WHITSUNDAY E-NEWS REAL ESTATE: 2nd week of July

Published on: Jul 14, 2021

https://youtu.be/MY7z68fTc_Y

Hi, I'm Annette Neil from PRD Whitsunday with this week's e update.

Joining me this week as promised is Lorna Sorfentein.
Lorna is our Head of the Asset Management here at PRD, which includes AccomWhitsunday, which looks after all our holiday rentals.

We've had some exciting news this week, with Qantas Airlines announcing more direct flights from Brisbane to the Whitsunday coast airport.
We are going to see 50,000 seats a year coming directly into the area. We are now one of the fastest-growing regional airports in Australia.

I wanted to bring Lorna here answer a few questions about holiday letting. 

* What sort of trends are you seeing with bookings at the moment for guests? - Annette

The lockdowns always make things difficult because they happen so quickly. We are seeing a lot of people cancelling at the very last minute, so within 48 hours of them staying at a property. In saying that, they cancel and the property I being booked again within that time as well.
We've got cleaners ready to go, and just so everybody knows, there is a shortage of cleaners in Airlie beach. Our cleaners are scheduled, cancelled and then rescheduled. A seamless process really .Last-minute bookings are a massive trend at the moment. The only time we've seen bookings this far in advance is for peak periods like school holidays , Christmas and  Easter . Other than that there’s  definitely are a high trend of last-minute booking - Lorna.

* We're still open for business. The Whitsunday is still the place to come to, at the moment. We are seeing a massive trend in investor inquiry for units and new homes. People can buy a holiday property they can use, and  holiday here instead of going overseas. Then they can make it pay for itself by holiday letting it out for the rest of the year. This can be a headache looking after that yourselves. What are the advantages of Accom Whitsunday managing your holiday letting investment? - Annette 

What happens is when you bring your property over to AccomWhitsunday, you can use it whenever you want as long as there are no guests in it, and you can either contact us and ask us to book the dates in for you, or you can go in and log into your portal and book your dates yourself (block it out)

Let us know if you want it cleaned, as we organize everything. It’s also a good thing if an owner sees that the property is vacant for an extended period and they what I want to go in and spend some time there. This is a great opportunity to see what needs to be done. It's also handy if you've got family members that you want to be nice to and you can give them a couple of nights at your holiday letting property.
It's convenient, and, with how things are going at the moment occupancy rates, we're going sort of round about the 20 30 per cent for a while then, and they're pushing way up above 60 at the moment.-Lorna

Everything's so uncertain, people are using that time, and are there no restrictions on how often an owner can use their property? - Annette

No, not at all.
We used to have it set up where you could only use it for a certain period, but it's your property.
If you want to make as much money from it as possible, don't book it too much for yourself. If it's there for you to enjoy and you want a little bit of cream on top, then book when you want, and we'll be booking guests when you're not there.

* Accom Whitsunday is a full property management service, we covering every facet of maintenance and routine inspections and everything that’s required... - Annette

That's right.
I think a lot of people don't quite understand the involvement.
Some think that they can  Airbnb their property and all should be fine
It's a little bit more complicated than that

When you have a guest who goes in, and they cause damage to your property, you have a certain period to dispute that with the portals, and our team is experienced in that.

We have a concierge here that will check the property before the guests go in to make sure that it's guest-ready.

This is also to avoid those nasty negative reviews. The concierge will go in after they've checked out and check for any damages. Because they're doing it as soon as the guests check out, we capture that time frame to make sure that you're not a week or two down the track when you realise , and unfortunately, you can't claim anymore.

Having those little steps is to make sure that we're maintaining your investment.
We’ve been managing properties a long time and found all the ways to do things properly.
The Accom Whitsunday team are here for any questions; please give them a call. 
We'd love to help you out and take care of your most significant investment in one of the most beautiful places on earth.