8 Benefits of Holiday Let Management with Sykes

With more than 30 years in the business, Sykes Holiday Cottages have the knowledge and experience to know how to run a successful holiday home. We are here to give you advice and support every step of the way in your holiday letting journey, and to share the expert help and information that helps you to achieve holiday let success.

Read on to find out how you can benefit from letting your property with trusted experts Sykes Holiday Cottages.

Why holiday letting with Sykes could be right for you

Owning a holiday let can be really rewarding, but it can also be hard work. Here at Sykes Holiday Cottages, our aim is to offer hassle-free, successful holiday letting for our owners by putting your second home first.

30 Years’ Experience

Sykes Holiday Cottages has been operating for more than 30 years, beginning at the kitchen table and becoming the UK’s leading independent agency.

With so many years’ experience in holiday home management, what the Sykes team doesn't know isn’t worth knowing!

Whether you are searching for your first holiday home, just starting out or have been letting for years, our team is just a quick phone call away and can offer expert advice on all stages of your holiday letting journey - from helping to obtain your Holiday Rental Income Estimate Letter to maximising your income once your property is live.

Expert Regional Knowledge

Our team of Property Consultants and Local Managers are based in locations all over the UK and Ireland. They can visit your current property and give you useful, local knowledge regarding all areas of holiday letting.With their years of experience working in the holiday letting industry, our Property Consultants can visit your holiday cottage to share their specialist advice on holiday letting with Sykes Cottages, as well as bespoke guidance on short-term lets, from Liverpool to Bath.

Successful and Award-Winning

As a team, Sykes Cottages has been recognised for numerous awards over the years, ranging from technology accolades to service awards.In 2023, we have won Gold at the British Travel Awards for the 10th year running! We are pleased to have scooped Gold in the category 'Best Company for UK Holiday Home Rentals'.

Embracing Technology

We want to make letting your property as hassle-free as possible, and booking your property as simple for guests. That is why we are always trying to find modern ways to aid these processes.

With the use of our Owner Portal, our cottage owners can check their bookings, as well as block off any dates that are required at the click of a few buttons. No need to call us. There is also a wealth of informative guides on subjects such as insurance, short breaks and maximising your income, available for our owners to read at their leisure. Our Owner Portal is accessible via our website or the Sykes Owner App.

For guests, we have the Sykes Holiday Cottages App. A user-friendly experience that makes it easier for guests to book their next getaway. It also contains local recommendations from our Cottage Owners for attractions and activities, as well as places to eat or drink.

How we Manage Your Holiday Home

We Market Your Property

We use our experience to advertise your holiday property in a number of ways, through a selection of different marketing channels.

Firstly, we create a personalised property page, with professional photographs and description to show your property off at its best.

We then use a combination of marketing techniques such as television and radio advertisements, paid advertisements, social media, email and free search to make sure your property gets as much exposure as possible. As well as advertising your property on over 700 affiliate and partner sites.

For more information, take a look at our guide on how to advertise your holiday home.

Below is a quick video guide on how 'How Sykes Markets Your Property'.

We Manage Your Bookings

One of the ways in which we make sure we are considered as trusted experts in holiday letting is by ensuring that our offering is hassle-free and as simple as possible.

If you’re working full time alongside managing your holiday let, or you’re just a busy person, there may be times when you can’t answer the phone or reply to an email enquiry quick enough. A customer may be enquiring about a number of different cottages at once, and if they do not get a reply, you may lose their custom for good.

We realise this and at Sykes Holiday Cottages we have a friendly, knowledgeable and dedicated reservations team who work from 9.00 am until 6.00 pm, seven days a week, answering enquiries and taking bookings from customers. This gives you piece of mind that even if you’re not available to take a booking, we are!

We Offer a Fully Managed Service

When it comes to holiday let management, we offer a unique and flexible service that can be tailored specifically to your needs.

You are in control of how much of your property you want to manage. So for example, if you prefer to do the cleaning and greeting guests, but don’t want to complete tasks such as maintenance and gardening, we can tailor a partially managed service package to suit your preference. Flexibility is key to the control you have of your property, and we are here to offer that.

If you live a great distance from your property or don’t have the time to do this, we offer a fully managed service in which we can arrange cleaners, gardeners, maintenance, assembling welcome packs and more. Learn more about how to remotely manage your holiday let.

If you are looking to clean your cottage yourself, but have no idea where to start, take a look at our Holiday Let Changeover Checklist.

How Can a Holiday Home Managed Service Help You?

Property Maintenance and Cleaning

Cleaning and maintenance between each changeovers is one of the most time consuming tasks of running a holiday let business. Because of this, many people opt to bring in some help to take some of the day-to-day tasks off their hands.

Our Managed Service suppliers are on-hand to help with any cleaning and maintenance requirements that you have.

Holiday Let Welcome Pack

When it comes to welcoming guests into your holiday let, first impressions are everything. One of the best ways to get off on the right foot is to offer those staying in your property a welcome pack upon arrival.Providing a welcome pack is a thoughtful way to make your guests feel at home.

This can include items such as essentials like milk, tea and coffee to information on local attractions and restaurants, and also perhaps some house rules and instructions on how to work appliances.Our team of experts can either offer advice on what to include in your welcome pack to make it extra special, or we can even assemble them for you, to give you one less thing to worry about.

Managing your Holiday Let Remotely

Some holiday let owners live too far away from their properties to be able to manage it day-to-day - this is where Sykes' Managed Service can help manage your holiday let remotely.

The flexibility of our Managed Service means that you don't have to commit to doing either nothing or everything - we can tailor our service packages to specifically suit your needs and availability.You are still in control of your holiday let, we are just here to take the hassle away from you and keep you informed on how things are going.

You can also download Sykes' exclusive mobile app to manage bookings, respond to guest queries and run your holiday let from the comfort of your smartphone. Download the Sykes Owner App today to enjoy all of these benefits and more.

Bespoke Services Tailored to You

Signing your property up with a holiday home management company, such as Sykes, comes with many other benefits that help to make holiday letting less hassle and more successful for you. These include:

• Managing property enquiries

• Taking bookings and payment

• Customer service support

• Customer & guest communications and notifications

• Cottage owner payments

• Advertising, marketing and photography

• Furnished holiday let guidance

• Flexibility

• A broad network of trusted suppliers

• Managed Service packages tailored to you

• Cleaning and maintenance of your property

• Expert advice for holiday letting beginners

What are the Differences between Fully Managed Service and Partially Managed Service?

As the name suggests, a Fully Managed Service covers every aspect of managing the day-to-day tasks of running your holiday home. Through this option, you will obtain your own channel manager that will be dedicated to promoting and managing your property.This option is ideal for those that don't have time to spend cleaning and maintaining their property - you can call upon your agency to take the strain away from you.

Find out more on what is a channel manager and what they can do for you.If you are able to manage your holiday home in some capacity, yet still need a helping hand to get everything done, you may wish to opt for a Partially Managed Service. This is an ideal package for someone, for example, who is capable of doing the laundry and cleaning, but would prefer not to carry out the maintenance and gardening.

Your Cottage Stays Your Cottage

At Sykes Cottages we never forget that your cottage is just that; yours. You are in complete control of your investment, we are here to make your experience hassle-free and help maximise your bookings and revenue.

Our team work together with our owners, and whilst giving help and advice, we will never tell you what to do and we will always respect your wishes.

Whilst we will work hard to ensure we get you bookings, you can still make your own so that family and friends can book through you.

We hope this has given you an insight into how we work. With over 30 years in the business, we are here to give you any advice and support you need throughout your holiday letting journey.If you feel like you want to speak with someone to discuss running a holiday let, follow the link to our let your property page.