Renting out your flat or holiday home can yield significant financial benefits – but only if you do it right. You’ll need the proper business tools in place, from being able to accept credit cards as payment, to paying taxes, to getting the home cleaned quickly and completely between guests. Turning your home into a successful vacation rental takes a lot of work and effort on your part. But the reward of having a secondary income stream to help you pay off your bond or generate extra revenue can be worth it.
Homeowners and property managers are usually aware of concerns about security, negligence, legal issues etc. But something many property owners often overlook is simplifying utility management. Metering of electricity and water with prepaid meters is an excellent way for property owners, landlords and letting agents to avoid the risk of having to pay high utility bills left behind by guests.
At some point, we’ve all done it – we’ve gone on holiday and instead of being careful about everyday utilities, we become wasteful. From turning the aircon on to full blast and leaving it running 24/7 to taking extra long showers and keeping the lights on in every room – we feel that because we’ve paid for the rental, we may as well take full advantage. This “vacation waste” mentality is the bane of most vacation home owners’ existence. And not only does this attitude drive up the cost of renting the home for future vacationers, it’s also a strain on the local environment and your own pocket. So, how can you solve this problem?
Installing prepaid meters in your vacation homes will significantly reduce your daily expenses because your guests will now pay for their utilities on a “pay as you go” basis. Enabling your guests to purchase their own tokens for electricity or water, means you can then reduce the cost of their stay but being guaranteed that you won’t be left with any unforeseen utility bills after they depart.
Water conservation and sustainability is a topic that is important to most people around the world and ensuring your guests understand the reasoning behind the prepaid meters will also help you market your establishment. Guests can and track and monitor their consumption, thus knowing whether they’re keeping in line with issues like water restrictions and electricity usage.
If you’re expecting international guests, we understand that purchasing tokens may seem daunting but with Citiq Prepaid’s large network of recharge partners and with the option of buying tokens online or through your mobile phone, recharging is easy and instant. Your guests will never be left in the dark. We promise!
For more information on how Citiq Prepaid can help you take control of collecting utility bills in your vacation home, download our brochure .
