Ready, Steady Summer!

Stop the clocks, forget the social life and make hay while the sun shines. This is why we do it folks!

Could you manage Summer lets in your student property? 

This week has seen high levels of activity in the business. We have been preparinga regular student property for Summer letting. A kind landlord from the PDPLA gives me a joint venture each Summer to make some extra by transforming a student let to a great holiday home for a couple of months.

There are technical challenges to this; it requires an unencumbered property and a slight shift in insurance to ensure that legalities are met. This is our second season on this property so all our paperwork and systems are there, on hold from the previous season.

Is it worth it? Many of our members sit on their student properties through the summer, do their refurb and cleaning at a leisurely pace ready for the next students. The letting agent in this case offered cleaning after 2 weeks….that's potentially 2 weeks at £200/night so £2800 lost! I wasn't having any of it and sent my team in. 3 days later it was spotless, scrubbed and partially repainted to tweak it for guests. The landlord had boxes of house contents to add (carefully set aside after the setup last year). I added internet, pictures put up (with command strips as they will shortly be removed) and the loan of my heavyweight cleaning kit to ensure that it was sparkling. We launched today for 6 weeks of Summer lets. Over the Summer we anticipate taking £5-7000, seriously increasing the properties' yield. So think carefully when you mothball your student property over the Summer. Even just the Victorious weekend can make you £2000. Admittedly the set up is a pain but, once done, you have the kit ready for next time around.

Cleaning after students is a necessary evil, they never fail to disappoint. This lot had left a second carpet of hair extensions, turned off the bathroom fan leaving condensation to work its magic and left the new Henry hoover from September so immaculate that it looked unused (it was). The steam mop optimistically left for them was still in the box and the rubbish, well; we have all seen student rubbish so I won't ruin your breakfast. Easily dealt with and, when the clean turns the corner and the property starts to shine it once again feels worthwhile. My favourite part is cleaning the windows and letting the light flood in again. I felt great pride in the job we did on this one and enjoyed getting stuck in with the team to complete in record time. The listing is set up on Airbnb and the bookings have started to come already.

Next comes managing the additional cleaning and linen over the Summer. My linen is hired so I just increase my stock for the Summer and an additional cleaner has been engaged to help cope. A great addition, once again, to help us maximise the season. We will be counting the cash in September when we take it down again ready for the students return.