What is a fair discount for a 3 month stay?

[bananacake]

i received an enquiry from someone that wanted to stay for 3 months and asked if we provide a special rate for a 3 month stay.

What would you say is the norm for offering a discount for long periods. Would 10% off be fair?

[kteee]

Here it would be at least 30% and up to 50% discount off the normal winter rate - but the client pays their own electric bill

[pepsipuss]

Depends on the season.

Here we expect for a let of that length between October and April that the monthly rent would be about the same as that for a week in peak season, plus bills.

Outside of that period is harder to assess and would depend on how easily you would normally let the weeks in question. 10% would certainly not be enough unless you were talking about a period during peak season.

[bananacake]

thank you for your help

what would you consider to be a long let? would it be anything over 4 weeks?

[pepsipuss]

I do best winter price from 6 weeks and up. For 4 or 5 weeks I charge 30% more than the best price. However if someone wanted up to 6 weeks including Xmas and New Year they would have to pay the Xmas price for those two weeks and I would throw in the other weeks for a nominal amount. That would mean that they would pay a lot more than the normal winter rate. I don't mind losing the potential of the big rent over Xmas as long as I am getting nearly as much over a longer period covering weeks which are harder to let.

Hope that makes some kind of sense!!

edited to say: Having said all that, given that we are very interested in having long lets and that not many people want big houses for winter lets, we are VERY OPEN TO NEGOTIATION!!!

[bananacake]

thank you for your help!

[Zorro]

Yeah, I agree with the others. 10% would not be attractive enough for me, having had several 1 month+ winter lets in UK (which I admit is different to you).

We never expected to pay much more than a standard rental property, a bit more because holiday homes are furnished of course, but we were always astonished at how much money some owners wanted. It always struck us as being a bit barmy, because they were having to keep the heating on and pay for it anyway, but they would let it stand empty rather than let the property a bit cheaper, where as Ktee said, it would have been paid for by a renter.

[harcourtv57]

Zorro I have to disagree with you here. We have UK rentals and have recently had three enquiries for 'long' term rentals. Two for a six week period in Sept/Oct and one for Jan/Feb/March next year.

We offered what we consider a good discount but none of them have taken us up on it, presumably because they expect it to be a lot less. Firstly where we are in UK we don't have a definitive season. In fact one of the quotes I gave for Sept/Oct was for less than we got in income for the same period last year - but offered it on the premise that we wouldn't have changeovers to do. Longer term lets are not holiday makers and therefore more wear and tear, and out of season heating costs etc, and due to our high running costs, we would hardly break even.

We do offer 6 months lets out of season at a normal residential rate but then they pay their own bills when with a shorter let thats not feasible. And of course these lets being fully furnished and equiipped are far higher standard than your usual residential let

[Big Sis..]

Hi bc.
This depends on a few things..If the long let was over a 'rentable' month when you would be likely to get the proper rate...
If youd rather have the property occupied than 'laying empty' off season.....
and if you want/need the booking or not financially.

In Spain I would only consider a reduced long let[over a month]
from November-Dec[defore Xmas] and Jan-April as Im quite likely to rent the other months, at my normal rent.

But I would have to make the long let about 50% cheaper than
my normal rent, to get the booking, as there are a lot of houses in Spain and theyre are a lot of owners who would be desperate for any sort of income off season.

I usually dont bother. Im quite happy for my houses to be empty off season ,and possibly pick up a last minute booking or two, because once youve committed to a long term booking you cant accept any other 'normal' lets that could crop up.

Another thing, as Harcourtv has mentioned, heating etc cost can be large, and the wear and tear is likely to be more in a long let .
I always charge separately for heating etc. for long term lets, as the profit margins are small, and you dont want to be stuck with a large heating bill at the end of it.
So lots of things to be considered.

[declanja]

I have taken some long lets in off season and this is my method of settling a price. I take off changeovers costs and offer a 20% discount. I also check income from previous years (minus changeover costs) and would not take a booking that was not paying more than this. I find with long bookings that there is a need for plenty ofdidcussions and clarifications on both sides.

The down side to long lets are increased wear and tear and I also found that visitors that book for longer periods can be more difficult to please.

Declan

[kteee]

That's interesting - I've actually found long let clients to be easier to please. As they're there for a while there doesn't seem to be the pressure to have the 'perfect' two week holiday and they have lower expectations of the weather, for example

[alifrank1]

The down side to long lets are increased wear and tear and I also found that visitors that book for longer periods can be more difficult to please.

Declan

I find the exact opposite, although I am in a different market. I have long lets each year and will only take a 12 week booking (Jan - March) and only from more "mature" couples. Because I am at the lower end of the market, I just take off cleaning costs. I find my guests treat the apartment as their own home and leave it cleaner than my cleaners

[harcourtv57]

Declanja thats exactly what I do - but I think that much as people expect one night to be one seventh of the weekly price, they also expect long term lets to be hugely reduced

[Dotty]

If you are a UK tax resident don't forget the tax implications of taking a long let. A long let is only something over about 28 days (need to look up the exact number) to the same renter and it means that you can't claim the favourable 'holiday lettings' advantages for that tax year, and must use the less favourable 'property income' (UK) or 'foreign property income' (EU property). (I'm not an expert and haven't looked up the exact details & terminology for this post). In my circumstances I judged that what with discounts & different tax regime being able to qualify as a holiday let was more valuable to me than taking a long let.

[bananacake]

thank you all for your input. i guess i scared that enquiry away with a scary looking quote

what do you think would be the appropriate thing to do now ie how do i recontact the enquirer with a "revised quote"? or do i just let this one go and learn from experience?