Here’s how it all began……
Heather has always loved to start businesses, and after a trip to Ontario from the UK for a family wedding in 1998 where she stayed at a cottage on Gibson Lake in South Muskoka, she fell in love with the idea of buying and renting out a place of her own.
That sparked the idea of starting up a holiday company in England that promoted vacations in Ontario to a British market, and Clearwater Holidays was born.
Apart from her own place, Heather wanted to source unique properties that would attract families who wanted to explore cottage country, and that search led her to CottageLINK and its founder, Craig White.
With Craig’s help, Heather was able to find a collection of cottages and owners to represent on the Clearwater Holidays website, and the remote rental management business prospered.
Meanwhile, CottageLINK was growing too and this first Ontario listing site was rapidly expanding. Craig was hearing more and more from owners who wanted to rent but didn’t want the hassle of dealing with emails or managing problems, so he passed them onto existing rental agencies.
In 2003, Heather and her husband Phil decided Ontario should be their forever home and made their move across the pond with the intention of continuing their company under the name of Clearwater Cottages. They moved into their cottage on Tamarack Lake, south of Haliburton and began to put down roots in their adopted country.
A get together at the Haliburton Cottage Show was the catalyst for the creation of CottageLINK Rental Management. Heather and Craig scheduled an hour-long meeting to explore ideas, and some three and a half hours later they parted company exhausted but exhilarated with the plans they’d discussed.
