maintenance Archives - Independent Vacation Rental Owner

Furnishing and Decorating a Vacation Rental: Top 10 Tips

Furnishing and decorating a vacation rental makes up a large part of the ongoing costs to independent vacation rental owners like ourselves. So we have to balance our spending with one eye on the guest appeal of our choices, and the other on our bottom line. Here are my top 10 tips to help get it right.

1. Who’s it for? Before you start spending on furnishing and decorating a vacation rental property, have a clear idea of your clientele – the type of people your property attracts, their likes and tastes and their expectations. You need to appeal to the demographic of your guests, providing them with the things they may take for granted.

2. See things through your guests’ eyes. What would they like to see and what are they expecting? If your property is near a beach, for example, will they expect beach chairs, sun umbrellas, buckets and spades for the children, a beach buggy etc.

3. Nothing lasts forever. Remember that whatever you put in when furnishing and decorating a vacation rental will get worn, possibly broken or damaged and stained. Guests may not cherish these items as you might, so do not put family heirlooms or favorite furniture into your rental. White carpets are best avoided in rentals where you expect families or large groups.

4. Don’t indulge your own décor fantasies. You may have always hankered after a bedroom with deep red walls and black silk bed sheets but unless you’re out to attract a niche clientele, when decorating a vacation rental play safe with light colored walls to give a sense of cleanliness and spaciousness. Consider painting walls throughout in the same wipe clean emulsion so that scuff marks can be easily touched up after your guests leave.

5. Constantly update. Aim to make regular changes to the décor and furnishings, repainting to a fixed schedule and replacing high wear areas of carpet regularly. And don’t allow any barbeque equipment to look rundown before you replace it. Budget for these replacements. Repeat guests will notice improvements you make and this will be a factor in them choosing to return to your property.

6. Avoid overstuffing with furniture and bric-a-brac. Apart from giving you more to clean and maintain, it can feel cloying for guests – particularly if the furniture is old, heavy or dark. Simplicity is the key if you’re aiming for a sophisticated look.

7. The new or pre-owned dilemma. Financially speaking, it may be tempting to furnish your rental with pre-owned furnishings which can work out cheaper. Some carefully chosen pieces of pre-owned furniture can lend character to a rental but unless you’re aiming for a ‘period’ experience, fresh, new items are more welcome to most guests.

8. See what works best. If you have the necessary budget and a specific design idea for your property it can be great to start with a clean sweep. However, you can still achieve your dream vacation home by degrees. Taking time to see what works and what your guests appreciate, you can modify things over a period, incorporating things that work for your guests. If you can afford it, leave decorating a vacation rental to the professionals.

9. Ask your guests. Find out what your guests think of the décor via a questionnaire. What do they like, what would they like to see? Don’t be afraid to ask if there’s anything they found less appealing. How else will you ever find out that your guests hate that big old brass bedstead which you regard as a treasured antique?

10. Spend time in the property yourself. See how it works from a user’s point of view. Are your decorating skills (or lack of them) apparent? Is there enough equipment? Are the beds comfortable? Is the air conditioning too noisy? Does that new colour in the bathroom really work?

Make Vacation Rental Cleaning and Maintenance a Priority

Man trimming a hedge using an electric trimming tool

Good vacation rental cleaning is vital to the presentation of your property and a reliable and readily contactable maintenance person on call for emergencies is a must. It’s even more important if you live remotely from your property. How do you find the perfect help?

This was the problem facing my brother-in-law, Martin, recently when he and his wife Charlotte decided to buy a vacation rental property in a small Cornish village nearly 300 miles from home in the UK. First thought was to find a local agency to handle everything – the vacation rental cleaning, preparation, ongoing maintenance and emergency cover. Like many first time rental owners with a modestly-sized property, he was not keen on paying out significant amounts of money for this service until he had tested the water and established his rental as an ongoing proposition.

With limited time available, he needed to quickly get in touch with local networks to find his cleaner/housekeeper and maintenance/emergency person. He could trawl local directories, do a limited check on likely prospects for vacation rental cleaning and maintenance, shortlist and interview if he had the time. Instead, being a convivial sort of person well used to living outside big cities, he made straight for the village social center: the local pub.

In a very short time, my highly sociable brother-in-law had made friends with the pub landlord (the fount of much practical local knowledge) who introduced him to Jack, a local at the bar whose partner Elsie is an experienced housekeeper. Better yet, Jack is an experienced all-round maintenance man who, if he doesn’t know how to fix something, knows a person who does. And he could help to sort out any maintenance problems on an on-demand basis. Eight months in and Martin has no regrets – he knows the vacation rental cleaning is taken care of and it is well maintained and he knows he can contact his ‘man on the ground’ to sort out the unexpected.

Whenever he visits, Martin makes a point of building relationships with the couple he regards as his local helpers, rather than ‘staff’, always ensuring they know what is expected from them in terms of upkeep of the property. ‘Everything we expect Elsie to do is written down in a checklist that we’ve asked her to follow,’ says Charlotte, ‘and we rely on her to replenish any cleaning products as well as providing the welcome pack that we’ve devised.’

‘Whenever we visit,’ she adds, ‘you’ll find Martin in the pub buying a beer for Jack, having a very pleasant time and coincidentally being updated on all the local news that might affect us.’

Sounds ideal, but not all of us have our rentals located in such traditional rural communities. Nevertheless, it does highlight a couple of things that could be important to all independent rental owners. First, it underlines the fact that this is a people business and that vacation rental cleaning and maintenance staff are a vital part of its success. Working as closely as possible with your helpers will bring benefits in their motivation and performance on your behalf. Equally, if they are not treated with respect and fairness the word will soon get round in a tight community and finding replacements for vacation rental cleaning and maintenance in the locality may be difficult.

If you are new to vacation rentals, depending on your location, it could well be worth trying Martin’s personal approach – though it’s probably wise to stipulate a probationary or settling in period (say, three months) to ensure that the arrangements suit both parties. Ask for (and check) references before you take on anyone for vacation rental cleaning or maintenance. Not all of us are blessed with my brother-in-law’s highly developed people divining skills!

Vacation Rental Security: Is Big Brother Watching Your Guests?

Vacation rental security camera outside a property

How far should owners go in monitoring their vacation rental security and servicing?

How far should you go in checking on your property and what your guests are doing when you’re an absentee vacation rental property owner? That was the question posed by my colleague who owns rental property in sunny Florida. His question was sparked by a chat he had with some property security people on a recent visit there.

A property owner they worked for had gone all out to increase vacation rental security and reduce the running costs on his property. Even though he had already employed a security company, it turns out he had installed security cameras around the property which enabled him to remotely monitor the arrival of guests, when they came and went, what they took into and out of the house and more. Aside from being intrusive on his guests it’s questionable whether it is even legal – certainly it’s illegal in some parts of the world.

This only came to light when the said security people went to check on the property. Not immediately recognizing his own team on screen, he phoned his vacation rental security company to report that people were trying to get into the house. When one of the men went to check the back door, he phoned again to report that they were now trying to get into the back door as well.

‘Intruders’

‘He obviously had more than one camera trained on the house’ they told my colleague. When they phoned him to say that the ‘intruders’ were in fact his vacation rental security team, he owned up to watching the place himself.

Then it emerged that he had installed remote devices so that he could switch off lights, heating and air conditioning whenever guests left the house, only switching them back on when they returned.

‘That may have saved him a little money on his bills in the short term, but his guests are on vacation,’ says my colleague, ‘they don’t want to come back to their holiday home after a hot day out in high summer to find the place warm because he turned off the air conditioning. Once they realised what he was doing – as they surely would – it’s unlikely they’d book for another stay.

‘They might even argue for some kind of refund, believing they’d already paid for this as part of the service that they were not actually getting.’

Screen your guests

Unless your property is in a known trouble spot and guests might be in physical danger, all round video surveillance for your vacation rental security seems like an overreaction. Tempting though it might be to install remote cameras, they send out the totally wrong messages to guests – suggestive of high crime or dangerous areas.

If you are worried about their possible behaviour, isn’t it better to screen your guests in the regular ways before they come to stay? And perhaps have someone ‘on the ground’ – maybe a security company – to regularly check on your vacation rental security and your guests.

Hidden bugging and monitoring devices, however small and unobtrusive, have a nasty habit of coming to light in the end and backfiring on those who are doing the checking.

Shocking Stuff – the Owners’ Responsibilities for Holiday Health and Safety

Holiday health and safety can be a bit of a bore, but as a property rental owner you ignore it at your peril – or at the peril of your guests. Consider our cautionary tale and reflect on how well prepared you are…

As an owner, I’m a stickler for ensuring that my property is well maintained and safe. Potential law suits aside, like all of us, I would never want to be the cause of pain or worse to my guests. Guests who leave your property limping are unlikely ever to return!

Here’s a cautionary tale from my own experience which helps to highlight the issue. Some time ago when things such as holiday health and safety were not so well regulated, I fell victim to a very rare event: I suffered an electric shock from a gas stove. Yes, a gas stove.

Ancient appliance

It was in a rustic Italian farmhouse on a fattoria in beautiful Tuscany and as I used the ancient gas appliance I was thrown back across the room by a massive shock that left me more than a little dazed and confused. In this state I tried to explain what had happened to the Italian owner who lived nearby.

‘Gas cooker – see? No, no … not possible’ she explained in broken English. As I don’t have even broken Italian, I could see a problem looming. Convinced though by my slightly wild look, she agreed to send round the gas man to investigate. A ‘gas man’ without broken English, without any English, looking as rustic and ancient as the landscape.

After an hilarious interchange of sign language he agreed to take a closer look – though I noticed he was not keen to touch the ‘gas’ cooker itself. Peering behind the stove, he found the culprit – exposed live wires hanging from the wall where once had been…..an electric stove. An accident waiting to happen.

Fortunately, it all ended reasonably well for me but it could have been different.

Regular checks

The serious point here is that we, as owners, are responsible and that means using qualified people to regularly check and maintain any danger points – power, whether gas or electricity – being the main one. There are others of course: stair rails on steep stairs; balustrades on balconies; pool access. The list does go on and without being doomy and gloomy it’s as well to think about possible worst case scenarios and then examine your own property to see what might need attention to avoid a holiday health and safety nightmare!

If you manage your property remotely you need to be sure that the person managing on site is aware of the need for constantly checking potential holiday health and safety issues. A checklist to work from may be a good idea. You will also need an emergency repairs procedure in place so that should a problem arise – a blown fuse, a flooding watertank, a broken window or whatever – it can be quickly sorted.

Best to arrange this in advance with your local manager and trusted local tradesperson that you have checked out than to be picking from a list of unknowns when you’re desperate. Emergency call outs can be very expensive as a one-off, but you can negotiate ongoing cover with local tradespeople.

Back to my Tuscan idyll. There is a sequel to this ‘shocking’ story. Some years later, we returned to stay at the same place which had been upgraded and modernized without losing its essential rustic character.

Life-threatening

This time we were put on the top floor of a house atop a hill with commanding views of the surrounding countryside. A wonderful vacation location – until my wife slipped at the top of the unusually steep stone steps and bounced all the way to the bottom. This time it was not at all funny but life-threatening and involved painful broken bones and hospital treatment. Had there been a handrail on the stone wall, she might have saved herself from falling.

The local hospital told us they get a lot of such cases since these steep stone stairs are a feature of many properties in the area. We were ‘lucky’, they had cases where people suffered serious head injuries as a result.

The owner (the very same one) arranged for a handrail to be fitted.

But guess what? I’m now going to shoot myself in the foot when I tell you that my wife only recently raised the idea of returning to the same fattoria. ‘It’s such a beautiful place,’ she said. Mmmm, perhaps, now that they’ve sorted out those live wire and handrail holiday health and safety issues….