Last 2 years I've enjoyed top placements with GG for the following urls:
http://www.ashecottage-holidaylets.co.uk/  
http://www.uk-holiday-cottages.org/ 
using a search for "holiday cottage" together with the following
luxury
large parties
wiltshire
bath
large gardens
5 star
non smoking
swimming pooletc etc
often I would ho9ld the top 4 or 5 places between the sites.

last checked all OK 16 Jan before going  vacation for a week. Sun 25
Jan, ALL above sites dumped by GG, not found in top 50,PRs have fallen
from 4 to 3 . no significant changes made, most URLs complretely
unchanged. HELP ??

Hi there,

I think the problem is that Google is now cracking down on practices
that previously helped sites gain high rankings. Probably their new
filter that targets link text has noticed these links that include
your keyphrases in the anchor text:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22fire+in+heart+of+Wiltshire+Countryside%22&num=30&filter=0

See my recent answer that explains it all:
http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=300810

They could also be cracking down on instances of webmasters creating
multiple, similar sites that link to each other - I found many similar
sites that appear to be yours.

Understand that it is in Google's interest that they provide their
customer's (the searchers) with a variety of valid results, and that
if you hold "the top 4 or 5 places" it's not really a good result for
searchers or your opposition.

Solution: stick with a single site, and get genuine links pointing to
it. It's very hard, but in the long-term it is the only strategy that
will work for engines like Google.

robertskelton-ga
Google Answers Researcher