Holiday Home Property Management in South Devon: Choosing the right service for your cottage

When embarking on your holiday-letting journey, knowing how to manage bookings, cleaning, maintenance, and changeovers is an integral part of making your business successful. 

Whether you prefer hands-on involvement in the day-to-day tasks, taking care of the finer details yourself, or you live away from your property and would rather relax and entrust the responsibilities to us, Coast & Country Cottages are here to help.

We provide two options for holiday property management: owner-managed and agency-managed services. Our services are here to make sure that looking after and running your holiday cottage isn’t a complex and time-consuming process. 

Regardless of your choice, we have tailored holiday property management solutions to suit your property. Check out our comprehensive guide to all things property management in South Devon.

Read on for all you need to know about holiday home property management options, or use the quick links below to find out about a specific topic.

• What is holiday home property management?
• How does Coast & Country Cottages compare to others?
• What services do we offer?
• Owner property managed services
• Agency property managed services
• Bespoke property managed services
• Holiday home management fees

What is holiday home property management?

High Banks, Dartmouth

Holiday home management is essentially everything that goes into efficiently running a holiday let. This ranges from the things you need to consider before a guest arrives, such as how you market your property, communicate with your guests, and make sure you have the right health and safety documentation in place*, to the hands-on logistics of servicing a booking, such as cleaning, linen and maintenance. Here is a list of key aspects of holiday property management:

• Marketing and advertising – how will you find holidaymakers to book your property?
• Booking management – making sure your bookings and payments are administered correctly, that you have all the information you need about your guests, and that your guests have all the information they need to enjoy their stay.
• Guest services and 24-hour guest support – making sure someone is on hand to help your guests before and during their holiday, whether they have a question about how to work the heating, the best restaurants in the area, or have an issue during their stay.
• Cleaning and changeovers, including laundry and all housekeeping services.
• Maintenance and upkeep, from things that may break between bookings, to larger work to keep your property to a high standard.
• Regulatory compliance, including annual fire risk and gas safety assessments.*
• Finance management, including a breakdown of your monthly income.

There are two different ways property management can be conducted, either by you as the property owner or by a professional holiday home management agency. 

Here at Coast & Country Cottages, we offer different levels of holiday property management in South Devon. We can take care of all your marketing, administration, and customer correspondence, or offer further support with the day-to-day running of your holiday home.

How does Coast & Country Cottages’ property management service compare to other holiday letting agencies in South Devon?

At Coast & Country Cottages, we have a local team based in two offices, one in Salcombe and one in Dartmouth. Being located close to the properties we manage means that we can offer hands-on support, which is particularly useful for owners who live further away from their holiday home. 

We’ve built up a vast network of contacts in the last 20 years, meaning we can recommend trusted suppliers for any trade.

We also understand that for some owners, their holiday home is a bolthole for their own breaks, so we can also organise property management and linen for owner bookings.

What holiday home management services do we offer?

At Coast & Country Cottages, our role is to find your customers, administer bookings and be the first point of contact for your guests, 24/7. 

Owners can then either choose to operate their changeovers themselves or appoint a caretaker, which we refer to as our ‘owner managed service’ Or, owners can opt for our full ‘agency managed service’, if their property is within reach of our offices in Dartmouth or Salcombe, allowing owners to unwind with confidence that their property is in safe hands.

Owner-Managed Service

What is an owner-managed service?

This service is ideal for owners who like to manage the day-to-day running of their holiday property themselves or appoint a dedicated caretaker

Our team is responsible for administering your bookings and liaising with your guests as a first point of contact.

You or your nominated caretaker would handle the cleaning, changeovers, and checks between bookings yourself. 

Any maintenance issues would also be your responsibility. However, we are on hand to offer advice or recommend contractors to carry out any work required. While you manage the day-to-day running, you can rely on our expertise to actively take care of the other intricacies involved in running a holiday let.

If an issue were to arise at your property, such as a guest causing damage, our team would be on-hand to support you with this and liaise with the guest to find a resolution.

Read our blog on holiday home cleaning, housekeeping and laundry for tips and information on preparing your property for incoming guests.

Benefits of an owner-managed service

1. Marketing
   You’ll benefit from the marketing resources of a national brand, coupled with knowledge and support from our experienced local marketing and PR team.
2. Booking administration and customer relations
   Customer relations is an important part of letting your holiday home. Our team will be their first point of contact, meaning you don’t have to be on call all the time. We’ll administer all bookings, including sending out travel directions, organising payments and sending you a monthly breakdown of your financials.
3. 24-hour support
   Should an emergency arise, our local team are on hand 24-hours a day to respond to these calls from your guests.

Agency-managed service

What is an agency-managed service?

An agency-managed service means all parts of the process are looked after. This full service can include everything involved in our owner-managed service, plus coordinating cleaning services, supplying and laundering bed linen and towels, operating changeovers, and arranging key collection.

We’ll also organise any required property maintenance to ensure that your holiday let is always presented to the highest standard. As well as our own in-house team, we have a wide and very loyal network of local contractors that we use to carry out any required work.

Benefits of an agency-managed service

1. New property administration
   For new properties joining our portfolio, our agency-managed service takes the hassle out of getting it ready to go live on our website. Our in-house team will organise everything from legal compliance and waste collection to parking permits.
2. Cleaning and laundry services
   We have dedicated teams in Salcombe and Dartmouth who will organise cleans between bookings for you, plus deep cleans during the season. Our in-house laundry service, Travel Lite can provide all the linen and laundering for your property, ensuring that all linen is spotless and of a high and consistent quality.
3. Property maintenance
   Just with any property, maintenance issues can happen. Whether it’s a lightbulb that needs changing or a more substantial breakdown, Coast & Country Cottages provides a 24-hour emergency support service, giving guests and owners peace of mind should any problems occur. We can utilise our network of trusted suppliers to rectify issues as quickly as possible, to ensure minimal disruption to any of your guests.

Bespoke holiday property management

Sometimes neither of these service options quite meet your needs. When this happens we will work with you to create a bespoke property management service. We will tailor a package to reflect your requirements.

Our New Properties team are always happy to discuss the options with you on all the best service packages, as well as the commission levels for each service. The most important thing to remember is that whatever option you choose, you are never on your own.

Read more on this in our blog choosing a holiday home letting agency.

Holiday Home Management Fees

At Coast & Country Cottages, the cost of managing your property is included in our commission. We charge a commission percentage for each booking, which means that our earning is based on the level of bookings we generate for our owners.

Our commission varies, based on whether owners opt for our owner-managed or agency-managed service. The best way to understand what our commission charge would be for your specific property is to get in touch with our New Property Consultants, as our packages are bespoke based on each owner’s requirement.

If you are trying to calculate what the overall running costs may be for your property, our New Property team can provide you with the following information:

• Agency commission fees
• Laundry hire cost per booking
• Changeover/cleaning cost per booking
• Welcome pack costs (recommended)
• Maintenance call-out costs
• Cost of legislative checks such as fire risk and gas safety assessments*

Contact our locally-based South Devon team

Our local Managed Services team work tirelessly to support each property owner, making sure that holiday letting is as stress-free as possible.

Request an Owners Guide here or call our locally based team on 01548 802171 to find out more about how we can help you.

*As a holiday letting owner you are responsible for compliance with health & safety laws, regulations and guidance, and for having suitable insurances in place (not Sykes Holiday Cottages or its brands (Sykes)). From time to time, Sykes shares information with you on the topic of health and safety and insurance. When it does so, it is not providing you with advice (legal, financial, tax or otherwise); please seek your own as you see fit. In addition, it is not making any representations or warranties about the information being complete or free from errors or inaccuracies. Sykes shall not be liable for any loss or damage arising under or in connection with your reliance on it.