Fixed week or flex?

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.
fryup
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Joined: Wed May 30, 2018 6:25 pm
Location: Dartmoor/ Devon/ UK
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Fixed week or flex?

Post by fryup »

Hi all

We've just gone live on air bnb with our recent converted barn. Currently building website using vacationsoup template and hbook. Also just finishing off HA register. Didn't like booking.com as they force instant book and only want one agent with instant book (air bnb) so no mix ups and don't like BC charges!

We only listed 5 days ago and have 3 and half weeks booked but probably mainly because we opted for air bnb suggested 20% discount for our 1st 3 rentals to get up and running so shall see how it goes now!

Anyway we're really struggling deciding how to setup change over days and fixed bookings. At moment have summer Fri to Fri 7 day bookings with rest year mon or Fri check I 3 night min.

Does this sound reasonable or should we consider opening up the flexability alot more and hoping the inevitable gaps will fill but that it will attract more bookings?

Kind of hinges on hearing back from our cleaning company on their availability to do full changeover.

Anyway an thoughts appreciated for us newbies.

https://abnb.me/MSFv0T5HtN

Cheers Phil.
newtimber
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

If you're with any of the larger companies like Airbnb, then fixed changeover days don't work very well. You can only specify one fixed changeover day and a minimum stay. There is nothing to stop someone instantly booking an 8 day stay, forcing you to have a large gap in your calendar as the remaining days are unavailable.

The other problem is that they force guests to put in their stay dates and don't allow any flexibility. So if guests put in a Saturday to Saturday, you won't show up at all if your fixed changeover is a Friday even though they might have been prepared to alter their dates had they known.

The only way round this is to have your website with cheaper prices for your Friday-Friday bookings and have more expensive prices with the flexible changeover days to use with the large listing sites. You could mention in your listings that people should send a message for a special offer for a Friday-Friday stay. You can send the quote via the listing site so they still get their service charge which is all they are worried about.
Giraffe
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Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:10 am
Location: Cornwall, England

Post by Giraffe »

Welcome fryup. Your first hurdle is the adaptability of your cleaners. During the summer months mine will only do the changeover on the one set day each week - Sat in my case. Good, reliable cleaners are incredibly difficult to find in my area so I stick with mine as I am 230 miles away.

I only do "whole weeks" on TA and OD/HA as I find their calculation of charges too complicated to deal with (probably my age!!). Each changeover costs £250 (cleaners + lawn cutting + bin collection) so part weeks are relatively very expensive. And as newtimber says, if someone books 8 days then I am left with a huge gap. But if you have flexible cleaners then a lot of your problems are solved.

Mine isn't the ideal way to run a FHL business. Flexibilty and cost of cleaning is a major factor for me. But now I am getting the majority of bookings outside of the OTA's who are just not delivering the bookings I used to get from them - only one from each this year!

So my conclusions would be - initially don't rely on HA too much, but stick with Airbnb and your own advertising so as to be as flexible as possible in your circumstances.

Good luck with your venture.
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loveka
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Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:32 am

Post by loveka »

We have complete flexibility on air b and b- we only specify 3 day maximum stays.

In August, we have 4 empty days that won't sell- all single days. So we have 'lost' £600.

We probably would have sold August had we gone for a specific changeover day. However, our cleaners are happier as it means they get more work.

However, our changeover costs £200. So this is cutting into our profits considerably...

We just had a 3 day booking. I day (£125 )went on the changeover. We charge a cleaning fee but only £75. So we made very little (after mortgage etc)

I don't think there is an ideal!
newtimber
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Joined: Sat Nov 24, 2012 5:57 pm
Location: Brighton
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Post by newtimber »

loveka wrote: In August, we have 4 empty days that won't sell- all single days. So we have 'lost' £600.

We probably would have sold August had we gone for a specific changeover day. However, our cleaners are happier as it means they get more work.

However, our changeover costs £200. So this is cutting into our profits considerably...

We just had a 3 day booking. I day (£125 )went on the changeover. We charge a cleaning fee but only £75.
I don't think there is an ideal!
It seems a little strange to charge a cleaning fee of £75 if it actually costs you £200. If you are pricing per day, then you'd normally have significantly higher prices per day than you would per week to take account of the empty one days and the cleaning costs.
loveka
Posts: 88
Joined: Fri Aug 19, 2016 10:32 am

Post by loveka »

The reason for the cleaning fee is to keep the daily price down. We are experimenting at the moment as it seems the price for a house like ours varies wildly!

We have another cottage with a local agency. We pay the same for a changeover for 3 days or a week so short breaks can sometimes end up making £60! However, they get us 40 plus bookings a year so worth it.

I think different agencies definitely have different clients, with a totally different cost breaking point.
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