Case Study: Sykes Holiday Cottages achieves growth to 17,500 properties and controlled OTA distribution with Rentals United

Sykes Holiday Cottages - Customer Case Study

Sykes Holiday Cottages, based in Chester, UK, operates 15,500 personally inspected cottages in the UK plus 2,000 in New Zealand and set out to double its business while tightly controlling distribution and pricing. Key challenges included tracking a global pipeline of 21 million potential properties, creating a pricing and yielding system capable of making roughly 2.5 million price changes a year, and using OTAs selectively for international demand. Some of Sykes’ acquired regional brands were using Rentals United Channel Management to help manage OTA connectivity and distribution.

Rentals United’s channel management was used by those regional brands to syndicate inventory and control exposure on partner OTAs, supporting Sykes’ broader, tech-led approach. Sykes combined that third‑party channel support with its own proprietary systems (PMS “Enterprise”, revenue manager “Prism”, Market IQ and a CRO/test platform) to scale from 6,500 to 17,500 rentals, sustain 80% of bookings via direct channels, achieve 47% repeat guests, handle ~22,000 organic owner leads a year, run thousands of A/B tests daily and reduce cost-per-acquisition even while exceeding 400,000 bookings — demonstrating measurable growth and operational control with Rentals United contributing to channel distribution for some acquired portfolios.

Sykes Holiday Cottages

Graham Donoghue

Chief Executive Officer