British Holiday Homes in Europe is a new web portal that will help British holiday makers find holiday accommodations owned/run by British. With just a few clicks, Brits can choose from a wealth of holiday homes all over Europe: from a simple one-room B&B, chambres d'hotes, agriturismos and fincas to holiday villas and chique hotels. British can now find their holiday home away from home, and spend their holidays without any language problems.
‘And that is exactly what many British tourists want’, says Frederik H. Swart, founder of BHHiE. ‘They like to stay with their fellow countrymen and -women. Although not shy in exploring the beauty of other countries, they also want to feel comfortable and not be bothered by language problems, for instance. On the other hand, British owners of holiday accommodations miss out on a lot of British guests, because the latter are so hard to find. Through BHHiE, we bring the two parties together.’
Mr. Swart has been successfully running his own B&B and apartment rental business in the Mediterranean for many years. He has welcomed quite a number of British guests, with some of whom he became friends. ‘They were always very happy with the fact that I speak English fluently, well, let’s say almost fluently, and never failed to ask for other holiday addresses with English speaking hosts. Apparently it was quite difficult for them to find those addresses themselves.’
It took Swart a few more years to get to the ‘Eureka’ moment. That happened on a sunny morning in August, after he had said goodbye to yet another British couple returning home after their stay. ‘I wondered if there would be an easy way for British tourists to find a British holiday home. After ample research I found there wasn’t. That’s when I got the idea for British Holiday Homes in Europe: through this web portal we bring demand and supply together.’
After having developed the portal, Swart and his team searched the world wide web for holiday accommodations owned and/or run by British. Quite a task: although thousands of British holiday accommodations flock the mainland, not all of them are easy to find, to put it mildly. Not by lack of enthusiasm on the part of the British owners. On the contrary: ‘They just seem to have as much trouble making themselves found as their prospects have finding them’, Swart observes. ‘Therefore, most of them have welcomed our new enterprise with acclaim.’
This year, the focus will be on the countries that attract most British tourists: France, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece. More European countries will follow in 2017. Swart: ‘It’s a matter of rolling it out in a more or less organic way. As British Holiday Homes in Europe is getting better known, more and more holiday accommodation owners will sign up with us.’
BHHiE will monitor the traffic from BHHiE to the holiday home owners’ site, based on which they can decide to join/stay with BHHiE. Swart: ‘The contribution for a year is about the same as one night’s B&B income. So, it’s a small investment. For an additional fee, British holiday owners can get special placements and so called ‘pop ups’ to attract attention.’
Frederik Swart is confident BHHiE will be a success. ‘I find it amazing that no one has thought of this before. It definitely meets the needs of two huge market parties.’
For more information please contact:
W: www.britishholidayhomesineurope.co.uk
E: britishholidayhomesineurope@gmail.com
