The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin speaks to Alison and Craig who are just getting started in the property industry and are scaling their individual businesses. This is part of his free mentoring call series, during which newbies share their progress and pose questions, which Kevin answers.

This episode covers choosing the right area to run a serviced accommodation business in, how to find landlords who will rent to you. As well as, how to work out if a property will be profitable. What questions to ask landlords to make sure that the property that they have can be used for serviced accommodation.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Track down landlords who are advertising their properties to rent and persuade them to rent to you for SA.
• The fact that the property will be kept in show home condition and that you will rent for long periods are just two great selling points.
• In the podcasts, Kevin shares several places to find those landlords online.
• Having a website is not essential, but it helps a lot.
• SpareRoom is not the right place to list your serviced accommodation for let.
• For SA you will need insurance, in the podcast, Kevin explains what type you need for each of the SA business models.
• For a Limited SA company, you will need public liability insurance and potentially professional indemnity insurance.
• List your business on Google My Business and take direct bookings.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Sell the benefits of serviced accommodation to them(landlords) for them to rent you their properties to use as serviced accommodation.’

‘For SA, if there is a mortgage on the property, then they do need to have the owner's permission. ‘

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

Not so long ago, Kevin posed an interesting question on Facebook. He asked landlords to tell him what their reaction would be if a potential renter told them that they wanted to use their property for serviced accommodation.

Today, he shares the answers he got and how he would counter the objections the landlords shared with him. How he would allay their fears so that they would still rent to him as a serviced accommodation provider.

Kevin also explains why the SA model works so well. In particular, why it is so good for cashflow and how it gets over the section 24 issue and enables you to take advantage of capital allowances.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Initially, most landlords say no to the idea of renting to a serviced accommodation business.
• There are many misconceptions surrounding how SA works, which makes some landlords unnecessarily fearful.
• The issue of people being in a property with whom the landlord has no direct tenancy can easily be solved. Kevin explains how in the podcast.
• Rental liability worries can be overcome if the SA is a proper company.
• Some lenders and leases do not allow SA use. Often, there is a way around both of these restrictions.
• SA landlords will need to buy additional insurance.
• If a landlord says no to you, ask them politely to explain why. Usually, you will be able to counter them.
• In most instances, there is no need for landlords to seek a change of use.
• There are no tax issues with SA, HMRC has tax arrangements that cover all types of SA lets.
• Guests do not have tenancy rights.
• You need to check your guests out properly and get a credit card from them.

BEST MOMENTS

‘The SA takes the property from the landlord or the owner, using a company letter agreement.’

‘It was suggested that there would be no insurance in place, actually there is. ‘

‘You need to be speaking to landlords and overcoming their objections.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin talks to Scotty Hodson founder of Free-Range Stays and The Property Farmer. They discuss how he used the rent-to-SA model to get started with property investment. Today, he and his wife focus on the executive, white-collar market – he explains why that is and how he has set things up.

Scotty also talks about how he has managed to persuade an 18 bed HMO landlord let him use it as an SA. He shares the win-win capital allowances related approach that enabled him to create this lucrative opportunity. An approach that can easily be replicated by you. Scotty also talks about using eco modular buildings to quickly expand his portfolio. As well as ways to put more heads on beds and earn more from each guest.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• It is easy to fall into the trap of working long hours to earn good money while ending up with no quality of life.
• Property investment is a great way to break out of that negative lifestyle pattern.
• It is a business model that can be made to work even in relatively rural settings.
• Executives attending courses or conferences will stay in small towns provided their commute is easy and fast enough.
• Setting the right price point enables you to appeal to the blue-collar market too.
• Understanding and making capital allowances work for your property business opens up huge opportunities.
• There are a lot of landlords out there that do not know how to, or want to, run an SA which gives you the chance to do it for them and earn.
• Marketing to people pre-stay, during their stay and after stay enables you to maximise how much you earn from each customer.
• It is possible to legally use your SA properties for short term let deals too.
• Property investing is hard work, but it is the best hard work you can do, it pays very well.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You cannot rely on the normal rat race, but you can create recurring income from property.’

‘Enhanced capital allowances basically allow you to claim a big percentage of what you're spending. ‘

‘With this, all you need to do is to commit to turning up and this business will work.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

CONTACT METHODS FOR GUEST

FreeRangeStays website

MilliesOrganics website for guest gifts and another potential income stream

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit, and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin talks about marketing your serviced accommodation effectively. Explaining how to get the most out of online travel agency sites, email marketing, online ads, leafleting and social media. As well as how to list yourself on Google and make the most of the lucrative corporate client market using sites like Silver Door and Situ.

He compares the process(es) of setting your properties up on Booking.com and Airbnb, explaining how they differ. Kevin also shares tips and tricks that can be used to get your listings placed high in the results on these extremely important platforms.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Marketing is essential.
• Even if your SA is the best in the area, if people don´t know about it, you won´t make any money.
• Create your marketing campaigns with your short and long-term goals in mind.
• Emphasise what makes you different and better than the competition.
• Seek out and make full use of ways to get your properties listed above others on the various platforms. In the podcast, Kevin shares several approaches you can use.
• Use any performance data that is available to see how you are performing against your competitors.
• Think carefully before activating automatic smart pricing.
• Keep track of what is going on in your market pricing wise, so you remain competitive while maximising your profits.
• Old school marketing methods, such as leafleting, still work when done in the right way, so investigate those too.
• Direct marketing, using email and other messaging formats can be remarkably effective, especially for corporate clients.
• There are many ways to use social media to market your business. Kevin shares several of them in the podcast.
• In some areas, Google Ads can be a cost-effective way to sell space in your properties. Facebook Ads work too and are generally cheaper.
• Having your own website will help you regardless of which marketing techniques you choose to use.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You can have the best SA in the world but if you don’t market your property

properly you will not make much money.’

‘SA operators get the majority of their bookings from Booking.com. ‘

‘Once you find out who would be a good person to contact at a company

or organisation you can connect with them on LinkedIn.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit, and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin talks to Arthur Kemp his capital allowances surveyor. They discuss how you can use capital allowances to maximize your profit by legally paying much less tax as a SA property owner. Arthur explains how to use them to get tax relief when you buy a property, update it, even how to reduce corporation tax and potentially other taxes.

Arthur lists out each kind of property that can be claimed against and highlights some of the less obvious investment opportunities that are available. He explains, in detail, how to check that you will be able to claim before you buy. They also briefly discuss land remediation relief that can generate a 150% tax deduction.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Used properly, capital allowances can legally save SAP owners a huge amount of tax.
• The inland revenue state that 96% of all property transactions haven't maximized their capital allowances.
• Up to 28,000 pounds of taxes can be saved for every hundred thousand pounds of expenditure using capital allowances.
• Capital allowances have been around since 1878, it is a legitimate way to save tax, not a loophole.
• You can claim capital allowances when you buy assets that you keep for use in your business.
• The allowance is for the cost of plant and machinery. A category that can include property and some of the work you have done on it.
• You can use the allowance at the time of purchase, for improvements, furnishings, and in other ways.
• It is also possible to reduce the corporation tax bill for a Ltd company.
• Using sideways loss relief, you can even potentially save on your income tax. Arthur explains how in the podcast.
• Capital allowances can only be used on non-dwelling property, Arthur explains how to make sure yours fall into that category.
• When purchasing a property, it is important to have the right clauses and agreements in place with the existing owner regarding capital allowances.
• Using capital allowances does not result in a higher capital gain tax bill.
• The property does not necessarily have to have been used for the full year as an SAP to qualify.

BEST MOMENTS

‘Capital allowances make you a smarter investor and more competitive.’

‘If it's somebody's main principal residence, you can't claim capital allowances on that property. ‘

‘When working out your cash flow and your returns, factor in the level of capital allowances.’

´If you already have some SAP properties, you can go back and make a retrospective claim and get back some of the tax.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

CONTACT METHODS FOR GUEST

Email Arthur - [email protected]

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit, and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

This is a mentoring call with Becca Strelzyn and Claire Powell. They were Tennis coaches but have fully replaced their income with SA and are now full-time SA property investors and are now also starting to manage other landlord´s properties.

In the episode, we discuss what to say to:

Letting Agents to get R2SA deals

Landlords to get R2SA

Guests to get them to book again and do so directly with you

Becca and Claire share how they get long direct bookings from companies so not relying on booking.com and Airbnb. They are both really looking forward to 2021 because of the dramatic rise in popularity Staycations and because more and more businesses prefer SA now for their employees over hotels. 

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• SA is one of the few businesses that generate ongoing almost passive income once you have put the effort in to set things up properly.
• SA is a viable business that virtually anyone can set up and run.
• Becca and Claire took Rob´s SA Masterclass in March. By September they had 3 rental and one management SA.
• When you pay for expert guidance and support, you succeed far faster.
• Understanding what people want and giving it to them is a big part of SA success.
• The arguments you use to persuade landlords and agents need to be different. Rob, Claire, and Becca share the tactics they use in the podcast.
• Businesses are waking up to the fact that using SAs instead of hotels makes financial sense and is better for their employees.
• SAs are perfectly placed to tap into the new trend of taking short breaks, within an easy driving distance of home.
• SAs that have operated throughout the crisis will be streets ahead of their competitors when things get back to normal.
• There are plenty of simple and easy ways to retarget guests to get them to book again, directly with you, so you make a better profit.
• Becca and Claire share a tool they use to make sure they always get the best rate, including when event dates are announced in the middle of the night.
• You need to build redundancy in when it comes to cleaners and repairers.

BEST MOMENTS

‘With SA we don't always have to be there to make money, we can put the systems in place, do the background and make sure that the business can make money for us.’

‘Stay proactive, keep pushing those bookings forward.’

‘The popularity of SA I think, undeniably, is going to keep increasing.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

GUEST RESOURCES

Switchback Stays website

Switchback Stays Facebook

[email protected]

[email protected]

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In a decidedly unique edition of the Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast, the “Property Soldier” is laying a few truths bare in connection with a rise in the unfortunate practice of casting property education in a negative light, and why it might be time to re-evaluate your thinking when it comes to the fair exchange of experience.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• There are good and bad points to any profession, but education in how to get the best out of your property investments, if done properly, is an essential tool.
• We should never feel bad for providing a quality service or product. A fair exchange between trainer and student, that leads to genuine value for said student, is worth something.
• A quality coach or mentor will have spent much of their life in pursuit of success. Investment in themselves has been generously made. If that person’s wisdom can help you to save money and time in your own journey, then exchanging that experience for a fee is natural.

BEST MOMENTS

• ‘Of course people should pay the value of that product or service’
• ‘If something is free then it’s worth every penny’
• ’There are three ways to lead people - by example, by example, by example. It’s as simple as that'
• Knowledge is the most important asset that anyone can have

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

ABOUT THE HOST

Kevin Poneskis, also known as the Property Soldier, has been a full-time property investor and mentor since 2011. This happened after he served the army for 24 years. He spent majority of this years in the 29 Commando Regiment RA and finished his time in the army as a Regimental Sergeant Major. Even during his time in the army, Kevin was already building his property portfolio and educating himself everything about real estate investments.

Right now, he is writing his book Property Soldier, in which 100% of the profit from the book will go to homeless veterans, and hosting The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast which educates people who want to explore and earn from serviced accommodation property investing.

CONTACT METHOD

• Kevin’s Facebook

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin has recorded a mentoring call with Stephen Warwick. Stephen works out of the West Coast of Scotland and is currently incorporating SAP properties into his portfolio of rental properties. They talk about several of the roadblocks he is facing and discuss effective ways to overcome them.

Including, persuading letting agents to rent out properties to you as an SAP landlord. They discuss how to get around the situation when it appears that the agent is not telling the owner that you are interested in renting the property. As well as how to prove you are not going to be using the property as an HMO. Along with how to keep more of your profits.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Ideally, your SA property will also work for other rental formats.
• If there are chain hotels in the area that is an indicator that there is a strong demand for short-term rentals.
• New build developments are a particularly good source of SA clients.
• Don´t dismiss the idea of using physical marketing materials to reach out to potential clients.
• It is better to approach an agent and ask to lease a property for a commercial client.
• If you suspect that the agent is blocking by not passing your offer to rent onto owners, use Kevin´s technique to get around this issue.
• Tap into your own contacts from your day job to find clients.
• A lot of agents confuse serviced accommodation with HMO when renting to tradespeople. Kevin explains how to handle this situation effectively.
• Assuming responsibility for paying the rent and making it clear that they can run a credit check on your company reassures agents.
• Sharing your client name with a letting agent is highly unlikely to lead to agents leasing properties to them behind your back.
• Tap into free ways to get your serviced accommodation to appear in the search results.
• A way to buy SA property and still be able to offset the interest still exists.
• A capital surveyor will help you to earn tax-free income using the SA model.
• You can approach owners directly and incentivise them to rent to you privately, especially using tools like fluctuating income.
• When approaching a leasing agent, you need to have already set up your company and have a website.

BEST MOMENTS

‘If you haven´t had the training to know whether SA is likely to work or not, then I always suggest that you make sure it works as a buy to let as a fallback.’

‘Tell agents - the liability for the rent sits with my company, you can credit reference my company.’

‘There's an awful lot of things that you won't know yet, therefore, you don't know how you could be making a lot more money out of SA.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this episode, Kevin covers renting properties from letting agents that you plan to list and use as serviced accommodation (R2SA). He explains how to overcome the fact that many agents do not feel comfortable letting properties to people who are going to then list it on Airbnb and booking.com. The strategy Kevin shares is an easy one that even a brand-new company can successfully use. It includes an effective way to find new commercial clients for your properties. A method that you can continue to use to keep your property full.

How to establish a professional-looking SAP company and find customers, even before you have a portfolio of properties, is also covered in this podcast.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• The resistance letting agents have, to renting to people they know are going to list it on Airbnb etc, can be overcome.
• It is possible to get your guests lined up in advance before approaching the agent.
• You need to be professional and set up a proper Ltd company, which costs very little.
• A SAP company´s website needs to be country-specific.
• You do not have to have properties available before setting up your website.
• There are dozens of places to find potential clients and approach them, Kevin several of them in the podcast.
• Once you have set up and been running a successful R2SA with an agent they will happily rent more properties to you.
• You do not need to be an established company to make this business model work.
• Not being able to pass credit reference checks is not a difficult issue to overcome.
• There are multiple ways for you to get bookings for the property that you rent from the agent.

BEST MOMENTS

‘You have so much more volition when you are going to the letting agent with your guests already lined up,’

‘With letting agents, you represent more money for them when you're walking in the door. ‘

‘I'm talking about having multiple ways of getting bookings.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert T Kiyosaki

Serviced Accommodation Success by Kevin Poneskis

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]

Register your interest in Serviced Accommodation Discovery Day here, and a member of our team will get back to you to confirm your place at your preferred date.

In this podcast, Kevin interviews Shaz Ahmed who is a commercial mortgage broker. A person who thinks outside the box to provide mortgages where others have failed. During the podcast, Kevin and Shaz discuss the challenges facing property investors today.

Shaz breaks down the various serviced accommodation business models and explains where to turn to for finance for each of them. Including the name of lenders for the various models. He also quickly blows away some of the myths surrounding financing that are holding many investors back.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Try to understand things from the lender´s point of view, so you can tailor your approach accordingly.
• Clearly define your serviced accommodation model and approach those lenders that understand it and feel comfortable financing that type of business.
• When lenders hear the term serviced accommodation they tend to automatically think of hospitality, hotels, etc. Many still don´t understand the short term let model.
• Local building societies are good people to approach for holiday let loans.
• For short term let properties look for a lender that offers you the ability to switch from say Airbnb to an AST and back again.
• A list of short-term let lenders is shared in the podcast
• Included in the podcast is a list of serviced accommodation lenders
• Sometimes you need to be creative to secure the finance you need.
• There are ways around having to wait 6 months to mortgage a property bought with cash.
• Some lenders are offering mortgages without repayment charges, how you can do this is explained in the podcast.
• Don´t get tripped up by not being able to prove where your deposit came from.
• Take care with payment holidays to make sure they do not get incorrectly categorized and damage your credit.
• Always be totally honest with your broker
• Usually, criteria is more important than the interest rate – if you don´t meet the criteria you can´t borrow anything

BEST MOMENTS

‘Up to 75%, loan to value is available. 70% seems to be the sweet spot with the building societies especially for the short term lets.’

‘Don´t be scared of bridging, it’s a good tool if used correctly.’

‘Whoever you go to and work with as a broker, tell them everything.’

VALUABLE RESOURCES

The Serviced Accommodation Property Podcast

https://propertysoldier.co.uk/

GUEST CONTACT METHODS

Instagram

Email - shaz.ahmed@gpsfinancial.co.uk

Phone - 07809 115889

ABOUT THE HOST

Your host Kevin Poneskis enjoys public speaking, travelling, exercising, and keeping fit. He also enjoys working with a charity called STOLL which provides accommodation and training for homeless veterans.

Kevin was in the British Army serving 24 years, mostly in a Commando unit, and retired at the rank of Regimental Sergeant Major. He left the Army in 2011 and became a full-time property investor. During most of his Army career, Kevin was investing in property and has been a property investor now for over 27 years.

ABOUT THE GUEST

Shall is a mortgage broker who works specifically with property investors at all stages of their journey. he is also a regular speaker on the property networking scene and now on various podcasts. He has worked in finance for the best of a decade in both corporate and more specialist roles.

CONTACT METHOD

https://en-gb.facebook.com/propertysoldier/

[email protected]