Many owners of static caravan holiday home in the UK choose to sublet or rent their static caravan to subsidise the cost of ownership.
The level of income you will receive from subletting depends greatly on how much of your time using the static caravan you are prepared to compromise.
Another key factor in considering sub letting is the cost to market your static caravan to potential holiday makers.
Many holiday parks will offer to market your property as part of there sub-letting package. This will normally include marketing and maintenance services that are centrally coordinated by the park. These packages allow you to benefit from independent reservations coming to the park directly or via central reservations system (for larger chains of parks), without the need for you to advertise and market you own static caravan. This is often the most convenient option, however the parks will take a substantial percentage of the rent for providing these services. Also whilst you can normally be assured of reservations for main summer holiday weeks these scheme will not guaranteed off season bookings.
Many owners who take a more business like approach to sub letting will market their static caravan directly to avoid paying third party commissions.
This requires a more organised business like approach as you will need to coordinate.
- Advertising and Marketing
- Dealing with enquires via phone or email
- Collecting and chasing deposits
- Collecting and chasing balances
- Confirming bookings and terms and conditions
- Dealing with issues such as cancellations
- Cleaning and maintenance
An owner who wishes to market their static caravan independently can do so via the following channels:
- Friends and Family
- Word of mouth / repeat business
- Local Press Advertising
- National Publications - e.g. Daltons Weekly
- Own Website
- National 3rd party websites
The most cost effective form of direct marketing for owners is often friends and family as this requires no financial outlay. Many people also like this approach as these users tend to treat your static caravan with respect and leave it clean and tidy after their holiday. However friends and family often expect "mates rates" and could result in a lower income than dealing with private individuals, especially in peak season.
As with any business "word of mouth" can deliver bookings with no expense to the owner. Many owners that have sublet their static caravan over a number of years have built up a list of families that book their van annually (sometimes for the same dates each year) but have also referred their friends and family. Many long term owners rely totally on this repeat business each year to fulfill their booking requirements.
Traditionally many owners stimulated bookings by the use of local press and national publications such as Dalton's weekly, using small lineage advertisements. We have however received a lot of recent feedback from owners that these publications simply do not generate enquires as they once did as consumers turn to the internet as the key tool for researching holidays and short breaks.
"I used to run a linage ad in the Dalton's weekly which gave me enough bookings for the year, however response from traditional advertising seem to have dropped over the past 3 years. I believe the web is now a more viable option" Mr Hull - Dorset.
Many owners now run a website dedicated to their static caravan for let. Websites can now be set up and run for very little cost and can generate enquires and bookings. If set up correctly the website maybe included in search engine listings such as Google and will provide free advertising.
We have also seen a growth in national websites offering owners the opportunity to pay a set annual fee to have their static caravans listed on their directories. These sites pay for national marketing and often have good listings in the search engines allowing you to benefit from this.
Many new owners are now marketing via the web in place of traditional offline advertising.