UK Agencies - English Country Cottages/Rural Retreats?

[Soupdragon]

Hello all,

Considering the sheer volume of properties they handle, I'm a bit surprised that ECC and Rural Retreats aren't used much by Lay My Hat members.

Has anyone worked with them? I'm new to the market and considering using an agency for that awkward first year while I find my feet. I'd like to get a feel for how the various agencies compare in terms of fees, the sort of market they address/guests they attract and occupancy levels.

Anyone got any thoughts?

[newtimber]

Rural Retreats are very particular about the properties they take so your property may not be accepted. They also charge a huge commission - if I remember correctly it was something like 28% + VAT five years ago. And you had to provide an expensive welcome pack.

English Country Cottages were a slightly lower percentage 26% + VAT I think (lots of extra costs when you start, minimum contract period, no owner bookings) but price your property high unlike Sykes.

These commissions were too high for us to make a decent return on our investment.

[Soupdragon]

28%! Ouch. I guess the prices would need to be at the premium end for that to make sense.

Superficially, we *might* be the sort of thing that Rural Retreats work with (large grade II* house, sleeps 10 potentially) but we've got a lot of basic refurbishment work to do so there might not be a lot of money left for shiny curtains after the plumbing!

[bessie]

Blue chip are moving into Yorkshire ,I have them visiting me in October to grade my cottage and they have some of the marketing team with them I think.
I think you holiday cottage is lovely ,not far from me .Burton Angus is a lovely Yorkshire village.
On agent fees some are well och lot of money.

[Soupdragon]

Yes, they are! I don't mind so much if an agency is handling some of the management side as well, but when you add the fees on top of cleaning, laundry, maintenance and running costs it eats so much margin I'm a bit surprised that they can recruit as many properties as they do.

Blue Chip is a good tip, thanks Bessie. Let me know how you get on...where are your properties?

[bessie]

My little cottage is in a village called Sancton on the edge of the wolds.
There are lots of threads on here about running costs etc ,
Sent you a pm

[Soupdragon]

Oooo, I know Sancton. Keep meaning to come and check out the Star some time.

Didn't get your pm, though. Maybe I should try PM'ing you first.

[MaggieP]

We used to be with RR.
At the time I chose them as they would also employ someone to do the changeovers which suited my circumstances. The commission they take is very high and they have high standards. They accept bookings on any day of the week-a minus if you are running the changeovers yourself.

They tended to get weekend bookings as opposed to weekly bookings and you could only book out your property for 10 weeks and only 2 of those weeks could be high season.

I have seen no difference in the guests we have now to the ones we had withRR

[alcooper]

We have a complex of 9 cottages and have been with English Country Cottages for 15 years - they are also Cottages4you, Wyndham Vacation Rentals, HoSeasons and many more - so there is a lot of advertising. Our commission rate is 20% because we have multiple cottages, and we are allowed "own bookings" of 6 weeks per cottage between April and October and unlimited the rest of the time - easily dealt with - I make sure our rate for "own bookings" is the same as theirs, so that if I go over the allowance and they take commission, we don't lose out. Numbers of bookings fluctuate, last year not too good, this year vastly improved. Their prices are high, and customers seem happy to pay the extra to get the guaranteed back-up of a reputable company. They do all the "donkey work" - advertising, bookings, contracts etc, I would hate to do it all myself for 9 cottages.

[kevsboredagain]

I've always wondered how people handle commission rates of 20% or more. Dealing with marketing and bookings etc takes about 1-2 hours per week per property, so let's say 100 hours per year. This excludes making a website.

For myself, 20% would work out at around £20/hour for my time. Not huge but enough that I would rather do it myself. If not, I might not manage to make a profit at all.

However, for a high end property, this hourly rate must be pretty high. The work involved does not increase depending on the rate charged for the property. I am surprised there are not sites who do this job for a fixed fee or at least a capped fee. I guess if they can charge and people pay, then the commission rates just keep increasing.

BTW I doubt I could manage 9 without the OH objecting.

[newtimber]

They do all the "donkey work" - advertising, bookings, contracts etc, I would hate to do it all myself for 9 cottages.

With 9 cottages, you can have a merchant account and purchase a fancy online booking system which does all the bookings/contracts/reminders/arrival details etc automatically. With a large number of bookings, the cost should be less than 3% per booking taking into account the merchant card costs/booking system etc. That would mean you can spend a lot of money on advertising and still be much better off than giving up 20%.

I assume you must be VAT registered too, so effectively 37% of your booking income is gone and then you have to pay cleaning/maintenance/business rates/music licences etc etc

[alcooper]

we do have our own website too which handles direct bookings very well. But ECC command much higher rates which people are happy to pay in the knowledge that they are booking with a big company which closely vets all its properties and keeps standards very high. So we earn more per property and have no advertising costs so the commission almost pays for itself. VAT is another issue!

[kevsboredagain]

But ECC command much higher rates which people are happy to pay in the knowledge that they are booking with a big company which closely vets all its properties and keeps standards very high. So we earn more per property and have no advertising costs so the commission almost pays for itself. VAT is another issue!

That's a good point actually. I know my parents refuse to ever use any properties independently advertised even although they know they may be paying a substantial premium for "vetted" ones. Not all agencies have the same standards though, as they have discovered but this has not deterred them in any way.