What is isleHoliday and why are we doing it?

You might have noticed us talking about a new project recently – isleHoliday.com

Maybe you are wondering what it is and why we are doing it! Rhoda explains…

As isle20 developed, I decided it should be one of multiple projects under a social enterprise. So I formed Isle Develop CIC and started experimenting with new ideas to develop digital projects with islanders at their heart.

I also started talking to community groups to figure out how we could make an impact — both with digital projects AND with any profits.

People kept talking about the islands’ housing crisis. And I kept avoiding it. It wasn’t that I didn’t understand the housing issue, it was that it felt so big and so impossible.

One day, I saw that a property with huge potential, which had been on the market for ages had dropped its price. I wondered to myself whether I could buy it, put it on a long term let and develop the associated buildings.

So I did the maths and the research. I discovered that despite being able to get the mortgage (although I was unclear about where I would find the deposit!) I would be unable to make the mortgage repayments without subsidising it myself, unless it was set up as a short term holiday let.

And that’s when something inside me snapped.

isleHoliday

Having joked about doing a version of isle20.com, but for holiday lets… it became less of a joke. Friends were willing to advise and help, the Isle Develop board were willing to take a risk on it, Firstport gave us some funding, and a year’s worth of work later…

We’re taking on Airbnb. Because, if you can’t beat them — join them.

We have launched isleHoliday.com. A holiday lettings website for the Scottish islands. We will reinvest the commission we take into island communities, into creating jobs, and into supporting small businesses AND housing projects.

Why start isleHoliday?

We want to keep the commission local. We want more of the money earned because of the islands to stay in the islands. By listing island properties and taking bookings, we can do exactly that. More than that, we can tell our story to people who book through us. We can tell visitors what we want them to know — about our awesome communities, and our history and languages and culture, and even about the mobile signal and the passing places.

We want to put faces to places and start to change the narrative from destination first, to community first.

Visitors will have a better experience if we correctly set their expectations. Our islands are not empty wildernesses waiting to be discovered. They are full of beauty AND they contain people. They are full of heritage and history, and of present and, we hope, future. Those are gems well worth discovering.

If you own a letting property in the islands

Please consider listing with us – isleHoliday.com/list-with-us/.

You don’t have to leave other platforms — this is simply an additional option.

Even if you are booked up for 2022, we don’t don’t mind — 2023 isn’t far away!

If you holiday in the islands

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And if you can’t find something suitable (we’re just getting started) then please tell people about us. Thanks for being part of the journey – let’s where we end up next!