New rental Property advice

[h4ppy]

We are currently looking at properties to buy for a holiday let in the UK (Kent).

We have two short listed.
1) 1 bedroom stable conversion ready to go
2) 2/3 bedroom cottage requiries updating

both are priced the same, one is semi rural the other is rural.

We are finding it hard to decide between the two, which one do you think would be more appealing to holiday makers?

As dog owners ourselves, we are happy to market it to pet owners and would probable advertise on around 10 pet friendly websites charging around £25 rather than a couple of websites charging £100+, is this the right idea?

we have searched on google for
Pet Friendly & Pet Friendly Cottages and quite a few websites come up, Does anyone advertise on any of these or which ones would you recommend.

How many weeks of full bookings do others generally get per year?

Thanks
sorry so many questions

[wallypott]

Not enough information to answer really, but what would the cost of renovation be (then double it), what would be the potential rental income of the places? You'd have to do some research by looking for similar rentals in the area. How much do you need to make - mortgage/loan free? Will you be having your own website - development costs, etc

I advertise with HR (which is way expensive, but 80% of my bookings) and I advertise with a couple of dog friendly sites. None of the dog friendly sites have produced a booking! When you say pet friendly, what do you really mean? You'd take up to how many dogs/cats/rabbits? I have had requests for up to 4 dogs and a cat, again always through the traditional sites.

You really need to look at the major web sites, look at the pricings, seriously work out your financials. For ease go for the one bedroom, for adventure go for the three bedroom - but remember, everything costs you more for 3, (2.5x changes of sheets, towels, beds, furniture etc) Look at how booked up the one bedroom lets are in comparison to the 3 beds.

Good luck with it, loads of help available on LMH

[h4ppy]

Thnks for your reply.

The 1 bed is more appealling as it is ready to go, your right buying something that requires work could end up costing more than our budget.

Cheers

[Nemo]

JMHO, but a one bed seriously limits your market to just couples. A 2/3 bed, competitively priced for out of season lets, allows you to tap into couples, two people/friends not wishing to share, two sets of couples, small families......the list goes on. Coupled with taking dogs, increases your potential guests enormously.

I advertise on one pet friendly site. I don't get much directly from them, but I don't have any analysis up and running to tell me how my website is found, so they may be click throughs. I have a Google website and am also listed on Google maps, so often a direct search for dog friendly will find my listing above other pet friendly sites.

I would definitely recommend at least one normal listing site and not just all pet friendly ones. The pet owners will still be searching various sites, not just pet friendly ones.

[charles cawley]

I would go with the larger occupancy let as long as you get certain other aspects right. It has the advantage of being able to appeal to more niche markets.

You should be very careful of some booking agencies as they often lock you in, can be very costly and even expect exclusivity so preventing you from setting up your own, independent business.

If you are tempted to use an agency, make certain you can do your own thing at the same time. Beware, as some of the larger ones are well versed at selling to newcomers and extra charges and restrictions often litter the small print.

You may well be up to speed but you might find something useful here: http://www.countryholidaylets.co.uk/lan ... o-pack.htm All the information is on the web and you will not need to send off or contact anybody.

Because there are so many poor cottages, you can make money with quality. Try to avoid listing sites that can submerge good cottages in a mire of poor quality offerings. There are some good ones out there so it is well worth doing your homework.

A good simple web site with good / high quality photographs is absolutely essential.

Good luck.

[kendalcottages]

As wallypott says, there's not really enough information to go on here. You need to factor in costs of renovation, rental income of each, ongoing costs of each (presumably the larger property will take longer to clean, do laundry, etc.) etc.

I wouldn't be too worried by the property for 2 people being a limiting factor necessarily. You might equally find that it offers a greater potential to let year round, so it can be a case of swings and roundabouts...