The Holiday Airbnb: Real life cottage from Christmas romcom now available for rent
Jon Bromley, 58, and his wife, Cressida, 52, live in the house which inspired Cameron Diaz’s rural retreat in the 2006 festive flick.
The real life cottage from romcom The Holiday is now for rent on AirBnb by a couple who bought it without realising it was in the movie until strangers turned up taking photos.
Jon Bromley, 58, and his wife, Cressida, 52, live in the house which inspired Cameron Diaz’s rural retreat in the 2006 festive flick.
They had no idea it was the quintessential cottage from the movie when they bought it - until they saw news of the sale in a property magazine.
Now they regularly have movie fans turning up to their home in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, to take photos and pose outside.
A few weeks ago the couple put their home on AirBnb for an average of £295 a night and they have had immediate bookings.
The couple still live there but have bookings already scheduled for Christmas, New Year and the summer.
In the movie, newly-single Amanda Woods - played by Cameron Diaz - leaves Los Angeles, US, to spend a two-week holiday in Rosehill Cottage in rural England.
During this mini-break, she meets the landlady’s brother Graham, played by Jude Law, and they fall in love.
Movie researchers visited the home but when they discovered it was too far from the cast and crew in London, they recreated it brick by brick in a studio.
Rosehill Cottage in the movie is an identical match for the Bromley’s home - down to the picket fence, wooden gate, country garden, and rural track which Diaz famously slips down.
Jon, a sports photographer, said: “I had bookings straight away.
"Our first guests were a few weeks ago for two nights. They were scientists from Cambridge and really enjoyed it.
"It’s one of those getaways where you go and hide yourself somewhere in a little village.
"There’s nothing here but a pub next door - no shops.
"I still live in the cottage but I have four lettings so far - Christmas, New Year and two in summer for weddings locally.
"I’m just really proud of it. It’s a very lovely house and we’re very lucky."
The Bromley’s moved into the £625,000 home in 2019, totally unaware of any Hollywood significance.
The three-bed cottage boasts an Aga stove and underfloor heating, surrounded by a landscaped garden and flagstone laid terrace, with views over the Surrey hills.
The couple have decorated the house for Christmas, adding fairy lights, an outdoor Christmas tree, and one inside with decorations around the famous fireplace.
Jon and Cressida, a painter, have never done a home swap - like the movie - but have had people look after the house while they were away.
Jon said: "I came to see it on my own to begin with and just literally fell in love with it straight away.
"Just everything was beautiful - low ceilings, it’s beamed, it’s got a massive inglenook fireplace with a log burner in.
"Then we saw it in a Country Life article saying something like ‘the inspiration for ‘The Holiday’ cottage is back on the market’.
"I thought ‘bloody hell!’"
Production designer for The Holiday, Jon Hutman said on the DVD commentary he was looking for the "cutest, smallest, most English cottage that we could find" when he stumbled on the real life home.