Lay My Hat

I'm just going through this myself, Rotaman. It's making me very nervous indeed...if I get a doubling of valuation (as has happened to some businesses), I'm going to be put out of business. Anyway, there is quite a lot of detail about how they value self catering properties in this document here htt...

Hi Sapper, Is this for a clean or a meet and greet? Such companies are very thin on the ground in that area I'm afraid...I'm 15 mins south of Pickering and really couldn't find anyone. We ended up using a cleaning company who come in from Thirsk :o If you do find anyone, let me know! Maybe together ...

Charles, you are right I think. Times are changing. My mother has run a holiday lettings business for years and used to use ECC back in the 1980s! Back then I'm pretty sure 25% was standard. I wish I could say it's my devastating effective negotiating technique but in truth I think you're right, sle...

I'm just starting with them. They are part of Wyndhams so they also list under the Cottages.com and Cottages4you brands, plus a couple of local brands. They gave me a relatively good deal at 18.5%. Which is still pretty expensive, but so far they have managed to get around 30% of my bookable period ...

Agreed. This is a great thread. But particularly a standing ovation to French Cricket and Greenbarn: 'know and like your market' has to be a strong starting point. Gwilt, while I am taking dogs and take your point about getting a lot of demand for dog friendly property I don't think you're right abo...

I think I'm looking at the site while you're updating it! I can see some colour in the background now...and are you experimenting with getting guests to book directly with you? If you're going to do that it's helpful to have somewhere where you outline the terms of booking on the site. Like you, I d...

Thanks Delilah You're right, of course. What I've got is not up to scratch now. More I think about it, the more I think I definitely need a pro photographer on this project. In the meantime, I'm not ignoring everyone else's fab feedback, I'm just not very quick at figuring out how to make the change...

Oh! That's a great point, Anne, we have a lot of gravel in the car park. I know it's difficult with a pushchair, must be a nightmare for wheelchairs.

Oh, and the connection - the house was built as a Gothic folly for the end of Scampston Park.

Or Gothick, as the guy writing the invoice put.

Ah, well the domain name choice is partly down to what's available, and partly down to a disagreement with my mother, who has only recently passed the house onto me and is convinced that if we publicise its details on the internet it will immediately be ransacked by pirates, or something :? I'm afra...

Thanks Kev, I'll have a quick look at plugins. I'm not the most confident with styling things which is why I haven't investigated it yet but there's always time to learn.

Right then, I'm going to turn the photographer loose in the park when he comes and see if he can do better!

Rather relies on him turning up on a sunny day of course. In the meantime I'm sure I must have a sunny summer photo somewhere!

Oh, and Annedab, you are exactly who I need to speak to re access. The main entrance has one step on the inside of the house. But there are two other entrances (closer to the car park, as it happens) which are flat. However. The downstairs bedroom is not the biggest and has rather a narrow door. Als...

Well its a first draft that has been in gestation for six months before I dared to show it to anyone :oops: Thank you all! So much useful feedback - can I make a list? Typos (Polemi) thank you - I shall get to those. And actually terrible was a deliberate choice. I think I was channelling the Archer...

Well not literally, but you know what it's like when you stare at the same thing for hours and can't see blummin obvious? That's the point I've got to with the first draft of the website for our new holiday let. If anyone has 20 minutes to have a look over it and tell me what's missing, what's spelt...