Why Choose a Holiday Letting Agent Over Airbnb?

As a holiday home owner, you might be wondering whether to let your property with a holiday letting agent or through Airbnb.

There is no doubt that Airbnb has been a success within the letting market. Initially designed to rent out a spare room allowing people to capitalise on income, and now accommodating listings for entire properties.

But are you aware of the differences between a holiday home letting agency and Airbnb management? There are many advantages of using a holiday letting agent like Coast & Country Cottages. Read on to find out more…

Why choose a holiday letting agent over Airbnb?

• Health and safety for you and your guests
• Local support a stone’s throw from your holiday let
• Property management service
• No setup fees or hidden costs
• National and local marketing, generating you year-round bookings

Health and safety for you and your guests

When you list your property with a holiday home letting agency you are not only offering security to yourself, and your holiday let but also to your guests too. To join Coast & Country Cottages portfolio it is a legal requirement to have annual and up-to-date copies of:

• Gas safety certificates
• Electrical safety checks
• Fire risk assessments
• Public liability insurance
• HMO certificate

The health and safety legislation ensures guests are safe and protected but also offers you, the holiday home owner, a level of security and insurance should anything go wrong.

If you require support arranging any legislative documentation for your holiday home, the Managed Services team at Coast & Country Cottages are always on hand to offer assistance and advice. What’s more, if you opt for our agency managed service, we can organise these legislative documents on your behalf.

Our hands on assistance can help with preparing your home for letting, getting your holiday letting journey off to a stress-free start.

Local support a stone’s throw from your holiday let

Airbnb is a multinational company originating in America, with a UK team based in London.

One of the benefits of choosing a letting agent is that they often have local offices, close to the holiday homes they manage. For example, Coast & Country Cottages have local offices in Salcombe and Dartmouth, Devon. Choosing a holiday letting agent close to your holiday home can be extremely beneficial. Especially if you don’t live close by.

Having a local team on hand 24 hours a day, 7 days a week gives you peace of mind that your second home is in safe hands. In the unlikely event your guests have an issue during their stay, we can be on-hand in a matter of mere minutes.

It also means that we have local people on the ground to offer advice to holidaymakers. Such as first-hand reviews of local restaurants, the best beaches to visit, and the best holiday home for their requirements.

We’re proud to offer a hands-on, local service. Read on for another great benefit of holiday letting agents.

Property management service

Holiday letting agents generally offer two types of service – owner managed and agency managed.

Owner managed service

Owner managed service allows the holiday home owner to be as hands-on as they wish. While you take care of the day-to-day running of your holiday home, you can rely on us, a holiday home letting agency, for advice and support. Our main role is to find your customers and secure your bookings. As well as handle all the liaison with your guests before, during and after their stay.

Agency managed service

Agency managed service makes holiday letting as hassle-free for our owners as possible. Our in-house team organise:

• the legislative documentation
• co-ordinate property administration
• changeovers
• housekeeping
• cleaning and laundry
• property maintenance
• winter security checks

This differs from Airbnb, where you as the owner would be responsible for liaising with your guests. And either operating changeovers yourself or appointing a caretaker.

To find out more about our service levels read our blog ‘Holiday home management: choosing the right service for your holiday cottage’.

No setup fees or hidden costs

Join Coast & Country Cottages with no upfront fees to pay. As we are paid on results, you can be sure we’ve got your best interests at heart. We pride ourselves on honesty; we visit each property regularly and build up a close working relationship with our owners.

Airbnb management is charged at 3% commission but an additional 12% is charged to your customer as a cleaning fee, totalling 15%. You then need to consider the cost and time of organising your cleaner or caretaker and liaising with your guests.

At Coast & Country Cottages we provide a range of bespoke service options, starting from as little as 18% commission. Including property management, guest liaison, marketing and pricing. This service provides a hassle-free option for owners with no hidden costs.

With over 500 partners and affiliates, we work with big names and trusted brands to feature your property in plenty of places, guaranteeing extensive visibility.

For full details on our commission and service inclusions, please contact our new property team on 01548 843773 or email pno@coastandcountry.co.uk. We’d be happy to provide you with a free no-obligation income projection appraisal for your holiday let.

National and local marketing, generating you year-round bookings

Coast & Country Cottages’ portfolio consists of almost 500 holiday cottages in Devon. Our website is optimised to appear in Google searches for Devon holiday homes, with multiple landing pages that highlight specific features such as hot tub breaks or dog-friendly cottages.

As well as location-based landing pages that highlight properties within a certain area e.g., Salcombe holiday cottages. This means you can be sure your property will be seen by high intent users that are looking to holiday in Devon.

We have a dedicated regional marketing team, plus a national marketing team with an eight-figure budget. So you can rest assured we are at the forefront of every customer search. Our property owners will also feature on our parent company Sykes Cottages website. Helping to put your property in the spotlight nationally.

Holiday letting isn’t just about securing a full calendar of bookings, but also about the income owners can achieve from these rentals.

Our pricing software is market leading, pro-actively adjusting prices in line with demand, property performance and area trends. On average we achieve 27 bookings a year for each holiday let, earning the best possible income for our owners.

Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen an increased demand for short breaks. Our property experts recommend opening your property calendar to short breaks over the winter period. This will extend your booking season and allow holiday home owners to earn 30% more.

Let with Coast & Country Cottages

Ready to start your holiday letting journey? With over 20 years’ experience as a holiday letting agent, we’ve assisted many owners with buying and setting up their holiday homes in South Devon.

Our local team in Salcombe (01548 843773) and Dartmouth (01803 839499) are on hand to provide you with all the knowledge and support you’ll need.

To find out more about letting with Coast & Country Cottages, visit our Let Your Cottage page or call our team of holiday letting experts.

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Please Note: The information contained in this article was accurate at the time of writing, based on our research. Rules, criteria and regulations change all the time, so please contact our prospective new owner team if you’d like to hear how. Nothing in this article constitutes the giving of financial, tax or legal advice to you; please consult your own professional advisor (accountant, lawyer etc). in this regard. If we have referred within the article to a third-party provider of unregulated holiday let mortgages, this is due to the fact that such mortgages aren’t currently regulated by the FCA. 

As a helpful reminder, your home may be repossessed if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage, so again anything you decide to do in this particular area this is one on which you should take your own professional advice on too, as we aren’t providing and can’t provide you with this.