Holiday and visitor accommodation business planning

Holiday accommodation is the single biggest item of visitor spend and a well-planned accommodation offer is central to any successful tourism business or destination.  We provide feasibility studies, business plans and market appraisals for a full range of holiday accommodation,  from lodges and glamping to camping, cabins and other self-catering formats, helping operators, landowners and public sector clients bring new accommodation projects to market with confidence.

Our work in the accommodation sector was established when we were part of the Rank Group in the early 1990s, where our division was responsible for introducing the Oasis Holiday Village brand, which was subsequently acquired by Center Parcs.

Our lead specialist area is the self-catering sector, including lodges, camping, glamping and other innovative holiday accommodation formats.  For more than 25 years we have advised on new accommodation development, often as part of wider mixed-use tourism and leisure schemes, providing the market evidence and financial appraisal needed to secure planning consent, investment and funding.

Our tourist accommodation planning services

We support accommodation projects at every stage, including:

• Feasibility studies for new holiday accommodation developments
• Business plans to support funding applications, investment and planning submissions
• Market appraisals and demand assessments for lodges, camping, glamping and self-catering schemes
• Site assessment and selection for new accommodation projects
• Development strategy advice for mixed-use tourism and leisure sites
• Operational reviews of existing holiday accommodation businesses

Clients we’ve worked with

• Caerphilly County Borough Council: Carried out a feasibility study to introduce visitor accommodation within the grounds of Llancaiach Fawr Manor, a heritage attraction managed by the Council
• Elan Valley Trust: A feasibility study exploring future accommodation uses for an 18th-century farmstead in mid-Wales (currently, the offer is based on a bunkhouse-type operation)
• Forest Holidays: Worked on a number of site finding, market assessments and feasibility studies.  Sites include: Blackwood Forest, Beddgelert, Delamere Forest, Glentress Forest, Thorpe Forest and Sherwood Pines
• Hampshire County Council: Carried out a feasibility study to assess the viability of introducing visitor accommodation within four country parks
• Heart of the National Forest Charitable Trust: Carried out a feasibility study and market assessment to introduce a cluster of forest lodges within the National Forest.
• Forest Enterprise Wales: Carried out a feasibility study to assess the opportunity to introduce visitor accommodation across their forest estate to support the development of mountain biking and walking tourism.
• Monmouthshire County Council and Newport City Council: Advised on introducing low-impact visitor accommodation within the Gwent Levels to support the development of sustainable tourism
• Private landowner: Working with the landowner, we were commissioned to advise on the viability of introducing a high-quality glamping experience within an attractive woodland setting
• Thanet District Council: Prepared a tourist accommodation strategy which included an audit, analysis and assessment of tourism accommodation in Thanet, including future development prospects.
• Water Company: Commissioned to advise on preparing a development strategy to introduce visitor accommodation at a reservoir site
• Bridgend County Borough: Carried out a module of research to identify accommodation needs to support the sustainable development of activity tourism within the County Borough, with a particular focus on surfing, activity tourism and other watersports

Find out more about our accommodation projects here.

What our clients say

“Forest Holidays has been working with Planning Solutions Consulting Limited for over a decade. Working closely with our senior management team they have been providing expert market reviews and carrying out site assessments across the UK. They have also been providing strategic input to analyse growth market targets and to help shape our development strategy. This has helped Forest Holidays to expand our portfolio of sites across the UK. We have found that the quality of advice has always been very sound and robustly argued and we have often reverted back to PSCL’s earlier research work and reports which have demonstrated their validity over time. Planning Solutions Consulting delivers their work within budget and on time. We would have no hesitation in recommending Planning Solutions Consulting to other organisations.” Gary Fletcher, former Chief Executive Officer, Forest Holidays

Talk to us about your project

Whether you’re a landowner exploring the potential for a new lodge or camping development, an operator looking to expand an existing holiday accommodation business, or a public sector body assessing accommodation need across a destination, we can help you build the evidence base to move forward with confidence.

We can support you with an initial feasibility study to test the viability of a site, a full business plan to support funding or planning applications, or a market appraisal to understand demand and positioning for a new accommodation offer.

If you have any questions or would like to discuss your project, please don’t hesitate to call Richard Linington on 07866 742628 or email richard@pslplan.co.uk. We’re happy to have an initial, no-obligation conversation about your accommodation project.