Sue and John

13th September 2022

Sue and John have owned and operated self catering property in Angus for over 20 years.

We have been involved with self catering holiday let’s for approximately 20years. Ten years ago we invested in a grade B listed castle which we proposed to turn into a self catering holiday let. We have fought with planners, historic Scotland and the local council to revive an important part of Scottish history, and now we have more hoops to negotiate and mountains to climb.

People love the idea of holidaying in an authentic Scottish castle be it locals, UK residents and of course the Americans. How can you not be seduced by the idea of being Laird of your own castle for a week. Since we have operated in Scotland each year seems to bring in new regulations, some are for the general good of holiday makers, however these recent regulations appear to only increase our outgoings at a time when it is becoming increasingly difficult to make ends meet. As you can imagine the upkeep of a castle is immense, the money from rentals allows us to reinvest in the castle and to continue with the restoration.

These new regulations are about providing money for nothing, what do we or our guests gain from these regulations? We have had two very hard years with little to no income but the maintenance continues regardless of the income. On top of this our outgoings have increased with fuel increases and this is reflected on everything we do from the cleaning, laundry, gardening, heating, lighting and general everyday work.

As the economy is struggling, so are our guests, they cannot afford holidays in the way they once did, if we put our costs up too much we drive these guests away but if we don’t we cannot continue. Added burden from these new regulations could not have come at a worse time.