Holiday Letting System         

Benefits

This system is designed to help an owner / manager handle the administration involved in letting a holiday cottage.  It has been designed exclusively for this purpose.

A database is kept (on your PC) of all lettings.  The application shows you at a glance which weeks are let, and which are available.  It also displays the booking status, rent and an optional comment.  You can create, modify and delete booking records starting with a single click.  You enter the details of the person booking - and the system automatically enters dates, rent and any optional charges and calculates deposits and balances. As well as recording your booking data in a single database, the application uses these details to create letters and reports for your accounts and records; for example it can produce a list of lettings and income in a spreadsheet compatible format to help you produce the annual accounts. It can also publish the rates and availability of your property to a web file.

A more comprehensive list of benefits follows:

List of Major Features:

• Simplifies, speeds up and assists with the administration and management involved in letting a holiday cottage.
• Saves time - for example, no more writing out addresses or writing or typing out letters.
• Provides an "at a glance" view of the letting status, showing which weeks are let, how much each week costs and the payment status - for example you can quickly identify overdue payments.
• Fast entry of the data for each booking, including automatic completion of much information. The system calculates and inserts data, including the rent, duration, deposit and (optional) fuel and linen charges.
• Quickly produces letters to send to your customers, for example to confirm a booking. Information like names, dates and costs is automatically inserted. This feature uses proformas that the owner can easily modify; the sample letters, booking forms and web site are a valuable starting point.
• Instead of sending these letters by post, they can be sent using email, from your preferred email client.
• Prints addresses onto envelopes or labels, direct from the booking records. Saves writing or typing.
• Handles additional charges if you make them: eg for linen, pets, fuel, breakages deposit.
• Can (optionally) record the date that you repay a returnable breakage deposit. Also records any amount retained to cover breakages.
• Eliminates the risk of taking two overlapping bookings - you are alerted if dates clash.
• For a repeat booking, you can quickly find the records of the previous booking and any notes you may have made, for example, to help avoid letting a second time to a poor tenant. You can also copy the details into the new booking to save retyping - with a single click!
• Provides printed reports and summaries:
  • Printed Booking Status report showing consolidated summary by week (useful for taking bookings by phone)
  • Quick status report on income and days let for each tax year.
  • Annual accounts - provides list of lets, income and totals as printed report or in standard CSV spreadsheet format.
  • Lists of lettings for your local contacts ( local managers, cleaners etc.)
  • Reports where your bookings came from - find out which methods of letting actually work!
• If you use a Web site to advertise:
• One click will link directly to a copy in order to answer queries
• The system will quickly update the local HTML files to show rates and availability status in a table. You then upload this status to your web site.
• Mail Shots: Assists you to send mail shots to your previous tenants either by email or normal post.
• Discount calculator. Works out and enters a discounted rent (for example for last-minute bookings)
• Has the facility to store scanned booking forms on the computer and retrieve them immediately when working with the appropriate booking.
• Holds all the records in an easily accessible data base - you have only a single copy of the data. This is easily backed up for security.
• Searchable archive: The database of bookings is always available for searching and you can keep as many old bookings as you wish. After a number of years, old bookings are easily removed - but are still kept in an archive, unless you choose to delete this. This makes keeping records (for example for tax purposes) very straightforward.
• If you have more than one property to manage, then each property can have its own options.  For example, you can have different currencies or different changeover dates for each property. Hence you could manage a property in USA where lets normally start on Sundays and are charged in US dollars, and one in UK, let in pounds sterling.
• You can set the tax year to end on any date you like - so it can be used by owners in any country. However, at present the prompts and documentation are English only (although letters and notes can be in any language).
• A comments field associated with each booking can be used to record any appropriate information you wish to record.
• A "special requirements" field is available which can record special requirements eg "put extra bed out". This field is included on the report for your local representatives.
• Data Backup, Recovery and migration features are all provided.
• The system can run entirely on your personal computer, without any attachment to the Internet. There are no ongoing usage costs once it is purchased. You don't need additional software such as Microsoft Office although this software is compatible with Word and Excel. Optionally you can use it to help maintain a web site if you have one.

The system was designed for a private owner, rather than a letting agency. However, we have agencies using it, as all reports can be pulled off by property. Initially written to manage up to 4 properties, version 3 introduces a new way of displaying the letting status which makes it possible to manage many more properties. The system has been tested managing up to 15 properties, but should support more.

The Holiday Letting System is a simple, easy to use system which is moderately priced for most users. Even a novice computer user should be able to get immediate benefits.

Note: if you purchase the system, your registration payment will entitle you to receive new releases for no additional charge (although we reserve the right to make a charge for a major new version with substantial additional function.)

Frequently Asked Questions:

As users ask us questions about this system we are putting frequently asked questions on the web here. You can look at these questions (also available via the support link), and they may help you understand what the system can do.

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