Purchasing a chalet can be an excellent investment. Aside from utilizing a chalet as your own home, you can also choose to rent it out in order to earn income. You can have guests stay in your cottage and enjoy all of its amenities in exchange for a fee. This can become a steady source of income especially if you’re living in an area often visited by tourists.
However, for you to actually make the most of this investment, you need to pay attention to a lot of details. Advertising in social media and telling your friends and family that you’re renting out your cottage aren’t enough – you need to exhaust time and effort so your cottage will be ready for renting out.
Here’s how you can do it:
- Declutter: If you have been living in your cottage for years, for sure, there are a lot of trinkets displayed in every corner of the rooms. These trinkets may have a significant value, which is why you’re keeping them for years. However, since you’ll be renting out your cottage, it’s time to take all of them away. Go through each room in the cottage and sort out which items are still usable or not. If you have damaged or broken furniture or decor that seems only to collect dust, decide if you’re going to sell, donate, or throw them away. Not only do these items take up valuable space in your cottage, but they also can become an eyesore over time.
- Deep clean: A lot of guests are very particular with cleanliness. Regardless of how spacious or affordable an accommodation is, if guests can see that it’s not thoroughly cleaned, they’ll choose to spend their money elsewhere. If you want to attract customers, take time to clean everything in the cottage. If your cottage has a lawn, make sure that the grass and plants are properly trimmed, and there are no sights of dead leaves, branches, and plants. If you have a terrace or balcony, tidy these places up and strive to make everything sparkly clean. Decorations inappropriate for the season should also be removed and stored properly.
- Finish half-complete jobs: The experience of your first guests can make or break your success as a business. If your guests are satisfied with the accommodation they had from your cottage, they would recommend your business to others. If they’re unhappy, they won’t. Finishing half-complete jobs can improve the overall experience of your guests. Leaking pipes, loose door handles, squeaking hinges, and cupboard drawers that aren’t shutting properly should be fixed before you rent out your cottage. Remember, you want to provide a unique experience to your guests, not stress them out for utilities and fixtures that don’t work.
- Don’t overcapitalize: Even if you’re looking at the business arena from the outside, you’d know that the competition will always be fierce. And because you’re now renting out your cottage to guests, you might be tempted to take up big renovation projects for your property as one way of leveling out the playing field. You might be contemplating about adding another floor, a fountain in front, and even stretching your lawn. Sure, all of these might increase the value of your property, but it’s not the best way to go when you’re still starting in this kind of business.
You’re renting out your cottage for the first time, which basically means that you’re still testing the waters. If you push through with these renovations even before you start earning, you might end up wasting money. You’ll never know if guests will actually patronize your cottage over the competition. If you really want these renovations, take time to assess the income you’ll earn from renting out your cottage first.
Get professional photographs: Marketing is a necessity for every business – and that includes yours. Since you’ll be entering a certain business niche, it’s important that you prioritize your marketing efforts. How else will your guests know that you’re renting out your cottage? How can they book for accommodation if your business isn’t visible on the World Wide Web? You can start your marketing efforts by hiring a professional photographer and have him take pictures of the different areas of your cottage. These pictures can be used as a marketing tool online, especially when you have a website solely dedicated to the business. Websites like https://leclosdesbrumes.com/chalet-a-louer-quebec/ is a good example. You can also use the pictures for websites that act as middlemen between guests and cottage owners.
When using photographs for marketing purposes, make sure that it doesn’t set the wrong expectations. Several businesses that offer accommodation post edited photos of their rooms just to entice guests. The business might earn income with this strategy, but this can result in unsatisfied and unhappy customers. Don’t commit the same mistake. Only post realistic photos of your cottage. Provide additional pictures or information whenever requested.
- Write a “welcome book”: Rolling out the welcome mat will never be enough for guests to feel at home in your cottage. Depending on the size and design of your cottage, guests might even be lost during their stay. To ensure that this doesn’t happen and guests will know their way around your cottage, prepare a welcome book. This handbook should contain detailed instructions on how guests can use certain utilities or items that aren’t familiar to them. You can include instructions on how they can operate the woodstove in the cottage, how to properly dispose of garbage, and where to locate safety equipment. While you’re at it, indicate your contact number in the handbook, just in case guests need help with anything.
Aim for Consistency
As a neophyte in the hospitality and tourism industry, you’ll be pressured to make your first guests happy. Anything they say about your business can significantly affect the longevity of your business. This might be true to some extent, but success in business doesn’t solely lie on satisfying your first customers – it’s actually about satisfying all of your customers as if you’re renting out your cottage for the first time every time. Consistency is always key to your business success.
