LIFESTYLE PROPERTY
Kirstie’s
Top 10 Tips
Kirstie Allsopp on renting your holiday home so that clients come back again and again
1. Know your market
If you are after the family market, plan accordingly and highlight it. Our house is by the sea, has six bedrooms and takes dogs, so we cater for sand and kids. Tell people what equipment you have. Nobody wants to travel with sterilisers. We provide Tripp Trapp chairs, travel cots with sheets, sterilisers, thermoses and picnic baskets. We also supply kids DVDs and toys, although I was a bit hacked off with the family who used the giant Jenga for fi rewood. Accidents happen; I had a fi lm crew in and somebody put the TV on the woodstove, which half an hour later somebody else lit. The TV melted and then the crew broke a chisel hammer trying to get it off!
2. Modern communications
People expect Wi-Fi, two televisions and Sky. Gone are the days of the old-fashioned seaside rentals with no black-out blinds and no facilities. People just won’t come back. We have no mobile reception so we provide a telephone with outgoing as well as incoming calls.
3. Provide linen and beach towels
Not everybody does this but if you are arriving in the middle of the night with lots of young children, making-up beds is soul-destroying. People holiday in the UK because they want to bring the
dog and don’t want jetlag, but they do want a good deal. I found good, 100 per cent cotton sheets at Matalan.
4. Welcome box
My mantra is that you should be able to arrive on a train and not have to visit the shops for 24 hours. We supply bread, milk and butter, plus stock the larder with basics; pasta, mustard, ketchup. People add to it and replace what they use. They are so pleased, they come back. Returning customers are so much easier. They don’t complain, know the ropes and are less diffi cult than newcomers.
5. Don’t spend a fortune
Buy everything from eBay or local auction houses. Much of what we needed we already had at home. You don’t need hanging
cupboards but if there is a wall or a door, put a pretty hook on it and pick up chests of drawers at local auction rooms. Everything must be dishwasher proof. It is friendly to supply soaps or shower gels. If you treat your clients as guests coming to stay with you it creates a completely different feeling, which people appreciate and, let’s face it, means you can charge a bit more.
6. Don’t scrimp on comfort
Saving money on beds is not a saving. If people don’t sleep well, they won’t enjoy themselves and they won’t come back. Ours are
Vi-Spring; large and comfortable. We have one super king, two king size and a twin, plus two sets of bunk beds squeezed into
s t o s s of b
72 FIRST ELEVEN SUMMER 2010
k b s s d i
one room like sardines, which the kids love. All bedrooms must have black-out blinds. Nobody wants to be standing on a chair, stuffi ng blankets into the window or having children charging around the house at dawn.
7. Supply an information pack
Apart from the practicalities of the local GP, A&E, etc, this helps people fi nd that lovely secret beach or the great fi sherman who supplies prawns on the harbour – on the fi rst day too, not day six when they are going home the next morning. Information on the lady who supplies homemade meals is much appreciated.
8. Make space for storage
Allocate a lock-up room for storage where you can leave family belongings and store things like bulk purchases. We keep three sets of sheets and towels, in case the Norovirus strikes.
9. Don’t shirk on a laundry room
Vital. We have a huge utility/drying room to hang wet things so they don’t need to enter the house. It is stocked with a second-hand, American-style washing machine and dryer which is worth every penny. We have an Annirac over the Aga and a Sheila Maid.
10. Road test the house yourself
You need to stay a week and make sure everything works. Sleep in all the beds and turn on all the taps. How many baths and showers before the hot water runs out? Where does the rubbish go and when is it collected? Work out how the house needs to be cleaned, and how often.
And Kirstie’s one for luck
Don’t ever rent to TV crews! %
To rent Kirstie’s home, visit
www.movingsense.co.uk
WWW.FIRSTELEVENMAGAZINE.CO.UK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84