Holiday Cottage Lets.

[jendan]

Does anyone on the forum who lets holiday cottages know who the best letting agents are? Or who most people use? We have just had some guests from hell who have flooded the bathroom,left all the towels on the floor to try and mop it up.Moved the furniture around and then left a page of complaints.Does anyone else have these problems?

 

[Fish]

Problems like that come with the territory I'm afraid, we set a £200-250 returnable deposit as a rif raf filter.

 

[jendan]

Problems like that come with the territory I'm afraid, we set a £200-250 returnable deposit as a rif raf filter.

We can cope with the flooded bathroom etc,but its the list of complaints that has really upset my wife.Its a beautiful 2 bed cottage done to a high standard,and they seem determined to put the complaints on the letting agents website.

 

[icanshootwell]

Have you contacted the agents? check the small print. My advice is do your own web site and pay google to advertise, that way you end up on the 1st or 2nd page on the search engine, the trouble with holiday letting agents are, they want the cream weeks eg Eater holidays summer etc. Put yourself in control and you choose who books or not.

 

[Woolless]

We were very keen to sign up with Sykes Cottages when we got our holiday let ready in March. Unfortunately, they seem to have had a bit of a nightmare over lockdown. I don't think their systems have coped well with folk working from home and we have had to deal with potential guest queries ourselves, as they've been kept on hold by Sykes for ages and given up. To be fair, we are now booked solid to the end of September from a standing start.

No agent will present r-soles being r-soles however. You've still got to deal with the great British public!

 

[Woolless]

We can cope with the flooded bathroom etc,but its the list of complaints that has really upset my wife.Its a beautiful 2 bed cottage done to a high standard,and they seem determined to put the complaints on the letting agents website.

Do you not have a right to reply? I think that's the case on Tripadvisor? They'll just be horrible people.

 

[Hilly]

Does anyone on the forum who lets holiday cottages know who the best letting agents are? Or who most people use? We have just had some guests from hell who have flooded the bathroom,left all the towels on the floor to try and mop it up.Moved the furniture around and then left a page of complaints.Does anyone else have these problems?

I’ve one on air bnb , I’ve had a few issues with people all sorted and compensated by air bnb with in the week.The more expensive you are the better standard of human you attract, much cheap much numptys .

 

[Tonka]

Personally, my first go-to is Sykes for booking, and have never been let down. Used them for at least 15 consecutive years with 1st class service. Stayed nationwide in UK. Excellent communication during cv19 - have moved the "cancelled" week's holiday to same week in 2021, at same rate. And since lockdown lifted, booked again with Sykes for a week in September. No complaints - swift service, excellent communication, all trouble free.
However, I'm the tenant, and not the landlord - never had cause to complain about any properties we've stayed in.

 

[Muddyroads]

We’re with Airbnb and get on very well with them. Far more reasonable than most, and the mutual review writing is a big factor in guests being respectful from what I can see.

 

[Woolless]

Personally, my first go-to is Sykes for booking, and have never been let down. Used them for at least 15 consecutive years with 1st class service. Stayed nationwide in UK. Excellent communication during cv19 - have moved the "cancelled" week's holiday to same week in 2021, at same rate. And since lockdown lifted, booked again with Sykes for a week in September. No complaints - swift service, excellent communication, all trouble free.
However, I'm the tenant, and not the landlord - never had cause to complain about any properties we've stayed in.

I'm glad to hear it . Unfortunately, some of our guests have been kept on hold for two hours, emails go unreplied to and some honking reviews on Trustpilot. They'll need to pull their finger out for us to sign again for next year.

 

[BBC]

We use and are very happy with Character Cottages who were a small local company, but like many small local companies they have now been taken over by Sykes and it seems to be they way things are going as most of the local agencies around here are now part of larger national outfits because the investment now needed to develop and maintain websites and online booking is considerable.
All credit to Sykes, they have allowed them to keep their name, have enlarged the team and they also now have an actual ’shop’.
Potentially it does at least mean by being part of a larger outfit we have a larger shop window and certainly no complains about bookings and just about to launch another cottage so will be interesting how that picks up.

 

[matthew]

Security deposit is a must. Returnable within a week of vacating the property. No ifs, no buts. And you do need time to check and count, as you clean.
Personally I found the ‘elite’ a nightmare. They obviously had cleaner(s) at home. Broken glassware, damage to furniture and fittings and just generally mucky. Nothing touched for the whole time they were there.

I used what was a small Devon agency, wrote my own contract and shared bookings. Whoever booked it first, ticked the box. Whether that is possible now, as they‘ve grown a fait bit, I don’t know.

I gave up as an old ‘scrubber’ after. 26 years of letting. Property was 4* (Would have been 5* if I’d had a phone installed)

 

[Col555]

We’re about to open a small holiday let in our local town, so can’t comment on actually having to deal with those sorts just yet...some good advice on this page I look at now and again

Successful Holiday Rental Owners - Lay My Hat

RENTAL OWNERS FORUM STR ADVICE AND TIPS RENTAL OWNERS NEWS RENTAL OWNERS FORUM STR ADVICE AND TIPS RENTAL OWNERS NEWS RENTAL OWNERS FORUM STR ADVICE AND TIPS RENTAL OWNERS NEWS Advice for holiday let owners View all articles What I have learned from 20 years of being a holiday rental owner...

www.laymyhat.com

 

[Hilly]

Is Sykes Owens by Hoseasons ?

 

[Wooly]

We have our own website, plus are on AirBnB and tripadvisor.

Tripadvisor are expensive for the guest and the vendor, AirBnB are good as you can rate the guest as well as they can rate you.

In ten years we have had some fantastic guests, several that return more than once a year and have become friends, but once every few year we have a shocking guest......... but at least they are here for a maximum of a week !!


As for leaving the place clean, Londoners are the worst. Foreigners are the best. We actually had one Belgium woman cleaning the windows before she left as she said they were clean when she arrived !!

Don't ever worry about the negative ones. They go through life as miserable gits !!

 

[BBC]

We find the messiest are those doing a weekend rent for a wedding. They are too busy celebrating/hung over to bother to tidy up and make-up seems to get everywhere.
Probably the worst were some Irish girls who rented for Cheltenham Gold Cup. Fake tan everywhere and obviously struck lucky with some nighttime company judging by the state of the sheets, which we just chucked out, not to mention the two hand prints on the wall above the headboard in one room that had to be rapidly painted over before the next guests!

 

[Bob the beef]

We use holidaycottages.co.uk. They are in turn owned by a much bigger concern called travel chapter. They are on the whole ok at dealing with the bookings, but like most companies they do seem to be struggling at this moment probably due to them not being able to get a full compliment of staff in to the offices.
my big gripe with them is there almost total refusal to deal with the shyte. We are running 2good quality units with hot tubs charging 130-180 a night . The mess some people think it is acceptable to leave property in beggars belief sometimes, and the agency pretty much will not raise an argument with trashy tenants.
Still waiting for compo from a couple who had a full on domestic and wrecked one place . Blood on the walls and bed sheets, broken glass everywhere . This was several weeks before lockdown and holiday cottages done didly squat so far. Won’t be staying with them when we are properly established.
As said above dealing with the great British public is a hard pastime. Just as well it pays ok

 

[Hilly]

We have our own website, plus are on AirBnB and tripadvisor.

Tripadvisor are expensive for the guest and the vendor, AirBnB are good as you can rate the guest as well as they can rate you.

In ten years we have had some fantastic guests, several that return more than once a year and have become friends, but once every few year we have a shocking guest......... but at least they are here for a maximum of a week !!


As for leaving the place clean, Londoners are the worst. Foreigners are the best. We actually had one Belgium woman cleaning the windows before she left as she said they were clean when she arrived !!

Don't ever worry about the negative ones. They go through life as miserable gits !!

Funny you say that , recently we had Turkish students left the place fantastically clean and a Chinese lady with four dogs, you would
Never know they had been ! I won’t mention the manky ones but they ain’t foreigners that’s all i shall say.

 

[Hilly]

We use holidaycottages.co.uk. They are in turn owned by a much bigger concern called travel chapter. They are on the whole ok at dealing with the bookings, but like most companies they do seem to be struggling at this moment probably due to them not being able to get a full compliment of staff in to the offices.
my big gripe with them is there almost total refusal to deal with the shyte. We are running 2good quality units with hot tubs charging 130-180 a night . The mess some people think it is acceptable to leave property in beggars belief sometimes, and the agency pretty much will not raise an argument with trashy tenants.
Still waiting for compo from a couple who had a full on domestic and wrecked one place . Blood on the walls and bed sheets, broken glass everywhere . This was several weeks before lockdown and holiday cottages done didly squat so far. Won’t be staying with them when we are properly established.
As said above dealing with the great British public is a hard pastime. Just as well it pays ok

Hot tubs attract wrong type of human.

 

[nelly55]

Well we listed with sykes,nightmare it was so cheap made nothing.Cottages.com promised the earth delivered zero.Get yourself a website Look at promote my place ,great templates and easy to do.Fb ads,Airbnb,The latter I can’t cope with.Holiday lettings only pay when they get a booking.I take a security bond,OH meets guests .Sadly some don’t care but most do.Write your rules sorry T&C if any trouble you have it in writing dos and don’t .