What I can do for you
If you have read my guide so far and feel like you want to do it all for yourself then go for it! I truly believe it will be a better way to run your holiday let than leaving it to a big agency or by listing it on only one of the big OTAs.
I would recommend the following.
- Pilchard for your domain (£6-£18 per year for a domain)
- Hostinger for your webhosting (£6 per month for hosting)
- OwnerRez for your channel manager (£32 per month paid in dollars so varies with the exchange rate)
- PriceLabs for your dynamic pricing (£16 per month paid in dollars so varies with the exchange rate)
If you are comfortable building your own website and running the software it will cost you about £54 a month (£650 a year) to have all of these things set up. The savings in agency fees and improved pricing should pay for this on its own. Your occupancy rates should also go up and you will have control over your own deposits.
However, if you have read it and are thinking ‘I want to do this, but I just don’t have the time’ or ‘I want to do this, but I just don’t get on with computers’ then I can help.
How it will look
This is my property on all of its listing sites. I can do the same for yours.
I will run the virtual side (including all the above IT costs) of your listing for you for a set fee of 5% per month.
For this you will get;
- A working website with your own domain (eg www.yourchoiceofname.co.uk). Similar to windmillrentals
- 2 working e-mail addresses link to your domain eg (owner@yourchoiceofname.co.uk)
- Automatic e-mails to your cleaners so they can get instant notification of new stays.
- Integration and set up with Airbnb, Booking.com and VRBO calendars at and API standard.
- Deposits held before the guests stay and returned afterwards.
- A booking form collecting all the legally required information before a guests stay.
- Automatic messaging to the guests. (One-off messaging will still have to be handled by yourself).
- Access to your own login at OwnerRez for your property
- A monthly report detailing how your property is performing
A simple comparison
By switching to my system, you should benefit in 3 main ways
Better Occupancy
You will most likely get higher occupancy than you do already. My place is in a seasonal area. Last year my occupancy was 94% through the main season and 60% across the whole year.
Better Nightly Rate
You will most likely get a higher average nightly rate than you do already. I target a £150 average but I can get between £98-£195 depending on dynamic factors.
Lower Agency Fees
Even if you don’t benefit from better occupancy and better nightly rates you will still benefit from lower agency fees (including my fees and IT costs). You should be able to increase your profits by approximately 8% or £3000+ per year*.