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If you’re considering setting up a holiday let business, it’s crucial to understand the scope of work required to ensure success.

From managing bookings to maintaining the property and providing excellent customer service, operating a holiday let business can be a rewarding yet challenging venture.

In this guide, we cover essential considerations such as property management, customer relations, payment processes, and marketing strategies to help you launch your holiday business smoothly.


1. Do You Really Want Another Full-Time Job?

Running your own holiday let is a 24/7 job from answering customers questions, keeping track of payments, managing changeovers and dealing with any issues when the customers are in the house. Menai Holidays are here to take as much of the weight off your shoulders as you would like. If it is just the bookings and payments you would like us to deal with, no problem. If you would rather have no involvement with the running of the house at all, then our fully managed service could be perfect to ensure the successful running of your holiday let.


2. Liaising with Customers

Whether it is to ask if the garden is enclosed, how far the local shop is from the house or to make a complaint, you cannot always react to calls and emails as quickly as you would like to. If a customer wants to know an answer about the house, and you miss that call the chances are they will have booked another cottage that gave them the answers straight away. Menai Holidays are on hand 24/7 to ensure all customer queries and issues are dealt with as quickly as possible. This way you will only hear the important information and we will deal with the rest so you can enjoy your free time.

Pwllheli Office | Menai Holiday Cottages

Pwllheli Office – Menai Holidays


3. Payments – Even If a Guest Cancels

Many self-hosting platforms allow guests to cancel 24 hours before arrival with no financial consequences, leaving the owner in the lurch having to find a replacement booking or suffer the loss of income. At Menai Holidays we guarantee that you will receive payment for every booking. If a guest cancels within 56 days of their booking you will be paid in full, outside of the 56 days and the guest forfeits their deposit unless the cancellation occurs for a reason out of someones control such as the COVID pandemic and restrictions on travel.

You will also always be paid in full before the guests arrive at your house, providing it isn’t a last-minute booking, in which case you will be paid at the next possible date.


4. Put Your Property in Front of More People 

Not only will your holiday home feature on the Menai Holidays Website your house will also be listed on Sykes Cottages along with over 500 partner sites, which include AirBnb, Booking.com TripAdvisor and HomeAway. The chances are, whichever platform you are thinking of using yourself, we will also put your house on there. 

D.I.Y letting can lead to multiple fees, and re-registrations, not to mention having to create each page individually, and manage possible double bookings. With Menai Holidays, there is a single fee regardless of where the booking comes from, and we do all of the channel management ensuring you are on the right platform at the right time. 


5. Professional Photography – Free of Charge

If you let your holiday cottage through Menai Holidays, we will ensure that the best possible pictures are taken, with our in house photographer, she will make sure that your house is perfectly styled to ensure that it is as attractive as possible to potential customers. If you DIY let, it is often difficult to get good images of the house, and it can have a detrimental effect of bookings, similarly hiring a professional photographer can be pricey. 


6. Local Offices

Menai Holidays is the only Holiday letting agency in North Wales with an office in every corner. We make sure that all our owners get a personal rapport with our staff, ensuring that we understand your wants and needs for your holiday home. Our offices are staffed 7 days a week, along with our 24/7 out of hours emergency phone, we are just a call away.

Barmouth Office | Menai Holiday Cottages


7. Managed Service

How much involvement do you want? At Menai holidays, we offer different property management services, meaning that we can help organise cleaning, linen, maintenance and even guest complaints. Having a managed services  gives you peace of mind that everything in your cottage will be dealt with professionally and in a timely manner.


Eager to read more about holiday letting and how to get started? Take a look at Our Beginners Guide to Holiday Letting

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