Tour de How Much?! £10k sought for Yorkshire cottage weekend rental

A property owner on the route of the Tour de France in West Yorkshire is looking to rent a two-bedroom cottage for the weekend of the Grand Départ – with an asking price of £10,000.

That’s double the weekly price that a tennis star competing at Wimbledon is asked to pay during the forthcoming championships for this house, located just one minute’s walk from the player’s entrance of the All England Lawn Tennis Club.

The Yorkshire property, listed on the website Gumtree, is in the town of Holmfirth and according to the advert has “views up to the summit of Holme Moss.” Amazingly, given the money being sought, there are no pictures - the phrase caveat emptor springs to mind. It is available from Friday 4 to Sunday 6 July.

The same website has another two-bed house on the route of the race in Holmfirth at the comparatively more reasonable price of £1,000 for seven nights commencing Friday 4 July, the eve of the race.

Other people living elsewhere on the route of the two stages in the region are also looking to raise funds through letting their homes to cycling fans during the Tour’s visit through adverts on Gumtree and similar websites,

But tourism bosses in Yorkshire have said that even with the Grand Départ now only two weeks ago, there is still accommodation available.

A search by road.cc this morning on Booking.com reveals that there are still hotel rooms available in all four of the locations in Yorkshire that are hosting stage starts or finishes – Leeds, Sheffield, Harrogate and York, although in the latter two cases nearly 90 per cent of accommodation has now been booked for the weekend.

Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, told the Yorkshire Post: “It’s not too late for people still wanting to come, but the message is act fast.”