In December I got the chance to have a catch up with a long term client of southhams.com. WHK Services have been listed on our directory for many years. They’re a long standing, well known and successful holiday management company based in Dartmouth. However it wasn’t WHK Services that we’d be discussing. It was their exciting new venture Serenity Stays. So what makes a long established and accomplished business woman decide to take this leap of faith into the holiday lettings arena?! Let’s find out more….

Whats the background of Serenity Stays?

I’ve been running WHK Services for seventeen years.  New and existing clients have always asked if we or would we consider venturing out into the holiday letting business.  Typically new customers find us on Google and enquire about property management but one of the first questions is usually, “so you do Holiday Lets?” During the last three years we’ve had more and more people ask this and until recently we’ve always said no. It wasn’t something that we felt we needed or wanted to do as we had such strong ties with local agents when they were personally managed by their local directors.  However the lettings industry has changed over recent years. Since the main agents in the industry have been bought out by the large national companies we’ve found that from a client point of view the personal touch has completely gone.  At WHK Services we’ve always provided a personal working relationship with clients and have been stepping into this role as a management company for other properties that are managed by agents.  Some of it doesn’t always fall into our remit and I was beginning to wonder if it was time to address this issue. About twelve months ago I spoke to Halina my Office Managerabout going into Holiday Lettings and although she was a little reticent to start with I managed to talk her round. Other than marketing the property and selling holidays we’d already been doing absolutely everything else.  An existing property of ours had been turned away by their current agent for the 2020 season and contacted us frantic.  He didn’t know what to do!  For us it was perfect timing and it was our opportunity to explore our new venture.  We immediately registered as a company, took on the property and turned brainstorming ideas into reality which was so exciting!   We contacted a professional photographer for the property photoshoots and finalised all our documents.  Wepredominantly used Air BnB which does really well but we’ve learnt through teething problems and not having full control with the booking that our future lies with a bespoke designed ecommerce website and using a marketing manager and company to promote our brand.  So wait for the launch! 

What Services do you offer?

We offer two packages. The first is Owner Managed in which Serenity would promote, market and sell their property and the owner would choose to managed everything else. The other is an Agency Managed package which for obvious reasons will be targeted more locally. The full package will include everything from marketing to managing bookings and payments. Delivering a comprehensive property management service including out-of-hours emergency cover. We’ll provide all the care your guests need so you don’t have to.

What would you say your unique selling point is?

It’s the one to one service. Our clients deal with the owners of Serenity Stays directly as opposed to just a member of staff in a large company.  At WHK we are on first name terms with the owners and speak with them direct, we are after all the first point of contact for their second home which is often at great sentimental and financial value to them.   We want to be honest in how we market the properties so guests are fully aware of what their expectations of their holiday property is on arrival which isn’t always the case nowadays.  For us it’s all about the Serenity and whatever that may be personally we hope we can bring this into every property we market.  This is why why named the company in the way we did.  We hope to be able to bring something a little different to the local area as a small bespoke company.  Our goal is to have 50 -100 properties and be able to offer a five star premium package and personal touch to every single one of them. This is something that the national companies cannot offer.

What does the next 12 months hold in store for Serenity Stays?

We will be spending this year finding the right 50 - 100 properties that we want to join our portfolio. We will find the perfect properties and build lasting relationships through the personal five star service that we offer.  We will be building the marketing aspect of Serenity Stays and promoting this nationwide with our other city associates.

If you’d like to get in touch with Serenity Stays and find out more then head over to their listing on southhhams.com for their full contact details.