Draft Rateable Values Published

Draft rateable values have now been published. They are still drafts, but they will provide an indicator of what we can expect. It doesn’t look like good news for many.

Some rateable values appear to have gone up between 100 and 200%. Have you checked yours?

Go to www.saa.gov.uk and enter your postcode, select your property. This will bring up your current value. Click ‘more information’ on right hand side of page, then click on the ‘proposed values 2017’.

If your rateable value is over £15,000, you will not be eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme.

The Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers will support the sector to make sure that rateable values are fair, and that businesses are not compromised by the proposed changes.

Please can you help us to support the industry by answering the following questions and emailing them to Eleanor at administrator@assc.co.uk:

Name

Address

Telephone

Email address

Address of self-catering property

Are you a Member of the ASSC?

What is the % increase of your draft rateable value?

Do you think this is fair?

Have you benefited from the Small Business Bonus Scheme in the past?

Are you now valued above the Small Business Bonus Scheme criteria?

Are you considering appealing?

Any other comments

Small Business Bonus Scheme 2017-18

Based on the total rateable value (RV) of all your business premises, the following reliefs are proposed:

• RV up to £15,000 – 100% relief (ie no rates payable)
• RV £15,001 to £18,000 – 25% relief
• If you have more than one business property, with a combined rateable value of between £18,001 and £35,000, you will get 25% relief on each individual property with a rateable value of under £18,000.

For more information including the Draft Budget Document Parliamentary Statement, News Release, LG Finance Circular and a Business Rates Calculator, please go to the Members area.

Tourist Tax, Visitor Levy or Bed Tax

Like most tourism businesses in Scotland the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers does not support a tourist tax, visitor levy or bed tax.

• Scotland is already expensive to visit.   The World Economic Forum ranks the UK 140th out of 141 counties in terms of tourism price-competitiveness.

• A tourist tax would be contrary to the National Tourism Strategy as it would make us less competitive, working against efforts to increase visitor numbers and revenues.   It would jeopardise the significant contribution that tourism makes to the Scottish economy through tourism-related employment and visitor spend.

• A bed tax would penalise accommodation providers in a sector which benefits many other businesses, attractions, restaurants, pubs along with the cultural and events sector.

• Recent analysis by BHA shows that, of fourteen European countries which apply some form of tourist tax, all but one levy reduced rates of VAT on hotel services.   In fact, the UK is one of only three EU countries that do not have a reduced rate of VAT for tourism services.

• The Scottish Government declared earlier in the year that there are no plans to implement any new taxes on the tourism sector which it says is currently subject to the second highest VAT rates in Europe.   It has said that it believes there are no existing legal powers for local authorities to levy a local bed tax or tourism tax.

• The Scottish Tourism Alliance, British Hospitality Association and tourism members of the Federation of Small Businesses have also expressed their strong opposition to calls for tourist taxes.

The ASSC thinks this needs watching closely.  

• There have been several calls to investigate the possible introduction of a tourist tax from politicians in the previous parliament, and certainly Councils, notably Edinburgh have been looking at this.

• The 2017 budget will be an enormous challenge, particularly for Councils, increasing the pressure to raise income.   There are Council elections in May 2017.

• It may be possible for Councils to agree a legal mechanism in City Deal negotiations being agreed at Westminster and Holyrood.

• The general public seem to understand and may well support a tourist tax.   Many may have paid a small amount when on their own holidays to other destinations.

• The Government is coming under pressure to review local taxation as well as business rates, so we consider the position to be more fluid and in the balance than might appear.

We do not welcome a Tourist Tax.  

Should a Tourism Tax be introduced however ….

We need to know:

• The proposed level of tax and from which sectors?
• Who collects this? Is there in fact a legal mechanism?  How much will it cost to collect?
• Will the money collected be ring-fenced by local authority, by city/town or does it disappear into general taxation?
• Where is it spent? Who decides how it is spent?
• If a tourism tax is introduced, we consider that several sectors should share in contribution.   It should not be a solely a bed tax, which will penalise overnight visitors while letting day visitors off the hook.

December 2016

10 Tips for Marketing Your Holiday Rental

The presentations at the recent Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) 2016 Self-Catering Conference in Glasgow were packed full of practical information from experts in the self-catering sector and tourism industry, covering a wide range of subjects from Search Engine Optimisation to the benefits of booking portals.   The main message of the day was the importance of working collaboratively and connecting with other accommodation providers, local businesses and attractions and your local tourism group, and that digital connectivity is essential for growth.

If you didn’t make it to this year’s Conference here are 10 tips for marketing your holiday rental.

1. Add some floor plans (particularly if your property has four or more bedrooms).  Use a photo if there isn’t a special field for it.  Both Robert Kennedy of SuperControl and Rick Bond of My Favourite Holiday Cottages recommended adding floor plans to your property listing or website as people love to look at they layout of properties.  Some people like to print off floor plans to plan who is staying where.
2. Send personalised emails.  Rick Bond gave some suggestions for adding a personal touch to emails, such as to the family pet describing the nearby pet-friendly attractions, good walks etc, and a ‘Santa email’ from an elf explaining that Santa knows where the family will be over the Christmas holidays.
3. Three top tips for improving your Google ranking from Digital Marketing Consultant Stephen Whitehall – create fresh, relevant content, have a Google+ page and tweet.  The fresh content gives you authority, Google will love you that bit more if you have a Google+ page and Google also loves Twitter (tweets can be indexed by Google but not Facebook posts).
4. Use Google Analytics and Keyword Research to choose the right channels to advertise your property on.  SuperControl’s Robert Kennedy advised delegates to do your research and find the channels that best match your guest and property profile, and emphasised that local and niche sites can be as effective as big multinationals if you manage your listings carefully.
5. ‘Book Now’ is the ultimate call to action.  Full online booking is better for guests than enquiry/quote/response (you are letting guests book when and how they want).
6. Track your bookings.  One of the main benefits of online marketing is that you can track where your bookings come from.  Don’t just rely on a single source of information, you can use: Google Analytics, social media, adwords, email, affiliate tracking, sources, phone.  Why not ask your guests where they came across your site when they visit?
7. Little touches go a long way at making a good impression.  Rick Bond shared lots of top tips in his psychological approach to pleasing guests, from leaving a tub of Sudocrem for families with babies to making a visual impact upon arrival.  Leaving a brand new pack of cards for guests is said to increase repeat bookings by 15/20%.
8. Tap into different markets: the inclusive market is a massive market and the most loyal in the world, there is a huge market for digital detox (mentioned by both Robin Worsnop and Stephen Whitehall) and Chris McCoy talked about attracting the ‘grey pound‘ in her presentation on the Accessible Market (the number of over-65s in Britain is set to surge by 4.5 million by 2030, which represents £320billion of consumer spending).
9. Listen to customers and use customer ideas to drive innovation in your business.  Robin Worsnop of Rabbies Small Group Tours highlighted the importance of customer feedback – customers are at the heart of their business model.
10. Moira Henderson shared some simple ideas for how you can make your holiday rental more accessible: add grab rails, use colour contrast in the decoration, create space under the sink for those who need to sit down to wash dishes, and add rise and fall tables.

Read more notes from the 2016 Conference here…