Cost of starting?

If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
Giraffe
Posts: 410
Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:10 am
Location: Cornwall, England

Post by Giraffe »

Hello Formatted - welcome to LMH. My holiday let is also in Cornwall, but I live over 200 miles away. When I needed a new cooker last year I used the very helpful Euronics dealer in Penryn - Cornwall Appliance Services Ltd. Everything was managed by phone, 01326 375363. They delivered, installed and took the old cooker away at a very competitive price. Brilliant!

As Greenbarn mentioned, suggest you keep all kitchen appliances as simple as possible. My new cooker has no electronic controls, only ON/OFF and dials for temperature. Visitor proof?

On principle I don't have a tumble dryer, but there is an airing cupboard and plenty of indoor and outdoor space for drying clothes. If you are catering for families with children, as I do, then you will need a lot of kitchen equipment and China/cutlery. I find that families with children tend to self cater more than a group of adults. My best groups of visitors are children/mum and dad/granny and grandad. 2 sets of families each with children tend not to be so organised on the house upkeep during the holiday.

When we refurbished the 2 lounges we found all the sofas/chairs on eBay. We found some really high class, nearly new furniture that I would never have bought at full price for a holiday let.

As for pricing, this is the one area I find really difficult. There are so many variables to take into account - there isn't a magic formula. As well as taking advice from agents suggest you look online for similar holiday let prices.

Good luck. Giraffe
The best things in life are free
Villarais
Posts: 81
Joined: Mon May 25, 2009 11:06 am
Location: Charente-Maritime, France, and SE England
Contact:

Post by Villarais »

Another vote for Euronics. Euronics is the name of the buying group so the individual shops have their own names.

Their prices are as good as the discount warehouses and they will deliver and take away the old item and all the packaging and even fit the item if the power/water supply is already in place. Oh, and my local Euronics dealer will also repair things.
loveka
Posts: 88
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:32 am

Post by loveka »

I have just set up a holiday let.

The thing I hadn't really thought enough about was bedding. Ours is 3 bedroom, and one of them has a zip and link bed, so in effect we have 5 beds to furnish. It has cost over £1400 for bedding, and that's using lower cost stuff! The cost of mattress toppers, anti bed bug encasements, protectors for everything all adds up, as well as 3 sets of everything.

I recommend Hotel Contract beds for mattresses as they are great quality but cheaper than the high street.
jazzuk777
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Aug 01, 2013 9:55 am
Location: Caister

Post by jazzuk777 »

loveka wrote:I have just set up a holiday let.

The thing I hadn't really thought enough about was bedding. Ours is 3 bedroom, and one of them has a zip and link bed, so in effect we have 5 beds to furnish. It has cost over £1400 for bedding, and that's using lower cost stuff! The cost of mattress toppers, anti bed bug encasements, protectors for everything all adds up, as well as 3 sets of everything.

I recommend Hotel Contract beds for mattresses as they are great quality but cheaper than the high street.
Zip and link bed - I think that's what we're looking for... two singles that make a double when required? Any pointers on where to cheap (an affordable?) one? Need to be fairly compact too as room will likely only just take. Thanks
Small Victorian terrace in Caister let to friends and family
User avatar
greenbarn
Posts: 6146
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

jazzuk777 wrote:
loveka wrote:I have just set up a holiday let.

The thing I hadn't really thought enough about was bedding. Ours is 3 bedroom, and one of them has a zip and link bed, so in effect we have 5 beds to furnish. It has cost over £1400 for bedding, and that's using lower cost stuff! The cost of mattress toppers, anti bed bug encasements, protectors for everything all adds up, as well as 3 sets of everything.

I recommend Hotel Contract beds for mattresses as they are great quality but cheaper than the high street.
Zip and link bed - I think that's what we're looking for... two singles that make a double when required? Any pointers on where to cheap (an affordable?) one? Need to be fairly compact too as room will likely only just take. Thanks
“Compact” and “Zip and link” don’t really sit well together. The main point of a zip/link is that it can be split into two singles, and an adult sized single is 3 ft wide - hence the full zip/link is 6 ft wide. That takes up a lot of space and you need room for access on both sides of it. There may be zip/links that are 5ft wide and split into two singles 2ft 6in wide, but these are child single beds. That may be what you want to achieve, but you’d need to make sure you advertised the size of the beds so that people weren’t misled into assuming they were full sized singles.

Oh, and don’t buy cheap beds, there’s a reason why they’re cheap. Check out the recommendations in the forum - Linx, Mattissons and Hotel Contract Beds all produce beds that cut some of the costs by not looking pretty in a showroom, but are comfortable.
delilah
Posts: 102
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:40 pm
Location: mersea island, essex
Contact:

Post by delilah »

Hello, Just adding my thoughts to this. I have one holiday cottage, but have other rental property. My approach is to do it well to start with. People resent cheap sofas etc and treat them accordingly . I am not a luxury market, but the holiday let has been renting very well for the last three years, with many repeat bookings. I focussed on really good beds, good showers and well equipped and clean. The beds for two of the rooms are two good singles which I can easily link the bases together to form a super king (increases options for a cottage which sleeps 6...no sofa bed...hate the sofa bed thing!). I have layer on the single beds of waterproof sheet (out of eden company, not sweaty), mattress topper, then mattress protectors on. If made into a superking, then an additional super king mattress protector is put on the top. The base layers don't need changing. We get lots of comments in the reviews about the huge and comfy beds. Bought decent mattresses. Bedlinen is the prima range from Richard Hawarth. Not expensive, but people feel they are in quality linen and it is easy for the housekeeper to change. Its not worn out in 3 years plus hard work. Duvets and spring back pillows from Richard Hawarth. Towels from ?the big do company. Towels are important. Go for cotton and light weight. Most laundry is worked out on weight. Heavy fluffy towels = more overheads. I didn't go for white towels, they are a caramel colour. Again, they are good after 3 years. Showers are not huge luxury ones, but are 800 quadrant. People like them. Keep decor simple and tasteful. Good quality white goods. I don't offer tumble dryer, but do have frost free ff, dishwasher, washing machine. Stone ware Crockery from Matalan and bought second set. Still going strong. I take a £200 damage deposit and look after guests well, so mostly have good guests. I bought a sofa from sofa.com in "heat and dust" brushed cotton (have these at home, comfortable, indestructable, have spare set of covers and a throw. Bought rattan chairs from Ikea. Painted second hand chairs and table, wardrobes and bedside tables. so, cheap and strong furnitture, no flat pack. Most importantly I have a fantastic cleaner. We did a practice run through, then a second. I decided to pay her more and give her more time for cleaning, and give her a bonus at Christmas. She is my main woman and the reviews often mention how clean the house is. I don't provide toiletries, coffee machines etc. Seems to work. I made sure kitchen was very well equipped for cooking, champagne glasses and bucket. Main approach was looking always from an angle of what would I like and want in a holiday cottage. High chair from Ikea. Last thought: I kept a spread sheet of everything I put into the cottage. This is handy now as if I have to replace e.g. a fridge shelf , I can look up the serial number and model instantly. Good luck.
whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't....you're right
www.anchoragemewsmersea.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/AnchorageMewsHo ... age?ref=hl
delilah
Posts: 102
Joined: Mon Jan 14, 2013 5:40 pm
Location: mersea island, essex
Contact:

Post by delilah »

Hello, Just adding my thoughts to this. I have one holiday cottage, but have other rental property. My approach is to do it well to start with. People resent cheap sofas etc and treat them accordingly . I am not a luxury market, but the holiday let has been renting very well for the last three years, with many repeat bookings. I focussed on really good beds, good showers and well equipped and clean. The beds for two of the rooms are two good singles which I can easily link the bases together to form a super king (increases options for a cottage which sleeps 6...no sofa bed...hate the sofa bed thing!). I have layer on the single beds of waterproof sheet (out of eden company, not sweaty), mattress topper, then mattress protectors on. If made into a superking, then an additional super king mattress protector is put on the top. The base layers don't need changing. We get lots of comments in the reviews about the huge and comfy beds. Bought decent mattresses. Bedlinen is the prima range from Richard Hawarth. Not expensive, but people feel they are in quality linen and it is easy for the housekeeper to change. Its not worn out in 3 years plus hard work. Duvets and spring back pillows from Richard Hawarth. Towels from ?the big do company. Towels are important. Go for cotton and light weight. Most laundry is worked out on weight. Heavy fluffy towels = more overheads. I didn't go for white towels, they are a caramel colour. Again, they are good after 3 years. Showers are not huge luxury ones, but are 800 quadrant. People like them. Keep decor simple and tasteful. Good quality white goods. I don't offer tumble dryer, but do have frost free ff, dishwasher, washing machine. Stone ware Crockery from Matalan and bought second set. Still going strong. I take a £200 damage deposit and look after guests well, so mostly have good guests. I bought a sofa from sofa.com in "heat and dust" brushed cotton (have these at home, comfortable, indestructable, have spare set of covers and a throw. Bought rattan chairs from Ikea. Painted second hand chairs and table, wardrobes and bedside tables. so, cheap and strong furnitture, no flat pack. Most importantly I have a fantastic cleaner. We did a practice run through, then a second. I decided to pay her more and give her more time for cleaning, and give her a bonus at Christmas. She is my main woman and the reviews often mention how clean the house is. I don't provide toiletries, coffee machines etc. Seems to work. I made sure kitchen was very well equipped for cooking, champagne glasses and bucket. Main approach was looking always from an angle of what would I like and want in a holiday cottage. High chair from Ikea. Last thought: I kept a spread sheet of everything I put into the cottage. This is handy now as if I have to replace e.g. a fridge shelf , I can look up the serial number and model instantly. Good luck.
whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't....you're right
www.anchoragemewsmersea.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/AnchorageMewsHo ... age?ref=hl
Running Chrissy
Posts: 75
Joined: Fri Oct 07, 2016 8:33 am
Location: Cornwall

Post by Running Chrissy »

Thank you to the OP for asking this and to everyone for your replies. All v useful info for a newbie such as myself.
LazyDog
Posts: 8
Joined: Tue Aug 22, 2017 12:31 pm
Location: Pontradyfen

GOOD INTEL HERE

Post by LazyDog »

We are buying our first holiday let and this thread has been helpful. I would suggest to the farmer to talk to a property accountant for advice on VAT. It may be possible to run the lets individually so that the VAT threshold remains below. You need expert advice.
Do less but do it better
Post Reply