THE holiday lettings agency Sally's Cottages has clocked up a record £180,000-worth of online bookings through Facebook.

Sally Fielding, owner and founder of the Keswick firm, said the availability of superfast broadband had been a key factor in its growth.

She said: “If we didn’t have the superfast connection we wouldn’t really have much of a business – it is absolutely critical."

Sally's Cottages has used superfast broadband since it became available in Keswick in June 2014, through the Connecting Cumbria scheme.

Mrs Fielding added: "With standard broadband everything we do – uploading photos, videos and interacting online – would take three to four times as long.

“In the future we’re looking to move into video and having Google map style views inside the properties to make the site more interactive. It’s the natural next step with the extra bandwidth we have now.”

Mrs Fielding the business in 2003 with just one holiday cottage in Eskdale. Today it has 13 staff and gross takings of £4.9m in the year to March.