With a shortlist of agents to hand, the following questions will help to choose the most appropriate one for your property.

Commission and costs

The first question often asked is “what is your commission?” Agents derive their income as a percentage of the bookings value they generate from your property. In this respect, they are paid on a performance basis; the more bookings they generate, the more money they will earn.

The amount of commission ranges from around 15% to 30% plus vat.

What is included in this service?

Essentially this covers the marketing and administration of bookings. Some agencies will offer further services, such as cleaning and changeovers and property management which is included in the commission or charged separately.

Bookings notifications

How do they convey information about bookings to you or the appointed cleaner and keyholder to ensure the smooth reunning of the property?  How do they provide information about future bookings as a whole?

How will they market the property?

This is a very broad question and covers areas such as activity in:

• Search Engine Marketing.
• Online Advertising.
• Direct Mail and Marketing to past guests.
• P.R.
• Print Advertising.

One exercise you can do is to put yourself in the position of a potential guest and try various searches in Google and other search engines to see how prominent the agency are on phrases such as 'holiday cottages in ...' or 'self catering in ...'.

How many bookings do they take?

Trying to garner information about the agencies average booking levels could be tricky and is not necessarily a reflection of what they can achieve on your property in particular. Some will cite individual properties which take over 40 bookings a year; their top performing units. Generally speaking the average level of bookings per property is between 20 and 30 per annum.

Check the contract and commitments.

Looking at the agency’s owner contract can reveal a number of important issues and clauses, plus the liabilities of the agency and the owner. Look out for key information such as how to terminate the contract and what fees and timescales are associated with this. Also what happens to future bookings which are not honoured by the owner?

How do they handle complaints and damages?

Complaints and problems do occur occasionally, so it is important to understand how the agency deals with issues. Situations may include:

• A guest who has arrived at the property and wishes to be moved to another property.
• Problems during the stay, such as faulty boiler or TV, which leads the guest to complain and seek recompense.
• Damage caused by the guest during the stay. Is there a deposit taken on bookings?

Monitoring bookings and occupancy.

Do they actively monitor booking levels for properties and take action to ensure key booking periods, such as school holidays, are fully booked?

How they pay the owner.

Bookings are typically made with a deposit at the time of booking and a balance in advance of the stay. Some agencies will pay some of this deposit to the owners when the booking is made, while others will pass on the full amount, minus their commission after the stay has taken place; i.e. when the owner has fulfilled their part of the booking in providing the accommodation for the guest without issue.

Owner usage.

An agency can only generate their income by taking bookings which relies on the property being available to book, especially during the peak weeks in July and August. Consequently many impose restrictions on how the owner can use the property, limiting owner stays to a certain number of weeks in the year and furthermore limiting July and August usage to one week.

Other articles in this series:

How to choose a Holiday Lettings Agent – Finding and Researching an Agent.

How to choose a Holiday Lettings Agent – What they will do for your property.