PLEASE NOTE
We are not real estate agents, nor are we property managers. We are letting agents, and as such we will endeavour to secure as many bookings for your property as we are able. We will be responsible for arranging the cleaning of your property, as well as the laundering of your linen (where applicable), but the continued upkeep and maintenance of your property is your responsibility as the owner.
From time to time, we may be required to arrange handymen or tradespeople to deal with a wide range of situations that can require urgent attention. Likewise, we may need to urgently replace appliances or furnishings that have failed or become unusable. In these situations, our interest is ensuring that reasonable guest requests are addressed, and services and amenities are provided as advertised. Our aim is to ensure that your guests have a good experience, and at the same time to minimise the likelihood of subsequent requests for refunds or compensation. To deal with these issues in an efficient and timely manner, we won’t seek your authority for small or minor repairs or replacements.
We will, however, consult with you where the cost for such work is likely to be substantial. For the most part, we will procure these goods or services on your behalf at no extra charge to you. If request that we manage a process where there is a significant amount of negotiation and/or organisation involved, we reserve the right to charge an administration fee to cover our time and expenses.
PROPERTY NAME
You will need to provide us with a name for your property. It’s always a good idea to Google a name before deciding on it, to ensure that there are no other properties in the area with the same name.
LINEN
You will need a locked cupboard on the premises that will be big enough to store all your linen and general supplies. You will also require a specific quantity of linen appropriate for the bedding configuration of your home. We can provide a complete list of the required linen, as well as recommendations for setting up your linen cupboard. See this article on
Linen for more information.
OUR COMMISSION
Our commission structure for owners joining our group (post October 2024) is 16% + GST of the gross rental amount for each booking. Any extra charges, such as cleaning and laundry services, advertising, or services provided by gardeners, handymen or tradespeople, will be passed on to you without any added GST (over and above that charged by the service provider), by deducting these charges from any rental income payable to you. To keep our costs low for owners, we pass some costs on to guests in the form of Booking Fees etc, as is standard in the industry.
WEBSITE BUILDING & PHOTOGRAPHY
We will need to add your property to our website as well as to several others. This will necessitate the photography of your property by a professional photographer, and incur a once-only, all-inclusive fee. This fee will vary, according to the number of photos required, which in part relates to the size of the property, as well as other factors. We will be able to give you a price for this service once we have determined the number of photographs required.
KEYS
We will require three sets of keys, one for the guest key safe (see below), one for the cleaner, and one as a spare set in case of emergencies (stored in the backup keysafe). The sets for the cleaner and the spare set will need to include a key to the locked cupboard and any other locked door.
KEY SAFE
We recommend that you install two key safes (we use & recommend the Kidde S7) which are available for purchase from us if required. The primary (guest) keysafe needs to be fixed at eye height, beside or near the front door, the secondary keysafe should be installed in a more discrete location. We can arrange the installation of them for you if required.
COUNCIL REGISTRATION
The council has re-introduced registration. This is something that you will be required to do. Link for registration:
Click on the ‘Short Stay Rental Accommodation Application Portal’ link and fill out the required details.
Complete all forms, noting the following information about us (as your holiday letting agents):
- Designated Contact Person: Caleb or Joel Rudd – (03) 9443 7538
- For Waste Management Plan, please select the third option (a combination of council service and contractor)
The Council asks that Designated Contact Person details be provided, in writing, by the owner, to any adjoining neighbours including a neighbouring property directly across from the accommodation.
We recommend you use the Short Stay Rental Accommodation Letter for Neighbours template for this purpose (found on the same link for registration above).
Please Note: It is an offence under Local Law No.1 Neighbourhood Amenity 2022 if a property being rented is NOT registered as a short stay rental.
ITEMS OF VALUE
To avoid disappointment and unnecessary expense, we strongly recommend that any valuable items such as ornaments, pictures, glassware, crystal-ware etc., or any items that have sentimental value, be locked away or removed from the property.
PRESENTATION OF THE PROPERTY
It is essential that your property be de-personalised, as guests feel uncomfortable at finding the personal possessions of others in the home. This means that the refrigerator, freezer and pantry should be empty of all but the most basic essentials such as salt, pepper, sugar, tea and coffee. We have an on-boarding checklist we can provide if required.
ADVERTISING
We will advertise your home on a range of websites, all of which charge fees for connecting guests to homes. How those fees are applied differs for each site. For example, some sites charge a percentage of the total booking value, split between the guest and the homeowner (e.g. Airbnb, Stayz/HomeAway, Booking.com) and some sites charge annual fees (e.g. Dogs on Holidays). Most bookings typically come through the larger sites where the costs are shared.
LETTING RIGHTS
It is very important that we have the sole letting rights to your home, as any other arrangement can have disastrous consequences, such as double bookings.
Additionally, we will require full contact details for each owner, and your bank account details (BSB, account number and name on the account). This allows us to transfer funds from the previous month’s bookings into your bank.
BOOKINGS
As each booking is taken, we will email you with the details. This is a backup only – the best source of information will be your Owner App in HomHero which we will provide access to once your home is live in our system.
PAYMENTS TO OWNERS
Any monthly earnings (total rent less expenses) will be paid into your bank account on or before the 5th of the month following the date of departure (starting November 2025). For example, a booking that ends in the month of November will be settled on or before the 5th of December. We will send you a Tax Invoice/Statement each month, detailing the previous month's transactions in full. Tax invoices are payable within 14 days of receipt.
WITHHELD PAYMENTS TO OWNERS
Each month's payment will reflect a rolling ‘float’ of $500 withheld from that month’s payout. This is to ensure we can process payments to contractors & suppliers on your behalf, as a move towards trust-accounting best practices.
OWNER BOOKINGS
We don’t charge any service fee for an owner’s personal reservations. Owner bookings can be done directly yourself through the owners’ portal. We will then organise cleaners etc. as required. It should be noted however, that we take bookings many months in advance for major events and peak periods, so owner bookings for these times should be made well before the event. It should also be noted that once a guest booking is locked in, we always honour it.
Any paid bookings (eg friends or extended family) or any leads obtained from personal websites, Facebook pages or any other sources need to be directed to us to be dealt with in a standard way, as we would be obliged to organise calendars, cleaners, laundry and any other support matters that arose from such bookings and would require our normal remuneration for those services. See this article on
Owner Bookings for more information.
CANCELLATIONS
Booking cancellations are something we strive to avoid at all costs, as they impact owners (financially) and guests (with their holiday plans, etc). As we sometimes take bookings as much as one year in advance, we strongly suggest that owners give us as much forward notice of their plans as possible to avoid any conflict of dates. In addition to the direct consequences of cancellations, there are other broader ramifications for home rankings on other listing sites plus our own business profile and reputation. In situations where cancellations are unavoidable, owners should be aware that there will be costs involved. If it becomes necessary to cancel a booking or relocate a guest, each such cancellation or relocation will attract fees – typically half of the standard commission. In addition to this, some listing sites have their own cancellation fees and there can also be other costs involving the re-location of guests to properties with different tariffs. See this article on
Cancelling Guest Bookings for further information.
DAMAGES
Depending on how a guest books, we may be able to provide security of up to $500 to cover any loss or damage to your home caused by a guest. This only applies to certain bookings in certain circumstances. We will do all in our power to recover any costs from the guest, but we can accept no responsibility for any losses incurred. Such amounts should, in any event, be claimable on your Landlord’s Insurance policy. See this article on
Claiming Funds From Guests for further information.
TERMINATION OF THIS AGREEMENT
We do not have a ‘lock in’ period for our Agreement, and it can be terminated at any time (in writing) by either party. If/when you wish to terminate our agreement, please inform us of your change in circumstances with as much notice as possible. If termination of this Agreement leads to the need to cancel any future bookings, we will do our best to minimise any associated costs but, as per the terms listed above in ‘Cancellations’, any such costs shall be passed on to Owners.