Private Holiday Home Rental

[FreddieFly]

Good idea or bad?

Guys, I asked for the thread to be deleted for a reason, I'd rather it was replicated on a new thread. Thanks for your assistance.

Oops, missed out a not

sorry, joe

No problem, keep it general please.

Rose every time I read your posts I always get the feeling that you are short of bookings. Am I right? What sort of occupancy levels do you have? I don't mind if you don't want to say.

Boots "don't call me Boots I hate it, Fly " Mmm that's really mean. Poor Freddie :(

Chandalier - we have 42/52 in one property which we have been running for about 4 years (rural) and 36/48 in another propery which we bought last January and was available to rent from last Easter. (city centre) We are definitely not short of bookings and get a lot of repeats! Some of the additional weeks in the city centre we take ourselves so it is not really available 52 weeks (more like 48) but we don't stay in the rural one as it is just down the road from where we live. We market through a website and an agency for the rural one and through a website, an agency and a tourist board for the city centre one and do very nicely thank you.

I have never, in all my time on MN, seen such a fight about holiday homes!

Chandelier, yes, I admit I cried when I read it, the tears were streaming down my face??funny, or what? ROFL! All I could think of as a return insult was ?You?.you?.you?. KID ! But that was just too hurtful.
But to assuage my sadness and drag myself back from the depths of despair at this unwarranted and hurtful insult, I looked up the meaning and now I don?t mind being called Fly, it said (among other things!):
Fly - knowing and sharp; smart
Now, rather ironically, the meaning of
Tough: an aggressive and violent young criminal (Does that mean riff raff? Thank heaven for Google street maps)
Boots: a shoeblack who cleans the guests' shoes in a hotel

Like the other posters on this thread who pick and choose the bits that suit them best, I?ll stick with these meanings. I may even change my sig to ?YouCanCallMeFly?.

Imperial I think it's inevitable that when all of the posters in a discussion are on the same side, in this case all renters which they were at the outset, when somebody enters and gives a snapshot of the other side of the coin it's bound to cause a ruck because they just don't want to hear it.

Oh Freddie, I'm not complaining! I've just got really caught up in it!

Imperial it's definitely been interesting, to say the least, and I hope we're all learning things that we didn't know before. I certainly am

Chandelier - if you want advice on filling your place(s) up I will help you but one tip to start with is to actually like what you are doing and enjoy welcoming people rather than being suspicious of them.

I'm ok with letting Rose as we have 100% occupancy each year. I often have a wait list when a certain date is booked too in case they cancel.

I have lots of repeat business also which is good.

I'm not sure why you think I don't like what I do. I really love it.

All your posts come across as anxious and perhaps in need of bookings. It was me who was going to give you the advice :) but i understand you are fine then so that's good.

Also Rose i think you said that your husband services your holiday houses on departure days? Wow! that is impressive. I have an army of skinny, young cleaning girls to blitz our house clean as it is hard work servicing a whole house from top to bottom.

Impressive why? Because he cleans? He has help in both locations but not sure why their weight / size / age matters. Is the "army" a boast - as in my house is bigger than yours?

I always call my 3 girls my little army--it is just my sense of humour. Do you have a sense of humour Rose?

I'm just saying my partner would run a mile from servicing our house. It was just polite holiday let chat but i don't think i will bother as you sound very defensive today. You are normally all sugary sweet.

I cannot see that i'm boasting either :(

Holidaymaker the link doesn't work but I took a look anyway. Good plug! Or are you the ex Mrs Steve, out of interest, and just being a bit vengeful? They don't look too bad and nice to see they support Google maps

What I like about Rose's attitude is that she actually seems to care about providing a decent service to her customers - she takes people's opinions on board and appears to be committed to continual improvement. Something quite important in the service industry I should think. Chandalier, to be frank your attitude has been horrible since your first post - unbearably snobby and seemingly unable to realise that you are providing a service to paying guests.

My lovely father always used to say that if you've got it you don't need to flaunt it particularly not to a bunch of strangers on the internet. Perhaps you would endear others more if you dropped the Bucket attitude and looked to make improvements rather than thinking you are perfect.

I've been quite shocked by this thread. We have privately rented at least one holiday home every year for over 30 years. Some ask for deposits, some do not. I generally chose one that doesn't ask for a deposit if there are a couple in contention because the worry of some skint or unreasonable landlord keeping it or being awkward is a minor risk. We have never had the return of a deposit delayed though. I think the whole thing generally works very well on trust - we have never been to anywhere that was not immaculate and very clean and we always have a good clean through before we go. I always think people who don't take dogs are unreasonable as we pay extra and they make more money out of us. I'm surprised anyone would rely on Google earth for info - postcodes etc. quite often display the wrong house anyway. The one thing that really puts us off and we don't encounter it often is loads of notices etc. all over the place.

Fred. No not Ex Mrs Steve, thanks.

Just appalled at your attitude to paying guests. Your high handed attitude hardly matches your flats in Bournemouth.

By the way, Twats like you are why people like me use my parents' address when booking holidays.

I think Rose sounds lovely & I agree with Ricinderella's post.

Holidaymaker Why do you use your parents address to book a holiday? Is you own house a tip on Google street view?

Higgle this is one of the few balanced and fair posts that have been put on this (and the other) thread by a renter. I don't necessarily entirely agree with everything you've said but overall it's pretty true. If a prospective renter doesn't feel comfortable with the owner, then they should just jog on to the next property, and the owner has the right to move on to the next renter if they're not entirely comfortable.

Oh, and most important Holidaymaker, I know nothing about "Steve" and it's hardly fair that you should be slating somebody on here that has nothing to do with it.