Holiday lettings companies that specialise in BIG houses

[BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz]

Weve used Large Holiday Homes Scotland before, and pretty much exhausted their portfolio. Sykes sometimes has the odd big property.

Anyone used any good sites for 18+ (all in one not connected cottages)?

England/Scotland/Wales any location within these is up for grabs!

I always start with vrbo.com which is a general lettings site but has good filters to identify the really big houses. Set the filters for maximum size and then switch to map view and you can look all over the place as it does the "re run search when I move the map" option.

Kate and Tom’s specialise in large houses - have been to a couple (as a guest, didn’t book myself!)
kateandtoms.com/

Cottages.com have got about 90 places that sleep more than 18. Some of them will be linked cottages but the majority are genuinely large, and you can normally see which is which by eye. I tended to use them when booking big group holidays just because they’ve got so many properties and the search engine is pretty user-friendly. You can get a 7% discount through Mumsnet.

This is a short walk from my house and sleeps up to 24. Great location - in Dorset and a short taxi ride from the station for South West trains from London Waterloo and GWR trains from Gloucester, Bristol, Bath etc.

I have no idea if they use agencies but you can contact them directly (and probably get a better rate):

www.upweyhouse.co.uk

The national trust has large houses on their books: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/holidays

I listened to R4 You & Yours programme last wk about the best and worst holiday cottage companies. Cottage. Com and Hoeseasons got a really bed reviews because of their cancellation policy. Listen to the programme before you book anything.

Thanks all. Working my way through your suggestions.

The Kate&Tom ones are gorgeous but at least double what we usually pay!

This is an independently run place in Tenby, it sleeps 28, I'd go but I don't know enough people to fill it!

www.waterwynch.com/

[quote Neighneigh]This is an independently run place in Tenby, it sleeps 28, I'd go but I don't know enough people to fill it!

www.waterwynch.com/[/quote]
Lovely but way over our price range.

Em, you'd prob best check the rules on where you're going first. In Scotland currently only 6 people from 3 households can share holiday accomodation. Even when we move to level zero its 8 people from 4 households.

Have you tried groupaccommodation.com

@Emusareweird

Em, you'd prob best check the rules on where you're going first. In Scotland currently only 6 people from 3 households can share holiday accomodation. Even when we move to level zero its 8 people from 4 households.

Good point, and definetly on our minds. We are at the planning stage at the moment and will consider this before we book anything.

We would be 19 (max) from 6 households so will obviously have to seriously consider restrictions before we book.

We are all accepting that the trip (planned for 2022) may have to be moved to 2023.

I second the suggestion of groupaccommodation.com .

There's also thebigdomain.com

We're a similar sized group and have stayed at bryn adda near dolgellau in Wales (they have a Facebook page) and a house at monsal head in the peak district in recent years. Prices seem to have increased a lot since covid though

I was going to say groupaccommodation too. We run a big property in France and that is our best UK advert (we are going out of business at the end of summer due to Covid so this isn't an advert)

The place at monsal head is castle cliffe, not sure who it was booked through but Google should work!

You can also exclusively hire youth hostels as they're big enough for large groups. The one in Ambleside is on the lakeside which is lovely & next to a watersports school.

www.yha.org.uk/

[quote Illogicalmadness]You can also exclusively hire youth hostels as they're big enough for large groups. The one in Ambleside is on the lakeside which is lovely & next to a watersports school.

www.yha.org.uk/[/quote]
Youth Hostels tend to have large bunk rooms which doesnt work for our group.

They do but a lot have a mix of private ensuite & bunk rooms like the one in Ambleside. I have stayed there several times and always got an ensuite bathroom over looking the lake.

The last site we used was www.sleeps12.com They have some nice properties. We've done multi-generational holidays for years but I'm a bit nervous about it all now with Covid and household mixing etc.

Sleeps12 website looks great! Most properties are only avail Mon-Fri for our stay, but I will save that site for the next trip as I assume I'll have to book even further out to get a week.

Tregulland is amazing. Three houses but adjacent on one site. Spent three weeks there and did not wish to leave.

Try searching for camping barns accommodation. Not all of them are the basic bunk bed setup anymore. We've found some which have much more home comforts but can have 20+.

www.landmarktrust.org.uk/ is surprisingly affordable.