Owners Handbook
Getting your home rental ready for 2024.
Everything homeowners need to know and more...
Welcome
We are so glad to have you as part of our family and hope all the below information will assist to get your home and calendar ready for guests.
Here is what we need from you:
Updated 2024 Owners Mandate contract outlining all terms of the rental agreement and requirements. If you have not yet, please read and complete our digital 2024 Owners Mandate contract to proceed with bookings for 2024.
The availability given by you will be added to our Holiday Rental Collection. Please select and tick one or more boxes with selected dates, alternatively please specify the dates your home will be available for holiday rental in 2024. We will use the dates from the below form to market your home when available
> NEW Seasonal Availability for for 2024
Home Info Pack & Welcome Guide
We will prepare a digital home guide which is bespoke to your home, from the info you have provided on this form. This is a platform for us to leave the information on the house to ensure the Guests look after your home and treat it as if it were their own. The guide has necessary guidelines and instructions on the electronics of your home, remote buttons, alarm instructions, WIFI passwords, Estate Rules and Regulations and facilities on offer to guests during their stay, Information on giving access to friends/family visiting them during their stay and useful contact & emergency numbers. To do this we require a lot of information from you so we can compile the guide and allow us to manage the house whilst you are away. if you have not yet, please keep us updated with any changes in your home.
> Click here to complete the Home Info Pack form
> Click here to complete the Apartments Info Pack form
Book a Linen and Towel Assessment
It is essential that you assess your linen, bedding and towels every year to ensure that you have everything ready for your Guest's arrival. We want our Guests to experience a hotel-grade quality experience. Please remember that it is not just your linen quality but your mattress comfort, duvet & pillow inners and mattress protectors that all need to be considered. Invest in good quality down duvets and pillows and high thread count linen – the higher the thread count the longer they will last so it’s a worthwhile investment – this will soon pay for itself.
For more info on our Requirements - please scroll down to our Our Requirements section below.
>Click here for a NORTH Order Form
>Book a linen and towel assessment
>View our NORTH Coastal Collection page
Getting Rental Ready Checklist
We've put together a digital checklist form for guidance to help you and your housekeeping team get your home ready for new guests' arrival.
>Click here to complete the Getting Rental Ready Checklist form
(NEW) Back-up Power
In the event of loadshedding and power failure, we will need guests to have some kind of backup system to power the house for a few hours. Please keep us updated with the below form, and let us know what is available during power outages.
>Click here to complete the Back-Up Power form
(NEW) Staff Uniform Order
It is essential that your staff are neatly dressed with clean uniform everyday. We have a verity of different colour golf shirts and aprons to choose from. we recommend each staff member has 3 sets available during each guest booking.
> Click here to order Staff Uniform
Our Service
Description of your rental home and property to be listed on our website and advertised on other marketing platforms deemed necessary. Luxury Coastal Escapes will actively market your property and these costs will be borne by LCE.
>Click here to view our full Holiday Home Collection
Photoshoot
This will be done by our photographer Chris Allan. The photos are the most important part of your listing as they will help us market your home to potential guests. We have some spectacular homes in our collection and your photographs are key in competing with the other homes on offer. The more you can do to stage your house for the shoot, the better.
Photos taken by LCE are our property and they can not be used or bought from us or Chris for any reason that might be operating in competition with LCE for either sales or rentals. We also dont do re-shoots of the house every year. If owners are making substantial changes to the house over a period of time, then we shoot once it is all complete.
>Click here to view our Photoshoot Guide
We will review your rental rate each year around September/October, with an estimated 10% increase with your approval.
Our yearly rates will run from the 1st of March until the following year's end of February.
For all marketing, photoshoots, website listings and rate queries, please contact us at stephanie@luxurycoastalescapes.com
>Follow us on Social Media: Instagram & Facebook
Housekeepers Workshop
LCE will offer a free annual workshop once a year for all new staff members. All housekeeping staff are required to attend this workshop once a year as we are constantly updating our cleaning procedures and we will also be doing a training on hygiene and cleaning protocol. Your house staff will need to be trained at our Housekeepers Workshop and the Beds will be made to a hotel standard.
>Click here to view our Housekeeping page
Booking Enquiries
LCE Bookings Team will manage all the booking enquiries. We will be in touch preferably on WhatsApp with a Booking Request form, where the Homeowner will need to approve or decline a booking rental request for your home.
Booking Management
As soon as a booking has been approved by the homeowner, our bookings team will manage all the deposits, payments, and forms and liaise with guests. Ensuring guest sign necessary paperwork including LCE T&Cs, Indemnity and Estate Security Forms.
We will send a booking confirmation email to your guest prior to arrival to arrange a time for a meet & greet along with directions and contact info and a home guide.
Owners will be responsible to finish all maintenance, faults or malfunctions in the house or on the property prior to guest arrival.
>For all booking queries please contact our Bookings Team at bookings@luxurycoastalescapes.com
Estate Homes
We will do all the estate admin. Our team assist with getting the ID copies, and security forms for registering the biometrics, fingerprint access, orientation, estate inductions, rules, regulations and a list of estate facilities that will be given to guests.
Guest Welcome & Arrival
Owners or private bookings need to vacate the properties 24 hours prior to the Our guest's arrival date.
Along with your house staff, we will ensure that the house is ready for guests' arrival. This will include a full house check inspection prior to arrival. Our team will prepare a Welcome Gift Bag for the guests to find on arrival.
We will provide each home with a welcome bag filled with sweet and salt treats, each bathroom with our branded eco-friendly bathroom amenities and will be charged to the owner. This product is a top-up system, so the initial outlay is more and each booking thereafter is just for product top-up. Our products are locally made by SOIL.
Main Point of Contact
LCE will be the guest's main point of contact during the booking process and their stays. During Peak Season we will have a maintenance team available for emergency maintenance issues, and owners will be invoiced accordantly.
Guest Check-out & Departure
We will do a full house check within 2 days of a guest's departure. During this time, we will wait for the housekeeping staff to report any stained or damaged linen, towels or furniture. This does not include 'smalls' (wine glasses, coffee mugs etc.) Any other breakages, damages or missing items need to be reported within 24 hours of guests' departure.
Claims
The breakage deposit of one night's rental will be refunded to guests within 7-10 working days of departure, and if a claim arises from their stay then we will endeavour to have it resolved as soon as possible. The Guest will be liable for all costs associated with reinstating the home to its original condition and any costs associated with the recovery of such additional monies. Our team will be in touch with the homeowner with a replacement quote and the guests will be charged for the replacement. If anything is broken, this should be replaced ‘like for like’ to ensure a full refund of the breakage deposit.
The remaining deposit is to be refunded within 14 working days.
Guest Feedback
Getting things right is an important part of what we do- and we really like to hear feedback about guests staying with us. Any feedback they can provide us with, be it good or bad is essential. It is important that we are aware of any problems or changes that might be required to ensure our next Guest's stay is a great experience. If we could have done anything differently with our services throughout their stay we ask them also to let us know, we want to ensure that all Guests are satisfied on all levels.
>Click here to view our Guest Feedback
Our Requirements
We want our Guests to experience hotel-grade quality and to ensure this we insist on following our Owners & their homes. A large proportion of our guests book more than once with us and some use us for every beach holiday on the KZN Dolphin Coast.
Using NORTH Coastal Collections to furnish your holiday home or apartment means your home will always be restocked with the same items. Guests break wine glasses and damage linen and towels, NORTH will ensure that all items are replaced 'like for like' and that there is always enough stock in the house/apartment for your guests.
>Click here for a North Order Form
>Book a linen and towel assessment
Below is just a brief list of required amenities:
Key Lock-Box
We strongly suggest having a lockbox installed somewhere discrete so that departing guests can safely deposit the keys on departure if your housekeeper/caretaker is not available. For remote properties or after hours, where no one is available to do a ‘meet and greet’, a lockbox can also be used to give guests access on arrival.
Bedrooms
Invest in good quality down duvets and pillows and high thread count linen – the higher the thread count the longer they will last so it’s a worthwhile investment. Use mattress and pillow protectors on all beds. Ensure you have two complete sets of linens (and towels) – this will soon pay for itself.