Holiday let business Vs teaching. What would you do?

[Handy123]

I taught secondary for 7 years until the birth of my third child in October last year.

When I went on maternity for my last position, I was in a temporary contract (switched jobs for something closer to me) so there is no job for me to go back to.

We are in the position to invest money in a business and we live in a touristy area by the coast. (Inherited a small lump sum of cash that I would be using as deposit for mortgages) I've been considering buying 3-4 holiday lets and running them as a full time business. I've taken a lot of financial advice and would be going into it knowing that it will be hard work and of course with an element of risk. I want to manage and clean them all myself as the figures don't work out so well if it is managed by another company.

Is this the right thing to do?

Things I've been considering:

• Holiday let business does give me the flexibility to be there for my children a bit more, instead of constantly missing their nativity, or assemblies etc.

• The overtime in teaching has got crazy recently, and I frequently used to work until midnight in the evenings, and one day every other weekend. I have an autoimmune disorder which is not great when I get stressed.

However:

• Is it silly to come out of a good career (I can only describe the last few years as 'patchy' on my CV as I have taken time out to have my three children and switched areas/ jobs etc) and I think if I did this now, I would not really be able to get back to teaching much later if holiday lets didn't work out.

• I feel as though I get a lot 'emotionally' from work, with colleagues often becoming friends etc. I feel very lonely from time to time and if I run a holiday let business, I will be working on my own all the time, probably rarely even meeting the guests etc.

• Whilst it is possible that for a few years and when the children are small, this could work out well for me, I might regret doing it when they are older - it will eat into the summer holidays which I could otherwise get off in teaching. Also, once they are in full time school and not so little, things could be easier to manage if I teach.

I'm not considering doing both on a P/T basis - it just wouldn't work.

Thoughts?

You do get some weirdos and stupidos staying.

My pal had to send a tv engineer out to some fuckwit who didn’t know how to work the tv. Even though they’d been told by my pal, the accommodation owner.

Cost her £40.

The next day she got the same call again from the fuckwit saying ‘it’s happened again can you get the engineer back’.

Er, no mate, nothings happened again, if you just put the tv on channel 1 not channel 2 like you were told to do in the first place and again by the engineer yesterday it will work fine, idiot. (She obv didn’t say it exactly like that as she had to be ever so nice to ensure she got good feedback).

One smashed the cistern lid and left saying nothing. My pal the owner siliconed it while awaiting a plumber inbetween rentals as she was booked for weeks in advance.

Meanwhile another renter picked the silicone off the next weekend. (Seriously wtf).

Then there was the guy who pooed the bed. She didn’t say anything as he may be ill. He stayed a night again a few weeks later.
And pooed on the carpet.
My pal phoned the accommodation website she uses and apparently he likes to mark his territory. He’s not ill just weird. So he’s barred. Now.

Then the negative feedback for a front door that “wouldn’t lock”. It’s a five point lock. You put the handle up and lock it. The person perhaps didn’t know but instead of asking or raising concerns at the weekend she stayed, she left bad feedback. I tested it myself for my pal and it locked fine. We videod me testing it as evidence for the accommodation website to remove the negative feedback.

So yeah. Expect the unexpected with holiday rentals.