Don't pack your short sleeves and sandals away just yet, forecasters are promising a settled warm spell to come for the next week or so for much of the UK. Indeed the rain has passed and blue skies are returning above our office in sunny Devon as I pen these few words.

The summer of 2013 brought some lengthy spells of fine weather of the order that most of us had not experienced since 2006. This was of particularly good news for the UK self-catering industry and I trust that you have experienced bumper bookings for your holiday lets. Surely the knock on effect will see an increase in advanced bookings for next season, a number of our team have booked cottages for 2014 already!

This year we have been working closely with our holiday home insurance scheme underwriters Ecclesiastical to ensure that we continue to offer competitive comprehensive cover for years to come. It's always a fine balancing act matching premium income to ensure sufficient reserves to pay claims, a series of extreme weather events across the UK over recent years has really kept the insurance industry on its toes. Our aim is to offer peace of mind to holiday home owners throughout the UK and we are proud to be recognised as a specialist insurance provider for self-catering holiday let properties.