We invested in our first holiday home at Haven Holiday village in 2012 and initially let it out through Haven to help us cover our costs.

It quickly became aparent that although we'd purchased a 'Platinum' holiday home the standard of the guests that Haven were allowing to stay were far from Platinum!

Because we own and run a PR and marketing company we were soon generating lettings for our luxury platinum 9 Dunster Close for ourselves, so much so that as the year progressed we were approached by several other owners in Dunster Close and many other owners on the park asking us to do the same for them.......and that's how it all started!

Our philosopy is simple: 

"To offer a luxury holiday home and provide a platinum holiday experience for all of our guests who stay in the holiday homes of the owners that we represent, from the very first moment of contact to make an enquiry to well beyond the day that they pack up and depart, taking some amazing holiday memories home with them and ready to book to stay again.

Something that we would only expect to experience if we were to be the guests ourselves."

Here's a brief overview of how we do it:

• We take professional photographs showing off your holiday home to its best both inside and out.
• Promote on our website (www.thisiscaravans.co.uk), on Facebook and other websites that we feel necessary.
• Vet any enquiries, as best we can, in order to ensure that they are 'acceptable' guests.
• Take a non-refundable £100 deposit from the lead guest when they book.
• Send lead guest a booking form, our Terms & Conditions document and an official invoice.
• The lead guest completes and returns the booking form to us with their deposit if we haven't already taken it over the phone. 
• We ask for the remainder of the balance of the holiday 8 weeks before the start date PLUS a cheque for £100 as a damage deposit.
• Two weeks before the holiday start date we send the lead guest the check-in details document on your behalf, a letter instructing them how to check in, directions to the park, a pack of information that We've put together about the park, the town and surrounding area, decent places to eat that we have personally tried and recommend, our own 24 hour contact number and the park's emergency 24 hour phone numbers (just in case).
• We text or call the lead guest on the morning of their arrival to wish them and their party a safe journey and we call them that afternoon to welcome them to make sure that all is to their complete satisfaction.
• On the evening before departure we text or call them to wish them a safe journey home and to remind them to check out and drop off their key at reception by 10am.
• On the day of departure we arrange for our cleaners to clean thoroughly and to report back to us that all is in order.
• 7 days after departure we refund the lead guest their £100 damage deposit. At the same time we pay you the money owing for the private letting (less our commision and the cost of the cleaning). This can be by BACS transfer, cheque or paid into your Bourne Leisure account...whatever suits you best.

Because the holiday homes that we represent are all luxury platinum and prestige status we set the letting prices accordingly so that we're able to attract a totally different class of guest to those that Haven do.

We set our published letting prices at 20% less than the Haven website prices and we monitor this on a regular basis in order to keep in line with theirs, so the final price that we obtain for your holiday home can go up as well as down (slightly). You can always check this for yourself on the Haven website.

We ask a 20% sales commission on the letting fee that we achieve for you, minus £28 for the cost of cleaning and checking by the responsible and attentive local cleaning company that provide us with the Platinum service that our owners and guests expect. (The cleaning service for lodges is £40 and this is reflected in the letting price).

So, for example:

For a week in August 2022 for a platinum 3 bedroom holiday home we would charge the guest £1,365 (Haven website price is £1,707)

We pay you £1,092 (less £28 cleaning cost), so you receive £1,064.

If you were to let through Haven they would pay you £639.

(prices above correct at 16 October 2022)

We only charge a commission so there is no cost to you if I don't generate lettings for you.

The owners of the holiday homes that we represent all have their own requirements. Some just want to have a few weeks for themselves and let out all of the others, some want to have every weekend to themselves and let out mid-week, some are just totally flexible and some just want to let out a few selected weeks of the year. 

The common denominator is that they all want to earn some income to go towards their annual costs but don't want to deal with the guests themselves.

Like many other owners, you can still put your holiday home up for let with Haven to guarantee income for when we are unable to fill your available dates. If we sell the dates then we just let you know in time for you to remove them from Haven lettings.

The addition of mattress covers on all beds in your holiday home is highly recommended as we won't be held responsible for damage caused to mattresses by bed wetting.

Cost of 'wear and tear' to your holiday home and break-down of any appliances, TVs, etc, are your own responsibility. 

All of the appliances and facilities that we advertise (with your agreement) as available in your holiday home must be available and in good working order at all times (EG: TVs, DVD players, Bluetooth speakers, WiFi dongles, ovens, fridges, freezers, washing machines, dishwashers, SKY TV dishes and boxes, rattan furniture, patio furniture, etc, etc.....if you state that its available in your listing then that's what the guest will be expecting and they'll be expecting it to be working/available). 

If, for any reason an appliance breaks down and won't be repaired or replaced in time for a guest's stay, then I reserve the right to move to guest to another holiday home at short notice, in which case you won't receive the rental for that period.

If any problems reported by guests staying are not resolved promptly (within 24 hours) by you then we reserve the right to refund the guest a minimum of a pro-rata daily rate of their stay at your expense and/or move them to another holiday home property on the park if necessary. 

Please be aware that any accidental guest damage or specialist cleaning requirements to your holiday home must be reported to us within 6 days of departure of the guests, before we refund them their damage deposit on day 7. After that date we are unable to accept any claims. Claims cannot be backdated if you dscover damage at a later date.

The maximum amount of a 'damage by guest' claim payable by us to you is £100 per letting period by the guest, so you are therefore advised to invest in your own insurance policy to cover you for private lettings in excess of this.

The £100 damage deposit that we keep on file does not cover loss or damage to any of your personal effects that you have added yourself and that you choose to leave in or outside your holiday home. 

Unless in exceptional/excessive damage circumstance we don't expect to have to ask the guests or us to pay for glass and crockery breakages and certainly not to pay for normal wear-and-tear.

On occasions, guests sometimes find that they have to cancel or move their holiday dates. We always do our best to oblige as long as its outside a 4 week period. In these cases, the £100 booking deposit is kept on file to be used towards a holiday at a later date (in current season or next season) and the guest made aware of this. Please be aware that the booking deposit may be used for another holiday home if dates are not available in your own.

In the unlikely event that you may be selling your holiday home and it's being advertised in the public domain the guest has every right to cancel at any time without financial loss if they feel uncomfortable about continuing with their booking. If that be the case then we will refund the guest in full (including the booking deposit) and you will receive no payment for the booking whatsoever.

If you'd like to have an informal chat over the potential lettings options in more depth and without obligation we're more than happy to discuss by phone or meet up on the park or at a convenient meeting place.
We live in Gloucestershire, close to the M5 and M50.

It costs nothing to talk.