The couple living at the property didn’t even know about its movie significance when they moved in
The real life home that inspired the picturesque cottage from classic festive romcom The Holiday is now available to rent on AirBnb.
In fact, the couple who currently live in the property didn’t ever realise it was in the movie until strangers turned up taking photos.
Jon Bromley, 58, and his wife, Cressida, 52, live in the house which inspired Cameron Diaz’s rural retreat in the 2006 Christmas film, which also stars Kate Winslet, Jude Law and Jack Black.
The couple moved into the £625,000 home in 2019, but had no idea of the Christmas film significance it had until they saw news of the sale in a property magazine.
Now they regularly have movie fans turning up to their home in Holmbury St Mary, Surrey, to take photos and pose outside.
A few weeks ago the couple put the home on AirBnb for an average of £295 a night and they have had immediate bookings.
The couple still live there but have bookings already scheduled for Christmas, New Year and the summer.
The Holiday sees two women swap homes during the festive period – with Iris staying in Amanda’s fancy Los Angeles pad while Amanda retreats to Iris’ country escape.
Both are looking for a change of pace to their lives after suffering bad breakups, but end up finding themselves falling in love in each other’s worlds – with Amanda falling for Iris’ brother Graham and Iris finding love with Amanda’s colleague, Miles.
The film’s production designer, Jon Hutman, has previously said he was looking for the “cutest, smallest, most English cottage that we could find” when he stumbled on the real life home.
Movie researchers then visited the property but when they discovered it was too far from the cast and crew in London, they recreated it brick by brick in a studio.
Rosehill Cottage in the movie is an identical match for the Bromley’s home – down to the picket fence, wooden gate, country garden, and rural track which Diaz famously slips down.
Jon, a sports photographer, said: “I had bookings straight away.
“Our first guests were a few weeks ago for two nights. They were scientists from Cambridge and really enjoyed it.
“It’s one of those getaways where you go and hide yourself somewhere in a little village.
“There’s nothing here but a pub next door – no shops.
“I still live in the cottage but I have four lettings so far – Christmas, New Year and two in summer for weddings locally.
“I’m just really proud of it. It’s a very lovely house and we’re very lucky.”
The three-bed cottage boasts an AGA stove and underfloor heating, surrounded by a landscaped garden and flagstone laid terrace, with views over the Surrey hills.
The couple have decorated the house for Christmas, adding fairy lights, an outside Christmas tree, and one inside with decorations around the famous fireplace.
Jon and Cressida, a painter, have never done a home swap – like the movie – but have had people look after the house while they were away.
Jon said: “I came to see it on my own to begin with and just literally fell in love with it straight away.
“Just everything was beautiful – low ceilings, it’s beamed, it’s got a massive inglenook fireplace with a log burner in.
“Then we saw it in a Country Life article saying something like ‘the inspiration for ‘The Holiday’ cottage is back on the market’.
“I thought ‘bloody hell!'”
