Short-let management that’s flexible, transparent and hassle free, all whilst boosting your rental income
With over 10 years collective experience in manging & hosting our own properties, we know what it takes to maximise your property’s true income potential.
We handle all guest communications from initial enquiries through to check-out, all whilst ensuring a positive guest experience.
With our professional hosting & management service, you could increase your rental income by up to 80% without lifting a finger. We’ll ensure you get a high occupancy rate by advertising your property on various sites like Airbnb & Booking.com.
Home furnishing advice, professional photos, drafting an accurate description, intelligent pricing strategies, and your listing advertised on multiple platforms including Airbnb and Booking.com.
Property management without the fuss.
Using our extensive experience, we manage your property on short-letting sites like Airbnb & Booking.com. We do all the background preparation, list it, find & screen the guests, ensure they’re looked after and have the home cleaned ready for the next guests. We provide you with a comprehensive range of services to help achieve the maximum return on your rental income, all done without you having to lift a finger.
Guest Management
Listing Management
Property Management
Areas in the South East are in high demand for short let requirements. As a host, you can boost your monthly rental income by adopting a short-let strategy. Guests pay a higher premium for short stays vs. traditional long term lets. Whether it’s holiday makers from abroad, guests visiting friends and family or professionals requiring a place to stay for work, we will maximise your rental income by advertising to guests on the biggest short-let platforms such as Airbnb and Booking.com.
We aim to deliver a comprehensive service within a fully transparent & reasonable price. Considering certain variables, our costs range from 15%-20% + VAT of the rental income generated.
For more information on this & to better understand your personal circumstances, have one of our specialists call you back.
We get you signed up
We organise a call with one of our specialists to walk you through the process and how much you could earn.
We get you onboarded
We get your property prepared to start taking bookings.
We go live!
We get your property listing activated on multiple platforms and start taking bookings
FAQs
No doubt you’ll have a few questions, so we’ve listed the typical questions asked by our partners below and provided an answer to each question.
We aim to limit your involvement as much as possible. We will provide towels, toiletries, professional photographs of your property, and a preparatory cleaning service. All you ask you to do is to ensure that your property is equipped with the basics. We are also happy to provide advice & guidance on sprucing up your property which can help boost your income and attract more guests.
Most definitely! We will help you set up an Airbnb account and manage it for you, too. You’ll have full visibility of the account whilst we manage it for you.
Yes, any properties listed through our services will need to be fully furnished with clean and comfortable furniture as well as the basics (Wi-Fi, TV, bedding & kitchen equipment/utensils). Think of it as how you’d like a home to be furnished if you were staying over. Although we do not provide any of the furniture we are more than happy to help & advise with any furnishing of an empty property before you enrol on your short let journey.
While we don’t provide furniture ourselves, we’re always happy to lend our expertise to help maximise the value of your property on short-let platforms. Practical choices like where to put toiletries, or how to stack chairs, can make all the difference!
We will handle this for you by using professional photographers as part of the process of getting you set up. We will organise a suitable day & time for the photographer to photograph your property. High quality professional photos are probably the most crucial element of a successful property listing. First impressions really do count here so we like to ensure we select a day where the weather is good and there’s lots of natural light.
As part of the insurance requirement (as is the case for any landlord) we do expect your property to be fully compliant with all local health and safety regulations, as well as any rules and regulations from the government. Prior to using our services, your property will require an up-to-date EICR report (electrical safety) & Gas Safe report (should the property be heated via a gas boiler). You will also need to ensure that all fire and carbon monoxide alarms are fully functional. We can assist with the above in sourcing the right professionals to validate & provide the necessary documentation.
We offer a commission based service tour customers where we take a percentage of the revenue. This essentially means that when we win you win. Our ultimate aim is to maintain the highest occupancy rate at the optimum price whilst satisfying every single one of your guests. This cost will cover all aspects of managing the property, (from creating the listing, the full management of cleaning & calendar management, 24/7 guest communication, and much more).
For us to get the property set up to go we do charge a one-off onboarding fee which covers the cost of an initial clean, a professional photo shoot and a fact-to-face visit from one of the team to ensure your home has everything required to start the ELK Homes journey.
You will receive your pay-out directly from Airbnb once your guest(s) arrive at your property. Other platforms may differ in how they process pay-outs, so please ask our specialists for specifics.
For all bookings, guests are fully vetted and must provide a government issued ID where we match the name with the booking to ensure we have full visibility & control on who stays at your property. We also ask you to not keep any valuables within the property when it is available in the short-let market. In the unlikely event that guests damage or steal from your property, we will ensure we work with the platform and guests to ensure items are wither recovered or full compensation is provided. For added peace of mine and at no additional cost, you are also eligible for a £1,000,000 host guarantee which will cover you for all loss & damage within the property.
A keysafe is a tiny, secure metal safe that is accessed by a combination lock which are securely installed on an external location of the property wall. Your guests will be given clear guidance on how to access the keys. To check-in, guests enter a code on the keysafe, collect the keys, and are then able to access property. In order to optimise the guest and host experience, in 2016 Airbnb itself began recommending that hosts use keysafes to run remote check-ins. Guests prefer to have the opportunity to check-in themselves, show themselves around the property and also have the flexibility to check-in when they can (e.g. tourists or business travellers who may arrive at the property through the night after a long-haul flight).
We provide the cleaning services directly using freelance cleaners we already have prior experience using. Cleaners are selected based on location, experience and are monitored carefully to ensure they provide and maintain the highest standards.
The initial first clean of your property would be paid by you. However, all further cleans are paid for by guests and are added to the cost of their stay. This is paid out to you and then invoiced by us to pay the cleaners. The cleaning cost will ultimately depend on the number of rooms in the property.
Your occupancy rate (OR) is the percentage of available nights your property is booked for. For instance, if your property was available for 100 nights, and booked for 75 of them, you would have a 75% occupancy rate. With short-letting there are always going to be gaps between tenancies, but it’s our job to keep them as short and as limited as possible. Occupancy rate is a true measure of success, the higher the rate the more in-demand the property is. Variables such as property location (proximity to mainline station, airport a point of interest), property size, interior quality, photographs and pricing all play a role in the overall occupancy rate. There are also seasonal factors such as time of year and/or local events as well as competition from other properties in the area.
We continue to study the occupancy rate to ensure we 1) keep it as high as possible and 2) find the optimum price that earns you additional revenue without jeopardising the occupancy rate.
Give us a call and we’ll ensure the dates you require the property are blocked out so no guests can book. We’ll ensure your property is clean and ready for your arrival. After you leave the property will be cleaned and made ready for the next guests. The cleaning fee for this service will be added to your account.
All we ask for is at least 30 days notice before the day you wish to terminate your agreement where we would then simply deactivate the listing so no further bookings are taken. We would urge that all upcoming bookings are honoured regardless of the cancellation period.
