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Investment: Holiday home letting, to do or not to do... - Ross Elder, HolidayLettings.co.uk

Holiday home letting, to do or not to do...

The latest figures from the ONS estimate that British households own circa 1.7m second homes in the UK and nearly 800,000 second homes overseas. Add to that the figure that around one third of Holiday Lettings advertisers are not based in the UK and the holiday market potential is significant.

Alas not all second home owners are doing holiday lettings, which obviously from my perspective of running Holiday Lettings begs the question ‘why not’. Buy to lets are one obvious reason where people have homes in locations better suited to long let tenants than the short let tourism market. However, if you own a second home in a tourism hotspot are you missing a trick keeping it to yourself?

Holiday hotspots that spring to mind include Rock in Cornwall, Croyde in Devon, the Cotswolds, anywhere in Sardinia, New York, Paris, Ibiza, Malta and the south of France, to name just a few. In the main these are long standing, established tourism destinations. What continues to drive the success of home owners doing holiday lettings in these locations is supply and demand.

So are their obstacles in the minds of holiday home owners that prevent them for letting their home out to paying guests? Here are some of the questions we come across from dubious home owners:

Where will I put my things?
You only really need to hide your most personal or fragile of belongings and a lockable chest, cupboard or box in a wardrobe normally does the trick.

Will guests look after the property?
Part of the ‘book direct with owner’ process is about both owner and guest communicating prior to the stay so that the owner can impart all their local knowledge and the guest can ask as many questions as they may need. What this achieves is a sense of appreciation for the home owner and their property, so people are generally more respectful of the property and its contents.

What about changeovers/cleaning?
Chat to other holiday home owners in the area and see how they handle this and whether they would recommend a local reliable individual or company to this for you. If you live nearby, you may want to save money and manage this yourself.

How do I get keys to guests?
There are several options here: 1, use a meet and greet service, friend or neighbour to welcome your guests upon arrival; 2, have multiple sets of keys which you mail out to guests before their departure and retain their security deposit until the keys are mailed back to you after their stay; 3, install a ‘key safe’ with a reprogrammable combination lock, which enables you to give a new code to every new set of guests and they can collect and deposit keys there upon arrival and departure.

How much should I charge?
This is all about researching your competition in the area. Use sites like Holiday Lettings to find out what similar size homes with similar facilities are charging per week across the seasons and work from there. Monitor this continually so you keep apace of the matter and can adjust pricing according to market pressures, cancellations, special offers, etc.

How many weeks can I expect to let?
A home in a family friendly location will attract a high number of bookings for school holiday periods. Homes in warmer climates with longer seasons should be able to fill weeks from May through to early October. Alpine homes with really quick access to the ski lifts will be popular from December through to April depending on snow levels and again in the summer months when these areas appeal to activity holiday seekers.

These just cover some of the basics, but be practical about how you approach the letting process and the rewards will come. More advice on getting started is available in our free booklet on letting your holiday home.

Ross Elder

A buy-to-let investor and holiday home owner, Ross is passionate about doing holiday home letting effectively and efficiently with oodles of customer care. He is a keynote speaker on successfully marketing and managing holiday home lettings and instils much of his drive into the team at Holiday Lettings. Founded by Ross and his business partner Andy Firth in 1999, the company is now the busiest holiday home website in the UK

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