Helpful Holidays

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Devonbaker
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Joined: Fri Nov 18, 2022 3:45 pm
Location: Devon

Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

So, we're completely new to this business, so I'd be grateful for advice. We've just taken over a successful holiday let, for which the previous owners used Helpful Holidays. As we're new to the sector we thought it would make sense to continue with HH, at least until we have a better idea of what we're doing. My issue isn't so much that they take such a huge commission (which I realise is pretty standard with OTAs), but that they flatly refuse to make payments into a company account. To be clear: my partner and I own the property in a personal capacity, but we wanted to operate the letting business through our limited company (wholly owned by the two of us, we're the only two directors of the company). HH's refusal to allow this means any payments will have to go through our personal bank accounts, making us liable for personal income tax on it. In practice this probably won't make a huge tax difference to us, as we aren't higher rate taxpayers, but it just strikes me as perverse that HH/Sykes take this attitude. I can't believe we're the only ones who want to operate our business this way. Just wondered whether anyone else had encountered anything similar, or whether indeed this is an industry-standard approach? Tia for any info!
J B
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Location: We live in England and have rental properties in N Wales and Paphos, Cyprus
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by J B »

What a bizarre situation :shock:

Can't really understand their thinking as legally in most banks T's & C's you can't operate a business from a private account.

Maybe they should be renamed Unhelpful Holidays! :lol:

We use STS as our agents in Snowdonia (or whatever the Welsh want to call it this week!) and they pay direct to our Ltd Co account.
Devonbaker
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

Yes, it seems very weird to me. HH say that "Due to tightening of financial regulations and contract law our contracts have to be in the name of the party who owns the property and monies have to be paid into an account with that same name, be it a company or individual." So if our company owned the property it'd be fine, but since it's also our home, it doesn't.
J B
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Location: We live in England and have rental properties in N Wales and Paphos, Cyprus
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by J B »

How are they to know who owns the property? :roll:

Just tell them it belongs to the Ltd Co .... job done! :lol:
Devonbaker
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

J B wrote: Fri Nov 25, 2022 8:43 am How are they to know who owns the property? :roll:

Just tell them it belongs to the Ltd Co .... job done! :lol:
If only! They want to see our completion statement from the solicitor, which has our names on...
J B
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Location: We live in England and have rental properties in N Wales and Paphos, Cyprus
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by J B »

Goodness me, what a contrary bunch.

I'd be tempted to tell them where to go! :lol:
Devonbaker
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Location: Devon

Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

J B wrote: Sat Nov 26, 2022 8:07 pm Goodness me, what a contrary bunch.

I'd be tempted to tell them where to go! :lol:
Yes, believe me, we were tempted! But as I say, we're totally new to this, so we'll stick with them for a year (minimum contract length) till we have a better idea what we're doing and then jump ship
newtimber
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by newtimber »

I'm assuming you've run it past your accountant about the steps involved with running it through your limited company? If the company didn't buy the property, there should be some document you can show HH showing the company has the right to receive the income from the guests.
Devonbaker
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

newtimber wrote: Mon Nov 28, 2022 9:14 am I'm assuming you've run it past your accountant about the steps involved with running it through your limited company? If the company didn't buy the property, there should be some document you can show HH showing the company has the right to receive the income from the guests.
Yes, the accountant finds this as bizarre as we do. HH are absolutely adamant that they can only pay into an account in the same name as the property owners. Hard to understand why on earth they insist on this - they've certainly been unable to explain it to my satisfaction!
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CSE
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by CSE »

Until HH inform you why they have chosen this to be part of their T&Cs then you, us and your accountant could be guessing for a long while.
Personally I would not fight it. It is like any owner changing the properties T&Cs because a prospective guest did not like them.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
J B
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Location: We live in England and have rental properties in N Wales and Paphos, Cyprus
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by J B »

Just thought of a possible work-round

Go to your current bank and open another account in your name(s) and name it 'holiday account' and just use this to receive Unhelpful's monies and send them straight to the Ltd Co Account

:?
Devonbaker
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Devonbaker »

J B wrote: Fri Dec 02, 2022 6:16 pm Just thought of a possible work-round

Go to your current bank and open another account in your name(s) and name it 'holiday account' and just use this to receive Unhelpful's monies and send them straight to the Ltd Co Account

:?
Thanks JB - that's exactly what we're going to do. Mad that we have to do it, but for now we'll live with it. And tell HH where to go as soon as we can
Pengman
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Pengman »

County wise, I'm next door to you (Dorset). I recently did over 30 searches on Google using what I believe to be (won't tell you how) popular search terms for my type of property and it's location. Analysing the hits from the first page of Google search results only, I had hits on a total of 103 businesses ranging from the small ones (sometimes just individual properties) to the big holiday let players. 'Helpful Holidays' wasn't one of these 103. I analysed the results under two heardings - (1) organic and paid (advertised) hits, and (2) organic only hits. Leading the way under both categories was Holiday Cottages (39 hits under organic and paid and 21 hits under organic only). Therefore, if I was looking to put my property with a single management company (which I'm not because I manage it myself) then, assuming they were competitive of course, I'd put it with Holiday Cottages - no question about it. They're based in Devon too (Bideford). Of course the results might be different for Devon and different search terms.
I came, I saw, I bought it.
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CSE
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by CSE »

Holiday Cottages is a small cog in a large machine.
https://www.travelchapter.com/brands
Just keep clicking the load more button in the regional brands.
HC has financial links to an even larger company Country Topco Limited. Located in the same office complex.
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Pengman
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Re: Helpful Holidays

Post by Pengman »

CSE wrote: Tue Feb 07, 2023 9:04 am Holiday Cottages is a small cog in a large machine.
https://www.travelchapter.com/brands
That doesn’t detract from the fact that, from the searches I did relative to my property in my area, Holiday Cottages wiped the floor with the competition. In other words, anyone doing searches similar to the ones I did are likely to get more Holiday Cottages hits than hits on any other site, so properties listed with them should get more business.

But I would agree that the last few years have seen big companies like Travel Chapter appear - another one is Snaptrip https://www.snaptripgroup.com/list-your-property . My guess is that when a couple of guys have developed a site and got it got it trading well and producing say £300k income per annum, when the big companies come knocking on the door with a 6 figure offer to buy them out, it’s just too tempting. Of course it may also mean in time that the big companies concentrate on those brands that trade the best and don’t conflict with each other, and close the others down.
I came, I saw, I bought it.
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