Aside from the glorious promise of unlimited luxury and pampering that English Cottage Vacation is known for, at the heart of everything are live-in hosts Nathan and Laura.
Laura doubles as the in-house chef – throughout your vacation she spends her time cooking up a storm so you can get a taste of fine British cuisine through the delectable meals she serves.
Nathan is the resident beverages expert who can pick out or mix up the perfect drink to go with every meal. He’s also your personal chauffeur, ready to drive you wherever you need to go. Whether it’s for an awesome excursion or just a spot of shopping, he’ll get you there safely and in good time.
There’s a lot more to know about this awesome power couple behind English Cottage Vacation and here are a few details Laura has shared to help you get to know them better:
How Did You Two Meet?
Nathan and I grew up in the same town. I lived in a little village next to the town called Chalk Hometown while he lived in Midsomer Norton. Even though our schools were close together, we didn’t know each other then but we had mutual friends.
Funnily enough, we actually met through our ex-partners and we connected when we realised we had so much in common. Our mutual love of water sports and boating brought us together and when we started dating, we decided that we wanted to work on the water. That decision is what really cemented our relationship together to begin with.
How Do You Live & Work Together 24 Hours A Day?
It all comes down to communication. We can always feel when there’s a lack of communication – like when tension, confusion, or frustration set in.
We’ve found that communicating what we need, feel, expect, or what we’re doing helps us stay on the same page. Because of the nature of our work, there’s always a crossover between living and working so we always try to have each other’s back through everything.
That means practicing forgiveness and just being supportive of each other. We don’t believe in giving each other the silent treatment and when we have disagreements, we talk about them and move on straight away.
Having fun and not taking things too seriously is also a really important part of living and working together. As well as our belief in the law of attraction and the power of positive thinking that what we’re doing is working and will continue to do so.
Considering How Much Time You Spend Together, Do You Feel Like You Can Communicate Without Speaking?
Not at all. We’re very different people, outside of the things we have in common. I’m more of an emotional person and wear my heart on my sleeve while Nathan is much more thoughtful and concise about things that he does.
Communicating without speaking is one of those things we are personally not able to do. In fact, most times speaking needs to take place for the greater good of our guests so we’ve just never had the need to learn to do it without words as these conversations usually happen behind closed doors.
Does This Help Or Hinder You With Your Work?
Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hinders. Work wise, communicating with our words helps us do a better job most of the time. For our personal relationship, it means we can’t exactly read each other’s minds, which I would prefer because then communication would be easier!
We do have one unique thing though that guests find quite interesting. Since we began working on yachts, we learned to communicate through a whistle. Like if we’re looking for each other, rather than shout each other’s names, we whistle.
It’s come in handy in everyday life too, like when we’re shopping in the supermarket and need to find each other.
What Do You Love About Each Other With Regards To Your Jobs?
From my point of view, what I most love about Nathan concerning our jobs is how he completely knows what his roles are and he’s very good at getting them done. I also love how supportive he is when I fall behind or need a bit of support.
It’s also really great that, as a couple, we can show our love to our guests in a way that shows we have a great relationship. That positive energy also spreads to our guests and just creates this happy holiday atmosphere.
When Do You Get Your Down Time?
When we have guests, our jobs are full on. There’s no downtime, or getting away, or squeezing in some private time. But when we don’t have guests, we have the freedom to pack our stuff up and go camping or on a skiing holiday.
So most of our down time is through winter, usually from November to mid-April and also in between our guests coming to stay with us for the summer. Sometimes that’s anything between a day and four days that we don’t spend getting ready for our next guests.
What Are Your Current & Future Business Goals?
Our current goal now that we’re coming to the end of our season is to maximize bookings for 2023 over the winter. We’re aiming for 12 weeks of English Cottage Vacation in 2023, which is the maximum we want to have in one year so we don’t over-exert ourselves and we’ll still have enough energy to look after our guests the best way we know how.
Once we’ve achieved this goal, we plan to use any surplus business profit to look for a new property, hopefully next year. Our long term goal is to extend the appanage experience and have different locations throughout the UK for a start so our guests can enjoy our luxury services in a variety of settings.
Final Word
You can learn more about Nathan and Laura and their incredible business while enjoying a luxury vacation yourself over at our quaint cottage here in Dorset. Give us a call to find out more about booking your spot for a quintessential British luxury vacation, complete with two attentive live-in hosts.
