How to eke more out of your assets is a perennial problem for any business owner.

But cottages.com has sought to help holiday cottage owners with research into how much extra occupancy particular features could bring.

Simon Law, vice president at cottages.com, said wifi can add up to 1.5 weeks' occupancy, a hot tub can add anywhere between three and 10 weeks, a real fire can add 1.8 weeks and having eight or more pictures on a booking site listing can add up to 18 weeks.

Alexandra Persson, account manager at Booking.com, shared her tips for enhancing guests' experience – from the moment they land on the website.

In the booking process, the saying that a picture is worth 1,000 words has been proved true by research.

Year-round availability is also of growing importance, with around 44% of customers still booking between three and six months in advance. Ms Persson said: 'We may see that last minute demand is high, but the demand for advance booking is also high.'