Читать книгу Renting Your Recreational Property for Profit - Heather Bayer - Страница 11

Just as you are about to call your guests, the phone rings again. It’s your neighbors on the lake. You’ve met them once or twice — a pleasant couple who run a small resort of five cottages. They have a lovely beach area for their clients with a range of watercraft — canoes, pedal boats, kayaks, and rowboats, and are very proud of the new water slide they have put in alongside their swimming raft. Unfortunately, they explain that your guests’ children have taken over the waterslide and raft, preventing their own guests from using it. When they spoke to the parents, apparently they were met with complete indifference: “They are kids and just having fun; we can’t keep at them all day long.” Your neighbors, although quite calm, are clearly upset and ask you to talk with your renters and firmly tell them that the waterslide and raft are the property of the resort and should not be used by their children. Just as you are about to end the call, your neighbor adds that one of the adults in your party has just taken out one of the resort canoes; please can you act quickly!

Willing yourself to keep your cool, you phone the cottage. The line is busy, as it is when you call again — and again. An hour later, you’ve still failed to get through, so you phone the neighbors again to explain. This time their annoyance is really apparent — the children are still occupying the swimming raft and using the boats. You really need to do something. This is not how it was supposed to be. And as you worry about what to do next, you remember that in your haste to get away last night, you forgot to ask for the rest of the rental money and the damage deposit. What a mess!

Fortunately, the next time you phone you reach someone, but when you explain about your neighbors’ concerns, you find it’s too late — your renter is complaining because the neighbor has shouted at his children and told them to stay off the raft. Your renter says your advertisement mentioned a swimming raft, and they had assumed it was a shared one. It’s clear this is getting out of hand, so you apologize for your neighbor’s anger and point out the swimming raft for your place has the cottage name clearly painted on the side.

Finally able to calm everyone down, you go back to your neighbor and assure him you’ve made it clear to your guests what is available to them and what is not. He suggests that maybe you hire a caretaker to look after your cottage, someone who could be on hand to deal with problems when they arise. You begin to realize this is just one of the things you’ll have to think seriously about if you are ever to rent your property again.

Of course, this is a worst-case scenario. It is very unlikely that you would have to face nearly that many problems during just one guest weekend. However, each one of these problems could have been prevented with forethought and good planning. This book will deal with all of these and more, so your rental experience can run smoothly and successfully. You will still encounter difficult clients and experience the occasional challenging situation, but if you follow the advice and tips contained in this book, you will be far better able to deal with any situation that may arise, and you’ll have contingency plans in place to cover almost any eventuality.