BIG !! enquiry...lend me your ears please

[Alan Knighting]

Gino,

What are other people's thoughts on this?

As someone who regularly lets on a longer term basis I have one or two thoughts.

The first one is that I don’t regard 4 to 6 weeks as long term at all, particularly when it only involves the High Season. I regard it as a long holiday and if its “in season� I offer my normal holiday rates. Round here given time July and August will sell, there’s no reason to offer discounts. Joanna is so right! You negotiate a special rate for 6 weeks and the enquiry becomes one for 1 or 2 weeks, but at the special rate? No thank you.

The second one is that if I am going to have someone here for a long time I want to know everything possible about the tenant, within reason of course; I don’t need e.g. their grannies’ maiden names. If there is any reluctance to give information on the part of the potential tenant I suspect there is something to hide.

Good luck with this one but I think it will disappear.

Fluffy

[ginelli]

Following Joanna's excellent advice I emailed him asking for more information. This is the reply:

"Hi Gino,

No offense taken by your questions - I have been a landlord myself and
know what it's like to invest time, effort and money in a property only
to have it destroyed by negligent tenants.

I am American, my wife is Scottish, both in our 40s and we have 4
children aged 6 - 14. We are both administrators in education and have
lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates for the past 16 years. We
may be joined by my parents (both retired teachers) for 1 - 2 weeks and
that's why we want a property that sleeps 8.

We are looking for a place to stay on our summer holidays - we get 6-8
weeks off in the summer and need to escape the heat of the Middle East.
We tend to alternate our summers between Europe and the U.S. - this year
Europe. Our desire is a location that offers an active vacation
(cycling, horse riding, walking, beach etc.) as well as great food and
wine.

I came across your property on the holidaylettings.co.uk website and was
interested in its location and high standard of finishing.

Please feel free to ask anything else.

Regards,

XX "

I feel bad about posting this still under scam enquiries because it concerns me less now. What I would like to ask you is whether I get him to pay the normal security deposit (£100, plus £50 for each extra week) or, as advised, to still ask for a full week's rent (£600!!) for every week he rents.

[la vache!]

It isn't a scam Mario, but you need to ask yourself if you can afford to give a discount for these weeks as you will fill them anyway with people who are willing to pay the full price. You could let out your garden shed in August in France and charge for it!

[Alan Knighting]

Gino,

I was wrong. This one is shaping up as something very genuine.

Susan’s quite right about High Season in France but if you are able to avoid the hand-over days and the weekly cleaning and laundry then perhaps a small discount would be appropriate but only if they book for the full 4-6 weeks.

Fluffy

[Giddy Goat]

I did feel this one smelled genuine and I'm glad it is - they sound like a nice family, so I hope they go ahead and book Gino.

Security deposits for long lets came up when I had punters for a 6-week stay recently. Normally I ask for a deposit of £250 per week of stay, as the house is quite large, but was advised that for a longer let this might be a bit crippling - so I ended up asking for £400 for the period, which is just over a quarter that amount.

Not sure if that helps on the security deposit issue

[ginelli]

Yes, it does help GG but I'm wondering, was that rent in jul and aug where potentially there's a lot to lose in the event of a cancellation? Did you give a discount and how much?

[Guest3]

Gino - Iam really pleased that this enquiry turned out to be genuine!

I would suggest taking a £500 damage deposit if he is booking 4 weeks or more.

[Giddy Goat]

Yes, it does help GG but I'm wondering, was that rent in jul and aug where potentially there's a lot to lose in the event of a cancellation? Did you give a discount and how much?

The booking deposit I request is for 25% of the cost of the holiday. That's a common figure, but the booking was an off-peak one, and the woman turned out to be an estate agent - this came as no surprise, as she was seriously good at negotiating, and got the price down to a ridiculously low level which also included heating and logs etc. And they paid in full.

Fortunately they were really appreciative, looked after the place very well, and didn't go overboard with the heating.

We were talking at cross purposes Gino, because when I referred to 'security deposit', I meant damage deposit; normally you'd request this when the clients pay the balance. I ask for £250 per week of stay, but that's a bit crippling for a longer rental - so I requested £400 for the whole 6 weeks. They were a couple and were there mostly on their own, but perhaps it should have been a bit more, as Crystal has suggested..

[Partridge]

How about asking for the smaller damage deposit as suggested by GG but maybe asking for the full payment say 10 weeks before instead of the normal 4/6/8 that most people do. This may give you more protection against an unwanted 'long' cancellation during peak season. I would be happy to do this if asked and understood the reason why.

[ginelli]

Thanks again everyone. I'm going to email him now. Will let you know how it goes

[Big Sis..]

Hi All,

Thats odd because I have a 6 week booking in March/April which I was quite glad to have.. 4 weeks 1 house 2 weeks next door...
.gave a discount being slow season...Got a extra damage deposit and then asked for the total 10 weeks before[instead of my usual 8]
Which he was happy with and which Ive already received it just seems odd because I was wondering about getting the money earlier and 10 weeks came to mind...so great[or not ] minds think alike

[KathyG]

Yes, it does help GG but I'm wondering, was that rent in jul and aug where potentially there's a lot to lose in the event of a cancellation? Did you give a discount and how much?

Gino,

I don't think potentially that there is a lot to lose - it's still only January and a lot of people haven't even thought about holidays yet.

Last year was our first year of renting and we didn't start advertising till the middle of July but still we were amazed to get the whole of the school holidays booked!!

So I don't think you have anything to worry about from that respect.

What a fabulous booking - hope it works out for you!

Kathy

PS - I charge 25% deposit to confirm the booking and would be inclined to do the same even for the length of this booking - you will have no problem booking these weeks in the months to come!

[ginelli]

Damn, why do things have to get complicated ?

I've just had another enquiry which overlaps with this long one. Here it is:

"Name: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Email: xxxxx
Telephone: xxxxxxxxxxxx
Group size: Adults: 3 Children: 0
Requesting availability: arriving on 04 Aug 2007 and leaving on 18 Aug 2007

please could you confirm if your house is still available on the above dates and
what parking arrangements are. Many thanks.



Please reply to this holidaymaker even if you cannot fulfil the booking."
..................................................................

I emailed the guy in the UAE to explain the situation, that I didn't want him to think I was pressurizing him. So I included the new enquiry (with names deleted of course) and asked if he could let me know in the next couple of days. This is the reply:

"No problem - we have a short list of options and will probably make a decision
this weekend. Please do not give up a confirmed booking on my account. My
understanding is the first person to confirm with a deposit gets the booking. I
will let you know one way or the other once we make a decision. Thanks for
letting me know. "

"Probably this weekend" is about 5 or more days, in which time I could lose the new enquiry. What would you do, o experienced ones?

Thanks

[la vache!]

Do what the guy in the UAE says - if this 2nd enquirer wants to book and can confirm it quickly, take it - you can't afford to provisionally book something for someone who is 'considering other options' anyway. Don't worry that it is for a shorter period, you will get bookings for July and August definitely.

[debk]

Yes, yes, move ahead with the second enquiry! Nothing is confirmed until money is in hand... and the first fellow has made it clear that he isn't interested enough to move faster for you. (Which was very civil on his part.)

Congrats on the enquiries! We don't normally get moving until Feb/March.
debk