Lay My Hat

Sadly not I fear. My local authority in Devon are doing a massive survey of “commercial” pools in the area, and what safety / cleaning regimes they have in place. When I queried it with them as I only let for less than 15 weeks a year, they said that any amount of letting needed to be considered com...

Apparently guidelines issued by the Safety Executive with PWTAG. (That’s the Pool Water Advisory Group.) But you need to spend £65 to find out about it! https://www.pwtag.org.uk/knowledge/essential_guide.php This is according to my pool maintenance company whose advice I sought about something. They...

It was recently brought to my attention that in the UK a pool which is included with a holiday let should, strictly speaking, be classified as a "commercial" pool and be be tested 3 times a day for water quality. Now this is completely impractical as far as I'm concerned. So can I ask what...

What are the advantages and disadvantages to running a business bank account for a holiday let? Up until now I have just used a separate personal account but it’s a bit clunky and complicated to set up new payments etc. I’ve been planning to change it for a while and I notice that Starling offer a b...

And that all adds to my confusion! I am listed on all 3; HA, ABB and Bdotcom - all on commission, so in theory should be getting as many enquiries as before. But I’m not. That said ultimately the number of bookings achieved remains roughly the same, so not a major problem. I just wondered why I no l...

Not wanting to have another moan about the new HA (formerly OD) model, but I have a genuine question. Where did all those people who used to enquire via OD/HA actually go? About 4 or 5 years ago, my OD listing would attract multiple enquiries every week. A fair percentage were scams admittedly, but ...

Thanks rosebud.
As I expected re rankings. Good to hear you get paid fairly promptly too.

Not a huge amount you can do now other than warn them and reassure it’s only one night. You might want to keep an eye to see if the Festival is to be repeated next year. You can warn people before they book or even turn it to your advantage by upping prices and making it available to festival attend...

OK i've signed up for their subscription listing (5% commission plus 3% card charges) and as I previously had instant payments (ie they pay me the money straight away rather than wait until the guest moves in) they will allow me to continue with that. If that should change in the future, I will prob...

But if you are on subscription, why would you get paid by HA? I get my guests to pay me. I don't need/want anyone interfering in my business, so there is no issue there surely. I would be agreeing to instant booking which involves allowing customers to pay HA via credit card. Not something I’m keen...

Thanks. I reckon that’s about right.

Sorry - I meant does anyone manage to get paid straight away while on a COMMISSION listing. They’ve offered it to me as a returning customer if I go subscription, but not on commission.

Cheers
Angus

Does anyone have any idea if HA push the commission properties more than the subscription ones? I'm thinking or rejoining after dumping OD in disgust, but can't decide which model to go for. I'd pay the subscription amount in about 2 or 3 commission lettings, but if they work harder for commissions,...

casasantoestevo wrote:so there are no alternatives to AirBnB?

There are of course, but (sadly) more and more people turn to them first. The very name has become synonymous with our industry (ie "we're renting an Airbnb over the summer") in the same way ubers have to taxis and hoovers had to vacuum cleaners.

In response to earlier comments about whether the ICO would bother inspecting little old us for data protection violation, you may be right that they’re unlikely to at random. However, if a disgruntled guest ( eg someone whose deposit you withheld, or you refused to give them a discount) decided to ...

If you price it right - then yes. I only get a few bookings through Airbnb but then I keep my prices fairly high. When I’ve accidentally let a low price slip though (eg New Year) it was snapped up in a matter of days.