Long term let

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
sazzleevans
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Long term let

Post by sazzleevans »

Hi

This is my first season and I am after some advise.

I have had a request for a long term rental. 10 weeks starting December 2005. This period is very hard to fill and I could do with the booking.

I would normally charge £250 per week for this period. The apartment is 94m2 and has two bedrooms. The place will need to have three heaters on most of the time as it will be quite cold.

Do you think asking the full £250 per week is too much. I think, as a guess the heating will cost at lest £70 per week.What do you think?

A second opinion would really help.

Sarah
www.islacanelaholidays.com
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I would certainly give a discount for a 10-week winter let, and quite a hefty one. At that time of year they will have the pick of almost every property in the area, and they’d get offered some very generous discounts by your competitors I’m sure.

I usually give a sliding scale of discount to encourage longer stays – for example 15% for 2 weeks, 20% for 3 weeks, 25% for 4 weeks, or something similar. That said, I have only had a couple of longish winter rentals, all the other enquiries I never heard from again, presumably because they got better offers elsewhere.

If you ask for the full £250 a week, I think it's safe to say you will only get the booking if yours is the only property they are interested in. That's if you are asking for the market rate, and not a lower one.
Paolo
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oskar
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Post by oskar »

£70 per week is a whopping percentage of your weekly rental charge! 28% to be precise! :shock:

However, if you would normally charge £250 and be happy with that, then you must make a reasonable profit, otherwise you would charge more. If you don´t expect to get too many bookings at that time, then it must make economic sense to offer a discount for a 10 week let. Your enquirer will expect it.

Personally what I would do is to charge them say £150 a week + utilities. That way your profit will be guaranteed., whether they have the heating on at full power 24/7 or not. Don´t wait until the last day to collect it though! :wink:
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Agreed -- we're giving someone a 50% discount for 8 winter weeks but collecting a huge deposit from which we'll withdraw the cost of utilities and return the rest to them at the end of the rental. That's the only solution we've found -- including electricity in the winter means we have to charge at least as much as our high season!
Brooke
sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Hi

Thanks that good advise.

I really appreciate having a second opinion!!

I like the idea of taking a deposit and returning the balance after the utilities are paid. I was just wondering if this puts people off?

I would prefer to pay a set price and know its all paid for but everyone is different.

I have offered a 20% discount plus all the utilities paid for. I have hinted at the possibility of taking a deposit for the utilities and paying a set rental price on top...Just have to wait now.

Sarah
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Sarah,

It probably does put some people off, but honestly that's okay with me.

We let a friend stay at our house for two days this winter. We had to heat the house up before they arrived, and this plus their stay cost us nearly €100 in electricity! We did have everything on (heaters, lights, etc.) so this gave us an idea of just how high the EDF bill could get if this was done for an entire billing period.

Personally, I would rather not rent our house for the winter than take the chance that someone will stay there and leave us with an EDF bill of €2000. It may be extreme, but if people aren't aware of what their usage costs they are far more likely to rack up the EDF charges. Knowing their usage determines how much of their deposit they get back is a great incentive.

Cheers!
Brooke
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Brooke,
We let a friend stay at our house for two days this winter. We had to heat the house up before they arrived, and this plus their stay cost us nearly €100 in electricity!


I'm surprised that the bill was that high - over the last 2 months I've had a lot of bookings, not necessarily long term lets, but the electric bill (including heating) only worked out at 16% of the revenue for the period, so I think I've made a profit! Its also been quite chilly here in Brittany, so they used the heating a fair bit. For long term lets I would always try to give a relatively cheap rental rate then have the electricity meter read after the period and charged accordingly, tennants tend to be more careful on the electricity consumption that way.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

We were very surprised, too!

For us it just made it very clear that we should upgrade our electric heaters as soon as possible. They're old and inefficient -- the new ones that Tansy just installed (at least, I think it was Tansy) sounded promising.
Brooke
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jimadept
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Post by jimadept »

I agree that you should charge utilities separately, otherwise there is no motivation for them to switch the heating off when they go out, etc. We are charging 300 euros a month + utilities for our apartment at the moment, which doesn't even cover half the gross mortgage, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. At least the tentant is good - substitute teacher.
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tansy
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Post by tansy »

Yes - we are thrilled with our new heating ...will let you know the costs as soon as we have a read...unfortunately not for a long time as we are on budget payment scheme so meter is only read once per year...but I promise they are so efficient and are hardly on at all...so I'm convinced we are saving loads of dosh!! :lol:
sazzleevans
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Post by sazzleevans »

Hi

I didnt get the booking. :oops: I worked hard at it though.....
and your help was very much appreciated.

Anyone onwards and upwards. What are make of heaters you have bought?

Sarah
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Post by Highams Park Harry »

we're oil fired CH thankfully

I'm slowly closing (I dearly hope) on an eight month let over the Autumn/Winter/Spring (yes I know)

We've agreed that they pay for the oil used themselves so there's that

Pondering the price to offer, I've heard some major discounts for out of season long lets and I'm certainly thinking 50%

That seem about right?
Dordogne Holiday Cottage, sleeps eight
http://www.ruedelagare.co.uk
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