Like many Phil Jackson was hit hard by the first lockdown.

The self-employed photographer saw his primary income through Harbour View Photography fall to nearly zero for a couple of months.

But working for a number of serviced accommodation and holiday let companies had given the married father of two an idea.

An app branded for holiday let management and service accommodation companies.

The result – My Holiday Guide – is now being marketed by Phil who started as a full-time interior photographer just over three years ago

The 50-year-old previously worked for a number of large corporations.

He’s never looked back since starting his own business.

Phil, pictured right, said: “I am especially enjoying the ability to develop ideas and services from conception to becoming established.”

Benefits of the My Holiday Guide app include:

• Improving guest experience by providing a curated list of places to visit, things to do and events; wrapped within a mobile-friendly app.
• Reducing questions posed to owners by allowing house instructions to be contained within the app and available to guests both prior to, and during, their stay.
• Allowing guests to virtually explore an area ahead of their stay and save places to visit to their favourites.
• Helping to build anticipation and increasing the potential of return bookings.
• Removing the need for well-thumbed (and Covid un-friendly) instruction manuals by allowing them to be embedded or linked from within the app.

My Holiday Guide is white labelled so that clients can brand and market the app as their own while benefiting from the common ‘back end’ and features provided.

Phil, who lives in Poole, said: “My photography work exploded after June last year but I continued to finesse and market the app.

“Since then, I have been using the time wisely and the app has been re-written from the ground up to further improve the user experience.

“The user interface has also had a major facelift.

“I am excited for the value the My Holiday Guide app can bring to clients and their guests.”

More details can be found on Phil’s website at myholidayguide.app  or email info@myholidayguide.app.

Phil can also be contacted on 07909 157352.

He’s also on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.