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How much will your property earn?

We are happy to provide a 3 year property forecast on the potential income your property can generate. Contact us for more details.

View the 2010 Customer Price List.

Registration fees

There are no set up, registration costs or annual fees if you wish to be represented by Blue Chip Vacations.

Commission

At Blue Chip Vacations, we realise that we should only receive an income if we perform well, which is why we offer an excellent commission rate of 20% (23% inc. VAT).

Payments

All customer deposits and payments for your property are managed by Blue Chip Vacations on your behalf.  Owner payments are made electronically into your bank account, which you will receive by 15th of the month following the guests’ departure.  So, if a guest leaves on 31st January, you will be paid by 15th February: if the guest leaves on 1st February, you will be paid by 15th March.

Cancellation protection

To minimise any loss if a holiday is cancelled owing to unforeseen circumstances, each booking includes a cancellation protection fee of 2.5%, which is included in the advertised price of the property.  This covers the guest and ensures that you still receive payment if the property is not re-booked.  Our commission, and your owner payment, is calculated on the lower net price after taking off the cancellation protection charge.

Complaints and refunds

We endeavour wherever possible to resolve complaints quickly and view refunds as a last resort.  Occasionally, however, it is not possible to satisfy a customer without giving something back.  If your property is not maintained to the appropriate standards, we reserve the right to refund amounts that we feel appropriate or, in extreme cases, move guests to alternative accommodation.  This will always be done following liaison with you.

Star ratings

All our properties are submitted for a rating by Visit Britain, the official Quality in Tourism ratings body for self catering accommodation.  The cost of this in the first year is met by you, the owner.  To underline our commitment to quality, once you have been with Blue Chip Vacations for a year, we will cover the cost of annual assessment thereafter as long as your property maintains or improves on its rating.

Contracts and cancellations

Our contracts run for an initial 12 months with any withdrawals before the end of this period incurring a charge of £500+VAT to cover our marketing set-up costs.  Thereafter, we ask that you advise us before 31st July if you do not wish to be represented by Blue Chip Vacations the following year.  Any withdrawals after this date will incur a charge of £350+VAT to cover the cost of including your property in our brochure.

At all times, there is a minimum notice period of 28 days on your contract with Blue Chip Vacations.  Furthermore, any bookings made prior to cancellation must be honoured.  A booking, once taken, constitutes a contract between you and the customer.  If this contract is broken, for example because the property is sold or you want to use it yourself, you will be in breach of this contract and could face legal action by the guest.  We reserve the right to charge owners for any lost commission and costs incurred in such instances.

Tax

Properties qualifying as Furnished Holiday Accommodation have a number of benefits over long-term rentals or second homes:

  • Capital Gains Tax on any sale is charged at a flat rate of 18% and should qualify for entrepreneur relief giving a rate of only 10% on the first £1m of lifetime gains
  • Any losses, such as initial furnishing costs, can be offset against other income to reduce income tax overall (subject to conditions)
  • If occupied by you for a period, further relief can be obtained through strategically designating the property as primary residence during ownership
  • The property can be used to reduce inheritance tax, dependent on the level of services offered
  • General running expenses, including mortgage interest and agency fees, can be claimed as expenses against pre-tax earnings
  • Capital allowances can be claimed on the costs of furnishings and fittings
  • The ability to frequently access property allows regular monitoring to reduce wear and tear, which is more difficult with long-term rentals.  There are no sale restrictions because of long-term tenancy agreements and, of course, you can use the property for your own breaks

Please note that the budget announcement made in April 2009 has proposed that these benefits are removed from April 2010.  We strongly feel that this is an ill-conceived proposal that could damage an important part of the UK's holiday accommodation supply and, along with other agencies, are lobbying the government to reconsider.

Owning a holiday home is a significant investment and we recommend consulting a qualified tax specialist to ensure all personal circumstances are accounted for.

Insurance

If renting out a property to the public, you should ensure that you have specific holiday home insurance that includes public liability cover.

VAT registration

Owners are only required to register for VAT where gross income exceeds the annual threshold (subject to other business income).  As an agency we account for the VAT on our commission, but since the majority of our owners are not VAT registered we do not charge VAT on top of the advertised rental price, or account for a VAT charge on the overall rental.  If you are registered for VAT then you will be able to reclaim your input VAT on items such as our commission, changeover fees and utility payments, but you will also have to account for an overall VAT element within the holiday rental price.