May I Use The Home For My Own Purposes?

The answer is obviously YES

It would defeat the purpose of the home. Most owners don’t purchase a holiday home just as an investment. No, you want to use the home for fun. 

Let’s look at management choices using an accommodation agency. 

  1. You appoint a manager and they set their management fees to look after your home. They charge you retail rates for changeovers between your stays. They look after the garden, oversee maintenance and do the odd booking, etc. In most cases, the manager is not big on marketing. And they might get a peak booking. They charge a fixed fee per month plus an incident fee. 
  2. You appoint an Accommodation Agency like ours. Our focus is on ensuring your investment is giving you a generous return. In order to maximise income, we need very many happy guest reviews. We, therefore, provide an exceptional management service. We don’t charge a monthly fee. We only charge per incident at cost. If there are no incidents you pay nothing. 

What is the concern for owners when they say; the agreement is too restrictive as we may not be able to use the home

Let’s look at our clause affecting you:

3.15 In the event of a non paying guest (friends and family) of the OWNER utilizing the ACCOMMODATION, the AGENT has the option of an admin fee of R450 per owner booking or change to an owner booking after the first 15 owner requests per year. Plus a cleaning fee at the retail rate for the stay (refer to T&Cs for current).

Most owners see a last-minute opportunity and arrange to stay at their home. Great stuff. It’s not booked. Why not? Others book their home far in advance. 

A few owners book a day in advance or change the dates or eventually cancel their own booking. Once or twice no problem but it becomes the norm ……. 

While all these admin tasks take our attention away from what we do best, getting 5 Star reviews, optimising occupancy.

We have an option to cancel the agreement but it may not be beneficial to both parties. It’s for this reason that we have the option to charge R450 as an admin fee. 

Therefore this clause is only to let owners consider their actions carefully. Making a booking for personal use is great and we encourage it. As long as it’s reasonable. 

It’s obvious that this clause will not affect 95% of all owners. 

And if you feel it’s unfair as you plan to make more than 15 personal bookings per year then let us talk.

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