Reading Time: 5 minutes The holiday letting business is full of unexpected events and sometimes there’s no knowing what’s going to happen next. This inevitably means you’ll have to deal with booking cancellations and refund requests at some point due to bereavement, illness, the weather, airlines collapsing or pandemics. Cancelled bookings are frustrating for hosts. There’s the lost income, acquisition expenses, the opportunity of …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 6 minutes Unfortunately, the best-laid travel plans of holidaymakers who book self-catering cottages can be ruined when owners cancel at short notice – leaving them with few rights of redress. The holiday cottage has been sold, double booked or due to reasons outside their control; there are many reasons an owner or agent might cancel a holiday booking. Here are some tips …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 9 minutes Creating a list of house rules and booking terms and conditions is not the most rewarding part of running a holiday cottage, but they are essential. They’re a professional way of stating what guests can or cannot do, what is expected of them, and what the possible consequences are if the rules are disregarded. Clarity in your rules also let …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 7 minutes Owning a holiday home isn’t just about securing bookings, there are many essential tasks that coincide with running a holiday rental. One of which is ensuring guests safety. As a responsible holiday home owner, you have a duty of care to keep your guests safe and to carry out a risk assessment. What is a risk assessment? A risk assessment …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 15 minutes Updated 05/01/21 Note: This is not official advice from Schofields, but is intended to provide guidance which may help. Official advice is being updated constantly and can be different for England, Scotland and Wales, so check the recent government guidance.  These are difficult and unprecedented times that we all find ourselves in. The coronavirus is significantly impacting the travel and …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 8 minutes The self-catering accommodation industry has often been the brunt of bad press – primarily due to complaints about the holiday rental not being as advertised or being “dirty”. Holiday cottage booking agents are also guilty of shunning accountability when things go wrong, by stating the booking contract is directly between the accommodation owner and the guest. The law for holiday …

Continue reading

Reading Time: 9 minutes The way people search for information online has changed over the past decade. As Google continues to dominate in the search engine stakes, it’s brought with it several new features for users wanting to get their business in front of their target audience; the main one being Google My Business. So how do you get listed? Follow our steps below …

Continue reading