Preparing your holiday home for renting

Be Prepared - Our guide to getting your property ready for letting.

In the first of our series of articles offering advice to holiday home owners, we look at preparing your property for renting...

Before you start advertising your holiday let villa, apartment, boat etc. it's essential to make sure that the property is ready for your paying guests.

On Arrival

The people renting your holiday home will likely have been looking forward to their holiday for weeks or months, and will be putting their hard earned cash in your pocket. If your property is not up to scratch you will have unhappy guests and complaints. They will probably arrive tired and their first impression will be biased by how they feel.

So if they go to the bathroom and there is only a thin roll of toilet paper and no soap they may well slip into a complaining mindset - which could last the entire holiday.

However if your guests are met with a bottle of local wine on the table, some fresh bread, milk in the fridge and maybe even some wild flowers on the table you will have made a good first impression - and first impressions count!

Any problems that arise thereafter will not be seen as your unwillingness, or lack of interest, more just a slip up.

Slip ups are much more easily tolerated, your guests may even tell you about them in a helpful way if they mention them at all.

The simplest way to approach the task of getting your property ready to rent is to view it objectively, and ask yourself 'Would I be happy to spend my holiday here...?'

Make a list of potential improvements that you would like to see if YOU were using the property for your holiday, and decide which of these improvements are essential, and which can be 'lived with'.

Get Stuck In!

Some jobs are smaller than you think. For example, if the scuffed bottom of the wall in the hall has depressed you for years it may have the same effect on your guests...

So use your guest as a motivational force, get out that paint brush and just do it! It won't take half as long as you thought it would do and it will take less effort than you expected it to.

You will also feel better for it!

Cover the small things as well as the large. If you know there is a bottle opener but it is the one you have kicked out of your own home because it is dificult, old or ready to break you may have saved a pound / euro / dollar or two not buying a new one, but it may well be the extra niggle for you guests that pushes them into complaining and these little things will add up to the overall impression and may determine whether you get return business or not!

Of course it is not necessary to buy the best of everything, find a happy medium.

It may be a good idea to have a 'trial run' with friends or family testing your property. This can iron out many potential problems.

Talking of irons, are you providing one? It is one of the most asked after appliances. It is also the appliance that, believe it or not, has a strong impression. So take the time to get a new cover for the ironing board to save people from looking at the stains and scorches of past users, and consider if a pre World War I iron is suitible for a holiday home like yours...

Think about the needs of the people who will be staying

For example, if you have a two bedroomed apartment with a sofa bed, you could have up to six people staying. Do you have enough seating in the living room for six? Enough crockery and cutlery? Enough glasses, tea spoons, teatowels? A large enough dining table? Six chairs on the patio...?

Not a dumping ground.

It is very common and very easy to do - using your guest house to house all the bits and peices of furniture from your own home that are 'just too good to throw away' but not quite in keeping with your own home.

A quality chair that doesn't suit your newly painted sitting room at home may be too good to throw away but when you put it with granny's old chair, the sofa out of your daughter's college days apartment and the Easy Boy recliner your neighbours dumped on you you end up with a guest house that looks exactly what it is, a place on the cheap that houses your inability to get rid of things.

Even if the furniture all matches and is of good quality but has been rescued from Grandpas house and is all circa 1950, unless your guest house is themed 1950 retro and everything matches that date and you sell it on this quality, the 1950 suite will look just plain old and your guests will feel they have payed out for little return.

New furniture of a reasonable quality can be increasingly found very easily. One trip to Ikea, for example, will fulfil your every need.

But a word about Ikea - one of the reasons people come away on holiday is because they feel a need for a 'change'. There's a good chance thay have Ikea products in their own home. Recognising Ikea products in your photograph may, on some level, feel too familiar to give them the break they need.

My advice on Ikea is if there is something big you need to replace then by all means go to Ikea but dress up the rest of your room in local items to give it a feel of the area rather than a flat pack show room.

So back to the main point, give some thought to furnishing your property and don't just use furniture thats available because it is available. Try to think of your holiday home as a business and that any money you spend is an investment that can bring you both fanancial returns and reduction in your stress through the lack of complaints.

Some things can be done very cheaply.

If your sofa is just a little tired looking invest in a set of cushions that look new and smart. If you choose a brighter colour than your sofa the eye will be drawn to them leaving the sofa mostly unnoticed.

Create a feeeling of luxury in the bedroom by investing in a couple of over stuffed cushions and pop then behind the pillows when you make the bed up in a 'shop display' fashion.

Matching lamps either side of the bed also create a good impression. If the carpet is a little tired invest in some rugs.

New bathroom mats make a big difference especially if you can splash out (no pun intended) and buy some really deep fluffy ones.

If you are providing towels it is absolutely essential that they are scrupulously clean. You may know that a particular stain was where it touched another item in the wash but your guests don't. What would your reaction be if an hotel, for example, laid out discoloured or faded towels for your use?

Consider the cost of regularly replacing towels into your accounts as just part of the business. Cheap, new and clean is better than expensive, old and stained.

Does it work?

If you have something in your guest house make sure it works. The expresso machine may look shiny and high tech but does it work as it should?

Does the extrator fan work in the bathroom? Does the washing machine walk across the floor when spinning? If you have something in your guest house that should work ensure that it does or remove it!

A guest cannot complain about a dodgy expresso machine if there isn't one.

Some things you will only know about if you actually use the guest accomodation, such as does the shower work with enough power and the tray drain freely? This takes us back to asking friends or relations to stay for a trial run.

If you have done your preparation you can afford to leave a comments book that is designed to help you improve the accomodation you offer.

If you do provide one try not too see it as a 'complaints' book, you have put it there for your needs to improve what you offer and so decrease your stress and increase your income.

Once you have got everything ready it's time to think about advertising...

Agree? Disagree? Please contact us by email to comment on this article! info@dreamHolidayRental.com

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