Specialist holiday lettings management for your Lymington property
Locally based holiday lettings management team - maximise your income, minimise your stress!
This article is for you if you own or are buying a local property and considering renting it out some or all of the time, or if you’re managing your holiday cottage yourself and would like to be rid of the stress and hassle!
Specialists in holiday lettings
New Forest Cottages is a locally based specialist holiday lettings management company. It’s based in the centre of Lymington, with offices conveniently located right on the High Street.
Excellent website to promote your holiday property
New Forest Cottages has a superb Website, which promotes a growing number of local holiday cottages –at the time of writing this article, the number stands at 125.
The company is owned by Toad Hall Cottages, with 500 of its own holiday cottages spread across the South West of England. Toad Hall passes on all its “best practice” for marketing and promoting holiday cottages, to Trudie who manages New Forest Cottages and who with her tight knit team in Lymington has been managing holiday properties in the New Forest for many years. In other worlds (words) this is really the best of both worlds – a locally and independently managed holiday lettings agency, with the extra benefit of the even wider ranging experience of the owners in the background!
Local knowledge, always current
Trudie and her team all live locally and know the area inside out which is a very important consideration – they know all their properties personally and can advise which ones are most suitable for your needs. They can also advise about the best and most popular local shopping, eating out, and all the many things to do in Lymington and the New Forest. In general it’s a good idea if possible to appoint a local manager – there are so many benefits to local knowledge!
Focus on Winter Lets
Not many lettings agencies get involved in winter lets. This however is one of the special selling points for New Forest Cottages.
Winter lets represent an additional chunk of potential income through the most difficult months of the year for holiday lets, when it’s far harder to make a profit because on the one hand guests expect it to be much cheaper but on the other the costs especially energy, are much higher!
New Forest Cottages usually let between 10 and 15 cottages for winter lets, which represents all the property owners who want their cottages to be let on this basis.
The majority of the properties are in Lymington – the town with all its attractions is a very desirable base for a few winter months!
Typical tenants include boat owners coming ashore for winter, people who are relocating to the New Forest and deciding where to live long term, people doing house renovations which they choose to do in winter, plus a number of people working in the area on a temporary basis.
Winter let contract
A winter let contract is a special contract to cover this kind of “in between” tenancy, which New Forest Cottages will set up and manage for you including taking up references and in some cases switching utilities to tenant name.
The contract is not the same as a short hold tenancy and does not have the same security for tenants. Also the property is furnished. So the rental income is lower than that for a full residential letting. But that’s an attractive proposition for the tenant!
And a winter let keeps a steady flow of income for the property owner through the leaner months, when otherwise outside Christmas only odd weekends tend to get booked, and everybody is looking for bargains. So generally it’s a win win for both you and the tenant.
Summer season before winter let
A property has to have had a complete a season of holiday lets before it can be taken on for a winter let so this is something to think about now - consider appointing New Forest Cottages to manage your cottage now, in time for the main 2016 booking period.
Contact New Forest Cottages
So as above if you’re considering letting a local property for holiday lets, take the first step today and call Trudie on 01590 679655 at New Forest Cottages for a no obligation discussion either at their Lymington offices or in the property itself.
Contact details for New Forest Cottages
Lymington.com January 2016
