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.
Wow what a resource this site is! Just a quick intro... I have just bought a two-bedroomed flat overlooking the picturesque fishing (& tourist) village of New Quay in West Wales. My wife and I grew up there, my in-laws have always lived there and we have always dreamed of having our own holiday place down there (we live about an hour away). We want to let it as much as possible and also use it ourselves for the odd weekend here and there throughout the year.
Only completed just before xmas so the next few weeks and months will be hectic furnishing and equipping an entire new home from scratch and then advertising it like mad. We don't really expect to get many bookings this year as I imagine a lot of people will have already booked and it will take us a while to get it sorted. Thats not to say we're going to drag our heels though!
Anyone else out there own property in West Wales? Where do you find it best to advertise? Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Anyway, off to search this site some more!
We stayed at a place outside Bangor a few years ago, and loved the people, the scenery and the long days (we were there in July). I'm not sure how close that is to your village, but it's the only experience we have with Wales, and it was lovely.
I hope you'll post your website for review (when you have one up, that is)! In the meantime, glad to see you're making use of the search functions, and when you come up for air we'll be glad to have you pop in to the Cafe for a chat!
Hi Ash and welcome! I second Brooke's and Ros's comments - and as for this summer, I should think there'd be no problem netting someone looking for a last minute opportunity. You just need to do your research re the local competition and pitch your rates neither too ridiculously low, nor too high for your first year - the importance is to recoup your set-up costs initially and you can review your rates and increase them a bit each year thereafter until you sense you've got them about right).
Good luck, and see you here!
Last edited by Giddy Goat on Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
Welcome to the Forum - I'm sure you will come to appreciate it more and more as a great resource and a great source of friendship too.
Good luck with your new venture
Don't be too put off with the talk of people who already have loads of bookings for the summer. Large properties in France and elsewhere in Europe tend to book early so that people can take advantage of the cheap flights and ferries. People tend to book later for the smaller properties which don't require flights.
Hi Ash, welcome I imagine that for the UK loads of people haven't booked, or even thought of booking ,yet! Lots of people take more than one hol too so you may get some people booking your place and some of ours ! Hope to chat more in the future
If you can get your website up quickly, the next couple of weeks is a prime time for UK summer bookings. A lot of people like to get through Christmas before they can face booking a summer holiday. Even if you cannot, high season should sell - we are regularly getting requests up to a couple of weeks beforehand in August - despite the bookings sheet showing it as booked.
We didn't start advertising our rental till the middle of July last year and still got 5 weeks booked which we were thrilled with, so definitely don't give up hope yet!
Just a quick intro... I have just bought a two-bedroomed flat overlooking the picturesque fishing (& tourist) village of New Quay in West Wales. My wife and I grew up there, my in-laws have always lived there and we have always dreamed of having our own holiday place down there (we live about an hour away). We want to let it as much as possible and also use it ourselves for the odd weekend here and there throughout the year.
I imagine that for the UK loads of people haven't booked, or even thought of booking ,yet! Lots of people take more than one hol too so you may get some people booking your place and some of ours ! Hope to chat more in the future 