Thanks to a largely sunny Easter long weekend, the first public holidays of 2023 certainly felt like Spring had well and truly sprung.

In between the traditional gathering of family and friends, many Brits up and down the country used the extra days off to research top tips on how to spruce up their homes and gardens, while others started exploring opportunities with holiday rentals.

Homeowners spring into sprucing-up action

• +38% weekly growth in Hobbies & Interest content PVs: Thrifty Brits were looking to get hands on with their home improvements as cost-cutting hacks and bargain buys drove interest in the Hobbies & Interests category. In particular, Arts & Crafts page views grew by +65% week on week, while DIY content views doubled.

• +118% growth in Gardening engagement: The sunny weather inspired many into the garden, with Gardening page views almost doubling, while Outdoor Decorating increased by +140%. Yet there was still plenty to be focused on indoors, as seen by a +31% growth in Interior Decorating page views.

• +149% increase in Vacation Property engagement: With Homes & Garden page views growing +34% and Property by +35%, reader interest also piqued in Vacation Property content. A +149% increase in topic views was driven by interest in renting out readers’ own properties, or finding a holiday home of their own.

Take Action

• A keen focus on home and garden upkeep is not unusual around the time of the UK’s bank holidays. We’ve certainly seen this at Easter and would expect this trend to continue into May when the Coronation means a triple helping of Mondays off, with two consecutive four-day weeks at the start of the month.

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