Has anyone rented their house out for holiday lets ?

[chocolateteapot]

We are moving shortly and in the lucky position of not having to sell to move. Our house here is on the market which has just recently gone really quiet, not helped by the interest rate rise yesterday. We are thinking of letting it on a normal rental but it has occured to me that it might be good for holiday lets as we are in Dorset and there are lots of tourist attractions locally, plus the house is set up for children (climbing frame, trampoline, swing, playhouse etc) so was wondering if anyone has done this, and if so how did it go ?

I would not be doing it to make a profit, just to cover my costs and still be able to come down here for some weekends when empty, is this likely to be realistic or another one of my silly ideas. Any advice gratefully received as my poor long suffering DH is looking a bit stressed about my latest idea !

[moondog]

We thought of doing this (house in North Wales) but once we looked into it,profit margin was too slim to warrant all the hassles.

[chocolateteapot]

Thank you moondog. I thought that might be the case and my neighbour visibly paled when I told him what we were thinking of, so I think that idea is scrapped before it started.

[MrsSpoon]

We do this with a property we have in Spain (however it is in a predominately tourist area so doesn't upset the neighbours). We have only had it a few months but so far it is going well, however as moondog says it is a hassle, I look upon it as a p/t job, if you want to cover your costs you will need to be on top of the advertising and be available to answer enquiries. The amount you can charge is higher than a residential let but you need to find a lot of renters, also you would need someone looking after the property for you in your absence, someone you trust to clean and maintain it and that usually comes with a high price tag.