i was planning to write an article that explained the what's, why's, and hows of the most recent packages HM Government has put in place to support holiday cottage businesses hit by the Corona Virus pandemic.

Then the excellent and always topical Newsletter from accountants  Simpkins Edwards landed in my inbox, and I realised they said it all for me. So, with their kind permission, I'm reprinting the best bits here.

If you'd like to read the full version, here's the link: 

https://www.simpkinsedwards.co.uk/coronavirus-government-support/

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Under the new Coronavirus Job Retention scheme, government grants will cover 80% of the salary of PAYE employees who would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis. The scheme, open to any employer in the country, will cover the cost of wages backdated to 1 March 2020 and will be open before the end of April. It will continue for at least three months and can include workers who were in employment on 28 February.

To claim under the scheme, employers will need to:

• designate affected employees as ‘furloughed workers’, and notify employees of this change. Changing the status of employees remains subject to existing employment law and, depending on the employment contract, may be subject to negotiation; and
• submit information to HMRC about the employees that have been furloughed and their earnings through a new online portal. HMRC will set out further details on the information required.
• HMRC will reimburse 80% of furloughed workers' wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month.

While HMRC is working urgently to set up a system for reimbursement, we understand existing systems are not set up to facilitate payments to employers. Businesses that need short-term cash flow support, may benefit from the VAT deferral announced below and may also be eligible to apply for a Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan.

VAT payments

The next quarter of VAT payments will be deferred, meaning businesses will not need to make VAT payments until the end of June 2020. Businesses will then have until the end of the 2020-21 tax year to settle any liabilities that have accumulated during the deferral period.

The deferral applies automatically, and businesses do not need to apply for it. VAT refunds and reclaims will be paid by the government as normal.

Income Tax payments

Income Tax payments due in July 2020 under the Self-Assessment system will be deferred to January 2021.

Income Tax Self-Assessment payments due on 31 July 2020 will be deferred until 31 January 2021. This is an automatic offer with no applications required. No penalties or interest for late payment will be charged in the deferral period.

Universal Credit

Self-employed people can now access full universal credit at a rate equivalent to statutory sick pay.

HMRC Time to Pay

HMRC’s Time to Pay scheme can enable firms and individuals in temporary financial distress as a result of Covid-19 to delay payment of outstanding tax liabilities. HMRC’s dedicated Covid-19 helpline provides practical help and advice on 0800 0159 559.

Business Rates holidays and cash grants

No rates are payable for the 2020-2021 tax year for any business in the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors.

In those sectors, if your rateable value is between £15K and £51k, you'll also receive a cash grant of up to £25,000 per property.

Any business which gets small business rates relief, including those in the retail, hospitality or leisure sectors, will receive a cash grant of £10,000 (increased from £3,000 announced in the 11 March Budget).

The rates holiday and cash grants will be administered by local authorities and should be delivered automatically, without businesses needing to claim. Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

These should be available from Monday, 23 March and are delivered by lenders that partner with the British Business Bank, including all the major banks. The lender receives a guarantee of 80% of the loan amount from the government.

They are available for UK-based businesses with a turnover of no more than £45 million and can provide for a facility of up to £5 million. The borrower remains liable for 100% of the debt.

No interest will be charged for the first 12 months.

COVID-19 corporate financing facility

The Bank of England has set up a scheme to finance working capital by purchasing commercial paper from larger businesses ‘making a material contribution to the UK economy. Businesses do not need to have previously issued commercial papers in order to participate. The scheme will operate for at least 12 months.

Mortgage and rent holiday

Mortgage borrowers can apply for a three-month payment holiday from their lender. Both residential and buy-to-let mortgages are eligible for the holiday. It is important to remember that borrowers still owe the amounts they don't pay due to the payment holiday. Interest will continue to be charged on the amount they owe.

Tenants can apply for a three-month payment holiday from their landlord. No one can be evicted from their home or have their home repossessed over the next three months.

Insurance claims

Businesses that have cover for both pandemics and government-ordered closure should be covered. The government and insurance industry confirmed on 17 March 2020 that advice to avoid pubs, theatres, etc., is sufficient to make a claim as long as all other terms and conditions are met. Insurance policies differ significantly, so businesses should check the terms and conditions of their specific policy and contact their providers.

Statutory Sick Pay (SSP)

If you're a director of a limited company with less than 250 employees, you can pay yourself two weeks of SSP if you need to self-isolate, subject to meeting the minimum payroll requirement for SSP.

The government will refund £94 per week, a maximum of £188, to your company.

It will also refund SSP for staff of businesses with less than 250 employees for up to two weeks.

If your business is affected by the impact of Coronavirus, please do not hesitate to contact Simpkins Edwards by clicking here.

Alternatively, if you'd like to share your views on the way Corona Virus is impacting the self-catering business sector, then email My Favourite Holiday Cottages with your thoughts and queries. We'll do our best to air them and offer a response. Our aim right now is to do all we can to help you all survive! MFHC subscribers or not.

The word ‘Staycation’ has taken on a whole new literal meaning right now. It really does mean 'staying at home' (rather than a holiday home). So why not get to know your neighbourhood like a visitor – without even going outside? You might discover something like this.

For example, a little intriguing web-surfing into the history of Bratton Fleming, the North Devon village where the My Favourite Holiday Cottages office is based - revealed some wonderful true tales, including this little beauty...

During the war, Bratton Fleming, like so many other remote villages, had a Home Guard Unit. Its Quartermaster was responsible for all its equipment which included a not inconsiderable amount of ordnance (explosives) on the off-chance that some local bridges needed to be dynamited to hold back the Panzers.

After the war, the Government ordered all Home Guard equipment to be returned (including all munitions and anything with the capacity to make a big bang). However, quite a lot of it was, apparently, never returned. There might be a time when, for example, a stick or two of dynamite would come in handy in a farming community where large holes and ditches are forever needing to be dug.

So, Bratton Fleming’s Home Guard Quartermaster hung on to a few sticks - just in case. After a year or two, it became apparent that the ordnance was becoming unstable and needed to be quietly disposed of. Of course, they couldn’t be returned to HM Government without questions being asked, so they needed to be buried somewhere without raising suspicion.

Now, here’s the exciting bit, The Quartermaster’s day job was as the local gravedigger. This responsibility gave him a legitimate opportunity to dig deep holes for a valid reason. And so, for a few years (no one knows how many), the occasional grave in the village churchyard was dug a foot deeper to accommodate unwanted ordnance from dynamite to hand grenades. A layer of earth was scattered on top before the coffin was, oh, so understandably, gently lowered in.

The dynamite is reputedly still there – probably because when the news came out, nobody knew for sure where, the gravedigger himself, having long since had his own grave dug, literally took his secret to the...well, you get the rest.

If ever you decide to visit Bratton Fleming’s churchyard, tread carefully on the daisies as you walk between the graves. While there, discover the last (pre-war) resting place of little Timmy, tragically run over by a steam roller when playing truant from school, and an ex-Headmaster who had his grave sited to allow him to continue to watch over the school gates opposite.

In fact, for a little safe exercise while in social isolation, a perusal of inscriptions on graves in your local churchyard or cemetery can reveal all sorts of fascinating historical anecdotes.

Go online as a virtual tourist and spend an absorbing hour or two enriching your local knowledge – or, indeed, any other location that you intend one day to visit and explore to see what delicious secrets it holds.

Click here to view holiday cottages in Bratton Fleming

If you uncover any other similarly intriguing tales - do email them to us - we'll be delighted to share them.

For holiday homeowners and their guests, the spread of the coronavirus is naturally going to have an impact on bookings for 2020 – whether through actual infection or the fear of it.

We’ve looked at some of the trends and lessons arising from the SARS epidemic, which caused similar, though not quite so widespread, trends and share them with you. They should help you mitigate the virus's impact on your holiday lettings business.

 

Last-Minute Bookings

The most significant downfall in bookings are last-minute bookings for dates within the next 30 days. This is the average time people assume the virus will be at its maximum. By late spring, the weather will be warming up, and Covid 19 does not like warmth. So, by all means, post last-minute discounts, but do consider putting greater emphasis on attracting bookings for the summer and autumn.

 

Thank God for the Countryside!

Old Post Office Cottage lies in a  quiet rural location on the Dorset Coast near Bridport.

People, subconsciously or otherwise, feel safest if they can be somewhere where they can choose to be alone if they wish to do so. The hardest-hit accommodation businesses are in urban areas with high population densities. Countryside walking and deserted beach holidays are likely to be the most popular. If you’re in a remote or rural location, reflect that within your marketing – holidays in splendid isolation, anybody? 

NB: Luckily, My Favourite Holiday Cottages has Page One rankings for holiday cottages in Rural and Remote locations.

 

Drive-To Beats Fly-To

Environmental trends aside, drive-to destinations are considered to be a safer bet than fly-to locations. Many people feel the highest risk of contact with Coronavirus carriers is during travel. So, holidays that avoid airports and sitting in crowded planes fall in popularity.

Holidays, where people can travel in relative isolation from door-to-door to live in accommodation away from the company of strangers, hold a greater appeal. Again, something else to emphasise in your marketing.

By the way, you can encourage people not to fly by inviting people to sign the ‘No-fly in 2020’ pledge, which should lead to more people booking a UK holiday. Click here for further information.

 

Don’t Cut Back on Your Advertising!

When bookings are down, looking for options to reduce expenditure is natural, and variable costs such as marketing look like easy targets. Evidence from the SARS epidemic suggests that the biggest losers in terms of bookings after, as well as during the outbreak, were those who cut back their advertising budget. By reducing your advertising, you will only get fewer bookings offsetting any savings you may have made.

Moreover, businesses that had cut back marketing could not take advantage of the upsurge in holidays booked once the epidemic was declining. This is because people were approaching properties they had previously discovered while the epidemic raged and saved for future reference.

Many people will continue to look for holiday cottages during the outbreak and save them on a shortlist so that they are ready to send out an enquiry when it feels safer to travel. Ensure you are advertising on sites like My Favourite Holiday Cottages, allowing potential bookers to select and save a shortlist of their favourite properties.

If you’ve cut back on advertising for ‘the duration’, you could lose out on this valuable source of bookings in the medium term.

 

Spread the Word: Let Your Recent Guests Do the Talking

A Recent Guest Testimonial from a North Devon holiday cottage in Braunton

One other marketing activity you should do is to be more proactive in getting reviews from recent customers and posting them on your website and adverts as soon as possible. Seeing a recent guest testimonial in an advert will give others greater confidence that your property is a safe place to visit.

By the way, be aware that reviews posted on sites like Homeaway and Tripadvisor cannot be uploaded elsewhere as these companies own the copyright to those reviews. Invite people to send you feedback or to suggest other sites on which you advertise to post a review. Include a link to the correct page on the site to make it easy for them to do so. If you have a visitors’ book, ask your cleaner to take a photo of the latest reviews on their mobile and email them to you.

 

Advertise on Sites with  A Web Link

Visit the Website, Check Availability and Book the Cottage buttons for a Cornish Holiday Cottage in Fowey.

Look for sites to advertise your cottage that contains a web link to your site. Draw attention to those if you have what would otherwise be known as rainy-day facilities, from board games to games rooms. Then, ensure you display information about some of the measures you have put in place to reassure potential bookers that your property will be a safe place to holiday. Emphasise the lengths you are going to ensure your property is properly cleaned and sanitised and the activities they can enjoy away from the crowds.

 

Take Advantage of Gaps in Your Calendar

If you end up with gaps in your calendar, use this opportunity to do some practical extra maintenance work – deep cleaning carpets, touching up some paintwork or even a proper photoshoot to replace images taken 4-5 years ago. 

If you’d like some very handy tips on preparing a property for a photo shoot, then we have a free-photo guide that we’d be happy to send you. It’s packed with ideas for preparing and presenting rooms that tick all the guest appeal boxes.  

To request your free photoshoot guide, email Rick.

Finally, if all else fails, why not decide you need a little self-isolation and book a holiday in your cottage in one of your gap weeks?

Holiday in it: Kill three birds with one stone: staying in your cottage will give you a chance to see it from a guest’s perspective: you’ll be surprised at how many things you find you want to mend, improve upon, change etc. Allow time to work on implementing the changes you feel are required to enhance its appeal to guests. Improving the experience will increase the number of repeat bookings you enjoy.

 

Invite the Media: In addition to having a lovely holiday cottage - come up with other newsworthy angles that make it a desirable place to stay: relating to its facilities or location. The issue invites journalists to come and stay for a short break on the basis that they write about it. NB: Ensure it is in excellent and clean condition!!!

 

Other reading: How to Sanitise Your Holiday Home

 

If you would like to advertise your holiday cottage with My Favourite Holiday Cottages, The standard rate is £99.88 (May 2020) with discounts from 5-50% if for multiple cottages or £30 if you include a link back to our website. Click here to read more about the benefits of advertising a holiday cottage with us.

The impact of the Coronavirus is hitting the whole travel industry – holiday homes included. Suppose you are planning a holiday, though. In that case, the good news is that holiday homes have the advantage of offering a private space compared to other kinds of accommodation because you’re not sharing living areas with lots of strangers travelling from different locations.

That being said, owners of holiday cottages have a moral, if not legal, duty to ensure their properties are adequately cleaned. This will mean increasing your turn-around cleaning schedule to sanitise your holiday cottage properly. If necessary, you may need to push back the earliest arrival time for guests to allow time for the extra cleaning required. If guests should complain, make it clear that you are doing this for their benefit – not yours -at no additional cost to them.

For many holiday cottages, now is the time when they are given a truly deep clean ahead of the upcoming season. One of the best lists we’ve come across on ‘deep cleans’ comes from Care.com. Click here to view their list on Deep-Cleaning your House.

However, while you may not need to undertake a deep clean of the scale suggested by Care.com during every changeover, you will need to ensure your holiday cottage is properly sanitised while Coronavirus is still rampant.

 

How Long Does Coronavirus Remain Infectious?

There has been much discussion on how long bacteria can survive in the open air. How long will it remain present? The primary worry for holiday cottage owners (as well as their guests) is whether the virus could have been carried into the home by previous guests. 

A study by scientists from the Griefswald and Ruhr Universities in Germany compiled information from 22 recent case studies. Both concluded that it could survive on surfaces for up to 28 days. However, this is not the definitive view; in America, the Journal of Hospital Infection reported that the virus could remain infectious for as little as 2 hours @ 30 degrees centigrade – rising to 28 days @ 4 degrees centigrade. Essentially, the warmer the room, the shorter the virus remained active.

UK Government advice says that the virus is likely to have ‘decreased significantly’ after 72 hours. The message seems to be: Don’t let your cottage get too cold when it’s empty.

So, cleaning and preparing your holiday cottage for your next guests has never been more critical.

 

How Do You Deep Clean Holiday Cottages?

The UK government and the NHS publish lots of advice on sanitising homes to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus of COVID-19 to give it its correct medical name.

In a nutshell, you should update your cleaning schedule to embrace the following.

1. Properly clean your hands and equipment before you start – especially those mop-heads, washcloths and dusters.
2. Put on clean gloves
3. Double clean:
   1. Wash and clean surfaces first using hot water and detergent
   2. Clean again, this time using an alcohol-based anti-viral (as opposed to an anti-bacterial) agent. NB: For the most effective results, leave the surface wet before rinsing and drying it for a few minutes before wiping it off.
4. Give priority to all ‘high-touch’ and horizontal areas.

High-touch areas include things like:

• All handles: doors, wardrobes, fridges, ovens, loos, toasters, microwaves, kettle etc.
• All horizontal surfaces, from worktops to loo seats
• Put cutlery and crockery through the dishwasher at the highest temperature (don’t assume previous guests have done this). Do this first so that it can run while you carry on with the rest of the cleaning
• Include high-touch items such as the TV remote control, keyboards, TVs, taps and light switches/ pull-cords, washing machine doors and buttons etc.
• Waste / Recycle bins
• Fridge shelves
• Fruit bowls
• Dining chair backs, mirrors and bed heads
• Bedspreads: Either launder after each visit or, especially as it’s spring and summer, remove the bedspreads for the duration and make do with just the duvet. Far more reassuring to guests and one option that will make life a tiny bit easier!

Give some thought to the content of welcome packs, e.g. food packaging that could have been handled in the supermarket before purchase and make sure these are clean too.

 

Literature

Your Visitors directory and tourism brochures also fall into the high-touch category. Put your visitor’s directory online rather than in an increasingly tatty ring binder. In addition to being hygienic, this has other advantages:

• It is much easier and less time-consuming to update
• It can be personalised and sent to guests in advance of their arrival. Please put it in a pdf format, and guests can share it so that everybody has their own wonderfully hygienic copy forever and a day. People are far more likely to read them if they arrive a week or so beforehand, thus helping guests plan an even more memorable holiday in your cottage. On average many directories are not thoroughly perused until well into any holiday, by which time it is too late to cram in many of the suggestions offered.
• Include a section (or make it a separate document) full of ‘What to Do and Where to Go’ details with a:
  • Title
  • Location
  • One sentence summary
  • Website link

You can then dispense with that box. full of dog-eared leaflets

Ensure you include your contact details and website address, as such documents are likely to get shared by guests before and after their holiday, and it’s another excellent way of making people aware of your cottage.

 

Cleaning Equipment

Sterilise this too! There’s no point in going to great lengths to sanitise your holiday property if you use dirty equipment. This means washing mop heads, all towels, dusters, and cloths and even wiping down the hoover. If you use contract cleaners to clean your holiday cottage, ask them to tell you what measures they are taking to ensure they don’t transfer the virus from one cottage to another.

 

Make a Checklist

Finally, It’s a good idea to write down your new ‘deep clean’ checklist. Not only will this ensure you do a thorough job, but if you get an insurance claim against you, you can show that you took every precaution to mitigate infection and safeguard your insurance policy.

If you have any top tips on cleaning suggestions for holiday cottages, please email them to us, and we’ll add them to this article.

Sometimes, the best things in life really can be free. Here are ten suggestions for spending a day or more of your holiday creating beautiful memories (and photos), all costing absolutely nothing.

 

1. Plan a Circular Off-Road Walk Using Local Foot and Bridle Paths. Take it, in turn, to be the leader and tour guide – inventing stories about the things you pass. “This must be the house that Jack built.” (Note: can be combined with 5 & 8).
2. Get Your Feet Wet: Find somewhere to paddle: a tiny stream winding its way down the valley, a beach. It is refreshing in summer. Squealingly challenging in winter! Waterside locations are also an excellent opportunity to teach children how to skim stones – and see that you’ve not lost the knack too. Take a towel.
3. Find Your Favourite Moments in Local History: Visit a museum. Every party member has to find and share their favourite artefact and the actual (or imaginary) story connected to it.
4. Family / Group Photo competition: Visit somewhere and, using mobiles or cameras, have a competition for the best photo. Add to the challenge by agreeing on award categories: Most colourful picture, best dressed local, the view to die for etc. Then run the judging and awards ceremony after dinner. Acceptance speeches are compulsory.
5. Feel the Wind in Your Hair: Find a hilltop/clifftop or somewhere high offering glorious, far-reaching views and the chance to suck in some natural sea or country air. Take a map to identify distant villages and other landmarks. Feel the wind in your hair on Cubar Edge in the Peak District.
6. Become Art Critics: Visit a local gallery. Take turns critiquing a chosen painting, sculpture or craft item. This is a money-free activity, remember? Purchases are optional; there are no better holiday souvenirs – but only if you come back the following day to part with your cash.
7. Go Geocaching: it’s like a local treasure hunt and can be played virtually everywhere in the UK. There are almost 9,000 geocaches hidden in London, while on Dartmoor, they still call it letter-boxing as you can leave a stamped-addressed postcard for the next person to find the box to post back to you. Click here to get yourself started: https://www.geocaching.com/play.
8. Become Nature Experts: Download apps for wildflowers, trees, butterflies or bird songs, then go for a walk in the countryside (see No.1 above) and put them to good use. Discover meadow flowers - a common sight near rural holiday cottages during May and June. You’ll be amazed at what you will learn about nature.
9. Stargaze: Did you know there are eighty-eight-star constellations above your head? If you’re away from the bright lights of a town or city on a clear night, look up at the stars and see how many you can spot (there are many star maps to be found on the Internet). National Parks are pretty good locations for stargazing. The UK has four international dark sky reserves (Brecon, Exmoor, Snowdonia and South Downs) and an international dark skypark (Northumberland). 
10. Relive Your Childhood: Stay in your holiday cottage and play active childhood games: leapfrog, hide and seek, sardines, musical statues, hopscotch, squeak piggy squeak etc. The rule is: everybody plays – adults and children alike. NB: As the furniture isn’t yours to break – try not to play musical chairs.

There are enough games above to fill more than a day and ensure you spend less while generating more—happy golden holiday moments.