Member Article

CUMBRIAN FIRM’S FUTURE IS MOBILE FIRST

A Cumbrian holiday cottage letting agency has rounded off two years of development and a quarter of a million pound investment with a website upgrade.

Sally’s Cottages, based in Keswick, has future-proofed its system with an improved mobile first website that ensures visitors can find what they want quickly and easily.

The company’s founder and managing director, Sally Fielding, has been repeatedly recognised with awards for growth and customer service, both locally and nationally, and the latest developments are intended to continue that trend.

“We’ve seen a 35% increase in people browsing our website using their mobile phones,” explains Sally, “and this figure leaps to a 75% increase during busy periods. We need to ensure that all these users are having as positive a browsing experience as they would on a laptop or desktop computer. The easier they can find what they’re looking for, the more likely they are to book a Lake District stay.”

The website upgrade follows a wider development earlier in the year, which saw the company invest £250,000 to improve an online system that was originally built to manage just 30 cottages and which now needs to cater for a growing portfolio of over 450 properties.

“We are always looking for ways to improve – whether it is our website, our brochure, the service we give to both cottage owners and visitors, or our own development and training),” comments Sally. “As one of only a few remaining independent holiday-letting agencies in Cumbria, we are competing against much larger, national companies, and investment and development is essential in keeping a level playing field.”

Sally started Sally’s Cottages 15 years ago with just one cottage and £1,000 in the bank. It is now the largest independent holiday cottage letting agency in the county with over 450 properties and taking bookings worth £8 million over the last 12 months.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sally's Cottages .