Who will clean my holiday let?

29th October 2013

How to appoint a property manager

Get your changeover cleans and property management right and enjoy repeat bookings, get it wrong and you are dealing with complaints and bad reviews which threaten income and profit. But there is more to property management than changing bedding…

What should a property management service include:

  1. Changeover cleans as a guest departs.
  2. Laundry of bedding, towels, tea towels.
  3. Pre-arrival check for incoming guests.
  4. An on-call response service for emergencies during their stay.
  5. A key-holding service, allowing tradesmen access into the property.
  6. Organisation of compliance documents, such as PAT testing, Gas Safety Certificate and other services for the owner.

10 Questions to ask before appointing a Property Manager

  1. What are your charges, split out into set-up costs, annual fees, the cost of a changeover, and hourly rate for other services and what scenarios these charges are applied?
  2. How many, and what kind of, other properties do you manage?
  3. Who will clean my property and how do you recruit them?
  4. What checks do you carry out prior to guest stays? (such as checking smoke alarms, batteries and bulbs)
  5. What do you put in the property for arriving guests (such as dishwasher tablets, toilet rolls, coffee and tea)?
  6. How do you handle out-of-hour emergencies when a guest is in the property?
  7. What are your processes for checking and replacing broken of missing items?
  8. How do you dispose of rubbish following a guest stay?
  9. Do you check my property during an empty period, and how often?
  10. Do you have testimonials from existing owners?