new starters - pitfalls of using a holiday letting agency

[belllinda]

at present i'm getting quotes from sykes and others regarding letting my cottage, i feel i dont have the knowledge or expertise to do this myself - what are the pitfalls of doing this? i know taking 20% commision will be only one of them

[Val]

Make sure they will allow you to make your own bookings without penalty. Sykes will allow you to do this, whereas Hoseasons (trading as English Country Cottages; Cottages 4 You, and other trading names) will not.

Make sure there is a clause in the contract that allows you to withdraw without penalty at some point. I know that with Sykes there is a 'window' each year when you can opt to cancel, without penalty. (I don't have any particular affiliation for Sykes , other than I use them as my agents and therefore have some experience of them).

[e-richard]

Another thing to think about/discuss is "owner time" if you wish to use the cottage for yourselves and family. There is no right or wrong, its a matter of will the conditions suit your wishes or plans?

[belllinda]

thanks for that, that's one of the things in my list of 'questions to ask agent', as they say they would hope to let it 30 weeks, we wouldn't want 22 weeks empty if we could let it ourselves.

i'm at the fitting out the kitchen and bedding stage, what is the best bedding to use, and easy to iron and also which tableware

[Annew]

Do remember that commission charged by booking agencies is also subject to 20% VAT - so 20% of your total booking revenue, plus another 20% VAT is what you would pay for using an agent.

However, as it's your first season, you could always try an agent for a year or so to get a feeling for the business and then go it alone!


Also, can I suggest you start a new link about which linen, etc to use. There's loads of people on LMH who can give you advice who might not have seen your last post.

[greenbarn]

Hi belllinda and welcome.

Good advice above, and as you can imagine it's a topic that's been discussed a lot on LMH. Big Sis is good at finding appropriate threads, but meantime you might like to have a search; a google search of the site is much more flexible than the board search, and if you don't already know it works like this:

Go to Google and enter the following

site:www.laymyhat.com/forum/ whatever you want to search for

so as an example
site:www.laymyhat.com/forum/ letting agency

then enjoy trawling through the posts!

Good luck with your venture, and keep us all posted.

[Nemo]

viewtopic.php?t=15626

This is quite a good thread for starters.

[dizza2560]

We were in the same position in November and got both cottages4u and sykes to visit our property. Both had good ideas for us on use of space etc and how to achieve more than a 3 tick rating.
We felt both had advantages, cottages4u being it`s size and advertising presence, sykes with the window to opt out of the contract and let ourselves for a certain number of weeks to family or friends (plus let ourselves if able)
In the end we went with sykes and I have to say we have been happy, they are professional yet friendly. After the initial visit we never heard again from cottages4u, and my husband recently had a nightmare trying to book with them for a cottage in Beverley.
We been "live" for 3 weeks now, and have 3 bookings, one for July, one August and one September, even though there is only an external photo as we are renovating.Interestingly, all 3 are bringing 2 pets!
I would like to say a big thankyou to everyone who has answered my questions, I am not sure I would have gone ahead if I had not found this site.
One tip, I have used www.hotukdeals.com to source furnishings etc, and have found some bargains - eg. a 32" 3D HD television from M&S with a 5 year guarantee for £249.00
If I buy on line I always go through Quidco or Topcash, it is surprising how it all adds up!

[clairelou65]

Dizza, I recommend you try this place http://www.furniture-traders.co.uk/ they are in Thirsk, we called in a couple of weeks ago and they were great, they mainly deal with hospitality and understand that furniture is sometimes needed in a rush, they can deliver same day, they can also lend out items from stock.
We were really impressed and when finances allow we will be back.
We went for bedside tables and came out with a chair!

As for letting agency's dont get me started!!!
Cant wait for our contract to end, see my other posts regarding cottages4you.
If they had got us the bookings there would have been no problem.

[Yorkshire Lass]

I'm terminating my agreement with Cottages 4 U at the end of this year but to be fair they did get me started with a lot of bookings over the past year and a half and did give me some good advice. I also saw Sykes at the same time as I initially met with Cottages 4 U and though I was quite impressed with them they wanted to market the house around 15% cheaper than Cottages 4 U did which was one of the reasons I went with Cottages 4 U (and this was the correct decision as they did get me a very good level of bookings). I'm now quitting as I'm starting to get a lot of enquiries off my own site and I can see that with a bit of marketing effort on my part I will be fine. You do have to be aware of the 'penalty' of leaving Cottages 4 U (which once you've exceeded your 'owner allowance' is £75 plus their commission per booking so fairly punitive and your resignation has to happen before the end of May (which is their brochure deadline I believe). Hi to my fellow Yorkshire tykes out there!

[clairelou65]

Yorkshirelass hello yes we will be notifying them before May, probably March at our inspection, but cant leave until September if we wanted to leave before then the penalty is £1000, I so wish when we bought the place this time last year I knew all I know now, had read the small print and thought what if's but you live and learn.

[DaveN]

Hi Belllinda,
I'm just curious as to what knowledge or experise you feel you are lacking?

14 months ago I was in your position and spoke to Sykes, Hoseasons (C4U, English Country Cottages, etc.), and one local agent. I think I thought (niavely) that they would help in some way with the running of the cottage, could recommend cleaners, etc, but soon came to realise that what they really do is to handle your marketing, and take bookings.

I didn't find this too hard (with the wealth of advice and experience available right here!) to do myself in the end.

In the end events took over. I had to wait to get a stove installed and carpets fitted, so while I was getting this sorted I advertised on a local website, built my own website, started to get bookings, and never looked back.

I'm not suggesting that a booking agent isn't right for you, but do think about what it is that you want them to do for you, and whether they will give you that.

Good luck with your new venture!

Dave

[dizza2560]

Thanks Claire for the tip about the place in Thisk. We will be up there next week and will pay a visit as we still need some things.
The reason we opted for Sykes was that they gave us greater flexibilty re our own bookings, bis penalties with CFY. The achievable rental quoted by both was the same though, so I guess that makes a difference. We have been accepting bookings for 5 weeks now, only through Sykes, starting at the beginning of May. We have 3 weeks booked ( only one peak season) and about the same in enquiries (only an external photo at the mo due due refurb.), interestingly all are bringing pets!
Wish me luck with the interviews for house keeper and gardener next week!

[charles cawley]

If I had to choose I would much prefer Sykes to any Hoseasons brand. It is worth trying to get Sykes to accept you getting bookings on your own account.

Take care to ensure agents do not load extra charges all over the place... a charge to inspect, an annual charge, and so on. One appalling practice is the cheek to charge a percentage if you have the temerity to get bookings on your own behalf. This is out of date legacy agency behaviour well worth avoiding.

If you have not yet signed up, before doing so, look very carefully at all the small print. Some legacy agency conditions are astonishing.

We offer information which can be useful for new owner starting out with holiday cottages. However our advice is more suited to our area in certain aspects... but it might be useful:

We are an agency so this is, to a certain extent, inside advice. Coming very late to the market, we've been very aware of what you need to offer to trump the efforts of Legacy Agencies.

http://www.countryholidaylets.co.uk/lan ... o-pack.htm

A useful rule of thumb is to allow between 35% t0 40% as costs against revenue to determine annual operating profit. If you are looking for a return on capital, the percentage can, sometimes, get quite high.

[HolidayHomeInformation]

Hi

We wrote a few articles last year about what you need to ask a letting agent before signing up, so much more to consider than just how many bookings will I get/how much money will i make?

http://www.holidayhomeinformation.co.uk ... gency.html

Hope it is of use.

Andy