Holiday-Let Cutaway Plans with Gardens and Parking

The plan guests actually need

A private host wanted one plan per property for the listings and the guest information, with the outside space included so visitors could see where to park and what the garden offered. Photographs rarely answer those questions, and a plan with the rooms, the drive and the garden in one picture does.

The same image helps again on arrival. A guest standing on the drive can match the plan to what they see, which cuts down the small questions a host otherwise answers by message. Cutaway plans suit holiday lets because the rooms and the surroundings sit in a single frame.

Two very different footprints

One property is an L-shaped cottage with a gravel drive, a parked car and three coloured wheelie bins at the edge, a picket fence and a hedge-lined lawn with a table laid for dinner behind the house. The other is long and narrow, with a parking bay alongside, two bedrooms and a bathroom, a paved patio, a strip of timber decking and a small outbuilding at the far end.

Walls are cut low so every room shows, and the viewpoint is raised enough that fences and hedges do not hide the garden. Light is bright and even with soft shadows, and grass, gravel, paving and decking each get a distinct colour so the ground reads like a map.

Modelling from hand sketches

No 2D drawings existed, so both properties were modelled from the host's own hand sketches with approximate dimensions, then furnished in the style of the listing photographs so beds, sofas and kitchens match what guests will find. Sketches work when they carry enough measurements; we flag every assumption on the first draft.

Boundaries, planting and paving were modelled alongside the rooms. Marked-up changes came back twice before the final versions. The first issue went out on 7 March 2025 and the plans were finalised on 18 March, when the host confirmed being happy with both.

Compact homes and annexes

The same method suits annexes, garden rooms and other small dwellings, where one image must carry a layout and its surroundings. Every metre counts, so a careful brief matters. A sketch is a perfectly good starting point provided it shows where the doors and windows fall, which way the stairs or steps run, and how the building sits within its boundary. A short note on anything unusual, such as a sloping lawn or a shared drive, saves a round of questions later. Photographs of the plot taken from the doorway help us place the parking bay and bins where guests will find them.

• Photograph each sketch and add a few overall dimensions, such as the length of the longest wall.
• Send the listing photographs so furniture and finishes can be matched.
• Say what must appear outside: parking, bins, seating, outbuildings.
• Decide whether the plan will be printed for a welcome pack or used only online.