Former Yorkshire solicitor launches new family holiday business venture

A former solicitor-turned entrepreneur is launching a new family holiday website to offer parents a ‘one stop shop’ for choosing family friendly villas across Europe and North Africa.

Launching in January 2017, Child Friendly Villas Direct is the first website to put parents in touch directly with a wide range of independent villa agents and managers.

Featuring more than 100 hand selected villas across Europe and North Africa, the site features visual icons to help parents select the most appropriate villa for their family, ranging from baby friendly facilities to attractions for young travellers.

Headquartered in Goldsborough, Child Friendly Villas Direct aims to have at least 300 villas listed on the site by the end of 2017.

Spearheaded by Yorkshire businesswoman Sarah Davies, the site assists families in determining which child friendly features are important to them and helps choose a villa to suit their individual needs, as well as benefitting from local knowledge and advice from villa agents and managers themselves.

Sarah Davies, founder of Child Friendly Villas Direct, said: “We want to provide a new service for parents to help them with the process of finding and booking the perfect family villa, making it as easy as possible.

“The idea stemmed from our own problems searching for a family friendly villa – a process we found time consuming and frustrating. One size doesn’t fit all for family holidays and most sites don’t provide ready access to information regarding child friendly options, bury features in the fine print or simply concentrate on holidaying with babies.”

“We believe that child friendly holidays shouldn’t be demoted to just a filter, but should be a treasure trove of information, filled with all the knowledge and advice you need to book a family friendly villa with confidence.

“With Child Friendly Villas Direct we wanted to create a user-friendly place where busy parents can quickly discover their perfect family villa holiday, linking them directly with independent villa agents and managers to access the most cost effective deals available.”

Sarah had the idea for the business while on maternity leave from her job as a solicitor. After planning a family villa holiday in Spain and struggling to find the information they needed, they arrived to find it was not suitable for a young family.

One of the first villa groups to work with Sarah was Fawakay Villas in Marrakech. The company was set up in 2005 by Dawn Boys-Stones, who, like Sarah, gave up her job to start a new commercial venture and now runs the complex of three large, sand-coloured villas in 3.5 acres of garden.

Dawn said: “After 25 years of stockbroking in London, my husband and I had a rush of blood to the head and decided there and then that we’d leave that life behind. We brought our four children to Marrakech and created a new life here that meant we could be more of a family.

“It’s for that same reason that we’re happy to partner with Sarah and list our villas through her service. Her ethos is ‘from one family to another’, and that’s how we see our business too.”

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