We are often asked about legal requirements for safety.  These are surprisingly limited for self-catering properties – just the need for an annual gas safety certificate.  We have looked, and not been able to find, any legal requirement for a certificate of safety for your electrical installation, or electrical appliances.  Nor have we found requirements for smoke alarms or fire extinguishers.

In our view properties should have regular safety checks on the electrical installation, appliances should be PAT tested, smoke alarms should be installed and fire extinguishers should be available, especially in kitchens.

We’d be pleased to hear if anyone has identified other regulations

Self Catering is a very ‘hands on business’. As noted, you have to organise to meet the guest (in some form or fashion) at the apartment – which can be done in a variety of ways. The damages deposit is probably a similarly tricky task. Although it is very common practise to ask for a damages deposit before a guest arrives; there appear to be a minority of guests that are quite hesitant about this process. How do we make this part of the process less painless?

The most popular method of taking the damages deposit is to ask it to be paid in cash on arrival. Of course the first question from the guest is: ‘How do I get it back?’ Many of the guests expect the refund to happen just as they are leaving the flat. Is this practical? Not only does it involve the landlord returning on each guests’ departure, but it also means that if a guest were to ‘hide’ a problem, it is unlikely that it would be spotted on a quick inspection of the property. Making this procedure time consuming and not even cost effective. I had one guest move a picture on the wall. When I noticed that it had been moved, I returned it to its original spot, only to find a large hole in the wall. I would have never spotted this on an inspection with the guests on the day of their departure. So guests that book through me, are told (in advance) that a damages deposit is refunded within 14 days of departure. Although most guests are fine with this condition; there are a small minority that complain, and a handful that will not book. I feel it is worth it, as it has limited my exposure to a financial loss. I was wondering what does everyone else do?

Are there landlords that accept some form of credit card waifer, as is commonly done when you book a hotel room? Are there any other suggestions with regards to damages deposit. Although it seems like a very small part of the whole self catering experience; to me it appears to be one of the more time consuming and controversial issues I have with my guests.

Look forward to hear how everyone else handles this matter.

We had an excellent day at the event; the presentation was well attended and generated lots of very interesting questions. Individuals were especially interested in having the flexibility of no six month commitment on their property and having full access themselves.

London holiday lets seminar

On Tuesday evening Janet will be giving an abridged version of the short-term lets presentation at a property seminar run by David Lawrenson, the well-known property expert and author.  Have a look and we hope to see you there!

Having successfully established our web-site in Edinburgh, we now have facilities to advertise London self-catering property.  We’ve done lots of research and discovered that it is very difficult to find self-catering accommodation in London.   Several guests in Edinburgh had mentioned how difficult it was in London, compared to Edinburgh, Paris Rome and other major cities – which we were quite surprised about.

I took my daughter and some friends to London last year and wanted a holiday let apartment.  I discovered exactly what people meant.  There were no dedicated web-sites.  The only advertising sites were global sites – which are really geared up to provide information about Villas for beach type holidays on the Mediterranean or Caribbean.  I had to send out lots of messages – most of which resulted in no reply.  I just couldn’t search on availability, see details and prices and book with any confidence.

This was actually an even worse service than visitors to Edinburgh had before we set up.  Hence us making London our latest destination.

Ideal properties are existing holiday homes, 2nd homes or “pied a terres”.  Properties in city centres, near tourist attractions, conference venues, universities all have a market for people wanting to stay in self-catering accommodation for short (up to a few months) periods.

Properties let as student accommodation from October to June, can be let as holiday lets in the summer.  Existing properties let as 6 month shorthold assured tenancies can be good holiday lets if they are in a suitable location.

Letting their properties as self-catering properties can be very useful for “accidental landlords” to enable them to generate income from their property whilst retaining control and having access to the property themselves.  For example Joe has a nice flat in central London that he bought about 18 months ago.  He’s furnished it well and doesn’t want to sell it just now, even though he’s just been offered a great new job in Manchester.  Whilst he thought letting the flat in London for 6 months, he was worried about the state it would be in after the let completed and  he wants somewhere to stay when he comes down to London to visit family and friends.  He’s decided to let the flat as a holiday let, so it’s only let for a week or so at a time.  It’s cleaned and checked after every visit, and when he wants to coem to London, he simply books it out for himself.