Whether it’s a house, an apartment, a villa, a tent; the appeal of a self catering residential home from home over a hotel seems to be growing massively at the moment. Many of us are seeking more local, integrated experiences when we travel and the more flexible, self-managed holiday home style accommodations tick a lot of boxes. It could be a small urban apartment in a residential district of New York City or a large beach house in the UK to hang out with all your friends for a week in the summer, the different options are expanding fast.
The Balancing Barn / Image from living-architecture.co.uk
Living Architecture
The newly established Living Architecture project in the UK signifies a marriage of this growing trend with another one – holidays at home. Living Architecture is a not-for-profit organisation set-up to revolutionise both architecture and the UK holiday home rental business. They have asked a series of great architects to design houses around Britain and are then making them available to rent for holidays all year round. The project has already secured a Conde Nast Design Award.
“Living Architecture offers you a chance to rent houses for a holiday designed by some of the most talented architects at work today, and set in some of the most stunning locations in Britain. We have commissioned houses by Peter Zumthor, Michael & Patty Hopkins, NORD, Jarmund/Vigsnæs Architects & MVRDV.“
There are currently 5 different houses listed on the website of which 3 are already taking bookings for later in the year. The aim of the project is first and foremost to act as an educational body, dedicated to enhancing the appreciation of architecture. If you’ve ever read any books by Alain de Botton – who is on board as the creative director of this project – you’ll understand exactly the philosophy driving it.
Available now to book
- The Balancing Barn (see above) that stands on the edge of a tranquil nature reserve a few miles inland from the Suffolk coast, near the historic towns of Walberswick and Aldeburgh.
- The Shingle House is sited on one of the most unusual and poetic landscapes in England, on the shingle beach of Dungeness near Romney Marsh.
- The Dune House lies just to the south of the picturesque village of Thorpeness in Suffolk, on an idyllic spot on the very edge of the sea, nestled among rolling dunes.
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Interesting. Steve. I've been thinking about this recently too. Further proof of the rise of the holiday home can be found in the growth (and change of direction) of sites like AirBnB. And also in projects like the Gran Tourismo blog, which make renting a holiday home look rather glamourous.
Absolutely. Both of those projects sprung to mind whilst writing this. Thanks for chiming in Vicky. I was also recently pointed to The Old Angel and Sleeps 12.
Wooow, we are making large & premature assumptions here!
It all depends on the destination, the type of market that destination attracts, and the average length of stay for that destination.
In some destinations the trend is quite the reverse because the core market for that destination is becoming increasingly more time poor by the year (hence the stay is shorter & more reliant on paid services). This translates into the creation of clever holiday packaging by suppliers, in addition to the consumer wanting to reward themselves for their hard working year, they want to “travel & see more in the short time” rather than be “shopping, peeling & cooking vegetables”.
Some property investors have been burned due to this miss read “phenomena” and have turned to travel distributors like us for help in selling their empty apartments after thinking there was a viable market for them, which they would sell direct.
In our Accommodation Booking site for Vanuatu we have found that self catering accommodation suppliers do much better if they are NOT in our Villas & Apartment self catering section but rather in the more conventional hotel room categories as the searches in the self catering is too small.
I think you’re absolutely right John. The type of accommodation being sought and the trends that exist in that space vary widely with the destination. It’s interesting to hear about the situation for Vanuatu.
It certainly seems to be a trend in the UK – another site ‘Bed&Fed’ popped up in the comments on here today that claims to be a middle ground between B&Bs and couchsurfing.
Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon….
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