Hartington Cottages

14/11/2022

Following my posting earlier this year about the sale of our cottages the new owner Rachel has asked me to post a link to the Cottages website www.hartingtoncottages.co.uk (where contact details appear)

Hartington holiday cottages in the pretty village of Hartington in the Peak District. We have three cottages all located in the village centre.

04/01/2022

After about 19 years of ownership, we have today completed on the sale of our three cottages here in Hartington to Rachel Summerfield, who will continue to run them as a holiday cottage business. We have not yet been able to change contact details on our web site but anyone wishing her details are welcome to contact me in the meantime. This is a very similar message to one I posted five or six yeas ago on the sale of our six cottages at Cotterill Farm, the only difference being that we are now well and truly retired! I feel I need retirement now, over the last few weeks, we have been taking no end of bookings for this coming year, almost as busy as after the announcements of the end of the first two lockdowns. We wish Rachel well in her new venture

07/12/2021

Some time since I last posted. But good news. The Devonshire Inn, just a few doors down from us, and which during the management of Dave for some 30 years was very highly regarded by visitors to the village has been through a topsy two years with five or six different licensees. Yet further licensees took over perhaps six weeks ago, since when we have heard or read very favourable comments from our guests and friends. What a relief. We must try it ourselves now

20/09/2021

Knwol Cotage, our six pesron three bedroomed property only has only slot left available before the turn of the year, that is for 3 nights from monday 6th December; very reasonable rental with major discount for being mid-week, december rentals are of course the lowest of the year and also discounts for reduced occupancy levels. The other two (one-bedroomed) cottages still have some availability

15/08/2021

No profiteering here! Have just finished a couple of idle hours comparing this years rentals with those of two years ago, and note they have gone up by just under 4% - so scarcely more than inflation over the period. Am posting this in view of the publicity given to other properties where rentals have doubled, trebled, even more allegedly. I must admit I have a sneeking feeling that maybe I should have increased them more than I did.

27/04/2021

We’ve been open now two weeks, with all three cottages having been booked from the first day of the opening up of cottages, and two sets of these guests arrived (by arrangement) in the morning. Basically apart from a couple of two day slots in Dove we are now fully booked till the last week of September. Pictures below show some of the work undertaken during lockdown, - in particular what started off as what we hoped would be a straightforwarding repairing of the leek in the laundry/staff rom, to a fairly major rebuild of the adjacent piggery as well, very professionally but expensively undertaken, extending the patio out the back of Knowl Cottage with some wooden boarding and the screening of the outside boilers of Dove and Manifold. I have included a picture of the door to the piggery as am amused by the door knocker that someone has put on the door – wonder when that was done?. Otheer work done includes new carpets in two of the three cottages.

24/02/2021

As anticipated in the light of our experience of the announcement last year of the roadmap to the loosening of the first lockdown restrictions, it has been absolutely manic the last day and a half. Not so much with new bookings (of which there have only been three or so) but people in the one bedroomed cottages who had been booked to come before 12th April moving their dates, or those who had already had cancellations over the last few months, then re-booking, or in Knowl Cottage (the six person cottage) sorting out cancellations for those who constitute more than one household. I hardly managed to get away from my phone/keyboard for more than minutes from first thing yesterday morning to late in the evening. It’s now quieter thankfully. What this means is that in Manifold (one-bedroomed) there is no availability until the start of the school summer holidays on 24th July when bizarrely we have five continuous weeks available, and in Dove (again one-bedroomed) we have no week long availability until October but we do have a four night slot in April, Whit weekend in May, and three weekends in June, and one mid week in August. In Knowl which had been fully booked until last week of September we now have a weekend available end of April and also the following weekend, the early May bank holiday weekend

22/02/2021

Finally we have the PM’s announcement of the various stages of the lifting of the lockdown and amongst other things, subject to any deterioration in the positive tends in infections rates, holiday cottages can indeed open up from 12th April. Within minutes of the PM’s speech, a couple had noticed a slot in Manifold between the 12th and 17th Aril and promptly grabbed it. Unfortunately until 22nd May only one household can mix indoors, so some of those booked into Knowl, the 6 person cottage, in the intervening period will need to cancel (or tell some members of their party not to come!

09/02/2021

So is there a staycation rush or not? Going by our bookings in Knowl, maybe there is, in that after 8th May when we move over to week only Saturday to Saturday bookings, our first availability is the 25th September – there are three short break slots available before then, one weekend and two mid week. But really that’s not that much different from most years - usually by the end of January we have just one week left available in our six person cottage. But our bookings in our bedroomed cottages are if anything slightly down – they book out always a lot later than in Knowl (with only two people there’s not that same need to plan months and months in advance) but as usual at the moment there’s loads of availability in particular over the school summer holidays. Manifold’s booking pattern is weird, fully booked from late May bank holiday weeks for 8 weeks till start of school summer holidays and then five continuously empty weeks at the moment.

04/01/2021

Last June when we started taking bookings again (for the period from July onwards) we introduced cancellation terms basically to effect that if stricter covid rules were introduced, guests had the right to postpone, whilst of course if they were not allowed to come, they could cancel, should they so wish. Given that we have been required to be closed since early November, the bit about postponents if restrictions tighten does n’t really apply, so had to put thinking cap on to work out what terms apply for new bookings. Conclusion: if guests are not allowed to come (even if we can be open), then they can get monies back; if restrictions are imposed that are more restrictive than in summer 2020 (when there were hardly any restrictions), then they have the right to postpone.

27/10/2020

Teo Geogeghan Hart, the winner on Sunday of the prestigious 21 day long mountainous Giro d’Italia cycle race, stayed in one our cottages as an 18 year old, having decided to come to the Peak District to train for the Junior World Cycling Championships in Florence (as its name implies, another one of the four main events in the world on the cycling calendar). I would like to think that the experience he gained then played some part in propelling him forward to becoming a pro, riding for Team Sky (now Ineos Grenadiers) and ultimately winning this race! More correctly, I would state that Teo and his then and current partner Hannah Barnes (another leading British pro cyclist) are the only celebrities to our knowledge we have had staying over the last 18 years. The Peak District has so much to offer all types of cyclists – from pro-s like the many stars of the Olympics and Team Sky days who used to live on the edge of the Peak District, to casual cyclists for whom the various former railway line trails (three within 3 miles) are perfect.

12/10/2020

PM's announcement in the House of Commons means no change in Hartington, namely Level One, so nationwide rules apply, pubs shut by 10pm and rule of 6 applies. A small part of the High Peak, (we are in Derbyshire Dales) namely the Glossop area, about an hours drive away, has been placed in Level 2, but I can't remember any of our roughly 6,000 parties of guests over the last 25 years having ever visited there.

03/10/2020

Got to blow our own trumpet - that's surely the job of any business, so the news is that we have today again been awarded the status of 'Superhost' by Airbnb, a status we have now had for three continuous years. It's based on 57 stays booked in the last year through Airbnb, thats almost 50% of all our bookings/stays, and is due to us not having cancelled any bookings during that period (so I should hope - although we have understandably had numerous cancellations by people who have booked with us); we have replied to 99% of all enquiries made by potential guests (the one I didn't reply too was clearly a scam) and we have averaged 4.8percent stars out of five in reviews by guests after their stays. Given that the figures required to get Superhost are quite bit lower than this, I think we should have been awarded Supersuperhost status.

28/07/2020

Government started talking up 'staycations' a few weeks ago; we were cynical as there was so much talk about that after the recession a decade or more ago, but there was no such effect then. However this time, whilst we continue to have cancellations the available slots have indeed quickly filled up such that our first availability is just a 2 night slot from 12th September in Manifold, then a bit towards the end of September again in Manifold but nothing until 21st October in Dove and mid November in Knowl

24/06/2020

So we can indeed now open on 4th July, so thats what we are doing. Emails and phone calls came in yesterday immediately after the announcement meaning no availability in any of our cottages in July, although in the one bedroom cottages there is some in August. (Nothing in Knowl until November).
From now on, standard cancellation terms apply - unless heaven forbid the lockdown is tightened up again - so for example if pubs and cafes are required to close again but not holiday cottages, guests can still postpone their stays.

10/06/2020

The Culture and Tourism Minister indicated a couple of days back that he considered that holiday cottages should be at the front of the queue for those hospitality businesses looking to re-open and as the Government's last indicative date for the opening generally of hospitality business was the 4th July, the odds must be good for holiday cottages being able to open then. And on the 4th July we just happen to have Knowl Cottage available for a week!

30/05/2020

As anticipated, (although it still remains a disappointment) the Government has not brought forward its proposed date for holiday cottages being permitted to accept guests, so it remains the 4th July. So cancellation terms are now amended such that anyone with a direct booking to start before the 4th July can now either cancel (and get their deposits back) or can postpone their stays to a future date, whether this year, next year or the years thereafter. There is no need to fix the date at this stage.

22/05/2020

So stage two of painting now completed - see new colours of front doors to each cottage. also the gates (first stage was the interior of dove and manifold), stage two was the three entrances doors and two gates; painter booked for stage three in acouple of weeks time - unless lockdown lifted in the meantime!

22/05/2020

New cancellation terms for those booking directly with us. At the moment no one is allowed to arrive before 1st June in any event so those guests can either cancel or postpone whichever they prefer. Those who have booked to stay between the 1st June and the 3rd july can at this stage postpone, even if holiday cottages are permitted to re-open, as we understand many/most will not want to come on holiday if pubs and tea rooms are still shut. If the restriction on holiday cottages is not lifted following the review at the end of the month, then anyone due to arrive in June will have the additional option of cancelling as against just postponing. Anyone with a booking to start on or after 4th July: we are not yet offering the opportunity of postponing or cancelling as it is at the moment in the government’s timetable for pubs cafes and possibly even attractions to be open from that date. However we will not be asking for the balance of rentals until it has been confirmed that pubs and cafes can be opened. For those who have made online bookings through third party websites, (homeaway, tripadvisor and airbnb), it is possible to cancel or postpone through those sites, without any loss of monies either - although this is only possible at the moment for those who have booked a stay in the near future..

08/05/2020

22/04/2020

Just wanting to give a shout out for the owners and staff of the two grocers that are open in Hartington. Whilst of course all the other shops and the two coaching inns are closed, The Village Stores, Hartington and the Newspaper and General stores (the corner shop) both remain open. We have occasionally thought that with perhaps some business owners are taking the easy option of shutting and claiming on the government various financial schemes, in particular claiming the furloughing payments and the £10,000 for businesses with smallish ratable values, our two local grocers have remained open and providing an invaluable service to the community. But in particular praise must go to the staff who work there who are seeing perhaps hundreds of customers a day. We know that the corner shop has never been busier, despite the total lack of tourists, (residents are now looking/needing to shop local) and the village stores constantly has a modest queue outside (with only two allowed in the shop at any one time), despite not encouraging sales of their fabulous take-away coffees. We should also mention the Post office in Hartington remains open.

14/04/2020

Like, no doubt, other holiday cottage owners, we are taking the opportunity presented by the lockdown of doing a couple of jobs that are normally hard to fit in with it being a rare event for all three cottages to be empty for more than a day or so at the same time. So last week we undertook some drain works underneath the drive into th courtyard, and today we have started a full painting job of the two one bedroomed cottages. Normally we have to go to the back of a one year waiting list to get the services of our professional painter, and when we ring after a year, he has usually forgotten all about us. When we rang second half of last week, he said, he could start in two working days days. Unheard of but all his other jobs would have involved being in the same property as other people so he has cancelled them all. Looking forward to seeing the outcome end of next week.

03/04/2020

Well, the subject can't be avoided - coronavirus. Some might have seen our blog on our website where we discovered that within hours of having made an entry, things had changed. So I mentioned how pubs etc were still open and everyone in the village continued to be very welcoming of tourists then pubs were forced to close. I then wrote about how we continued to be open for business (and indeed took a couple of bookings for imminent stays during this time) and explaining the measures we were taking re sanitisation etc, when within 24 hours people were being instructed not to travel except for work, food etc, so immediately we shut. Between the time of the closure of pubs and the proper lock-down, as well as taking a couple of last minute bookings and having other guests also coming, half of those with future bookings, who contacted us, were indicating their desire to still come, saying they would be self-sufficient, the other half were wanting to arrange postponements. Even after the lock-down, we had contact with someone trying to book online for a stay a few days later.

03/04/2020

Welcome to our new Hartington Cottages page, which we have set up to bring guests who have stayed with us, or who have booked to stay with us or are thinking of staying with us, news (needless to say almost certainly at this moment in time exclusively about the coronavirus), offers in our cottages (when we are able to re-open), information about developments concerning local businesses in the village and environs (particularly re pubs and eating out), events taking place and similar