Refurb- what are guests looking for?

If you are planning to buy a rental home, or you're thinking about what to do with one you have just acquired, this is the place for any questions about starting out in the rentals business.
SPJ
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Post by SPJ »

Cattle farmer wrote: At the moment Sykes seem very accommodating. Any bear traps in the contract I should be aware of?
Just do a search on this forum for "Sykes" and see what comes up. That will show you the bear traps.
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greenbarn
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Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

SPJ wrote:
Cattle farmer wrote: At the moment Sykes seem very accommodating. Any bear traps in the contract I should be aware of?
Just do a search on this forum for "Sykes" and see what comes up. That will show you the bear traps.
What SPJ says.
Just run away. A lot of Sykes' recent activities don’t feature so highly on this forum, but amazingly they are even worse than they used to be.
Just run away.
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

greenbarn wrote:
SPJ wrote:
Cattle farmer wrote: At the moment Sykes seem very accommodating. Any bear traps in the contract I should be aware of?
Just do a search on this forum for "Sykes" and see what comes up. That will show you the bear traps.
What SPJ says.
Just run away. A lot of Sykes' recent activities don’t feature so highly on this forum, but amazingly they are even worse than they used to be.
Just run away.
Yes just look at the facebook page of Sykes Unhappy Customers and see why you would never want to be associated with them. Demanding guests pay balance payments when the holiday cottages are closed and refunding months later under threat from the CMA; owners getting threatened with being taken to court for not giving guests refunds of Sykes commission; having a low deposit booking fee of £30 then hitting guests with a huge cancellation charge that's taken from their credit card if they cancel; owners having to pay thousands to get out of their contracts; not answering phone calls; and I see they now say their response times are up to 21 days!!! ...
Joanna
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Post by Joanna »

I agree with the others and honestly think you'd be better off without the Sykes customers even if it means that you're starting with no bookings. This may seem like madness, but, I wouldn't want to get into a contract with them now - we started out with them 16 years ago. Back then it wasn't too hard to leave them, thankfully. I know it's a lot harder now. We got some awful customers from them who treated our place terribly. Mainly because Sykes under priced it - something they're still doing now in order to bring in lots of bookings.

It's much better to have less bookings at a higher value - less wear and tear, less work for you and guests often respect your place more if they've paid more. Also, we never got any repeat bookings from Sykes.

You can get started by taking bookings through sites like AirBnB - there's no contract so you can easily leave them when you're ready. Or, if you want more help at the start, then find a local agent - just check what their contract says about leaving them.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
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