Holiday let owners

[origamiwarrior]

Setting up a thread for holiday let owners (UK and abroad) to share hints/tips, advice etc. Also if anyone is thinking of going into this business, you're welcome to ask questions of those who have done it.

I have a Grade 2 listed two-up, two down cottage in Sussex, owned outright and let out on an AST for a couple of years but launched this spring as a holiday cottage. Visit England 4-star, quirky/period/vintage style. Letting it though a local agency, and I do the changeovers myself. Had a great start, pretty much fully booked until October.

Advice needed - how to speed up changeovers!! I'm taking the full 5 hours, and it's only a tiny 2-bedroom place! I find the kitchen so time-consuming to clean/check. I think it's going to get harder in winter when I can't chuck things outside as I go. I seem to be constantly moving things around as it is. If you have cleaners, how long does it take them to changeover?

Look forward to hearing from other owners about your properties/experiences!

We have had a few CF F&F requests - its never the nice F&F - just the random entitled CF ones - we always say - will need to check availability and then say its "booked" as been stung.

Issue with F&F is if they ask for a key week (in ski season their are only 5) and you give a discount - you don't take a deposit - then they change their mind at the last minute - dont go - you get no money and then can't let the house at the last minute.....

Friends and family pay full price in the summer school holidays and other peak weeks.

I give my immediate family off peak weeks at cost and the rest get 25% off. Friends likewise. I have some I know don' have much disposable income so they they get the occasional week for pretty much the cost of the changeover.

Interesting re: F&F. We do let our old parents stay as they've been so kind and helped with set up costs...so least we can do. Even that's a bit awkward though as they said they'd do the changeover themselves to avoid cleaner costs - we said no (it does need a thorough dusting etc) and have ended up paying for changeover @ £100 a pop. They also spilt red wine up the kitchen wall and left the heating on full wack before a vacant week. Because family weeks exclude the agent ....we've ended up handling "how to" queries on the phone. I know I'm moaning but it's a hassle.

We include central heating. I know on a low season with changeover if we gave -25% we'd probably be out of pocket...especially on a short break of 4 nights.
We accept one dog. I have lost probably 3 bookings this year from folks wanting two dog breaks......thing is we don't want to become "House of Dog" for the non doggy people!

Elphame thats a good idea - full price for your key weeks for F&F as you need those to break even - have you asked for a deposit/commitment etc -- all v tricky with F&F - as uncomfortable asking for total 6 weeks before - but if you don't you risk loosing a lot as it is not re-let.

Anyone fancy adding to their portfolio? A one-bed holiday let in Cornwall up for sale at £850,000 but apparently taking £120,000 a year in bookings! Amazing view though.

www.onthemarket.com/details/4718836/

That's amazing. I actually want it .

Or the Hadlow Tower in Tonbridge, taller than Nelson's Column, and let out at £3,500 a week. I think I prefer the Cornish one though, if I'm honest.

www.struttandparker.com/properties/hadlow-castle

Wow, the Cornish one is fab! I wonder if they get their beds broken and microwaves burnt?

Serious question! Does super luxury mean people are more careful I wonder?

I think super luxury = super demanding !
The old You get what you pay for !

I'm getting really tempted to do a luxury one-bed up here, because as far as I know, there isn't one. Found a suitable place as well (and I think you could probably land a helicopter there if the farmer didn't mind!!), just don't have the cash until we finish the current project.

Hadlow Folly, was upgraded in the 90's with lottery money.
It caused an uproar with locals as it was owned by a pervy single man.
It was front page news on The News of the World as he ran swinging orgies in the folly most weekends.
All funded by his lottery fund,

We had a 4 bed in North Devon for a few years. Had some mixed experiences. Most were great but there were a couple of sets of guests that we wouldn't have wanted back.

We had three garages and we used to let the guests use the end one for bikes, surfboards, wetsuits etc. The double one we used to keep locked and keep loads of spare stuff in there which made the changeovers straightforward, albeit hard work.

Our very first guests were absolutely perfect, went over and above in the cleaning and replacing stuff such as kitchen towels and soap. The next set were awful. Place was left in such a mess with poo in the showers, unbagged and undone shitty nappies just lobbed into the wheely bin, furniture moved around and not put back, towels with makeup and blood stains, high chair left filthy and other general mess.

After those two extremes as our first two lets things settled down a bit more and were generally between the two.

One set of visitors arrived at 11am when we were doing the changeover. They had been clearly told 4 which they acknowledged. They wanted to bring all their stuff inside. We said they could leave their cars on the drive, put their fridge stuff in and come back later. We said we would let them know if we finished early.

So they go off to do something and we carry on cleaning. About an hour later and they wander back up through the house into the kitchen where we are cleaning (upside down house). They had just opened the front door and walked in. We were still mid clean and we had wet floors which had just been mopped. My sister went into the sitting room to do in their and found two teens snogging and groping on the sofa. We managed to get the adults out but the teenagers wouldn't move.

We had a system of working up through the house and out of the kitchen door and I refused to compromise the cleaning routine so they got pissed off while we steamed the floors.

In the end, a couple of guests in our final year made us a great offer and bought it!

There not their, sorry!

All this wonderful advice from a bunch of people who clearly don't give a toss about the impact of holiday lets on local house prices in economically deprived coastal areas.
Mumsnet really does make me laugh the way it tries to make itself out to be such a liberal, caring and socially inclusive community, yet when it comes to property the greed and selfishness is as rife as you'd find anywhere.

Bizarrely having holiday accommodation can support local economy. Or perhaps the pp does not care that her neighbours working as cleaners, in restaurants and so on. Certainly the local authority where my flat is is very supportive of both tourism, and their University. (My flat is let to students over the winter.)

But as pp suggests MN only cares about home owners and those who can afford holidays abroad. Not the families from the midlands with a baby and a toddler who save all year to afford a week away on the South Coast.

Condescending......

It as pp suggests, MN

Does pp have a similar attitude to hotels. Or only resent those who can only afford self catering.

I hope she has a lovely summer holiday on the Costas or wherever she goes to escape the plebs she so clearly resents.

Actually we are net supporters of the local economy.

I employ a housekeeper who in turn employs a team of cleaners.
I employ a gardener
I employ a range of tradesman

My guests eat out most nights in local pubs and restaurants. They visit the local tourist attractions every week.

None of these people would have jobs and the pubs/restaurants would have a considerable reduction in trade it wasn't for the local tourist industry of which holiday lets are a vital part. We provide affordable accommodation for people who can't afford hotel prices.

£60,000 spent on local tradesmen renovating the house and one (soon to be two) houses that had been long-term empty and in need of serious remedial works brought back into use here. The one we've just bought had been on the market since 2016 and had only been lived in for 2 years since it was previously bought in 1975. My guests visit all the local pubs and hotels and use the two small shops in neighbouring villages. People here are generally pretty supportive of what I'm doing.

All the work I have had done has been done by local tradesmen who live in the village. I spent £30k renovating a house that had been on the market for nearly 4 years. All of that has gone back into the village.

I employ 2 cleaners, young women who live in the village. They manage the house for me and I pay them well. This enables them to stay in the village.

My guests eat out most nights in locsal pubs and restaurants. The local fishing fleet supplies fish to these restaurants. All the fishermen live in the village.

Sadly, without tourism these villages would die. As it is, my village has a thriving community.

Do you really think that without tourism these remote coastal villages would become centres of Industy? Would KPMG move their head office to Padstow? Or maybe the Bank if England would relocate to Looe? What jobs would suddenly appear?

There is no work apart from tourism. This applies in remote coastal places all over the world, not just the UK.

Perhaps jemihap is confusing second home owners with holiday let owners?

Hi - I have a question - does anyone let in a City setting rather than tourist/rural/coastal? We are thinking of doing the opposite of buying a holiday home out of town- and want to relocate our main home to rural setting. For various reasons it may be possible for us to retain a quite high-end new build in a trendy part of our city. I am thinking it could be worth letting this out as ‘holiday let’ in the same manner we might if we’d bought a holiday let out of town?

I’m also thinking we may be able to use it too sometimes as it will likely be short breaks - I’m thinking business or leisure city breaks.

Do you think that’s viable? I’m thinking it may be better than assured shorthold tenants.

Do you have mortgages on these homes and are they buy-to-let mortgages? If it’s a holiday home am I right I’m thinking renovations are tax deductible - whereas if it’s a shorthold tenancy the tax breaks are much reduced nowadays?

Thanks for thoughts

The mortgage you need is a specialist holiday property one. Look at Leeds, Principality and Cumberland for this type if mortgage.

I don't see why it shouldn't work in a city. You should approach an agency who do this type of property to see how viable it is. You need this informatiin anyway for your mortgage, as you need to prove how much you would get un rental.

If it is a flat you need to check your lease. Most state leases need to be a minimum of six months. Also trawl through the Local Authority website. Some, like Westminster, have come down hard on Air BnB and I think, demand planning permission if you want to holiday let for more than three months a year.

The market is often good particularly if you have parking. Computer programmers on three months contracts, families relocating, people attending short three month courses perhaps business people taking a language course, etc.

Oh thanks for advice - it’s a house and I’m just looking on the local authority site