Reading Time: 9 minutes Owning a holiday let can be very lucrative. However, managing a rental requires care and attention which can be difficult to execute, especially if you live miles away. If you want to successfully run a holiday home you’ll have to ensure that your property is on point. By this we mean your property is spotless, all appliances are fully functioning …
Reading Time: 4 minutes Whether you are just about to start letting your self-catering holiday cottage or already have a successful rental, there are always items that you can provide to wow your guests. After all, many travellers will have chosen your holiday home over a hotel because of the ‘home from home’ experience and the extras that you simply don’t get when staying …
Reading Time: 7 minutes While you aim to provide the perfect holiday home getaway, the chances are at some point something will go wrong. It’s inevitable. However, if you plan ahead and maintain your property you will be in prime position to combat any issues. A crisis doesn’t necessarily have to mean the buildings fallen down, in fact, it primarily relates to your guests. Avoiding a crisis in …
Reading Time: 7 minutes Updated: 12 May 2020 Coronavirus cancellations On Monday May 11 the Government announced that from Wednesday people in England have permission to travel to “outdoor open space irrespective of distance”, so long as they respect social distancing guidance while they are there. However, it is important that people respect the rules in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Holidays are still …
Reading Time: 5 minutes Can’t resist the idea of owning that holiday home you’ve always dreamed of? Have you convinced your other half that you’re not only buying a place in the sun, but you’re also investing in your future? For every 10 good reasons to invest in a holiday let, there are 10 more reasons shouting stop! Before you sign on the …
Reading Time: 8 minutes If you are considering investing in a holiday home you need to be sure you’re doing it for the right reasons. Are you buying for rental income, capital growth or is it a lifestyle investment? Thousands of owners around the world are successfully renting out their holiday homes and enjoying the returns. But if you are looking for a passive …
Reading Time: 4 minutes Whether your holiday home is bought for pleasure or business, it will add to your overall sense of wellbeing and can be a shrewd investment. According to research by the London School of Economics for HomeAway, the gross income of all holiday rental owners in the UK is as much as £950 million a year. Plus, more holidaymakers are now …
Reading Time: 9 minutes As holiday let owners we all like to think we are cautious and unlikely to get caught out by accidents or injuries in our rentals. Although rare, accidents do happen. When they do you need to ensure you have followed any legislation that applies to renting out your holiday home and that you are protected against subsequent legal action. There …
Reading Time: 9 minutes Emails are a vital way of communicating with your holiday let guests, both potential and confirmed. Not only can emails help you convert a tentative enquiry into a firm booking, they can build trust and confidence as well as keeping the booking process crystal clear for you and your guests. Here are our top tips for writing perfect holiday rental …
Reading Time: 5 minutes Even if you have an ideal holiday home in the perfect location, bookings aren’t necessarily a given. In the hugely competitive world of holiday lets your holiday home needs to look so good that holidaymakers feel compelled to click on the booking button. This means selling your holiday home from the moment it appears on the screen, to that final …
Reading Time: 4 minutes Out of eagerness to fill the availability calendar, holiday rental owners often take on any booking. After all, maximum occupancy is the aim, right? Wrong. Not all bookings are good for your holiday rental business, especially if: The booking negatively impacts your ability to delight other guests You and your employees are distracted from doing your jobs It drives your …
Reading Time: 3 minutes Here at Schofields we like to give people the best information about buying a holiday home in both the UK and abroad, and our team of researchers have been busy compiling the best destinations for a holiday home that will provide the best investments. Our research found that Catalonia in Spain proved to have the best return on investment, with …
Reading Time: 3 minutes Owning a holiday rental is emotional – it’s your home after all. Somewhere you may have painstakingly renovated from a ruin, spend many hours cleaning/preparing for guests and where you intend to retire. Unfortunately some guests don’t abide to a ‘treat it as you would your own’ approach when staying in holiday homes. If you spend time reading holiday home …
Reading Time: 6 minutes If you’ve set up a well-equipped holiday let in a good location with the right marketing behind it, your booking requests are probably flowing in. But should you accept guests at face value or do you screen them first? If you don’t, you are not alone. Two fifths of holiday home owners ‘don’t bother’ checking guest credentials despite over half …
Reading Time: 7 minutes If you rent out your holiday property for any length of time it’s somewhat inevitable that you will receive a guest complaint somewhere along the road. Regardless of the care you take over your property and quality of the service you give, you just cannot please all people all of the time. In today’s litigious society, it’s a sad fact …
Reading Time: 2 minutes Hoteliers often report on items travellers take from hotel rooms, with toiletries and tea/coffee being the top items. However, this behaviour isn’t exclusive to hotels. Holiday home guests may not always be behaving within the rules of the law when staying in a holiday rental. When questionned, guests admit to ‘borrowing’ items from a holiday home they’ve stayed at in …
Reading Time: 6 minutes Having an open fire in your holiday home can be one of its biggest selling points during the winter season, but how do you balance the romance with the risks? The Romance Photos of a big, roaring open fire are perhaps one of the most romantic images you will see on holiday cottage rental websites, and can be a massive …
Reading Time: 3 minutes Bookings are going well, the holiday letting season is in full swing and everything seems to be perfect. The next thing you know something happens at your holiday let, the guests are not happy and you are running around to make it right. Sound familiar? By all accounts it’s been a tough year for holiday lets. We have experienced a …
Reading Time: 7 minutes Quite unlike using a faceless hotel reservations system, booking a cottage directly with its owner can offer a huge amount of flexibility to get your holiday just right. Need an extra bed in your room for a child who won´t sleep alone in strange places? No problem. Want to bring the family pooch along? Sure you can. Prefer a late …
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you spend time on holiday rental owner communities you will often see posts like these from owners who are panicking; -Enquiries have completely dried up! -Help! bookings down -Where have all the bookings gone? Don’t panic! I know it’s difficult not to, but try not to panic. If this is your first year letting your holiday home it’s hard …
Reading Time: 5 minutes Going on holiday and experiencing travel from a holidaymakers perspective allows you to re-assess how you run your holiday let and get tips on how you can improve it. Having recently returned from a family holiday at Disney with Virgin Holidays, I picked up some tips on how they operate their travel business and how theses can be applied to …
Reading Time: 5 minutes Hardly a month goes by without news of a new holiday rental website being launched, or reports of increasing numbers of properties being listed with the big portals. It seems that more and more owners are realising the benefits of earning a second income from their holiday homes, or even creating a main source of business. Not only this, but …
Reading Time: 3 minutes As a holiday let landlord you are responsible for the upkeep of your holiday property and to ensure that holidaymakers staying in your rental don’t face any problems. The winter months present a series of significant risks to holiday rental properties, some of which can prove to be costly to resolve and inconvenience guests. Therefore, it’s vital to take steps …
Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’re like most holidaymakers today, you probably look for discounts and/or last minute deals when booking your holiday. Cost is an increasingly important factor for travellers looking for holidays online, backed up with statistics that the search term “cheap holidays” is one of the most used. It is certainly no surprise that many people think they can haggle on …
Reading Time: 3 minutes The upcoming Queen’s Diamond Jubilee holidays could result in a rise in certain insurance claims at your holiday let. Unsurprisingly, claims data reveals that there is an increase in fire claims and accidental damage during public holidays. Diamond Jubilee parties will be held throughout the UK, especially at holiday rentals where families are holidaying together, or where friends meet up. …
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you are lucky enough to own your own holiday let, there have been some important updates by HMRC on the furnished holiday lettings tax rules that you should be aware of. The purpose of this page is to provide a useful resource of all the latest news and rules relating to holiday let taxation. Furnished holiday lettings tax resources …
Reading Time: 2 minutes No doubt you have received an enquiry for your holiday cottage which also requested the exact address of the rental property. Should you give it out? Is it a potential burglar who has seen photos of your holiday property contents and your availability calendar – so they know exactly when your holiday property is empty. What if you don’t disclose …
Reading Time: 3 minutes The January peak holiday rental and cottage holiday booking season is under way and many owners are seeing an increase in ‘what is your very best price for’, ‘would you take £X amount for’ and ‘we only have a budget of £x’ enquiries – sound familiar? I’m sure many owners have their own ideas on how they would like to …
Reading Time: 3 minutes Apart from the fire risks – which could mean making a claim on your holiday let home insurance policy – allowing smoking in your holiday home could lose you repeat business. After all, who wants to stay in a property that smells like an old ashtray – especially when it’s advertised as non-smoking? You may find, however, that despite putting …
Reading Time: 3 minutes There is no doubt about it…damage is one of the most feared aspects that owners face when letting a holiday home. After all, you are letting a ‘virtual stranger’ stay in what is likely to be one of your most valuable (financially and emotional) assets. As one renter recently discovered when their home was trashed by a ‘guest’ there is …
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