I recently had to visit London to see a client. As my meeting was on a Friday, I decided to take my partner (and my Dad) and make a long weekend of it.

In the past, when in London, I have always stayed in hotels, the self catering option is not one that readily springs to mind. I don’t know why but I always associate self catering with quaint isolated country cottages. But there is growing pool of quality self catering in the centre of London and this time, I decided to give it a go.

I got a really good deal at Odessa Wharf, a fantastic riverside apartment. It was only £240 for 3 nights which is less than the three of us would have spent on hotel rooms. 

We got lucky, Odessa Wharf is unbelievable, situated on the riverfront with a balcony that actually extends over the Thames, no really! It is centrally located, yet out of town enough to be very quit and private. Odessa is literally 100 metres from the London river bus – a great way to travel! It was so refreshing to be able to escape the hustle and bustle of central London in the evening, hop on the river bus and escape to the luxury of the flat where we could sit out on the balcony, sip on a glass of wine and listen to the Thames lapping on the shingles below.

Self catering accommodation, in general, can offer excellent value for money. It can work out extremely cheap, especially if you are staying in a large group. Self catering accommodation also provides more control over your finances, with the option of preparing packed lunches, picnics and cooking your own meals. Meal times will also be of your own choosing; there is no need to set the alarm and rush down for an early breakfast, or adhere to the often bland full-board menu options.

Self catering properties provide guests with all the facilities of a genuine home-from-home experience.  Odessa wharf had a fully equipped kitchen, dinning area, lounge space and a private waterside roof terrace with unparalleled views of the London skyline ;-) Self catering is private. Guests do not have to mingle in the lobby as in a hotel. There is usually a living room where everyone can relax in a private, comfortable atmosphere. This is especially welcome when funds are tight, the weather is dreadful and you want to spend a quiet night in. There are no other intrusions or forced interactions. No one will knock on the door and ask to clean your room, or ask you to leave your key when you leave.

When I used to think of self catering, I thought of Aviemore or the Lake District, but fully quipped self catering flats, apartments and houses in London are increasing. There is something out there for everyone and every budget, however, I do recommend a place with a private balcony over the river Thames with uninterrupted views of Canary Wharf :-)

This week’s budget has left holiday home owners worst off than most.

In a week in which most people were left hurting financially, the government dealt holiday home owners an extra blow.

Currently, you can offset running expenses on your holiday property, but more importantly, if the property makes a paper loss, you can offset this against your overall income thus reducing your tax bill. From April 2010 onward, Rental Owners will no longer be able to offset loses from their holiday home against their general tax bill.

Cartoon by Dave Brown of the Independant

Capital gains tax relief has also been removed.  Currently, if you invest in a holiday home after selling assets, you can defer paying any capital gains tax on those assets, it is what’s know as 'business asset roll-over relief'.

Luckily, the changes to capital gains tax will not be retrospective, so anyone who deferred paying capital gains tax buy buying a holiday property will still be able to defer payment until the holiday home is sold.

There is also some consolation for those owning holiday properties outside the UK but within the EU. They will enjoy the tax-breaks enjoyed by those owning properties in the UK, but only but only until the end of the current tax year when, as described above, it will be abolished for everyone.

You can view the view the current tax breaks available to holiday let owners on the DirectGov website here.

Click here to view our other guides on letting your your holiday property.

Living in Lancaster, in the North West of England is great. One of the finest aspects is the proximity to the English Lake District; it’s less than half an hour’s drive from the Southern Lakes. The  Lake District is a great place to escape to, and when the weather is clement, I will often head up there on a weekend, sometimes leaving straight after work on a Friday.

I did my first such trip two weeks ago, one that I did many times last year, camping wild near Easdale Tarn above Grasmere. It was the first time there was enough daylight to make the trip viable after a full days work, the clocks only having gone forward the previous week.

I hiked up from Grasmere with everything I needed on my back - at what in previous years had been a tranquil wild camping spot - ready for some solitude, peace and quiet only to find six other people had the same idea as me! Bearing in mind this is the beginning of April and the first time this trip has been possible. I’ve never seen that many tents wild camping in one spot in the Lakes before. And by the time morning came, there were a total of five tents, eight people and two dogs.

The next day, the streets were absolutely flooded with people in Grasmere, Windermere and Ambleside. By all accounts the following Bank Holiday Easter weekend was even busier. It was plain to me, that on Easter weekend, which is traditional one in which we witness all the major international airports bursting at the seams, people were deciding to spend their time and money in the UK. This got me thinking about shifting trends in tourism during a recession and how it’s a good sign for holiday home owners in the UK.

If we combine the recession with a diminishing pound (against both the euro and the dollar) then it comes as no surprise that British families are spending their leisure time closer to home. I did some research and found some official figures to back up my anecdotal assessment:

• Cumbria Tourism confirmed there was a busy Easter period last week with Lake District tourism information centres reporting a 45% increase in footfall over the same period in 2008.
  
  
• Recent history shows that a busy Easter period leads to a bumper summer for the hospitality industry especially hotels, B&B’s and self-catering accommodation.
  
  
• In the previous year, the worst hit retailer s have been the top and bottom end of the Lake District tourism industry, including hotels and B&B’s but a good recovery is expected, along with self-catering and holiday-home accommodation providers benefitting from the forthcoming influx of visitors.
  
  
• Financial injections have also been announced to boost the tourist industry, with Cumbria Tourism benefitting from over £5 million made available from the Northwest Regional Development Agency. Creating “high-quality, high-value visitor experiences” is a main concern, as is capitalising on the “increasing trend to holiday at home”. Some of the regions first areas to benefit from this grant are the refurbishments of the Tourist Information Centres and National Park Centres of Ullswater, Bowness, Hawkshead and Keswick.

All this is great news for the local holiday home industry, especially in Lancashire and Cumbria. Expect a bumper summer in the Lakes and across Britain for 2009!