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Quintin Smith Director of Moor to Sea
Homes Ltd What is the business all about? We are a property maintenance company dealing with houses that are either rented out as holiday homes or solely used as a second home. the owners rely on us to take care of the house and get it ready for paying guests or themselves when they come to visit. We don’t tend to do the marketing or deal with bookings. We work in the background to get leaking roofs fixed, attend to the gardens, deal with changeovers, do the cleaning etc.
Did you always want to do this job? I always had an interest in tourism but I actually have a degree in Criminal Justice studies! After my wife and I graduated from Plymouth university we decided to stay in Devon and have children straight away. We came up with this business idea as it fits so well into family life. I love making beautiful homes more beautiful and am a sucker for programmes like Grand Designs, it wasn’t hard for me to fall in love with the job.
How many properties are on your books? Nearly 50, which is just right for us. We’re a small company – me, my wife and a team of 14 cleaners. Family is very important to me, if work took over I wouldn’t be able to do the school run or take my sons to their swimming classes every tuesday.
Where are the houses you look after? Dartmoor, Dartmouth, torquay, salcombe, shaldon – all over, hence the name of the company!
Will you take on any property? I have to be impressed by it. I’ve just come from a potential new one in Kingswear. I stood on the balcony, with the sun shining, and watched the marching band going back and forth over at the Naval College. that’s enough for me!
out what people thought of the house, what beaches they enjoyed, where they went to eat, whether they took any of our recommendations.
Are some guests demanding? We don’t experience many ‘divas’. We put a lovely welcome pack in each house with local cider, juice and cakes. sometimes we get asked to pop in a taittinger Champagne or a full cream tea.
How much do the guests pay? the cheapest property is £650 a week in high season and the most expensive is just over £4,000 (that one does come with it’s own 25 metre indoor swimming pool!) Do you ever get to meet the guests? occasionally we’ll see them if they turn up early or they call us out. Most are from Britain, but we’re getting an in- creasing amount of foreign business. this year we’ll have guests from France, Latvia, Canada and Barbados. It helps that my wife is a languages teacher!
Are you on call 24/7? Yes, if someone can’t work the tV or locks themselves out. this year I had a family ring me to say the boiler had packed up on Christmas Day! I went straight over to sort it out, so they had heat by lunchtime.
What’s the first thing you do when you go into one of the homes? Look at the comments. I love getting feedback. Finding
I had a family ring me to say the boiler had packed up on Christmas Day! I went straight over to sort it out, so
they had heat by lunchtime.
Do you get to know the homeowners well? Yes, we have some great characters. You find out about their lives - their children, grandchildren, the GCse results! I spent New Years eve in the Crabshell in Kingsbridge with a couple of homeowners, my head hurt the next day!
Do you get to go away? Well holidays are difficult with this job. our boys are in school so they look forward to the school holidays but that’s exactly the time when the business is at it’s busiest! Last year we tried two weeks in the Loire Valley during August. there was one day when I was sup- posed to be in charge of a barbeque and was holding my youngest son with one hand, tongs
in the other, resting a phone under my chin talking about a shower that needed replacing in a house on Dartmoor!
So how do you unwind? one week a year I like to go AWoL and attend the Cheltenham Festival. I love horse racing and really look forward to it – total escapism. I also enjoy riding my bike along the slapton Line.
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