Our recommendations for setting date ranges for high and low seasons are:

Our recommendations for setting date ranges for high and low seasons are:

I struggled to understand what we had to do for our holiday lets, so called the help line.  It took a long time!! So to try and prevent you having to hang on to the phone for ages, here’s what I found out.

For the holiday let properties, we have to complete sections H4 to H12 and all the V questions which are on the back page of the form.  The H questions are about the property and the V questions about the temporary visitors.  My plan is to complete the forms online – unless I get stuck!  The web-site is http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/en/.

Let us know how you get on.

All the best

Janet

photo credit: {Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}

The recent weather is causing difficulties for many people.  We have seen many more requests for refunds as a result of people not being able, or not wanting to risk, travelling.

This is a tough position and no-one wants to lose out: guests want a refund, but the owner of a holiday let property wants to be paid for a booking.  Unforeseen events of this type are the reason we recommend people take out travel insurance.  The Time today has a Q&A about the current difficulties which advises people to try and recover lost accommodation costs through insurance.  I do agree with this approach.

What’s your experience and what line are you taking?

We are considering updating the pricing module to try and make it easier to use and to provide more flexibility and facilities.  We’d be very keen to hear what you woudl like to see in the pricing module.  Would you like to see :

monthly prices

weekend pricing – if so what days would it apply – Friday, Saturday and Sunday?

last minute discounts

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

A further complication, which is a major issue in Edinburgh particularly, is differential pricing by date.  What are the times when you can charge higher prices – commonly in Edinburgh the festival, Hogmanay, the Marathon weekend and some rugby weekends – and when do you need lower prices because there are fewer visitors?  You need to decide how much extra you can charge in the high season and how much you are prepared to charge in lower seasons.

Our advice is that you need to have your pricing worked out for at least a year ahead.  Now in August 2010 we are getting enquiries from people who want to book August 2011.  After any event we find people who want to book for the next year.   They have either loved their accommodation and want to secure it for next year, or hated it and want some thing better next year!

The proposal is to retain special tax rules for furnished holiday lettings, but the rules proposed are more stringent than the existing rules.   Specifically it is proposed that:

• properties should be available for holiday letting for 210 days (as opposed to the current 140 days) per year
• properties should be actually let as a holiday let for 105 days (as opposed to the current 70 days) per year
• losses can only be offset against other furnished holiday lets rather than any trading activity.

Longer lets of more than 31 days for 155 days per year appear to be accepted for properties designated as furnished holiday lets.

So if you are letting your properties as short term or holiday lets full-time, as many of us do, these rules will be less of a change than for people who let short term for some of the year and have longer lets for the rest of the year.

As usual we’d love to hear your views.

We regard problem guests as those that upset neighbours, leave the property damaged or very dirty, or are just unreasonable.   There are guests who will hold noisy parties, be offensive to owners or neighbours and we suspect some have operated as prostitutes out of holiday let properties.

Sometimes we can spot a  problem, because a landlord has said they have had a problem with a given guest and if we see them trying to book again, we will tell the landlord who is at risk.  It’s not always easy as the same people will try  and book under different names.  At other times, people can be unreasonable during the enquiry process – in which case we get worried, and will warn potential landlords.

After a complaint from a neighbour, we became suspicious of single ladies who were being booked under other names.  They were invariably bookings with an arrival in the next day or few days, for a week often with a possibility of an extension of an extra week.  We suspect these people were running some form of business, which contravenes the terms and conditions of our properties.  Now, we simply don’t take these bookings.

What do you regard as a problem guest?  Have you any hints and tips for us or other landlords in spotting them?  How do you deal with people who cause difficulties?