Lay My Hat

Can anyone help me figure out longer stay/winter let pricing? We have a 2 bed garden flat, sleeps 3 adults + child, dog friendly. We usually rent it for £50/night, £60 at peak times. We've had a few lets of several weeks and have a week rate of £250. Over winter heating costs would obviously be quite significant. I was thinking of a 40% monthly discount so between £600 & £700/month, does that seem reasonable?

Hi, We often get slightly longer winter lets. We tend to offer a discounted rate but ask the guest to pay all energy bills at cost. We have had some guests be stupid with the heating which is electric so this has protected us from a massive bill.

For our similar property that we would let at £450 for a week I think we managed £200-£250 a week with the guest paying the energy cost.

We are thinking hard if this is a good thing to do as we are now often getting airBnB bookings in the winter from people working locally. These bookings are at a decent rate. There is always more repair and trouble with a longer let, they always seem to take things and leave even leave odd things behind.

Hi Emmavix
To me a 40% reduction seems too cheap..
Some years ago I think I gave a 10% or 12% reduction for a longer let!!
Jenny

I agree with ianh100. Reduce the weekly rate a little, but ask them to pay the utility bills.

Yes i have just priced up a winter let. Always recharge utilities or the guests will heat the house to 30 degrees, then use the air con to cool it down.

Asking them to pay bills is a great idea but annoyingly we don't have separate metering. Gas is shared with our other holiday cottage and electricity is also shared with our house

If you were to charge for energy use you will need an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) for the house.

Good point to consider from Drax.

If the guests are living there (eg caravan owners who have to vacate for a month) why not look on Rightmove for prices for similar properties rented out, then add on what you feel is reasonable for bills.
There is also a possible deduction of a weekly changeover costs to you, depending upon whether or not you will be providing linen etc.
It may be a good idea to have a cleaner go in even if less regularly, just to make sure there are no surprises for you.

I thought it might be helpful to tag this information onto this thread, as we are going into the winter months.

I have just received a small business rate relief review form for holiday lets from my council.

As well as the form, the accompanying information states, “ for a property to be classed as a holiday let and liable for business rates, the property must be available for letting commercially for short periods totalling at least 140 days per year.........”Short periods” is normally understood to mean periods of a month or less. A property that is let on a long term basis would become liable for council tax”

As the local authority would gain additional income from receiving the council tax, this letter would appear to me to caution anyone away from considering a let of a month or longer.

Interestingly, I have also had to include the websites I advertise on and information about the number of days (not nights, which is confusing as owners tend to think of nights with regard to occupancy) commercially let for last year and states they may ask to see further information.

(I hasten to add, that this is a standard letter and form and not something sent just to me!)

zebedee wrote:I thought it might be helpful to tag this information onto this thread, as we are going into the winter months.

I have just received a small business rate relief review form for holiday lets from my council.

As well as the form, the accompanying information states, “ for a property to be classed as a holiday let and liable for business rates, the property must be available for letting commercially for short periods totalling at least 140 days per year.........”Short periods” is normally understood to mean periods of a month or less. A property that is let on a long term basis would become liable for council tax”

As the local authority would gain additional income from receiving the council tax, this letter would appear to me to caution anyone away from considering a let of a month or longer.

Interestingly, I have also had to include the websites I advertise on and information about the number of days (not nights, which is confusing as owners tend to think of nights with regard to occupancy) commercially let for last year and states they may ask to see further information.

(I hasten to add, that this is a standard letter and form and not something sent just to me!)

You also need let 105 nights pa to qualify as a holiday let for tax purposes.

Jonathan

Yes to the 105 nights, but the point I clearly did not make sufficiently was that if you accept a booking of one month (28 days? 29 days? 30 days? 31days??) then you will be expected to pay council tax on the property and lose you business rate relief.

Several queries have come to the forum about longer lets, particularly in winter months and it is clear now what the implications are.

The difficulty you have with longer lets is that they aren't "holiday lets" and are therefore not "excluded tenancies". This means that you have to go to court to get possession and this can take months - ruining the holidays of the guests who have already booked with you for the summer.

Use their pricing model and learn what the market will bear. You can always dump them at no notice or tweak their pricing suggestions. You may not make much money but consider it as a marketing spend to understand consumers better at this time of year

Can't you just renew the contract on a 30 day basis? That's what they do here to get around tenant protection.

Mouse
x

Mousse, the local authorities are so desperate for cash, I wouldn’t risk it. Together with the courts being so reluctant to evict people, you would be in dire straights if anyone could suggest that your holiday home was their only residence for whatever reason (having a house built or renovated etc).