round of introductions

Come for a relaxed chat about anything at all and meet your fellow rental owners.
Paul Carmel
Posts: 3836
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
Location: Palma Mallorca & Greece
Contact:

Post by Paul Carmel »

Thank you both for the warm welcome! I am sure I will have lots of questions! In won't mess about honest.
Cheers
PC
sarahk
Posts: 37
Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2017 5:11 pm
Location: Sardinia-Italy
Contact:

Hi everybody

Post by sarahk »

Hi! I'm Sarah and I'm a newbie in this forum ... For sure i'll find some interesting discussions about holiday rentals and issues.
I'm from a wonderful italian Island... Sardinia! I rent my holiday house since 2007 (wow 10th anniversary...) in Sardinia, of course.
Sometimes be a landlord seems to be a bit complicated...
Let's talk about!
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Post by AndrewH »

Welcome, Sarah. You are so right; running a holiday let is not a walk in the park :)
Aphra
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Jun 14, 2017 10:29 am
Location: Caithness, Scotland
Contact:

Post by Aphra »

Hello

I thought it was time I introduced myself because I've been reading the forums here for a while!

I'm Aphra and new to holiday lets. It's the familiar story, we've found a property we've fallen in love with and hope to buy. My husband wants to retire there, but in the meantime it's perfect for holiday lets - or will be once it's redecorated.

I say it's perfect for holiday lets - we are talking to the local tourist board and other holiday letters in the area to find out what works and what doesn't - eg two nights, whole weeks, groups of adults (it's quite a sporty / outdoorsy area) or families.

In the meantime, I've no particular questions that you lovely people haven't answered several times over, and I am learning amazing things with every conversation I read.

All the best

Aphra
russellt
Posts: 353
Joined: Tue Dec 09, 2014 8:03 am
Location: Ivybridge, Devon, UK
Contact:

Post by russellt »

Welcome, Aphra. We probably all lurked for a while. So, now's the time to pitch in. Enjoy.
Web: https://yofftoo.com/property/esmes-cottage
Twitter/Facebook/Instagram: @esmescottage
Kilm
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 4:23 pm

Post by Kilm »

Hi folks!

Just thought I'd drop a quick hello in.

The missus and I had been thinking for ages about getting a bigger house, but after much chat, we decided what's the point of getting into bigger debt for something that gives you no return?

Then one day we saw a property in a place we love that's always great for the tourists and adventure seekers, the good lady said "Should we?", we did and we've now got a lovely two bed bungalow that we get keys for in October and we'll be running as a holiday let.

What a learning curve so far! A lot of niche requirements such as the mortgage type, insurance, but we're almost there.

As we speak, I'm currently perfecting my tablet recipe as the 'welcome gift' for each guest. Hard work, but someone's gotta taste them!
User avatar
CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

Kilm wrote:Hi folks!

Just thought I'd drop a quick hello in.

The missus and I had been thinking for ages about getting a bigger house, but after much chat, we decided what's the point of getting into bigger debt for something that gives you no return?

Then one day we saw a property in a place we love that's always great for the tourists and adventure seekers, the good lady said "Should we?", we did and we've now got a lovely two bed bungalow that we get keys for in October and we'll be running as a holiday let.

What a learning curve so far! A lot of niche requirements such as the mortgage type, insurance, but we're almost there.

As we speak, I'm currently perfecting my tablet recipe as the 'welcome gift' for each guest. Hard work, but someone's gotta taste them!
Welcome to LMH.
Enjoy the journey :)
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
MulesMarinair
Posts: 8
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2017 11:35 am
Location: Scotland

Post by MulesMarinair »

Hi folks
Just wanted to pop in and say Hello before I started posting in other parts of the forum. You'll see from my profile that there aren't many details there. That's because we've only recently decided to (finally) get off the fence and take a punt after many years.
Good thing is, for the most part we have always holidayed in the UK in holiday cottages, so we have experience as guests.
Bad thing is, being creatures of habit and when you find somewhere in a location that works for you when you have young kids, you return as opposed to trying somewhere new.
So tapping into broader experience of others and coming up to speed with expectations of guests in this day and age will be important, which is what attracted me to this forum.

Anyway, I just thought that I'd say Hi and hopefully I'll be able to contribute as much as I initially ask as time goes on.

All the best
MM
Mike&Chrissy
Posts: 30
Joined: Mon Sep 04, 2017 12:27 pm
Location: Selsey, West Sussex

New to the forum

Post by Mike&Chrissy »

Hi everyone,
We're Mike & Chrissy and have an 18th C cottage on the West Sussex coast. We've been letting for a year with Sykes and are now moving as fast as we can to another (local) agency. We found the forum very useful when we were setting up and hope to contribute in future.
Pengman
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:54 pm
Location: Portland, Dorset UK

Post by Pengman »

Doesn’t look like anyone’s popped into the cafe for 4 years now. Guess the paint’s peeling and the coffee’s cold - but if not, I’ll have a large Americano please. ‘White or Black?’ did you say? ‘No such thing as a White Americano’ I reply dismissively. And who asked us Brits if we wanted our coffees Americanised/Italianised anyway? Indeed our whole way of life Americanised?

Enough of the rant. I was in my late 60’s and still working when the last person popped into the cafe although I’d made the decision to close my one man construction related business about that time (late 2017) but had to work my way out of a few outstanding projects before I could. In late 2018 I bought a holiday let which I opened for business in April 2019 having spent about 6 months getting it how I wanted it. Not a full refurb by any means - more of a minor refurb. In late 2019 I finally closed the door on my main business and retired. Although did I? Well not really of course because, as all readers of this forum know, you take your eye off your holiday let at your peril. But in hindsight, it proved a very good move and I was able to move from the income stream of my old business to the combined income stream of my pension and the holiday let income, almost seamlessly. In late 2019 I came close to buying a second holiday let and viewed a couple of properties, but then it dawned on me that having one is a kinda hobby business but having 2 or more is having a full-on business and I didn’t really want that - I wanted to retire. Obviously 2020 brought Covid 19 with it but I appear to have weathered the storm (he say hopefully, grabbing the nearest bit of wood). Maybe Covid is the reason nobody’s popped into the cafe recently.

So here I am in my early 70’s now on my own in this shabby cafe. God, even the cafe in Eastenders has more going for it (I say that having not watched an episode of Eastenders for 10 years). Won’t somebody join me? Oh f**k, the broadband’s just gone down &#@@,,,(n/$[^_**b.............
I came, I saw, I bought it.
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

:D
AndrewH
Posts: 1499
Joined: Thu Sep 12, 2013 1:17 pm
Location: Kefalonia, Greece
Contact:

Post by AndrewH »

Yes, the cafe must be covered in cobwebs. Many of the old hands who used to post there are no longer around. I rather suspect it is because they have retired from the renting business. OH and I are now into our 80's and we too have decided to close down and retire fully at the end of this year. We are now trying to sell our rental villa in Greece.

Looking back, I can't remember ever having guests whom one would classify as 'troublesome'. We have had the odd complaint that this or that isn't working properly, but living as we do not far away, we could fix the problem pretty quickly.
Pengman
Posts: 115
Joined: Mon Apr 22, 2019 4:54 pm
Location: Portland, Dorset UK

Post by Pengman »

Hi AndrewH,

Looks like it's just the two of us. (zebedee popped his head round door but didn't say anything). It's odd - with the advent of Airbnb in 2008?, and other OTAs, one assumes there must be far more holiday lets around than 20 years ago, so why aren't owners tapping into this well of information? I suspect that it's an age thing - youngsters (i.e. anyone under the ge of 60) probably can't be doing with anything as simple and common sensical, as a good old fashioned bulletin board - they're the Twitter generation. I'm in my early 70's and was 68 when I started renting and all I know is LMH's been a font of great information for me. And I like to think I've passed a bit back the other way too.

Good luck with selling in Greece - or 'the Greece' as Shirley Valentine once said :)
I came, I saw, I bought it.
User avatar
CSE
Posts: 4414
Joined: Mon Nov 06, 2006 3:34 pm
Location: Galicia

Post by CSE »

IMHO there is really little need for an intro thread. Most newbies post right away with a question(s). That is what they are here for, a good answer to their question(s).
For a number of reasons Farcebook groups are not so good as this forum. However, they do seem the go get to, because of social media.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
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