Bloom Stays, the independent holiday and short stay specialists for Kent and new sponsors of SO Magazine’s travel section, reveal why their luxury properties are ideal for all kinds of breaks. From stylish boltholes for city breaks to chic coastal pads and grand country houses for getaways with family and friends, there really is something for everyone to enjoy…
So here we are…sponsors of SO Magazine’s Travel section and what a pleasure it is to welcome you to these pages of exciting ideas and adventures ahead for 2023! Kent is such a fantastic place with its wild coastlines, beautiful rolling rural countryside, exciting old-but- bursting- with- modern life towns and cities and brilliant connections. We know Kent inside out and we can’t wait to share it with you.
Beach houses, city apartments or rural homes, Bloom Stays welcomes everyone to the Garden of England. Founded and run by Rowena and Nicky, Bloom Stays looks after the best holiday homes in Kent.
Nicky and Rowena started Bloom Stays in 2019 because they wanted to create a holiday letting agency that stood out from the crowd. Together they would offer brilliant service for guests and owners alike whilst the houses they wanted to look after would always be somewhere truly special to stay.
Bloom Stays now has 100 special houses that it offers for self-catering stays in Kent. Houses with pools, hot tubs, games rooms, cinema rooms, sea views, shepherds’ huts, treehouses and huge, huge kitchens are just some of what you can find under the Bloom Stays’ collective roof. The houses, all exclusive to Bloom Stays, sleep from 2 to 44 people, are available all year round and look and feel like a boutique hotel with their superior standards of luxury and finish. This means excellent quality linens and bedding; coffee machines; entertainment ‘in house’ such as board games and pool tables; indulgent bathrooms and beautiful gardens.
‘Local’, ‘lovely’ and ‘looked after’ are Bloom Stays’ watch words and that applies to the houses – and owners – too. Just as guests love to stay in Bloom Stays’ houses, Rowena and Nicky want their owners to be supported by the best service they can offer. Holiday houses require careful and regular maintenance, sound financial planning and a good eye. Good looks are essential for a great return after all and Bloom Stays houses are known for their keen sense of design and style.
All this takes steady and experienced hands which Nicky and Rowena are known for. After many years in the industry, both women are well qualified to spot the best in a holiday house and advise exactly on how to maximise returns. As they told SO Magazine recently, “We have carved out a name for ourselves in overseeing every aspect of letting. We’ve been busy these last three years implementing our vision around excellent service and a collection of ‘extras’ for guests that really make self-catering a special experience right here in Kent.”
With such a successful and blossoming business on their hands Nicky and Rowena have a team to help share the load. Based in their new office in Canterbury, their colleagues include property managers, experienced owner-managers, digital marketing specialists and an in-house photographer. Nicky and Rowena are responsible for liaising directly with owners and are out seeing houses, meeting owners and offering their consultancy services. About 10% of the Bloom Stays houses are managed directly by the Bloom Stays team with the rest run hand in hand with owners.
And why is Bloom Stays only in Kent? Well, because both Nicky and Rowena both know and we love it here and it has plenty to offer. Two hours from London means our guests love the accessibility, but they also have its natural beauty, space and landscapes ranging from vines to the coast; rural lanes, hop gardens, orchards and ancient city streets. Even Britain’s only desert at Dungeness falls in Bloom Stays’ our patch, not many counties can offer all that, can they?
Although many of Bloom Stays’ houses are on the Kent coast, with Folkestone, Dungeness, Broadstairs and Canterbury all popular with current owners, Nicky and Rowena are always keen to get to know houses and owners situated across the county. SO Magazine’s heartland of Tunbridge Wells and the Kent/Sussex border is really interesting to Bloom Stays right now as they want to offer guests a good range of rural and town-based properties particularly for Londoners looking for weekends away. If any SO Magazine readers with suitable properties are keen to talk to Nicky and Rowena ahead of the coming ‘staycation summer’, then please get in touch.
Tunbridge Wells and its outlying villages are hugely important to Londoners looking to explore a like-minded, sophisticated, cosmopolitan town. Holiday houses here and along the Kent/Sussex border are in demand and with a good range of cultural festivals in 2023 springing up here, there are many great reasons to stay. Being Canterbury locals Nicky and Rowena have yet to experience Tunbridge Wells’ Pub in the Park food festival but they’re keen to get stuck in and they’re going to look up the Black Deer Festival, also in July. Another great reason for them, and their guests, to spend more time in West Kent this summer.
