Is a holiday let a sound investment, or will it only really pay dividends for six weeks of the year? Dale Smith, chief executive of holiday lettings management company Host & Stay, shares his tips on making your rental property work all year round.
A holiday let is for life, not just for the school holidays.
One of owners’ most common queries, especially if they’ve bought the property with the specific aim of drawing an income from it, is if it’s worth it and if it will stand empty for weeks at a time – no good for your wallet or the property itself.
The answer is yes, it is and no, it won’t. Because while the holidays are the obvious time for people to get away, there is plenty you can do to make sure your holiday let is occupied all year round.
Diversify
Firstly, the word holiday let could almost be said to be a misnomer; with the way we work nowadays, there are plenty of people who need access to a short-term let.
With many people working from home, business trips can often be longer and, for companies, it’s far more cost-effective to put up a group of colleagues in a self-catering ‘holiday’ let than splash the cash on hotel rooms and meals out.
To capitalise on this, make sure your property has decent Wifi and, if at all possible, a place to work. Nobody’s expecting a full office, but a desk in a bedroom or a decent-sized dining table will make it much easier. Styling
Now staycations are back competing with foreign travel, one of the best ways to make your home stand out – and increase bookings – is to give it the wow factor.
If you can, consider investing in some luxury touches that guests may not have at home: a roll-top bath, underfloor heating or a fancy coffee machine all add appeal, and help to attract a wider range of clientele. Having a luxurious or unique look is a sure-fire way to encourage more bookings, so pay close attention to styling, as well as your fixtures and fitting. Of course, you’ll also need to make sure the photography shows all of this in the best light too – poor-quality images can really put potential guests off.
Time limits
To make sure you’re not limited to times when people can have a full week off work or school, consider offering breaks of varying lengths.
Many people can’t commit to a full week away or to arrive on a Friday, so flexibility over arrival days and length of stay can dramatically increase your appeal.
At Host & Stay, we’ve been breaking the mould regarding the above, offering a degree of flexibility that is rare in the industry – and it’s going down well with travellers.
Late bookings are on the rise, partly as a hangover from the uncertainty of Covid and party due to cost of living increases. If you’re able to offer last-minute, short-stay availability, there’s a market out there just waiting to be tapped into.
Guest experience
For the past few years, with pandemics and lockdowns and travel restrictions, a staycation was the obvious choice for many. However, the world has opened up again and holiday home owners need to compete with foreign travel.
To do this, make sure that your home feels like a holiday. This means making sure that everything is easy for your guests, from finding the property and parking to stocking up on essentials and making sure there’s room for everyone; you’d be amazed by the amount of holiday homes with four bedrooms but just one sofa and one chair in the living room.
Another way to guarantee frequent bookings is to make it easy for your guests – as well as making your property easy to find.
Don’t just list on one website, or worse, your own site. Instead, make sure your listing is seen by as many people as possible by featuring on multiple platforms.
At Host and Stay, we know how all of the above can be time consuming – which is why we offer holiday home owners a full end-to-end experience, from taking photos and styling the property to manging bookings and cleaning rotas.
After a stressful few years, more and more people are looking to get away whenever they can, and with working from anywhere still an ongoing trend, they’re more able to than ever.
With the right marketing, the right look and the right amount of flexibility, there’s no reason that a holiday let can’t be occupied all year round.
