SPL Villas has hailed the support of travel agents as the villa specialist reported its busiest ever October.
It said it saw a 75% increase in the total number of bookings last month compared to September.
Villa-only and villa-and-flight package bookings with from the trade also grew by 50% month-on-month and now account for two-thirds of all bookings.
It said the success was due to the addition of flight-booking and enhanced filter functionality to the SPL Villas website in late September, as well as a travel agent competition bookings incentive to win a Cypriot villa holiday, as part of a broader strategy to work proactively with the trade.
Managing director Edward Frampton-Fell said: “After all of the work the SPL Villas team has put in to building and launching a new website, and re-engaging with the trade, it’s great to be heading into the end of the year and the all-important peaks period with such momentum. We’re feeling very confident about the year ahead.”
SPL Villas booking data for October shows that 81% of bookings in the month were flights-plus-villa packages – rising from 44% in September.
About 95% of bookings taken are for travel in 2025 or 2026 and Split in Croatia has emerged as the most popular destination for travel next year.
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One outstanding booking was made by Easi Travel in York, which was for 17 nights in Mallorca next July for 12 people and worth more than £23,000.
SPL Villas has also promoted Laura Ingeri to a new general manager position to capitalise on the growth.
She joined in 2023 as head of product and commercial, and in her new role will take on greater responsibility for operations, as well as sales and marketing. The brand is also recruiting for a new head of marketing.
Ingeri said: “The strategic decision we took to engage more proactively with the trade is paying off – we’re grateful for their support and look forward to working even more closely in 2025.
“The improvements we made to our brand and website – particularly the flight booking functionality – are really resonating with customers.
“I’m excited to have the chance to help the business build on that further in this new role.”
Pictured: Laura Ingeri