Home Owner FAQ

We manage every aspect of keeping your vacation property booked and ready for guests to enjoy. Our goal is to enable you to make the most revenue from your property without having to do any of the busy work involved with managing it. We do everything from marketing, booking reservations, taking payments, check-in and check- out, housekeeping, light upkeep, and dispatching emergency maintenance to ensure your vacation home is ready for guests. We can also arrange for regular maintenance, improvements, and emergencies. We make sure property owners can sleep well at night knowing their property is being taken care of and generating the most revenue possible.

Commission-based pricing is the industry-standard for vacation rental property management firms. That does not necessarily mean it is the only answer - but we believe that it perfectly aligns our incentives with our property owners. North American commission rates for property management services average roughly 35% and range as low as 20% and as high as 60% depending on the type of home and market. Holiday Homes Property Management offers a range of services to meet your needs based on the location, type of property, and services provided.   On average, our rates are 25%.  Use us as there are no long term commitments.  Let us prove our value to you and we are sure you will continue.

Holiday Homes Property Management Inc. is acting as an agent on your behalf with the guests. Our contract is straight-forward and spells out clearly the responsibilities of Holiday Homes Property Management Inc. and you the property owner. Included in the contract as an appendix is the rental agreement the renters must sign. Please contact us and we will be happy to send you our agreement for your review.

To some degree, yes it does. Guests expect a fully-functioning home when they arrive complete with furniture, appliances, cookware, glasses, silverware, internet, TV, etc. as well as a standard supply of bed linens, bath and hand towels and typical consumables like light-bulbs and batteries.

Nicely decorated homes tend to book quickly. We will look at every home and let you know if we feel it will make a good vacation rental. We will work with you to make sure that you have everything in place. For example, internet connections are required at every home.

We always encourage property owners to have a home that shows well. A good test of whether or not you need to have something in your rental is to put yourself in a guest’s shoes. If you were staying somewhere for a week long period of time, what would you expect to have in that rental home. That is what we aim to provide to guests for their stay.

Contact us to arrange for one of our Relationship Managers to come out for a visit.

A regular home owner’s policy is not sufficient when renting out your home to guests.

Please contact your insurance broker to discuss your vacation property insurance needs.

If you need we have some contacts who may be able to assist you to obtain the proper insurance.

We match potential guests to the vacation property that will best suit their needs. To do this we ask questions about what they want for their vacation, their group size, and make-up (ages of guests). From listening to interested guests and researching social media sites we have a good feel for the respect they will give a vacation home. If they seem reluctant to offer the information that will allow us to match them to the right vacation property, we would prefer not to rent to them and will politely suggest they look elsewhere.

We pay property owners once a month. Expect to receive a deposit covering all guests that check-out during the previous month to your bank account within 15 days of month end.  If you have a guest crossing over one month to the next, the payment for that reservation falls in the month they check-out.

No problem, Holiday Homes Property Management will work with you to get all the details we need and we will fully manage these bookings for you. If you wish to manage the guest, or your former property manager will do it on your behalf, we will block those bookings off in our calendar and no charges will apply.

You will get a monthly statement from us that provides how much rental revenue you earned and taxes collected as well as any charges that you have incurred (for example, grass cutting) during the month.

As everyone is different, we encourage you to speak to an accounting professional to get the proper guidance for your situation.

As agents acting on your behalf, we collect all applicable taxes and send the money to you.

The guest always calls Holiday Homes Property Management.  We will inform you of the situation and determine course of action. If the situation is deemed urgent in nature we will call and dispatch the appropriate service and then inform you.

If you wish for us to act as your agent for any repairs we will meet with service person/contractor(s), obtain necessary quotes and over see any work that needs to done.  Holiday Homes does charge a fee for these types of services.

We require guests to be at least 25 years old, and we have a strict policy of evicting them upon any sign of noise, partying, or over-occupancy. Parties do happen and we want people to enjoy themselves, however we do not tolerate abuse at the properties and contractually have heavy measures in place to evict and charge additional fees. If we receive multiple noise complaints about a guest, we will send over the police and attempt to remove the guest from the property for the remainder of the stay.

No, that is up to each individual owner. In general we encourage it as homes simply get more demand if they allow pets, but we understand many owners do not want to allow them and that is fine. We do charge guests an additional $15 per night per pet fee.   Any damage caused by the pet(s) gets billed to the guest.

First off, we require you to purchase a lockbox or install keypad door locks.  We keep the codes in a secure location and only provide the combinations to the main guest one week prior to check-in. Depending on the key access you choose the codes will be changed periodically or for each stay if you are using a Smartlock system. What this means is that your home is secure, and easy for the right people to access at the right time.

Research shows guests are far less likely to book a rental if a security deposit is required. Guests sign a contract committing to paying for damages via the credit card on file.  As well, there are strict policies when additional cleaning is needed.

Property owners should expect every now and then they might have to replace a fork or glass, do some touch-up painting, replace a sink or shower fixture, or even update/replace furniture due to wear and tear, etc.  All homes experience periodic maintenance.  We suggest you set aside 5% to 8% of gross rents to cover the cost of items that need replaced or fixed.

You have the ability through the owner portal to manage and view your property's calendar. Through this owner portal you can also view bookings, revenue and owner statements. If needed, we are always here to assist you via email or a phone call.

We ask that you keep requests during the peak season to two weeks maximum.  You can do the cleaning yourself after your stay or we can schedule the cleaning for you. Please let us know at the time of booking if you will be cleaning it yourself.  If you are blocking time off for your family and/or friends and you won’t be staying with them, your guests will be required to pay the cleaning fees.  Prior to the next guest stay, we will inspect the property to ensure it is properly prepared.  If additional housekeeping or linen service is required, we will have the services done and bill you on your owner statement for the cleaning.