Holiday Lets and the Winter Months

The harsh, cold and stormy weather is more likely to cause damage to holiday homes over the winter months and the risk of burglary increases.

We have written this guide to include ‘Smart Technology’ where it genuinely makes looking after your holiday home stress free.

We offer a modern, common sense approach to preventive measures to protect your holiday home during those cold wintery months with added benefits all year round.

Heating, Plumbing and Utilities

Traditionally, you would drain down heating systems, turn off water supplies, empty toilet cisterns and drain/insulate pipes and tanks.

Whilst some traditional winter protection tasks are always a good idea but, with bookings being requested in the winter months but maybe a week or two apart, the full drain-down and ‘put the home to bed for winter’ may not be practical if the additional business these additional booking requests bring is to be accepted..

Heating is a big subject on many levels, radiator based systems are by far the most common and so are their issues but can be addressed and prevented with a few ‘Smart’ items.

1. Well maintained heating systems are a must, you cannot ‘fix’ poor maintenance with ‘Smart’ upgrades.

2. Most people have heard of ‘Nest’ & ‘Hive’, basically these replace your room wall mounted thermostat and when the room they are in goes below the set temperature, it fires up the boiler which heats the entire system.

3. Most, if not all, radiators are fitted with a TRV valve (thermostatic radiator valve), of course this valve must be manually set to the required temperature range to actually heat the radiator when the wall thermostat asks for heat but that may be somewhere else in the property….. Not ideal and hardly ‘smart’…

4. Imagine a system that has motorised radiator valves that measure the temperature at each radiator position and can be set to a schedule, home & away, frost protection and all remotely accessible/control-able and energy efficient and will only switch on the boiler and heat the room required.

5. The benefits can be substantial and can prevent sticking of radiator valves (common if they are almost closed/shut off) and keep the system ready for when it needs to heat the home.

6. Insurance polices often state a minimum temperature the unoccupied home should be set to (around 10-13DegC), this largely prevents internal pipes freezing and avoids cold/damp/mould etc. The only accurate, efficient way to do this is with a system that can adjust the radiators automatically knowing the temperature of each room and far cheaper than engineer callout costs and the sheer grief of any damage.

7. All this is a relatively simple matter for BOTH Heating and Hot water (where required) to be upgraded and instantly get the benefits of total control (remote or at the property), simple to use and reliable. Contact our sister company Peninsula-AV for further details of suitable systems and a lot more besides. www.peninsula-av.co.uk

8. If your property is heated by oil, your supplier should also be able to tell you what additional precautions you should take during very cold weather to prevent oil gelling/freezing and blockages.

Security

Burglaries typically increase by a third after the clocks go back and the winter nights become darker. Unoccupied holiday homes are easy to target. However, these preventative steps can help reduce the likelihood of break-ins and burglaries.

1. Take the normal measures to protect/store all outside items in a lockable shed/garage etc. Anything that can be blown away by the wind should be also placed within the chosen storage area.

2. Door/window locks are a given and, of course should be locked and be to the standard required by insurance companies.

3. Install ‘Smart’ devices, such as CCTV cameras, video doorbells, outside lighting and ‘mockupancy’ setups all remotely accessible via phone/laptop app. You may be surprised at the options available for just about any request including smart door locks.

4. Burglar alarms, preferably monitored may also be an insurance requirement.

5. Property Management, we take care of all requirements for end/beginning of seasons, for peace of mind, we inspect our clients holiday homes in a timely manner after any adverse weather for damage (at least weekly) and be on-call for any emergency situation, going that extra mile for our clients.

6. Again, our sister company Peninsula-AV will supply, install and setup useful technology expertly, so you know you are getting the best out of the devices. Professional help and advice to suit any request.

In Summary

Our mission is to give you our client the very best service for their holiday home, from changeovers, maintenance and technology that takes the stress out of holiday home management.