We had a goal of owning our own holiday home for many years, but it was always a luxury just out of our reach. That was until we realised our dream holiday home could be enjoyed by many other holiday makers who would help us cover the costs. So we took the plunge and bought a property in our favourite place; Jeffreys Bay. To see this dream come to fruition was just beyond amazing. The project has been a huge success, and I am happy to share my Happy Waves learnings with you:
Where to buy
Jeffery’s Bay is a hotly sought-after tourist destination with winter providing one of the best surfing waves in the world, and summer attracting beach lovers which allows for holiday makers 12 months of the year.
Choosing the location to buy a holiday house is incredibly important. We don’t like driving to the beach while on holiday, so we needed to find a house that was walking distance, and this seems to have been a big element of the Happy Waves success.
Setting the house up as a holiday home
When you furnish the home, you need to bare in mind it will be shared with many. So, the house shouldn’t be covered with family photos and special décor items. You need quality linen and double of everything readily available. The kitchen needs to be well equipped, and comfortable furniture to ensure a comfortable stay.
Document house rules and get all guests to sign an indemnity agreement.
Marketing the holiday home
Marketing is incredibly important – website, social media, booking sites – which all require great photography to sell the holiday home.
There are ingenious software platforms out there that can pretty much run your holiday home calendar and do most of the marketing on your behalf. Listing your holiday home on booking sites such as Airbnb, Booking.Com and Where to Stay is hugely beneficial, and takes a lot of hassle off your hands especially with a platform like NightsBridge which manages the synchronisation of all the bookings sites.
We also love supporting publications like the Board Talk with advertising.
Managing your home from a distance
We have appointed a local reliable holiday home manager that we can rely on to manage check-ins, cleaning services and maintenance. Without this arrangement it is impossible to effectively run a holiday home from a distance.
We have loved setting up and managing Happy Waves holiday home, just wish we could get to spend more time at the house!
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