Having a holiday home which you can rent out either temporarily or permanently can be a great way to generate cash. You can have it as an extra income or even do it full time with several properties and make them your main method of earning. Whichever way you go about it one of the biggest decisions which you need to make is whether you are going to do it all yourself or employ a rental management company to handle it all for you. Both options have their merits so it is worth comparing and contrasting them to ensure that you are making an informed decision on which way to go.
Doing It Yourself
Pro’s
Obviously one of the major benefits of doing it yourself is that no one else will be making any commission on your investment. All of the money you earn is yours and yours alone. Given the widespread use of the internet you will be able to manage the listings and advertising yourself relatively simply if you choose to do so. If you are not sure when you will and won’t be renting the property you will have full control and flexibility in when you do.
Cons
Whilst you maintain control of your property yourself one of the biggest drawbacks of dealing with the process on your own is the sheer amount of time which it can take up. If you do not give it the proper time commitments it could either end up making you little return or even end up losing you money. Also your holiday home may be a long distance away from where you are based and so the maintenance and general upkeep can end up being very difficult to manage from a distance.
Using a Rental Management Company
Pro’s
Firstly a management company will free you up of all the time which you would have needed to have been spending on the listing, advertising, contracts, maintenance and general customer communication involved with leasing a holiday home. As well as this but you will be using a specialist within the field who will have years of experience to call upon as well as having built up a network of contacts. All of the marketing and advertising will be done as you choose and the chances are that they will be able to do this side of things better than yourself.
Cons
You cannot always control the exact dates which your property is available for yourself. Whilst through means such as airbnb management of holiday homes you should be able to specify periods when the property is bookable and not but you will not be able to cancel someone’s booking and take it for yourself on a whim and so you have less flexibility using it for yourself. As well as these points you will obviously have to have a cut of your earnings taken as commission by the rental management company.
