Home Owner FAQ

 

Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -makes renting out your vacation rental easy - but we understand that home owners have lots of questions. We try to be as clear and informative as possible so we've put together a list of the most asked questions we get!

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• What does Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - do for Vacation Rental Owners?

 

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

 

• What do you charge for this service?

Island commission rates for property manager services average roughly 35% and we have seen them as high as 60% depending on the type of home and market. Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - provides full service management without cutting any corners for only 18% commission, and we may offer new owners, during limited time promotions, even lower commissions for their first year of management.  Try it for a year, let us prove our value to you and we’re sure you’ll continue but if you decide not to, there are no strings attached.

 

• How easy is it to get started?

 

Getting started is easy and risk-free. We can activate homes that are existing vacation rentals as quickly as in a few weeks if everything is ready to go. Our contract has no minimum term or volume commitments, or start-up fees. Normal activation includes shooting new photos, putting together detailed listings, setting pricing, activating advertising on the main internet channels and beginning to take reservations - all in as little as a few weeks! This can take longer given a home owner's schedule, or if a home is in the process of being converted from a residence or long-term rental. If you do not like the service at any point you can terminate without penalty.

 

• Can you help me convert to a vacation rental?

 

Yes, we will help in any way we can. Whether it is helping you secure a short-term license if necessary, to meeting movers, the cable company, etc. We can have a Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - team member help you quickly and smoothly get through the process.

 

• What kind of contract do I need to sign?

 

Our contract is an open-book and we believe it should not have any onerous clauses. It is straight-forward and always posted online to view. It includes a 30 day out clause for any reason - if you are not happy with the service you can leave with a month's notice. Please contact us and we will be happy to send you our agreement for your review.

 

• Do I have to commit to a certain amount of availability?

 

No, however we do require that all homes that wish to use Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - are year-round rentals. There is no problem with an owner, friends or family using a rental for weeks or even months at a time, however if you plan to only make it available occasionally then your home probably is not right for our program. We also reserve the right to cancel a homeowner agreement if the home is predominantly unavailable for bookings.

 

• Does my home need to be of a certain quality or size?

 

To some degree yes. While Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - does not work only with luxury properties, we do focus on upper-end rentals in desirable locations. This could be a high-end studio apartment in a downtown metro area, or it could be a great home like most of us live in located in a vacation destination. We will look at every home and let you know if we feel it will make a good rental. Contact us to see if your home qualifies.

 

• Is there anything I am required to have at my home?

 

Yes there is! 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. We will work with you to make sure that you have everything in place. Internet connections are required at every home - TV can be optional in certain rural areas. Nicely decorated homes tend to command higher rentals and we always encourage 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.

 

• Do I need to have a traditional phone line/land-line installed?

 

No, a landline is not necessary unless you wish to have one for your own personal stays. While we require wifi to be available, we do not require a landline. Virtually all guests come equipped with mobile phones and the expense of maintaining a landline just for guest use is not needed.

 

• How do you set pricing for my rental?

 

Owners often ask how pricing is set for each rental, and why the "Total Rent" amount on booking notification emails sometimes looks a little strange. First, we set an initial price for each unit for each day of week, and time of the year.  Holidays and peak periods may be set higher, and off-season prices could be set lower.  We set these initial prices based on several factors like input from each owner, characteristics of the home (size, amenities, location, recent remodels, etc.), comparable home prices in the area.

 

Once we agree on the initial prices with you the owner, we ask you if you want to be included in our dynamic pricing program. Over 90% of all owners decide to participate. Once in the program, we watch the performance of your unit and make frequent pricing adjustments.  No pricing is ever set perfectly the first time - the key is to monitor and adjust pricing up or down based on actual market demand. This is where Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -excels - we monitor conversion rates of your rental at initial pricing and adjust up or down according to how well the rental is booking. It is an ongoing process that is always a top priority. The more money our owners make, the more we make - so we try and do everything we can to maximize the revenue.

 

• Here are just a few examples of the many ways we adjust your pricing to make you more rental income:

 

- If your home is booking more quickly for comparable times of year than other homes in your area - this may be an indicator we set your price too low, and we may adjust the price up.

 

- If your unit has last minute availability, and has openings within the next two weeks, we may apply different levels of discounts to try and get that last-minute traveler who is used to getting a last minute discount deal.

 

- If we notice large periods of time that are farther in advance that have lower than expected occupancy, we may adjust the price down.  As occupancy fills in, we may adjust the price back up.

 

There are several other ways we make changes, and a lot of different places we look for data. At Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - we monitor the market availability calendars on sites like VRBO and HomeAway,  and benchmark every home's inquiry and reservation volumes against historical numbers and comparable homes.  All of these changes can result in the "Total Rent" number being different than the initial pricing set for your rental. 

 

• How do you advertise my rental and do I need to pay for this?

 

We list your home everywhere we think guests are looking for rentals! We start by putting you on the Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - Vacation Rentals website, but we know that most consumers shop on the big consumer travel sites.  In addition to our own site, we automatically get your property onto the major Vacation rental sites (Homeaway.com, AirBnB, and Tripadvisor to name a few), and we list your property on many other optional sites like FeWo, Flipkey, VRBO. Each site has a slightly different business model, but in general most have a combination of a small commission to the property and a fee that gets charged to the guest.  Of course all bookings on the Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -  have no additional cost to the owner associated with them.

 

• What if I already have listed my home on those sites?

 

Many owners have already created listings. As owner you are more than free to make your own bookings, as for this we charge a fixed day fee for the management, cleaning and all our other services normally provided by our own bookings. The fixed day fee is always agreed with the owner as it depends on the size of the property and how many guest it can acommondate. We can also help you with migrate them over to our managed account and we will go through them to professional rewrite the listing if necessary, to add or improve the photos and to configure the listing to synchronize the pricing and calendar across all of the many sites we plan on listing your rental.

 

• Do I need to provide you with photographs?

 

If you have them, great! If you don't, we'll handle it. Even if you do, we will likely come and shoot some more. The fact is that guests want to see great photos and we want to make sure your home looks fantastic online!

 

• How do guests pay you?

 

We use money-wiring bank to bank or PayPal. Travelers overwhelmingly prefer to pay with PayPal for transactions rather than send cash - it is safer, easier, and more secure. We can also take cash or check payments as well but prefer to use PayPal.  PayPal do charge for their service, the cost of this service is for the tenant and from there the owner have no extra service charge.

 

• How do guests interact with Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -?

 

We have several ways for guests to communicate with us. First is our website and email, second we are ready to answer the phone around the clock. Every guest is well informed before their arrival, they get thier reservation information, we keep in mind flight arrival to be there for check-in where we lay-out the property and hand over the keys for their rental, Route directions, nearby restaurants and a lot more. Anyone can download our information book also and we encourage homeowners to do so. The application is listed as VIlla Information , under Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - About Us.

 

• Can guests book my property online?

 

Yes they can, although virtually all guests begin with an email or phone call we do allow them to view a property online, and to book it and pay for it online.

 

• How do you deal with advanced deposits?

 

We charge a deposit of 50% of the total rental upon booking, with the full payment due 30 days prior to check-in.  All reservations which are made more than 10 days in advance of check-in are fully refundable if the guest cancels the reservation within 72 hours after the time of booking.  After this cancellation period expires, all payments are non-refundable. The guest who books the property must be 21 years or older unless otherwise noted.

 

• When do I get paid for reservations?

 

We pay every owner 24 hours after each new guest have arrived, for owners with and over-sea bank account it normally takes 2-4 working days before the amount shows up. By every new reservation or confirmed booking we always notify the owner so they also can keep their own calendar in mind and see how good thier property is rented for the following months.

 

• What if I already had bookings made on my property?

 

No problem, Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - will charge a fixed day fee if you would like us to manage those guests (additional collections, customer service, check-ins, check-outs, scheduling cleaning, etc). We will work with you to get all the details we need and we will fully manage these bookings for you just like any booking we made. We may need to collect the cleaning fee from the owner as well as taxes to remit assuming those amounts have already been paid. If not, we can collect on any amounts outstanding as well.  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.

 

• Why do you do commission-based pricing?

 

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 homeowners. We only make money when our owners make money, and the only way to increase our revenue is to help owners increase theirs. We believe this is why the commission model has worked and is so well established in the industry.

 

• What kind of reporting do I get on my unit?

 

Initially you will get a statement from us that details out when the property is booked and what price the owner will earn per booking, as well as any charges that you have incurred during the month (for example if you want it cleaned for your own stay, or if you had us install a new TV, etc.)

 

• Do I have to handle paying any lodging taxes?

 

No, Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - handles that for you. We collect the taxes, put them into our owner escrow-style account, and remit on your behalf. Each reservation has taxes added to the amount of the rental - so when you see a rental dollar amount, you can rest assured that we have collected and will remit tax on top of that - you do not need to send us extra money to pay taxes.

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• What about cleaning fees?

 

Guests pay us directly for cleaning fees, and we pay the cleaners. There is nothing you need to do to schedule them or pay for them. If you wish to have your home cleaned while you, a family member, or friend are using it, just let us know and we will clean it and bill you for it as part of your monthly statement.

 

• Do I need to provide you with a cleaner?

 

If you have a cleaner you are used to working with, then we may utilize them for your rental. In general, we have cleaners contracted with whom we setup in our dispatch system who have proven to be fast, flexible, and reliable. So if you do not have a regular cleaner we will have one ready to go, and even if you do we may wind up using someone from our pool of cleaners.

 

• Do I need to do my own laundry?

 

No, our cleaning fees cover laundry service for linens with every clean. Our cleaners will either do it on-site if time permits or bring it to a laundry facility.

 

• Do I need to provide all the amenities every time a guest stays like soap, paper towels, toilet paper?

 

No, you don’t need to worry about it, Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - makes sure homes remained stocked. Our vacation rental homes come with an initial set of amenities so when guests arrive, they don’t need to head straight to a market. That set includes a couple rolls of toilet paper per bathroom, a roll of paper towels,  soap, and dish soap in the kitchen. Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - buys hotel amenities in bulk and restocks these for every stay. Rather than have an owner manage and maintain, of course this is all included in our commision and the owner is not charged any extra fee for restocks

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• What if I want to do some decorating on my own?

 

We love it when owners stay involved with decorating and improving their home. Just make sure to check that the home is not booked and you can easily access it whenever you want!

 

• What happens if there is an emergency? Who does the guest call?

 

The guest always calls Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -. The guest actually never knows the name of the owner for privacy reasons (unless you really want us to tell them). We take the call and dispatch the appropriate handyman. We pay the handyman and then put the bill onto your home owner statement - that way you don't have to worry about paying out-of-pocket for anything unless it happens to be a major repair. Van Engelenburg - Villas & More -does not charge any additional fees for these types of emergencies jobs.

 

• How do you deal with noisy guests?

 

We require renters to be at least 21 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.

 

• Do owners have to allow pets?

 

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.

 

• What about regular maintenance?

 

Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - provides guest servicing and management, and property management to owners, but Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - is also a maintenance company.  Our team members are trained repair people.  We handle a call center, reservations management, guest support, regular housekeeping scheduling and inspections, dispatch of qualified maintenance personnel, monitor internet up-time, , maintain locks, pool, garden etc.  During inspections we will restock consumable items like soap, toilet paper, and even perform simple maintenance like changing remote control batteries or light bulbs for lamp fixtures.

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• Who takes care of my lawn, or my pool?

 

We are happy to schedule a regular lawn or pool service, Some owners already have this in place and continue to use who they trust. We recommend that all owners have repeat services in place.  Owners typically pay these fees direct to their contractors along with utilities, internet and TV. If you would like us to set up recurring services for you, no problem. The bills for the service are sent directly to you.

 

You can read more about our Property Services under Property Management.

 

• Are there any other regular services I should have scheduled?

 

In addition to repeat garden and pool service, Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - recommends having a service plan in place that regularly services your air conditioning as well as changes your air filters. We also require a regular pest-control service and we strongly recommend an annual door service plan, and twice-yearly window washing.  If you would like us to set these up for you, no problem. The bills for the service are set up in your name and are sent directly to you.

 

• What about garbage collection? Who handles this?

 

Stick with your regular provider - if guests are in the home on pick-up days we ask them to take out the trash. If no one is there, Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - visits and puts out the trash with no charge to you. If you are there on regular days, then please put it out yourself.

 

 

• How do you handle security deposits and damage?

 

Van Engelenburg - Villas & More - requires each guest to make a deposit of minimum $300,- This enables owners to rest assured damage is covered, however owners should expect that from time-to-time normal wear-and-tear will happen outside the policy. Owners should expect every now and then they might have to replace a fork or knife, do some touch-up painting, replace a shower fixture, etc.  All homes experience periodic maintenance.  Guests do sign a contract committing to paying for damage, and there are strict policies when additional cleaning is needed as well.

 

Often we are asked what types of things are replaced under this policy.  Generally a good rule of thumb is that well-maintained, durable items in good working condition, that are damaged as a result of a guest’s actions are covered.  The damage deposit is not a guarantee that nothing will ever be broken or stop working in your home.  It is intended to be replace broken or damaged items that resulted from a guest making a mistake.  

 

Everything from small appliances, to plumbing fixtures, furniture and electronics eventually wear-out.  If a guest drops a blender and it smashes on the floor, the damage protection kicks in!  But if a guests is using a blender that is several years old and it just stops working, it is not replaced as part of the damage deposit.  If a rug is dirty from regular foot traffic, it is not replaced as part of the damage deposit.  If a guest spills an entire bottle of red wine on a rug, the damage deposit kicks in. If a guests sits down on an inexpensive couch and a leg breaks off, it is generally not their fault. If a guest spills pasta sauce all over it, then the damage deposit  applies.

 

The damage deposit applies to most furniture as well, however it does not apply to things like fragile antique seating or dining tables, inexpensive plastic seating, furniture that is clearly old, worn, visibly weak or rusted.  These are all items we highly recommend removing from a home for safety purposes.  And while we love inexpensive furniture from Ikea or other discount stores, it is known not to be very durable.  The damage deposit does not apply to furniture that is not designed to hold up to regular guest use, particularly MDF or plastic.

 

 

• What if I want to stay there, how do I book for myself, friends or family?

 

You can just call us and we will reserve the unit for you. There is obviously no charge for this and we even schedule cleaning when you leave so it is ready for the next guest. We bill you on your owner statement for the cleaning.