RESEARCH

This section will take you through the research you need to do step-by-step prior to setting up your holiday rental property.

Identifying The Market

• With your place in mind - location, room size, types of guest.

• Start by searching for properties closest to your new place in the overall proposition.

• Find out where they market their properties and who to.

• Find their booking form and create a spreadsheet of total possible income.

Income

• It can be quite tricky to find this information and you’ll need to have a good poke around.

• Where possible, under estimate.

Key Issues

• Many holiday lets say a property is not available when the owners are using it.

• Sometimes it's hard to get a full year's bookings.

• Profile at least 3 properties where possible. The purpose of this is more about seeing where the busy times are and also get a rough idea of revenue.

• Create a rough price plan.

Outgoings

• At this stage look at all the possible outgoing and estimate the costs.

• You can then divide this by 12 to get a monthly outgoing.

• Compare this month on month to your estimated pricing to get a break-even point.

• Compare this to the above and see if it is realistic and you are comfortable with the risk.

• Consider again your personal situation and work out if you can afford the risk.

• Where possible, overestimate the outgoing line and underestimate the income.

Holiday rental in the UK is often peaky and so you’ll need to manage cash throughout the year. Is this to be considered?

• If you are entering the holiday let market to finance a house you want to use, you might need to make compromises here.

• What is often perfect for a holiday home is often not workable for a house you live in.

• For example, storage. You need very little storage space for a holiday let.