Welcome to Vitty's Cottages
about the owners

Owners Iain and Heather Vitty

We started coming to Whitby over 20 years ago and the minute we arrived I loved the place so made it my mission to move here. Luckily, Iain my husband loved the place as much as I did and helped to create a plan of action.

We had some properties in Bradford where we are both from and decided to sell these so we could buy in Whitby and start a holiday cottage business.

In 2011 we found Pecks Cottage.... I just fell in love with the place even though we had only stood on the patio area, so we bought it, engaged a builder and set about the renovation. Oh boy did it turn out to be some renovation as we found things were not as they seemed, the house was taken back to the brick work and we rebuilt it making sure it was energy efficient and to a high spec.

It was tough but a great learning curve as we still lived in Bradford. We managed to come and give our input into the renovation which was important to us, we wanted our cottages to be some of the best in Whitby, giving holiday makers an experience to remember.

Next we spent ages finding an agency we could work with who put customer service and quality at the front of their business. We signed up with Yorkshire Coastal Cottages who were a fairly new agency at the time, specialising in luxury 4/5 star properties which suited our needs. 01/01/2021 Update - Yorkshire Coastal Cottages were bought out by Sykes (a large company) and after a year with them we felt their level of customer service and ethos did not really match our business anymore so decided to move to a smaller agency called 'Host and Stay' who are based near Whitby.

We soon added to our portfolio with Cobble Cottage in 2012 and Seashell Cottage in 2013, although this cottage was not for a holiday let it was for us to stay in as we came to Whitby most weekends.

Then in November 2013 we had the opportunity to buy Paradise Cottage and Paradise View which were next to each other and also next to Pecks Cottage. It was a no brainer for us to do this as they also came with 3 parking spaces!!!

We eventually realised our dream and moved to Whitby in 2016.... I am smiling as I write this, we still pinch ourselves and feel so lucky to live in such as beautiful historic town.

During this year we also bought Springhill Cottage in Whitby and Turnstone Cottage in Sandsend. Update September 2021 Springhill Cottage is no longer available.

In 2017 we decided to take the next step and actually have some cottages built after sourcing a great location in Whitby town centre. The piece of land is where the old police station and court room used to be so our aptly named cottages 'Columbo', 'Morse' and 'Sherlock' were up and running from April 2019, each with 2 parking spaces and outside space.

Although we now live in Whitby we still use an agency for our bookings, cleaning and general enquires as they offer stability to our business that a two-person team would struggle cope with.

We are hands on and like to make regular checks and carry out the general maintenance of our cottages to make sure they feel loved and comfortable for our guests. We think this gives us a slight edge over owners who don't live nearby or regularly check their cottages to ensure everything is spot on.

We often pop down to see the guests if they are about and are happy to listen to and action any feedback or suggestions they may have.

These are a few suggestions we have implemented in some of our cottages:

  • Provide picnic ware and a cool bag for trips to the beach
  • Added a coffee machine to the kitchen
  • Provide blankets for sitting outside on chilly days
  • Made the refuse/recycling signs clearer
  • Provide a few blue/green bags for rubbish