Holiday lets tips and advise

Barn

Member
Hi I am doing some research and looking into converting a couple of our old redundant farm buildings (old style yard barns) into holiday let’s and was wondering if any of you have any tips or advise you might be willing to pass on for this type of diversification venture? Thanks in advance
 

7610 super q

Never Forgotten
Honorary Member
Must cost £ 100k at least to convert one these days.
Folks expect quality fixtures and fittings.
£12k per year income ? that's assuming you don't have an agent taking 25%.
To make big money you need to be booked up AYR.
Are you doing the cleaning/ laundry yourself ?. Add to costs, if not.
PAT testing etc.
Farmyard noise / smells/ pish poor views of sheds ? Some folks might like ' petting ' lambs etc though....
One bad review on t' internet can f**k the whole thing up.
Customers come first. You may be about to set off combining on the only dry day of the year, but if someone complains about ants in the garden, you'll have to drop everything and sort it out......
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
Some good advice above; agree with all of it. You don't have to book through agents (they'll want a huge commission in a lot of cases) and a good google ranking will go a long way to bringing in bookings all year round. If you're serious about it I'd Google (no-one uses Bing etc so forget them for now) "holiday cottages, Oxfordshire" now and see who comes out on top. The most likely at the moment is national agents however Google change their algorithms fairly frequently and there will be times owner websites come out on top. Find the first 3 cottages with their own website (even if on page 2 or 3) and see who made it for them, what they are offering to guests, how they are selling themselves etc. Do the same for "holiday cottages, your local town" and then again for Self Catering (instead of holiday cottages) too. You'll start to see what visitors see when they're searching for your area.

Before you open you'll need a website (see above) and a method of booking. If you offer a booking service on the website you'll also need a way of taking payments. This works well for a lot of people but if you are able to get people to ring you I think you will convert a lot more bookings. We find that when people do ring they'll often change their preferred dates to fit with availability and I'm not sure they'd be as likely to do this with a web calendar (especially if it is hosted on an agent site). The cheapest way to take payment is cash on arrival (has disadvantages from no shows and runners), followed by bank transfer then payment via cards etc.
 
Setup a website and get a credit card machine, once you are established you can take bookings over the phone. (Always take a credit card number [you will get used to asking for this eventually] at the time of booking in case you go in one day and find someone has stolen your radiators or something before departing).

Take bookings over the phone, the human touch (assuming you can speak English) will be very useful and will secure more business, people hate automated robots. Get a diary or a computer calendar system, and use it religiously.

Get good and fastidious about cleaning/housekeeping or pay an agency to do it (can also use teenagers at weekends, advertise in the local press).

You will need to keep at least the farmhouse porch/kitchen presentable to receive guests as they will be knocking on doors to collect keys etc. No angry dogs and it might pay to give the yard a good tidy up if it needs it.

Good locks on front doors and windows are essential. Use non-tamper screws and fixtures to affix pictures and the like to walls. Our pictures of the local hunt etc had a habit of disappearing.

Public liability insurance is a must, consult with your insurers about any alterations you may need, and I would definitely make sure all your electrics and the building(s) comply fully with the latest fire regulations at the outset, even if the operation is small; you may end up expanding later.

Never ever provide anything so much as a tea cup branded with the name of your your B and B or holiday let. Guests will steal them as souvenirs. Plain stuff from anywhere will suffice.

Provide address, grid reference (if applicable), your own and any relevant emergency information on the inside of front doors. Directions to local amenities and the like can be provided in a little handbook.

If the other-half is amiable and half friendly, I am sure guests (particularly those with kids) may enjoy a guided tour of the farm or a chance to see animals etc.

They are going to ask if you allow dogs. You need to decide your policy on this and have some house rules. It might pay to have a dog bed and say laminate flooring in one part of the place and they are going to ask where they might take the dog out.

Lastly, enjoy it! I promise you it will be more entertaining and even more rewarding than farming, a barn full of women on a hen do or something will keep you on your toes. Don't say I didn't warn you!

You can go pretty mad with amenities, wood burners, hot tubs, kids climbing frames/picnic areas, decide what kind of client you want to attract.

If it is self catering then be sure to buy half decent appliances and label them etc. Depending on the amount of business you do it might pay to get a commercial wheelie bin service on the go to handle the additional trash generated.
 

foxbox

Member
Location
West Northants
Setup a website and get a credit card machine, once you are established you can take bookings over the phone. (Always take a credit card number [you will get used to asking for this eventually] at the time of booking in case you go in one day and find someone has stolen your radiators or something before departing).

Take bookings over the phone, the human touch (assuming you can speak English) will be very useful and will secure more business, people hate automated robots. Get a diary or a computer calendar system, and use it religiously.

Get good and fastidious about cleaning/housekeeping or pay an agency to do it (can also use teenagers at weekends, advertise in the local press).

You will need to keep at least the farmhouse porch/kitchen presentable to receive guests as they will be knocking on doors to collect keys etc. No angry dogs and it might pay to give the yard a good tidy up if it needs it.

Good locks on front doors and windows are essential. Use non-tamper screws and fixtures to affix pictures and the like to walls. Our pictures of the local hunt etc had a habit of disappearing.

Public liability insurance is a must, consult with your insurers about any alterations you may need, and I would definitely make sure all your electrics and the building(s) comply fully with the latest fire regulations at the outset, even if the operation is small; you may end up expanding later.

Never ever provide anything so much as a tea cup branded with the name of your your B and B or holiday let. Guests will steal them as souvenirs. Plain stuff from anywhere will suffice.

Provide address, grid reference (if applicable), your own and any relevant emergency information on the inside of front doors. Directions to local amenities and the like can be provided in a little handbook.

If the other-half is amiable and half friendly, I am sure guests (particularly those with kids) may enjoy a guided tour of the farm or a chance to see animals etc.

They are going to ask if you allow dogs. You need to decide your policy on this and have some house rules. It might pay to have a dog bed and say laminate flooring in one part of the place and they are going to ask where they might take the dog out.

Lastly, enjoy it! I promise you it will be more entertaining and even more rewarding than farming, a barn full of women on a hen do or something will keep you on your toes. Don't say I didn't warn you!

You can go pretty mad with amenities, wood burners, hot tubs, kids climbing frames/picnic areas, decide what kind of client you want to attract.

If it is self catering then be sure to buy half decent appliances and label them etc. Depending on the amount of business you do it might pay to get a commercial wheelie bin service on the go to handle the additional trash generated.


The wheelie bin point is a good one; guests generally don't recycle much at all apart from incredible numbers of wine and beer bottles - when you start putting these out for collection everyone will immediately assume you've developed a drinking problem. Have a look at the Visit Britain grading system too. I'm not as convinced by the need for it with all the online reviews about now but it gives you a solid base for specification and expectation too. Grading in the first year may also be worthwhile to give potential new guests a level of expectation. Good photos are an absolute must too.

Ollie mentions tidying up around the farm; guests are only renting the property and as such have no right to visit the farm or expect anywhere else to be tidy beyond their own rental. That said; they will judge their surroundings (and rightly so) therefore think about what they can see when they arrive, where you may want a good garden wall to hide the scrap heap etc.

A point on planning too; make sure the barn has windows and doors where you want them before you apply for planning permission as you may not be able to alter openings from the state the building is in when you apply.
 

Rowland

Member
If you do it when you are on 2nd fix fittings constantly consider how easy it will be to clean make clean lines and no decorative features as dust and dirt stick to them . Keeping it clean is as must . Used good quality fixtures and fittings .
Air B and B is popular at the moment. Think about agents getting bookings along with your self they will get you more bookings to start with then once your established you can phase them out .
Nfu along with other companies do holiday lets insurance.
 

phillipe

Member
Pricing is very important ,one of my client's run a holiday cottage website with a couple of hundred welsh properties on it ,all ranges from neat and compact to luxury,he also iwns 2 himself,bookings down ywar on year as there is so much competition.every tom dick and harry has a holiday let.he wzs saying average lef time last year was 21 weeks .so think 18 to 25 week let time.
 

Rowland

Member
Pricing is very important ,one of my client's run a holiday cottage website with a couple of hundred welsh properties on it ,all ranges from neat and compact to luxury,he also iwns 2 himself,bookings down ywar on year as there is so much competition.every tom dick and harry has a holiday let.he wzs saying average lef time last year was 21 weeks .so think 18 to 25 week let time.
Last few years my bookings are up year on year I'd be disappointed with under 40 weeks ! Price has a factor in this but I'd say quality cleanliness along with fixtures and fittings TV's in bedrooms wifi sky or something similar good range of kitchen ware from glasses to pizza wheel plenty of pans etc once again good quality not from the pound shop .good beds mattresses and bedding not your old stuff . White is good as if it gets stained bit of bleach/mr muscle in the wash and hey presto. Toiletries in bathrooms .
 

Dairyfarmerswife

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Shropshire
Take bookings over the phone, the human touch (assuming you can speak English) will be very useful and will secure more business, people hate automated robots. Get a diary or a computer calendar system, and use it religiously.

Personally I'd rather an up-to-date availability calendar online rather than lots of wild goose chases ringing people only to find it's booked for when I want to go.

Our last three breaks have all been booked on Airbnb, and family and friends are letting accommodation on it - good experiences all round. Airbnb ranges from spare rooms to holiday cottages and b&bs and beyond, and is definitely worth considering for at least one of your advertising methods.
 

Rowland

Member
Personally I'd rather an up-to-date availability calendar online rather than lots of wild goose chases ringing people only to find it's booked for when I want to go.

Our last three breaks have all been booked on Airbnb, and family and friends are letting accommodation on it - good experiences all round. Airbnb ranges from spare rooms to holiday cottages and b&bs and beyond, and is definitely worth considering for at least one of your advertising methods.
I'm with you on that browse the tinternet find a few that are available for your dates with online calendars then call and ask for discount especially if there's only two of you staying in a larger house.
 

Still Farming

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
South Wales UK
You can get it classified as a business and in most cases claim small business rate relief ( no payment) but then you will need a comical bin .
The VOA use away around that and EACH cottage has to have in min. amount of occupancy otherwise you GOT to pay Domestic Council Tax at the appropriate Banding ???
 

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