Hello
I am new to this forum and don't have any experience of holiday lettings although it is something I definitely want to do in the not too distant future.
I'm just wondering if anyone with experience can advise whether they think it would be possible for me to work full-time and manage a small holiday let? The job i have is Monday to Friday and has flexible hours, i can also take holidays at short notice. I don't have any children or family commitments so I think it is do-able if I kept to weekly/fortnightly stays, no short breaks. I would like any opinions from people already running a holiday let about how much of my time during the week it would take up and any other points to remember/think about that i might not be aware of.
Thanks
Manage a holiday let and work full time?
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Harvest Mouse
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:43 am
- Location: to be confirmed
Hi Harvest Mouse
I did it for 7 years working full time so it is doable. You are right in thinking that you will have to stick to full weekly lets, Saturday to Saturday. Be prepared to work all of your Saturdays taken up with departures, cleaning and meet and greet. It really will take up the whole day and you will not feel up to much by the evening. Unless of course, you intend to get help with that.
You also need good backup for when things go wrong i.e. tradesmen. When guests complain they expect to be able to get hold of you immediately and things to be acted upon promptly. They will not want to wait until you can get time off work etc or come out of your meeting to speak to them.
Admin wise, it only really takes up a lot of your time in the peak booking season Jan - March. By the spring/summer you should be fully booked, so admin is very little around this time, other than doing your HMRC returns etc. In peak booking times I can spend 1/2-3 hours per evening answering e-mails, taking bookings etc, but that depends on whether they are easy keen to book bookings, or from guests who ask lots of questions before they decide. Then of course, you will end up dipping in and out of LMH which takes up even more time, but that is optional, self inflicted, but high addictive.
I gave up work 2 years ago, so can now be much more flexible with my lets, but there are plenty of people out there working full time and doing it as a second income.
Good luck
I did it for 7 years working full time so it is doable. You are right in thinking that you will have to stick to full weekly lets, Saturday to Saturday. Be prepared to work all of your Saturdays taken up with departures, cleaning and meet and greet. It really will take up the whole day and you will not feel up to much by the evening. Unless of course, you intend to get help with that.
You also need good backup for when things go wrong i.e. tradesmen. When guests complain they expect to be able to get hold of you immediately and things to be acted upon promptly. They will not want to wait until you can get time off work etc or come out of your meeting to speak to them.
Admin wise, it only really takes up a lot of your time in the peak booking season Jan - March. By the spring/summer you should be fully booked, so admin is very little around this time, other than doing your HMRC returns etc. In peak booking times I can spend 1/2-3 hours per evening answering e-mails, taking bookings etc, but that depends on whether they are easy keen to book bookings, or from guests who ask lots of questions before they decide. Then of course, you will end up dipping in and out of LMH which takes up even more time, but that is optional, self inflicted, but high addictive.
I gave up work 2 years ago, so can now be much more flexible with my lets, but there are plenty of people out there working full time and doing it as a second income.
Good luck
Hi
I work full time but am fortunate enough to work from home - and our holiday lets are all on site too.
As Bunny says, you should be fine as long as you do Sat - Sat bookings only (we occasionnaly do short breaks too as long as they don't cross over a Saturday, meaning we can prep the cottage on the Sat and then not do anything further with it until the following Sat) and have the right trades people available to assist if anything ever goes wrong.
In terms of admin time, this can take some time with the initial set up of websites etc. but once you have a routine it doesn't take too long - I am able to dip in and out during the working day to check and respond to emails etc., which helps.
If you decide to go for it I am sure you will manage to make it work for you - take a leap of faith!
Grimmy
I work full time but am fortunate enough to work from home - and our holiday lets are all on site too.
As Bunny says, you should be fine as long as you do Sat - Sat bookings only (we occasionnaly do short breaks too as long as they don't cross over a Saturday, meaning we can prep the cottage on the Sat and then not do anything further with it until the following Sat) and have the right trades people available to assist if anything ever goes wrong.
In terms of admin time, this can take some time with the initial set up of websites etc. but once you have a routine it doesn't take too long - I am able to dip in and out during the working day to check and respond to emails etc., which helps.
If you decide to go for it I am sure you will manage to make it work for you - take a leap of faith!
Grimmy
Hello
When you say manage full time it is certainly possible to manage bookings, paperwork etc with a full time job.
I would seriously think about some help with the cleaning and linen though, and or the garden otherwise you are very restricted.
Those of us who use cleaners also do a lot of regular additional cleaning as well. It would take pressure off you as you have someone to call on to help if you are under the weather or need to be elsewhere. You may even want to just have someone to act as a Releif cleaner if your let is so small you still want to do some changeovers.
I find the business very enjoyable and look forward to reading visitor book comments and reading that someone has had a great holiday. What you don't want to do though is wear yourself out completely or find you cannot do anything ever at short notice because of a changeover.
Once you get your paperwork sorted out with template letters, directions etc it doesn't take too much time to manage a booking.
Do consider setting up your own website - many of us use Promote My Place and I can PM you a discount code if you wish.
Good luck and welcome to the forum! You will find a lot of help and information on here.
When you say manage full time it is certainly possible to manage bookings, paperwork etc with a full time job.
I would seriously think about some help with the cleaning and linen though, and or the garden otherwise you are very restricted.
Those of us who use cleaners also do a lot of regular additional cleaning as well. It would take pressure off you as you have someone to call on to help if you are under the weather or need to be elsewhere. You may even want to just have someone to act as a Releif cleaner if your let is so small you still want to do some changeovers.
I find the business very enjoyable and look forward to reading visitor book comments and reading that someone has had a great holiday. What you don't want to do though is wear yourself out completely or find you cannot do anything ever at short notice because of a changeover.
Once you get your paperwork sorted out with template letters, directions etc it doesn't take too much time to manage a booking.
Do consider setting up your own website - many of us use Promote My Place and I can PM you a discount code if you wish.
Good luck and welcome to the forum! You will find a lot of help and information on here.
Hi there
Speaking personally ....
I run 2 businesses (and I am a trustee and director of a local not for profit business) and my holiday letting business and I help my DH run our farm.
I have an amazing team that help me - housekeepers and gardeners and I send my linen (apart from towels and bathrobes, which I wash myself) to a laundry.
I use Pims for booking management so have template letters set up and have disciplined myself to spend no more than 1 hr per day (or so) answering emails and enquiries.
I've been managing for the past 15 or so years, so yes, it can be done!
You need to be realistic about costs and overheads, consider the time implications and then take it from there....
Also ... you will need to find a reliable source of gin!
Very best of luck and do take the leap... you can always go back!
Speaking personally ....
I run 2 businesses (and I am a trustee and director of a local not for profit business) and my holiday letting business and I help my DH run our farm.
I have an amazing team that help me - housekeepers and gardeners and I send my linen (apart from towels and bathrobes, which I wash myself) to a laundry.
I use Pims for booking management so have template letters set up and have disciplined myself to spend no more than 1 hr per day (or so) answering emails and enquiries.
I've been managing for the past 15 or so years, so yes, it can be done!
You need to be realistic about costs and overheads, consider the time implications and then take it from there....
Also ... you will need to find a reliable source of gin!
Very best of luck and do take the leap... you can always go back!
If you want to find me, Google The Barton Poughill!
I teach in the week (not full time, but I'm in Rennes at least 3 days a week) and run 3 gites, look after the [big] garden and pool. Plus I'm a single mother with 2 kids so that takes time too, but yes, it is possible. Bookings can be dealt with anywhere, I run a paperless system, and I have a cleaning lady to help with changeoevers on Saturdays in the summer.
As long as you have a lot of energy you'll be fine.
As long as you have a lot of energy you'll be fine.
I work full time and my wife is currently on maternity but heading back 3 1/2 days a week in a few weeks.
We started off doing everything. Enquiries, bookings, cleans, laundry, guest queries. This was when we were both working full time.
Then our baby arrived and we've passed the cleaning, meeting and greeting of guests, laundry and first point of contact during their stay all out. It's had a knock-on affect on margin and we've had to adjust rates (we've also been investing heavily on the property). We offer any day arrival and short stays.
I would also factor the getting started overhead on time. Creating adverts, pictures, copy etc etc.
Now it's up and running it's great but it was a bit of a slog when we first started. We would have been stuffed without LMH!
We started off doing everything. Enquiries, bookings, cleans, laundry, guest queries. This was when we were both working full time.
Then our baby arrived and we've passed the cleaning, meeting and greeting of guests, laundry and first point of contact during their stay all out. It's had a knock-on affect on margin and we've had to adjust rates (we've also been investing heavily on the property). We offer any day arrival and short stays.
I would also factor the getting started overhead on time. Creating adverts, pictures, copy etc etc.
Now it's up and running it's great but it was a bit of a slog when we first started. We would have been stuffed without LMH!
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Harvest Mouse
- Posts: 2
- Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2015 11:43 am
- Location: to be confirmed
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akwe-xavante
- Posts: 306
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
- Location: East Yorkshire
Into my 6th week of having a holiday let and I'm self employed elsewhere too. I live 40 something miles away and I'm doing the changeover, cleaning & linen etc myself at the mo.
Bookings are taken by cottages4you so there's no office work at all really other than keeping accounts and tax which at the mo is proving to be very simple.
Changeover day is a hard day, such a lot to do so I wouldn't plan on doing anything in the evening.
I'm doing my own bedding and towels etc at the mo and it either takes a whole day or every evening, well two very long evenings at least. The cottage has a good sized garden so I'm spending all day on a Wednesday gardening too.
If I was employed 5 days a week I would probably do changeover day myself and try to find someone local to do the linen and the garden.
I wouldn't underestimated just how hard changeover day is, theirs a lot to do, a lot more than you would normally do for yourself when cleaning your own home.
However it is all very much worth while from a monetary point of view and now is the time to be investing in property
Bookings are taken by cottages4you so there's no office work at all really other than keeping accounts and tax which at the mo is proving to be very simple.
Changeover day is a hard day, such a lot to do so I wouldn't plan on doing anything in the evening.
I'm doing my own bedding and towels etc at the mo and it either takes a whole day or every evening, well two very long evenings at least. The cottage has a good sized garden so I'm spending all day on a Wednesday gardening too.
If I was employed 5 days a week I would probably do changeover day myself and try to find someone local to do the linen and the garden.
I wouldn't underestimated just how hard changeover day is, theirs a lot to do, a lot more than you would normally do for yourself when cleaning your own home.
However it is all very much worth while from a monetary point of view and now is the time to be investing in property