CHESTER-BASED holiday accommodation rental, Sykes Holiday Cottages, has picked up gold at the prestigious British Travel Awards for the ninth consecutive year.

The fast-growing agency took home the 'Best Large UK Cottage Holiday Company' award after securing the most votes from the general public. UKcaravans4hire and Forest Holidays, which were acquired by Sykes in 2022, were also recognised at the event.

Based in Huddersfield, UKcaravans4hire took home bronze in the large company category, while Derbyshire-based Forest Holidays received the silver accolade in the medium-size category.

The British Travel Awards are the world’s largest customer-voted travel awards, with 300,000 holiday makers casting their votes this year, the highest number of voters in the event's history.

The winners were announced at a ceremony hosted by ITV’s Alison Hammond in London last week, with almost 1,000 travel industry representatives coming together for the occasion.

Graham Donoghue, CEO of Sykes Holiday Cottages said: "The British Travel Awards are voted for by customers and we feel incredibly proud to have been recognised yet again this year.

"It’s thanks to our amazing holiday home owners and hard-working colleagues that we have received this award nine years on the trot and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank them for all that they do.

"Having our newer brands celebrated too is brilliant and we’re so excited for what lies ahead with both UKcaravans4hire and Forest Holidays – the best is yet to come!"

Sykes now employs more than 1,100 people, mostly at its Chester HQ, and this year enjoyed a bumper year for bookings, taking around 3 million people on holiday to more than 22,500 holiday homes.