Stuart Hall, 47, an online marketing consultant lives with his partner Shirley Prudencio, 46, an accountant, in a one-bedroom apartment in Leicester. To help pay for their holidays, they’ve decided to rent their home out whilst they are away.
‘We live in a Grade II listed converted textile factory right in the centre of Leicester. We have one bedroom, a bathroom and a huge living area with the original Victorian wooden floors.
‘Shirley is from Brazil and the idea first came about because we are saving up to go to Brazil for the World Cup next year. Shirley suggested we look into renting our place out to provide some extra income whilst we’re away.
‘Then, I saw an ad on the tube whilst I was in London, promoting the fact that Holiday Lettings is encouraging people to think about renting out their home whilst they’re away, so we decided to go for it and list our home on the site.
‘We had a look at the other properties on the Holidaylettings.co.uk site to gauge what to charge for our place. We realised we are not as posh as the country cottages on there and so we made this place cheaper than those and settled on £258 a week or £35 a night.
‘We’re super excited it’s already been rented out for three weeks in June, a French professor has taken it for a month whilst he’s lecturing at the university and another lady has taken a week next January.
‘We’re going to try and ensure that we don’t spend as much as we are being paid on holidays that we take when this place is rented so that we can put some of the money towards our Brazil trip next year. And, my parents live nearby so if someone wants to rent here and we don’t want to go away at that time, we can always stay with them for a few days.
‘It’s been fun getting the place ready for letting out. We’re writing up a guide to using everything here and we aim to be here to give the tenant a key and walk them around the place.
‘We’re a bit nervous about letting a stranger stay here, and we may lock a few of our more personal items away, but I think sharing your belongings is part of the fun of it. We’ve got a huge bookshelf of books and videos and I’d be happy for our guests to browse through it. It will help to give them a flavour of the people they are renting from and hopefully this will mean that they are more likely to treat the place well if they feel like they know us.
‘The Holidaylettings.co.uk site website is really helpful and it has advice for property owners on how to prepare your home for paying guests, insurance implications, etc. We have a handy man who will be on call whilst we’re away if any problems occur with the property. We think we have everything covered. We’re really looking forward to welcoming our first paying guests.’
To find out about renting Stuart and Shirley’s home visit http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/330258
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