Comment: Oh, to have a seaside holiday home to call your own!

Has there ever been a better time to own a holiday home in the UK? 

Every other person I know locally seems to have a seaside retreat to retire to, thus saving themselves a fortune on renting one from someone else. 

Conversely, actually using their own property rather than staying at home could be costing them thousands in lost revenue.

But if you're lucky enough to have your own holiday home, not using it in the current (sunny, lockdown-addled) climate would feel like a massive waste. 

After all, this is set to be the summer of the staycation, with hopes of a trip abroad that doesn't involve a frantic, rule change-induced dash to the airport looking increasingly unlikely.

And with so many of us opting to holiday at home, accommodation costs have been ramped up accordingly. 

Travel agency, Butter, looked at the average hotel room rate in August and how it differed across 10 UK coastal, country and city locations.

Not surprisingly, the seaside cost the most, with the average room rate coming in at £117 per night — 30 per cent more than the average city break — with highs of £202 per night in St Ives. 

Having just forked out a fortune on my own little piece of the Cornish coast (for one week only), this doesn't surprise me.

But by August it will have been a year since we experienced any holiday that didn't involve deflating airbeds, communal shower facilities and swathes of canvas.

It feels like a price worth paying for an actual bed and a bathroom I only have to share with my family in an area that isn't our own.

As lovely as Herts is, I've seen more than enough of it over the last 15 months. And if that means paying over the odds for a week by the sea, then I'm okay with that.