If you were anything like us years ago, you might have gotten a little lost in the world of letting – with options like short-let, medium-let, long-let and flexible letting, it can be easy to get confused.
But a decade later, we now consider ourselves the property let experts and have even founded our own company (Hello Guest), to help homeowners everywhere get the most out of their properties or second homes.
To begin, what is flexible letting?
Flexible lettin g means combining different kinds of let that allows you to maximise occupancy rates and earnings throughout the year.
Examples of flexible letting include:
- Holiday letting for a few nights
- Allowing longer stays or visits up to three weeks
- Taking on corporate reservations for several weeks
- Multiple month tenancies
What’s so good about flexible letting, though?
📷
London | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Liverpool | Brighton | Manchester
Hosting your property on sites like Airbnb and Booking.com can provide your family with a substantial second income that can help you increase your returns.
Flexible letting leads to increased revenues simply because shorter stays attract higher nightly rates, and travelling business guests are often happier to pay higher prices for the taste of home comforts.
Longer-term bookings may guarantee generated income over the winter and spring months, where demand for short-lets quietens. The added flexibility here allows you to enjoy and reap the rewards of both letting worlds.
The beauty of flexible letting is that it’s FLEXIBLE
The proof is in the name; flexible let’s provide homeowners with better flexibility – so if your circumstances change, you’ll have better control over your home.
- Need your home to live in? Move back.
- Trying to sell your home? Earn rent in the meantime.
- Have guests in town? Use your second property as you see fit.
📷
Very few homeowners use this strategy
Letting your own property and managing everything in between can be difficult, and it often means that homeowners miss out on savvy techniques to make the most out of their assets.
Many homeowners tend to stick with traditional longer tenancies, whereas some make the permanent move to just holiday letting. Perhaps because it’s more straightforward?
Combining the two letting systems is an innovative strategy that ensures your earn potentially earn the maximum revenue your home could attract.
Those forward-thinking enough to notice this gap in the market may feel a bit overwhelmed knowing how to get started – but that’s where property management companies like us get involved.
We’ll do it all for you for one monthly fee, whether keeping your home clean and safe or communicating and vetting holiday guests.
📷
But is there really a need? What about the current demand?
There’s a new increasing demand for mid-length bookings as the popularity of Airbnb holidays in the UK soars.
We can see this evidence also showing up in hire companies like Zipcar, who see an increasing demand for their assets on a part-time basis.
The economy has also changed with the rise of flexi-hours that allow people to work flexibly and from anywhere in the world. And how people use accommodation has changed too – people like to move around, so the traditional 12-month locked-in tenancies don’t work for everyone anymore.
Potential customers include; travellers, work placements, those on training days, longer-term, travelling tourists, friends visiting friends, family visiting family, students, digital nomads, adult-gap year people, those moving houses and those rebuilding their primary residences.
📷
WAIT, sourcing more bookings, cleaning and communication more often takes extra work
Don’t dive just straight in – all of the components needed to offer short lets and holiday lets require a lot of extra work – and whilst there is a significant payoff, there needs to be a level of honesty about what additional input you can put in.
We recommend using an Airbnb host partner, like us, who can do all the hard work for you. We’ll help build listings, research pricing and ensure you target and attract the right audiences at the right times.
Opting for letting agents like Foxton or Savills, who have strong name recognition and experience, may be more expensive, as well as a lack of a personal touch and a slowness to adapt to a short-let market. They have limited resources they can use to manage guest communication and check-ins, unlike HelloGuest, which specialises in Airbnb-style lets.
We do it all – short and long-lets across the UK in prime locations like London, Edinburgh, Bristol, Dublin and many more.
📷
Letting Your Property on Airbnb can be Expensive if You’re Not Careful
Whilst letting your home on sites like Airbnb can be a profitable investment, landlords and property owners often underestimate all the others costs involved.
As property letters ourselves, here are some of the expenses you might not see coming. Because short-letting your home is not as simple as sitting back and watching your income grow. But it can be.
Please enquire about our Airbnb management services and get the most out of renting out your home.
Two types of costs
As a property owner or landlord, you might already be aware of certain costs that come with the title. For us, we’ve broken it down to two types of expenses; the ones you see coming and the kind that just come out of nowhere.
📷
You have mandatory costs
These are things like a Gas Safety Certificate (around £100), which, if you wish to rent a room in your property, will be a legal requirement to have an annual gas safety inspection.
Certain cities have regulations on whether you might need a permit or a license to short-let your property. You can see Airbnb’s details on UK short-term letting here.
Other mandatory costs will involve:
- EPC certificate (around £36)
- Smoke and Carbon Monoxide Alarms
- Potential legal fees
Then, you have the circumstantial costs
This can include things like property maintenance. For your home to earn up to its highest potential, you will need to cover maintenance costs like decorating, updating fixtures and ensuring everything is in a good, usable condition.
And as property problems often happen spontaneously, you’ll likely face a call-out fee for emergencies too.
Next, for your Airbnb let to be successful, you will need to ensure a high standard of cleaning, which also comes at a cost. Not to mention the cost of replenishing essentials like toiletries.
Lastly, there may be key exchange costs.
Most Airbnb hosts do not live close to their rental property or are not always available to exchange keys – and leaving the key under the matt is not an option.
Some hosts turn to lockboxes and allow guests a self-check-in process, which again opens up your home to risks.
The solution? Again, an Airbnb Management Service will vet your guests, and check them in and out, so you can continue to do whatever you do best.
Not only will this keep your property safe and secure, but it will save you any additional costs.
📷
What most homeowners do not consider
Another cost factor, which some landlords or homeowners may not initially think of, is downtimes.
Unless you’re an expert in property listing optimisation, likely, your property will not always be fully booked, which may result in the property being vacant for extended periods.
Not only will you continue to cover the costs, but not be able to profit from your empty home or room either.
If you want your property to receive multiple bookings and be full 90% of the time, it is often best to opt for an Airbnb Management Company that can manage this for you.
Not only do their services cover many of the costs mentioned above, but they can also help ensure your home remains profitable.
Airbnb management in:
London | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Liverpool | Brighton | Manchester
📷
Do you see how quickly everything adds up?
The costs of short-letting your home can quickly add up if you go it alone. This takes money out of your profit and will rely on you being fully booked to earn a substantial income.
Short-letting on Airbnb is where we started and discovering all these costs was new to us too. As working professionals, too, managing a property felt like a second job.
That’s why we started Hello Guest, to make it easier for people like us who wanted to earn a second income without jumping through lots of hoops.
So let us help make it easy for you. Cut out all the extra costs and go with our Airbnb Management Services, which include listing optimisation, cleaning, property maintenance, toiletry replenishment, and much more.
Pay just one fee (12%), sit back and relax. We’ll do the rest.
Contact us to learn more or get started.
📷
Want to Earn More with Airbnb Without the Hassle?
Just like a hotel, your Airbnb business relies on bookings to survive. And as you might have figured out already, being a host on Airbnb can be challenging.
You have to respond to guests, check them in and out, optimise your listing, professionally clean your home and maintain it as well as lots of admin in between.
Those who do this all well can turn Airbnb into a career. However, it can be challenging to get the ball rolling if you already have a job and a family.
So what can do you do? Do you want more bookings, extra money and no hassle? Here’s how.
📷
Make sure your home is up to scratch
Your space needs to be reset – less of a home, but more like a vacation rental; set up and ready for guests.
Your property must be cleaned to a professional standard between guests, which can be time-consuming.
Before big seasons, expert, high-earning Airbnbers will evaluate what furniture needs repairing, what supplies and linens need to be purchased, and the cleanliness of the interiors and exteriors.
Some hosts hire professional cleaners, but this adds a fee that will come from your profit (not to mention others like property maintenance, licenses, etc.).
Therefore, choosing an Airbnb management agency that takes care of all the details for you is likely better. Especially with Airbnb’s newly launched Enhanced Clean feature that was introduced following Covid-19.
Here at Hello Guest, we work with local cleaners and maintenance men and replenish the essentials between guests. We include all this in one fee of 12%.
Saving you money, admin and a headache!
📷
Be visible, be found, be chosen
You may think you might have the best listing ever – and your home could be second to none, but if you’re not discoverable, how can anyone book?
With millions of listings worldwide, it’s sadly not as simple as plopping your listing on there and hoping someone will book.
Airbnb’s algorithm aims to show users listings they will most likely book – that is, how they make their money. Furthermore, Airbnb often favours hosts who take good care of their guests.
The secret to increasing your Airbnb occupancy? Get yourself on the first page.
But how? Well, you can learn the secrets behind Airbnb listing optimisation and take the time to test it out for yourself – or you can cut to the chase and hire professionals to do it for you.
As an Airbnb management service, HelloGuest can not only manage your listing, optimise it and handle your bookings but completely manage your Airbnb property for you.
Airbnb management in:
London | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Liverpool | Brighton | Manchester
📷
Communicate faster
If you’re aspiring to be a Superhost, it will be vital for you to respond to guests quickly.
For example, acknowledging someone’s bookings immediately will be crucial for the customer’s peace of mind.
One of the requirements for becoming a Superhost is responding to 90% of new inquiries or reservations 24 hours. And whilst automated templates and emails can be helpful, we cannot help but feel this misses the personal touch.
Not only this, but consistent communication is critical – this applies even once a holiday goer has booked.
By constantly communicating with guests, you encourage the likelihood of more positive reviews.
The more reviews you get, the more potential guests learn about your space and feel more encouraged to stay.
Our management service here at Hello Guest is guest communication, and we take it very seriously.
We’ll be there to respond to your guests and any potential guests immediately – we’ll get your responses up faster and help increase the number of bookings your properties gains.
Together, we can be unstoppable. Contact us here.
📷
Holiday Let Revenues Rise by 93.25% in Less than a Year
Airbnb is more popular than ever before.
Bouncing back pretty strongly following the pandemic; their second-quarter revenue almost quadrupled to $1.3 billion from $335 million, which is a 299% increase year over year.
Gross booking value climbed to $13.4 billion, blowing past analysts’ expectations of $11.56 billion.
That’s a 320% increase year over year and a 37% improvement over the second quarter of 2019.
Nights and experiences booked rose 197% year over year to 83.1 million, though they were down 1% from the same period in 2019. Data source.
BUT WHAT HAS THIS MEANT FOR HOLIDAY LET AND PROPERTY OWNERS?
From the table below, we can see that since January this year, homeowner’s revenue has jumped by an impressive 93.25%.
Some impressive stats:
📷
The five best areas in London for Airbnb:
- Camden
- Average Daily Rate: £153
- Occupancy Rate: 77%
- Revenue: £2,558
Best precise locations: Hampstead Heath, Kentish Town Road, Camden Town, St Pancras, Goodge Street, Shorts Garden and Clerkenwell Road.
- City of London
- Average Daily Rate: £159
- Occupancy Rate: 75%
- Revenue: £2,884
Often 0.7% of all properties are booked in London. Popular locations that perform the best are Fleet Street, Chancery Lane, St Paul’s Cathedral, Fenchurch Street and Spitalfields.
- Wandsworth
- Average Daily Rate: £130
- Occupancy Rate: 76%
- Revenue: £1,946
In 2018, Wandsworth was 4% of the overall booked properties in London. The highest performing areas include Battersea Power Station, Nine Elms Lane, Clapham Junction, Wandsworth High Street and Northcote Road.
- Westminster
- Average Daily Rate: £170
- Occupancy Rate: 73%
- Revenue: £2,755
Again in 2018, Westminster made up 14% of all properties booked in London. Best performing areas include Warwick and Ecclestone Squares, Vauxhall Bridge, Brompton Road, Soho, Edgware Road and Hyde Park.
- Kensington and Chelsea
- Average Daily Rate: £165
- Occupancy Rate: 70%
- Revenue: £2,652
Around 8% of all London bookings, best locations within Chelsea and Kensington include Portobello Road, Pembridge Gardens, Cromwell Road, Sloane Avenue and Kensington Olympia.
Airbnb management in:
London | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Liverpool | Brighton | Manchester
📷
What features can add value to your let?
Earn, earn and earn!
Is your property frequently empty? Do you have a second home from which you would like to earn money? Sign up for our Airbnb Management Service in London now.
We make renting your home easy! With the ability to earn thousands every month, we can help you make the most out of your property without ever having to lift a finger.
AIRBNB PROPERTY MANAGEMENT IN LONDON OFFERS:
- Bookings, guest communication and availability management
- Deposits, insurance and paperwork
- Check-in and check-out
- 24/7 monitoring and assistance
- Guest screening and vetting
- Airbnb Listing Optimisation
- Marketing for your properties across various platforms
- Property management, repairs, replenishments and cleaning
Explore our services or get in touch here.
Holiday Let Management Companies vs DIY Management
Do you have a second home that you vacation to? Is it empty much of the time or hard to maintain or clean – especially if you live away from the area?
Holiday Let Management Companies like us make all these problems go away.
Whilst we know that our clients rate our services as helpful, affordable and beneficial, we know that they won’t work for everybody.
For example, it’s a big decision to decide whether you can manage everything yourself, or if an agency should take over.
So we thought we would break it down for you; what are the limitations of going it alone? Are agencies worth it? Find out below…
📷
Quick questions:
- Is holiday letting profitable? During peak season, especially as of late, holiday letting can earn you as much in a week as you would usually earn in a month from regular buy-to-let schemes. Holiday landlords can earn up to 30% more, providing an annual return of 8% (2% more than buy-to-let investments).
- How much is a holiday let management? Traditional agency fees can be around 20-25%, including VAT. However, here at Hello Guest, we charge a 12% fee.
- What do holiday letting agents do? We deal with enquiries, bookings, availability, reviews, complaints, guest communication, check-in and check-out, listing optimisation, property management, cleaning and providing amenities.
Airbnb management in:
London | Edinburgh | Glasgow | Liverpool | Brighton | Manchester
📷
Going it alone
There are a few advantages for those just starting out or wanting to maintain a closer handle on their holiday rental. These include:
- The slight potential for higher earnings: You get to keep 100% of the rental income with no agency fee. However, agencies often increase the number of bookings, so if you do not actively work to promote your property, there is a chance of having smaller returns.
- Ease of entry to the market: With multiple online vacation rental sites that are easy to use, you can upload your property and get it seen by guests instantly. These sites also charge a fee, though.
- Screen guests: You can personally vet all your guests and have the final say on who comes to stay in your second home. However, this can often be time-consuming.
- Flexibility: You set your timetable when you want to be at the property with no restrictions. Although agencies like ours offer homeowners complete flexibility and ownership of their homes.
- Set your rates: As you’ll be directly in charge, you can adapt to the market and offer special deals or discounts. This can help to secure last-minute bookings – whereas an agent could do this for you but would need your approval beforehand.
📷
Cons
- No guarantee of bookings: It’s that simple; running it yourself and doing the best you can do not necessarily mean that you can provide yourself with a steady stream of income.
- It takes a lot of time: For example, holiday rental owners spend on average 9 hours a week marketing their vacation rental and managing their bookings. This does not consider property inspections, repairs, cleaning, tidying, replenishing, guest communication, check-in and check-out, etc. Not to mention the time it will take to the administration work. Essentially it’s like having another full-time job, which can be difficult to keep up with if you have children too. Often DIY holiday let management leads homeowners to work in the evenings, weekends and any extra moment they have.
- Issues can happen anytime: It could be the middle of the night, and your guest might have a problem. You will be required to handle these immediately, so if this is not your only source of income, it might be challenging to help. Property management companies here manage all of this for you and are available to deal with complaints or any problems.
- It’s impractical: Unless you’re based close to your property, managing it yourself will not be practical – especially if there’s an emergency.
- Lack of expertise or experience in the sector: While it may sound easy and simple, it can be a steep learning curve if you’re a newbie to the holiday letting sector. Expect to make mistakes – even costly ones as you find your feet.
- Extra responsibility: If you hire people to help run your holiday let, such as cleaners, gardeners or a receptionist, you will be responsible for their contract, working conditions, health and safety, paying and arranging their taxes with HMRC.
- Competition: Airbnb has 6m rentals worldwide. As more and more holiday rental owners join the competition, it can be challenging to stay competitive. Professional rental agencies have better online distribution models and more properties in their portfolio – they can offer lower costs, commercial experience and marketing prowess.
- Marketing expenses: To be successful, you will need to market and optimise your property listing through marketing and advertising. This can be significant, especially if you’re trying to get established.
📷
Pros and cons of a holiday letting agency
If you’re struggling to decide on what to do, it might be worth seeking advice from those who have tried both ways in the past.
Many of our clients who have tried the DIY management approach and now want to scale their business even further come to us.
Interestingly enough, we started by letting out our property and have done the DIY model ourselves, through much success and from seeing the main difficulties; we created Hello Guest to help homeowners across the country reap more benefits from this lucrative industry.
