Brand new to renting out our second home

[ejc-free]

Hi,

We've a comfortable second home in Deux-Sèvres, on the outskirts of a village, around 45 minutes to an hours drive from a number of tourist sites (Futurescope, Puy du Fou etc). great garden, fabulous restaurants - quiet unspoilt. Friends of ours caretake the place for us while we're away.

We don't have a pool but there are swimming lakes very close by. We were planning to relocate next year - but life has intervened and so we are going to have to use it just as a holiday home. We're wondering about it's letting potential as a holiday let - we've already had requests from friends - but they seem to view it as a "cheap" holiday - any pointers about where we go first for some advise, have got a bit worried having read some of the threads here as we wouldn't want any yahoos renting...... but are not sure where to start.

Appreciate any help - thanks

[paolo]

Welcome to the forum!

The first thing I would do is assess the local market by looking at existing rentals on the listing sites.

Have a look at sites like

www.holiday-rentals.com
www.frenchconnections.co.uk

and Google for '[location] holiday rentals', '[location] self catering', etc.

See what similar properties are charging. Also have a look at their availability calendars to give an idea of booking levels, although at this time of year they are likely to look sparse for 2006.

You can also call nearby owners and quiz them. Some will regard you as competition but others will be happy to talk to you.

[cromercrabholiday]

I think that you also have to look around your property, which will no longer be your holiday home but occupied by strangers.

Is it in good condition and tidy? - we stayed at a neighbours villa in the South of France year, which they lent us for the cost of the cleaning and the electricity. It was a fantastic house in a brilliant location but let down by poor maintenance - a pool heater on its last legs, a clothes dryer with half the lines broken, broken tools, toys and garden equipment still in the garage. Most of us have these sort of things around but they must be eliminated in a well-run holiday property.

Does it meet local safety requirements?

Does it include items that are delicate or expensive that you would not want to lose?

Do all the locks work smoothly? A common problem I've found in holiday cottages

I'm sure that the list can be added to - imagine that you are customers arriving at your house and entering it. Walk around it in your mind - what will they be thrilled about, what will horrify them?

Best of luck and welcome

John

[Fraise]

Oh,errr...do you want others using your holiday home as your own? We thought about it,for at least 10 seconds,and decided "no". Where do you put all the stuff that is in your wardrobes and drawers? We love having visitors but not people taking over.We ended up buying another home that we love equally but was always designed to be let.If friends/family want to use it they have to pay a proper rent otherwise we have found that people think they are going to get a "cheap" holiday!They treat our rental home with the respect it deserves as they are paying the going rate for it!!!!
Your decision will be the right one for you,for us,at the time,it was not right to rent out our holiday home.I know other people are happy with letting theirs out.I guess you will have to scour the web and see how much other people are charging- but watch out cos some people who charge tooooo much only manage to book a couple of peak time weeks,but maybe they are happy with this?Who knows?

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[ejc-free]

Thanks for these replies - I think that because we've had so may requests from friends / relatives & friends of friends who all seem to think that we'd be only too delighted to let them use our place while we're not there that we will pull together some reasonable costs and make the place available - but whether we'll go down the open market route - I'm not so sure. I think if we have some information / pictures and prices printed out to give people - we can then be clear that if they want to use the place (& we're happy to trust them with it) there will be a cost involved.

We're checking out our insurance etc at the moment

[Alan Knighting]

friends / relatives & friends of friends

In my experience that often means the same as "free-loaders".

I think you are absolutely right in proposing to put together a rental plan, of sorts. Of course there is an additional cost involved whoever is staying in your property. Many of your family/friends guests will take the attitude that electricity, water, gas and wood are given away for nothing in holiday properties. Living on-site I sometimes find I am regarded as a free airport pick-up service and a free travel guide and chauffeur and of course my car runs on fresh air and I am exempt from motorway tolls.

To be fair, some are just the opposite. They come bearing gifts, they wine you and dine you and they want to pay for everything.

Perhaps of more importance is the question of breakages. Some might tell you, the others will not, but most of the time all you will get is "sorry" and their hands will never venture anywhere near their wallets.

Alan