Airbnb Porn and the Scilly Isles.
Airbnb Porn and the Isles of Scilly
22.5.19
Rebecca Hunt, Director at Suna Interior design has a new hobby. It’s called Airbnb.
Basically this new hobby involves losing oodles of hours researching places I might want to stay on Airbnb and then finding a few more hours to lose on Right Move finding properties, that in some alternate universe, I would buy and do up and let out. This dreamery includes drilling down into all the details on finishing touches and guest freebies. Fear not, if I ever do own a holiday rental property and you book yourself in, you will be getting interior design to die for, a luxury local produce hamper, seriously lovely goo in the bathrooms, superb crisp white bed linen. Maybe a swan towel sculpture to greet you on your bed.
Ok. No towel sculptures.
The epitome of this Airbnb fantasy is when I get to go and actually stay in a holiday let property. You know that feeling when you have booked online, trawled through all the images, google-satellited the location and surroundings, finally booked and then started counting down the days. There is then a level of trepidation en route. Mild anxiety even. Sheer panic? Please God, let it meet expectations.
(As an aside, we have stupidly booked a property for a family holiday this summer, in France, that hasn’t got a swimming pool ‘yet’. It will have a swimming pool by the time we arrive. We hope).
I’ve just come back from a recent trip to the Isles of Scilly. Sans kids. Sans husband. Avec pooch. All the ingredients for bliss. And boy, we were not disappointed. If you haven’t been to the Scillies, think cross between English hey-day country living, with a bit of Mediterranean lifestyle mixed in (Summer season only, I understand. In winter there are no boats that brave the crossing from Penzance). It’s like The Chamomile Lawn meets Enchanted April (90’s tv and film references for anyone not familiar) with a little bit of Enid Blyton’s Famous Five (or Secret Seven depending on your preferences) thrown in. White sand, rocky outcrops, blue blue blue sea, lush greenery, spectacular views at every corner. Very little traffic. Very few people.
Normally, in a holiday let, it’s a case of ‘walk in the door, let the interior design analysis commence’. But on this occasion it was the jaw dropping views that grab the attention first. Set on a private road, down a bumpy track, on a hill leading straight down to the Atlantic, the outlook is over a beautiful garden dropping right into the sea. And oh, what a sea, that kind of turquoise blue that you would be more likely to associate with the Seychelles. And in the near distance is the captivating spectacle of a collection of islands, large and small, with pristine white beaches against azure skies. Just gorgeous.
But the property didn’t disappoint either, an upside down arrangement, with an open plan living area on first floor to take advantage of those views, the perfect back drop to a glass of wine, and a peaceful, spacious bedroom leading onto a sheltered garden, with green, green grass, aloes and succulents and high hedges (to protect from the wind that apparently must buffet the island occasionally). I have to say that interiors kind of fade into insignificance in these kind of surroundings, The garden-life of the islands is like being in a land of giants. Massive aloes, 10 foot tall flower stems (apologies, my horticultural knowledge is limited to daisies and dandelions), flowers in abundance. Everywhere. Rich and lush and like a little micro climate all of it’s very own.
So, I’ve had a five day break of 10 mile dog walks (very happy Vixie!), lashings of ginger beer (erm…wine), white beaches and boat trips. It’s a bit of a culture shock coming back to the Big Smoke, but at least my Airbnb/Right Move hobby has, for the foreseeable, been refined down to a particularly beautiful corner of the British Isles. And I’ll let you know if that swimming pool exists when I get to my France Airbnb in July…
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