We've had an incredible year, I hope you've had a good one too.

In the last 12 months we've expanded and taken on a number of new properties so we're proud to now offer 21 luxury apartments to let. We saw England trounce Australia in the Ashes in August at Trent Bridge just down the road, and I had a highly eventful trip to Paris for a conference in November. West Bridgford has received a new accolade just about every month this year, and we're thrilled that Nottingham and West Bridgford are becoming increasingly popular places to live and work.

Here's a look at our year in blogs
Back in February, when I had no idea what the rest of the year would have in-store, Rushcliffe Borough Council featured Nook & Cranny in their local magazine. Having worked in lettings since 2001, I spotted a gap in the market and expanded into short-term rentals in 2014. It turns out it was a really good decision.

In March we were talking about celebrating St. Patrick's Day on the blog. Nottingham and West Bridgford are brilliant places to go out any time of the year as we have so many wonderful eating and drinking haunts. Here's a run-down of 12 of the best places to enjoy lunch, including Sat Bains, which was named Best Restaurant in The Sunday Times Top 100 Restaurants in the UK.

That might sound impressive but we're getting very used to winning accolades around here! In October, West Bridgford was voted the 8th top performing suburb in the UK – that's no mean feat – and was voted England's Home of Sport on the online tourism site Visit England. One of our favourite local pubs, Larwood & Voce, won an award for serving up the Best Sunday Roast Dinner 2015, two of our local golf courses were placed 22nd and 44th in the top 100 courses in England AND then, in December, West Bridgford topped Demos survey as the UK satellite town most outperforming its neighbouring city. If we weren't so proud of West Bridgford we'd be pretty embarrassed right about now!

Word is spreading fast
West Bridgford has been known as a wonderful place to live and work by those of us who know the area for a long time but it seems that word is spreading. Locally, we have a number of large, influential companies and a thriving business scene and we're able to count several of the top companies in Nottinghamshire as clients.

During 2015 we've seen a big increase in demand for our short-term lets and had very high occupancy rates. Most people stay for an average of 12 weeks while they are relocating, settling into a new area and finding somewhere more permanent to live, although one of our business clients has been with us for over a year!

Thanks to the growth in demand we've taken on new properties and now have 21 luxury serviced apartments, including three disabled-friendly ones (which we'll be featuring on the blog next year). We might be biased in saying that our apartments are better than staying in a hotel room (and here are 7 reasons why we think they are) but it seems that a lot of people agree with us!

Revolutionising business travel
I went to Paris for a conference in November and although the timing of my trip was unfortunate to say the least, I came back with a new sense of purpose. As anyone who has stayed in one of our apartments knows, we offer a lot more than just a bed for the night. We are happy to help in any way we can to make sure that everyone who books with us enjoys their stay as much as possible. I've done lots of business travel myself so I know how de-humanising it can be. We want to be the antithesis of that.

I wrote about my mission to change business travel last month and it seems to have struck a chord with lots of business people (it's worth reading the comments on the blog). Next year I plan to carry on trying to make business travel as enriching and enjoyable as possible. We're going to be growing again and taking on new properties, as well as expanding our relocation services and offering clients solutions to any and all of their accommodation issues. We like to think big. There'll be more info on the blog next year, I hope you'll come along for the ride!

In the meantime, I hope you have a magical Christmas and a very Happy New Year!

The cross-party think tank Demos released a survey today naming West Bridgford as the "satellite town" which most outperformed its neighbouring city in the UK. The runners-up were Beverley (Hull) and Sutton Coldfield (Birmingham). 

Out of the 46 towns surveyed the majority (26) fared worse than their neighbouring cities, the towns which compared least favourably were Castleford (Leeds), Kirky (Liverpool) and Shoreham-by-Sea (Brighton & Hove). The data seems to show that towns seem to fare either very well, or very badly whilst their nearby cities sit in the middle.
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Towns in the Midlands did best when compared with their neighbouring cities, especially in the East Midlands, so we can pat ourselves on the back East Midlanders - another accolade to add to our cap full of feathers.
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​The socio-economic factors that they took into account were:

• crime
• education and skills
• ​employment
• health
• ​household characteristics
• housing
• ​political participation
• public health and wellbeing
• transport 

And here's how the it all came out in the wash, there are lots of details for you to pore over if you like statistics, but the main thing is that, yet again, West Bridgford is being noticed as a great place to live and work, or a great place to live whether you work in Nottingham, Leicester, Derby or Loughborough.

Other recent accolades include:

• Nottingham - UK Home of Sport
• Nottingham - voted UNESCO City of Literature 
• West Bridgford - Top performing Suburbs ( number 8 in UK)
• West Bridgford (or very near it ) - Sat Bains - Sunday Times Best Restaurant of Year 2015 
• West Bridgford - Larwood & Voce - Sunday Times Best British Roast Dinner 2015
• Nottingham Playhouse - The Guardian Top 5 Pantomimes 2015

These accolades mean that we are getting noticed on the UK map for cultural activities as well as business and this is attracting lots of inwards investment, it seems that we are part of a virtuous cycle and that is not not to take away from the powers that be who must be working very hard to make all this happen.

It is for this reason that here at Nook & Cranny in West Bridgford we have set up so many very popular luxury Serviced Apartments with one or two bedrooms complete with free dedicated parking, fast free WiFi, all mod cons, including Nespresso machines and washer/dryers, fully equipped kitchen and bathrooms, and many of them also have bath tubs, dishwashers or are on one level and suitable for people with disabilities.
 
We are very proud to give the type of local service which means that we can help people relocate here with ease and feel feel at home as soon as possible after they arrive. Do get in touch if you think that your business could be in need of our apartments - we have many corporate housing bookers who book apartments for any length of time between a week and a year.
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​Do you think that we missed any great accolades off? Do please comment below if I missed one.

Nottingham Post put together a list of the top 200 companies in Nottinghamshire for the first time ever this year and it makes really interesting reading. Between them, the top 200 businesses contribute over £29 billion to the local economy and employ more than 200,000 people (you can read the full list here). We're lucky to be associated with so many local companies and love providing executive property rentals for their staff, we can count quite a few of the 200 as loyal clients of ours.

Top companies: Boots, Capital One, Experian & Ikano Insight
It's no surprise that Boots tops the Post's list with a turnover of £7.7 billion, nearly 41000 staff and 2500 stores throughout the UK. But the company had very humble beginnings. In 1849, local man John Boot set up a small herbal shop and when he died in 1860, his wife and his 10-year-old son, Jesse, took over.