After tips from Airbnb hosts…..

[Alsoflamingo]

We have a cottage we'd like to rent out for some much needed extra income, but wondering if you have to be there to hand over/collect keys - show guests around etc. Just because our cottage is quite a long way away from where we live. Does anyone have another arrangement that works well?

I have a friend with an apartment in Dubai. He pays an agency to be there when guest arrive to hand over the keys etc and arrange bedding changes and cleaning after guests have departed. He just factors their charges into his nightly rate on Airbnb.

Thanks for that. May think about doing similar.

Some places have key safes and you send people the code. Might work best if there was an additional lock they could use once there to keep their own valuables secure.

That is an excellent idea, JiminyC Will look into getting one of them. Thank you.

Who will be doing the bed changing, cleaning etc?

If you are employing someone to do that could you also pay them to be a keyholder?

We use a key safe with pin code, but have local back-up in case of emergencies, and they also do the laundry/bed changing/cleaning. I wouldn't expect to be shown round a rental property - DIY holiday bookers tend to be fairly independent sorts, but it is essential to have someone who can cover emergencies for you. We have had our place for 10 years, and we've had 2 leaks during that time, one time a badly plumbed in washing machine, the other time it was not a leak in our apartment but the water affected our flat. It was essential to have someone who could be there the same day and arrange for a plumber, in order to avoid spoiling the clients' holiday. These things do happen, and it's not whether it happens that has the potential to get you bad feedback but the way you deal with it.

Having just been on holiday and booking direct with another holiday home owner who didn't turn up with the keys, I can tell you that it is either very expensive to pay for a hotel for the poor locked out clients, and even worse when there are no local hotels open at that time of night and the clients have to sleep in the car (in the Alps, in sub-zero temperatures!) He was absolutely useless, and the fact he was trying to solve a problem from hundreds of miles away didn't help. I was with adults, but if I had been with my family there would not have been enough compensation in the world to stop me posting bad feedback. As it was, a reasonable sum bought TripAdvisor silence!

We book self-catering holiday lets a lot, either via airbnb or via holiday-rentals, ownersdirect etc.

I don't mind if there is no one to let us in, but whatever the way of getting into the house is it must be absolutely reliable as back points out (no amount of money would have bought my silence in that circumstance!). Key safes can be easily picked (google it), so make sure it's somewhere discreet.

I think the biggest issue with having an agency or similar to look after it is maintenance - it's really easy to tell if the owner never visits, there are little things that aren't quite right (broken, missing, not cleaned properly etc); we're not super fussy but you can tell if a house is cared for.

This is all really helpful. We use it a lot ourselves so it is well cared for. And also I could get there in just over an hour so could deal with emergencies if they cropped up. Also will do the sheet changing etc rather than contract out so suspect I'll end up doing key handover mostly. Just good to know there is an alternative method if necessary.