Turn Your Holiday Home Rental Into A Side Hustle

When more and more homeowners are looking at ways to maintain their property, monetizing your home become almost second nature if you’ve got an entrepreneurial mindset. You can find homeowners who put a room for rent on websites such as Airbnb, for instance. The advantage of this approach is that you can rent a room in your primary home and enjoy tax benefits. Indeed, up to a specific amount, your gains are entirely tax-free. Additionally, you can also deduct improvement works from your taxes if you can justify that the project was related to the rented room.

But renting a room in your home may not be sufficient to build a regular source of income. You’ll find that the market for holiday rentals offers advantageous revenues in comparison. Indeed, if you can buy a holiday home, you can let the home pay for its mortgage by repurposing the rents. From a tax perspective, you might even build a situation in which you don’t have to pay any tax on the income of your rental property until the mortgage is fully repaid. While this might take a few years, you can then benefit from direct income throughout the year. As the property market is a slow-moving market, investing in buildings and houses is a profitable and stable strategy. More importantly, you can make it your side hustle, or even your full-time job if you’re successful.

Start with the right location

There is no denying it. Picking the perfect holiday home takes time. You need to research each location carefully and spend enough time exploring the surrounding of the main areas. There is a different process in each country – from how to buy house in Malaysia steps by steps guideline to the complexity of the rental legislation in North Africa – which is why it’s essential that you organize for legal support.

You can find a local real estate agent who can offer advice and recommendations to foreign investors, or you can work closely with a lawyer who is an expert in international home purchases. An expert can help you to identify the best regions for holidaymakers – as they’re likely to have worked on previous deals in the past.

Additionally, you should also consider other criteria such as the climate – if the property is inhabited for several months due to the weather condition, it might not be a good investment, for instance –, the local infrastructure – holidaymakers need comfort and safety – and the cost of living. Most people avoid rentals in countries with a high cost of living.

Making it homely

A rental home is not a home. You can’t decorate or treat it like a home. However, your customers are going to be looking for a personal and warm feeling, even though they are only staying in the property for a few days or weeks. Therefore it’s essential to nail the homely feeling without making your rental impractical for holidaymakers.

 Ultimately, rentals have rules and regulations you need to follow – which you may not require in your home – and which can affect the decor. However, with a little bit of care and attention, you can ensure it looks welcoming and personal. You can add frames on the wall that showcase the most famous spots in the area. Alternatively, you could look into some of the work the Marandi Foundation is carrying out, digitizing watercolors and have some of these printed and framed. It’s always a fantastic idea to add local items to your interior style, from patterned blankets to figurines from the town market.

Keep a trusted team to look after it

Unless you happen to live close by, you should get in touch with cleaning professionals to keep your property spotless. While most rentals ask tenants to clean before they leave, there is often a team of professionals who can come and give a finishing touch between departures and arrivals. It’s best to work with a couple of contacts, from cleaning to real estate agency, to keep the property updated and functional. A realtor can also intervene in case of emergency, such as broken appliances for instance. You could also get in touch with Global Guardians who could rent it out for you and make sure the property stays in good condition.

Look out for partners

To perfect your business recipe, you need to build a network of partners you can rely on to bring in new customers. It can be tricky to figure out where to start when you first buy your holiday home. But you can take a look at the most popular tourist attractions in your area to find some ideas. You can get in touch with the information center to give your rental additional visibility. Besides, you can discuss the possibility of discounted entrance tickets for your tenants.

Make it accessible to all customers

Nobody likes a rental that offers only a limited time to pick up the keys. Holidaymakers are not responsible for flight delays and airport controls. Despite their best efforts, they can arrive outside of your rental business opening hours. That’s why you need to have a backup plan, such as a security box with a code at the outside of the property. Sometimes, the neighbors or the local real estate agents are happy to look after the keys for you and let holidaymakers in outside of business hours.

Additionally, you can also consider agreements with local taxi drivers, so that holidaymakers can book a cab at the same time they book your property, for instance. This can save them a lot of stress in the long term.

Create loyalty in your customers

Finally, you need to ensure that you run your rental like a real business, which means that you need to make your tenants – aka your customers – feel valued. Leaving a hamper in the property with a handwritten note that is addressed to them can personalize the experience and make a difference. You can also offer discounts for returning customers, which incentivize them to hire your holiday home again in the future.

Encourage marketing campaigns

Last, but not least, your rental is a business. Consequently, you can consider marketing investments, such as running a Google AdWords campaign that targets people looking for accommodation in your destination, for instance. It’s also recommended to create multilingual landing pages so that you can reach out to international tourists.

A holiday home is not only a second home. It’s a side hustle that has the potential to become a profitable source of income if you manage it like a business. In short, put your entrepreneur’s hat on and push your rental onto the market.