Holiday lets are fickle and difficult to manage says ISABEL MORTON

ONE BY one, the trappings of the Celtic Tiger days are being secreted away, sold off or put to work. It is no longer acceptable to be seen to have it, let alone flaunt it. And those who have still managed to hang on to it are now trying to make good use of it.

Wives are now reluctantly writing up detailed inventories to include every last scented candle and Cath Kidston cushion furnishing in their precious holiday homes, as their husbands threaten to sell if the properties are not put on the rental market immediately.

Private boltholes must now justify their existence and earn their living by being rented out to the great unwashed.

Escaping for romantic weekend breaks to your bijou Parisian pad, spending a quiet few days in your west Cork cottage or relocating your entire family to your Tuscan residence for the summer months, may no longer be a possibility now that business is not doing quite as well as it had been and your bank shares are worth a fraction of what you paid for them.

No more can your villa lie idle under the heat of the Italian sun, awaiting your next visit, as these days it could be a long time sitting empty. Although, it has at last dawned, that “maintaining magnificence” doesn’t come cheap and there is a distinct possibility that Luigi and Maria are enjoying a far better lifestyle than you, as they are being well paid for the pleasure of caretaking your villa, while you are slaving away at home trying to finance the dream.

With Paddy’s Day over, people are slowly uncurling from the foetal position, having remained in a state of virtual inertia throughout the cold and miserable winter. They are also waking up to the reality that “changes will have to be made”.

People who were once quite relaxed about leaving their country cottages, city pads and Mediterranean villas unoccupied for 50 weeks of the year are now “reassessing the situation” as servicing mortgages and paying exorbitant maintenance fees are now becoming worthy of serious consideration.

However, it’s not just a simple case of chucking a set of keys at the letting agent and hoping that the rent will come rolling in. Holiday lets are notoriously fickle, unpredictable and difficult to manage. Short-term tenants can be extremely demanding, as holiday expectations are always high and are rarely met.

You might love the rustic simplicity of your country cottage but your tenants may consider it shabby rather than chic. Equally, your holiday home may be so beautifully decorated that you can hardly bear the thought of total strangers stepping one foot inside your door, let alone using and abusing your carefully chosen furnishings and fittings.

Your pristine white linen sofa covers may end up permanently stained with fake tan and sun oils and your designer furniture may go from being fashionably “distressed” to being “destroyed”.

Invariably, holiday homes, which were originally fitted and furnished for the owner’s personal use, are rarely suited to the demands of the rental market.

French letting agents warn landlords, whose properties are likely to be rented by Russians and Americans, not to furnish them with charming antique French beds and fragile Louis XIV-style chairs, as their tenants will find this delicate furniture too small and uncomfortable.

Super king size beds, extra large power showers, huge comfortable sofas, large refrigerators with ice machines, satellite TV and good internet coverage are now considered the bare minimum requirements for today’s demanding holiday tenants. So, don’t be tempted to see if you can get away with recovering granny’s old chairs or hoping that a few drops of wood glue will stick the broken leg back on the dining table.

Short-term holiday lets must be maintained in perfect order 24/7. So, if an appliance such as a washing machine or dishwasher breaks down – or worse, the water pump – it must be fixed or replaced within hours (rather than days) and your tenant can hardly be expected to forgo precious holiday time in order to sit in and wait for a repairman to arrive.

By the time you have employed a professional team to meet-and-greet, manage and maintain your property, have paid the mortgage, levies and the proposed new property taxes for second and subsequent homes, there may not be much left over.

Of course, there is also the minor little matter of finding a tenant in the first place. Unfortunately, this is not always easy and depends almost entirely on the location of your holiday home.

Some holiday spots are classics and are forever in favour, others were fashionable for a while but are no longer in vogue and some are, quite simply, in the middle of nowhere. As per usual, it’s all down to Location, Location, Location.