Manage your rental property abroad
Seven tips that will help you achieve holiday home rental success with you rental property abroad.
Over 50% of Home Hunts’ clients now buy a holiday home with a view to renting it out. But do you work with a property rental company or go it alone? Here are seven ways to help you decide on the best way to manage your holiday home rental property abroad.
Find a good property management company
If you live far away from your rental property abroad, it is likely that you will engage a property management company. You will need to put a great deal of trust in them to manage your asset effectively and your contact will need to be efficient and reliable.
Get recommendations if possible. A good property management company will be able to help you organise the following: property marketing and reservations, guest liaison, changeovers, cleaning, any ad hoc housekeeping, gardening and maintenance.
At Home Hunts our local consultants know the best property management companies in the area to introduce you to.
Decide on your level of involvement
Some property management companies want to manage all the marketing and bookings of your apartment themselves. This may or may not work for you – some prefer it, other clients would rather have some control over their marketing and apartment rental. On the other hand, it can be time consuming dealing with reservations and guests, so you may prefer to have these tasks carried out for you by a professional.
Create a website for your property
If you are going to be handling some or all the marketing and reservations of your property rental, you should set up a website advertising your property. It should contain details about the apartment, links to reservations bookings sites and contact information so guests can make direct reservations (allowing them to avoid online booking costs). Additional information about what to do in the area, a blog and links to relevant social media sites, such as Instagram and Facebook, can also help to drum up interest in your property, but it will also require more of your time.
Social media is an excellent way to raise awareness for your rental, but you may wish to employ others to run some of these marketing channels for you.
Send an arrival guide to your guests
Whether it is you or the property management company dealing with the guests, ensure that you have created a Word document or PDF that you can send to them with all the information they will need to know prior to and during their stay. From directions to key exchange information and emergency contact information, this will ensure they can prepare for their stay and that it progresses as smoothly as possible.
Register on bookings sites
Since Airbnb was launched in 2008 consumers have become used to making online reservations for holiday homes and apartments. This has placed greater importance on guest reviews and now it is more important than ever to provide a good-quality service and receive positive reviews.
As well Airbnb you should, as a minimum, register on booking.com, TripAdvisor and on Leboncoin in France (which receives 26 million visitors a month and is one of the top five most visited sites in France). Many French guests use the latter to book holiday homes in France, so advertising here is a good move if you are looking to attract the French market.
Find a system that works for you
If you are managing reservations yourself, spend some time getting comfortable with a set up that works for you. If you are communicating regularly with a property management company about reservations and changeovers, work on a system that you can both easily access, such as a spreadsheet in Google Drive. Downloading the apps of bookings sites, such as “Pulse” from Booking.com, can speed up your customer interactions and help to keep all data easily accessible in one place.
Finally, make sure that when you receive a booking from one site that you update your calendars and block that time period out across all your reservation sites so you don’t get any double bookings.
Visit your property when you can
Renting out a property from abroad is always going to be more complicated than if you lived on site or nearby, but as long as you are organised and put people you can trust in charge of its management, it should run smoothly. Having said that, you should try to visit as often as possible – chances are that because it is your property, you will always notice the finer details that require improvement or fixing.
If you are renting out your property so that you can also enjoy spending time there too, make sure you factor in the extra time you will need to spend on upkeep tasks when you’re there.
That way, as well as making sure your property is pristine for your next guest you can enjoy some relaxing holiday time there too.
Home Hunts are here to help you to find your dream home and manage your rental property abroad. If you would like to speak to one of the team to discuss your needs or just to have a chat about the market, you can call us on +33 970 44 66 43 or send us a mail to info@home-hunts.com. If you just want to browse through thousands of beautiful French homes, visit our website at www.home-hunts.com or follow us on Facebook or Instagram.
