Anna

13th September 2022

Anna has run her agency in Edinburgh for 15 years.

My business is my life, my only income, my pension and my families future. I can’t even imagine what I will do without it.

I am co founder and Managing Director of the award winning. The Edinburgh Address and Adore Scotland. We have welcomed guests to Edinburgh for over 15 years and I have put my heart and soul into this business. I am a co founder of Women in Tourism and just recently joined the Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce council. We have an amazing team of four people each who care deeply about providing an amazing quality of service to our guests and owners. We work directly and collaborate with dozens of local businesses. We go above and beyond and are heartbroken at the unjust way our industry has been painted.

We do not allow party bookings, we follow health and safety guidance and work in harmony with our communities. It is deeply unjust that all self catering professionals, who give so much to tourism should be lumped and categorised under one well known name and type of operator. Like all industries there are bad operators but I fail to understand why there has been a campaign to annihilate self catering because of a few bad operators? Self catering holidays were the only ones we took as a family and now with a young child I choose to stay in apartments and holiday homes as they are practical, sustainable and affordable.

Edinburgh will truly be a lesser destination without self catering and the Edinburgh Festival will face an unprecedented challenge which could impact its very existence. We welcome academics, Edinburgh locals, authors, corporates, festival goers, actors, the BBC, travel writers and many different types of visitors all year round; many of whom have said they will not visit Edinburgh if their home from homes disappear.

My business is my life, my only income, my pension and my families future. I can’t even imagine what I will do without it.

We are all so concerned about the threat to our jobs/livelihoods and live with this anxiety every single day. This is especially harsh after 18 months of no income with Covid-19 and the looming threat of the cost of living crisis.