

Marketing your holiday home

With such a large holiday letting market, especially in South Devon, how do you ensure your holiday home stands out from the crowd?

As part of Sykes Cottages, we’re proud to offer owners the ‘best of both worlds’: hands on support and local knowledge from here in Devon, combined with the huge marketing budget and reach of a national agency.

Here are some of the ways we have secured bookings for our owners in 2025:

• We spent £35 million on marketing in 2025.
• We currently have the largest share of voice for brand searches amongst our four largest competitors, with over 3 million searches per year.
• We have over 700,000 followers across our social media channels.
• We’re always expanding our wide network of 700+ partner sites, like Airbnb and Booking.com, giving owners the best opportunity to be seen across multiple websites and platforms.
• We’re proud to be the first UK cottage agency to launch a customer app – and even more so because it’s rated 4.8 stars on the App Store.
• In 2024 we introduced our Bloom loyalty scheme, offering rewards and discounts to guests via our customer app. The scheme has since grown to 160,000 members, encouraging repeat bookings. In 2025, 65% of our bookings were from repeat bookers, up from 60% in 2024.

Download your free Holiday Let Market Insights Report

At Coast & Country Cottages, we have a true understanding of the current holiday let market in South Devon. Our 2026 Market Insights Report is an essential resource, filled with useful statistics and pointers for letting your holiday property, whether you’re an experienced owner or just thinking of buying.

To download a full copy of the report, complete the form below. Our team will also be in touch with a copy of our free holiday home Owner Guide.

Looking for more useful owner blogs? Read our Holiday Letting Advice Guide for everything you need to know about holiday letting with Coast & Country. Unsure on where to start with holiday property management? Read our blog on choosing the right service for your cottage.