Lay My Hat

Today I have bitten the bullet and gone with Sykes. I'm feeling it's the right decision.

I tried listing our 1 bed on HL and OD about 9 days ago. The listings looked great with fab photos and competitive rates etc however I haven't had any enquiries yet (I realise it's only been 9 days). The problem is I am so far down the list, page 7 on OD and bottom of page 3 on HL. We are in the centre a popular tourist village and walking distance to shops, pubs, riverside walks etc. But if you search for properties by location they put properties that are 5 and 10 miles away higher up the list than me who is actually in the village centre. They don't have an option of sorting the list by nearest first so I'm on page 7 which is hopeless.

It's all good experience but I feel it would be a slow process to get any bookings when I'm so far down the list.

I'm feeling good about it and looking forward to seeing our property on Sykes, and getting our first booking!

Close to completing our purchase so will be a couple of months behind you. Interested to hear how you get on we are in Pembrokeshire.

The perennial complaint I hear about Sykes is that they will fill your property at any cost - that's low not high! Others have complained about the filling of properties to the gunnels for a low cost, just to get any booking.

Will be interested to hear how you get on.

Have you tried the FB pages - they are successful. Can give you details if you wish.

You will probably be booked out very fast on Sykes at an excellent price for the guests.

It's not just the owners who have bad experiences with Sykes.

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowTopic ... ngdom.html

And post 100 on page 10 of that would put me off entirely being associated with them, as an owner.

I don't come across Sykes in my letting business, because I am outside the UK, but it is obvious from those TA comments that Sykes is right up there with the bad boys. On Trustpilot they come out with a 2 star "Poor" rating and reading there you can see why.

I am also outside the UK, but have not heard a lot of good about Sykes. Many people find themselves stuck in contracts, with unaffordable income as the properties have been let for such a huge discount.There have also been problems when properties have been damaged and no damage deposit collected. Nine days is no time at all to be waiting for a booking from the others. If it is not too late to get out of your Sykes contract, try and do so, and if you need to go with an agent, find a more local independent one.

I'm not with Sykes but have seen all the negative comments on this forum about them. It appears that Sykes prey on newbies who haven't yet discovered how much it costs, both in time and money, to run a holiday let.

One LMHer had Sykes list her similar sized property to mine, for half my weekly price. Yes, her occupancy level was better than mine, but she needed double the amount of occupancy that I needed for the same turnover. So, double the heating (one of the biggest costs), double the cleaning, washing and wear and tear... and on top of that, guests looking for the cheapest deal are not always the most respectful. She soon found out that she was running at a loss and Sykes didn't care two hoots.

Not sure what would be the best listing site for you, but have you looked into Airbnb?

Thank you for all your comments. I negotiated a good deal and with the info/advise I had already got from on here I made sure things were how I wanted them such as no reductions without my say so. We can end it by October (notice by June) if need be so it's a good time to try them out and get off the ground. If we had come higher up the searches on OD and HL I would have waited longer but Page 7! I wouldn't trawl through 7 pages. I don't know why they can't add a filter like they do on rightmove, 1 or 3 mile radius etc. I'm happy for now and I'll learn a lot this first season.

Sounds like you have researched the pitfalls well, Jeddy and have your head screwed on and won't let them take advantage of you. You are clearly not going in with your eyes shut. Good luck with it!