We Love Property chooses MRI Sales & Lettings to power holiday lettings expansion

Based in St. Leonard’s-on-Sea in East Sussex, We Love Property was established in 2007. Initially focussing on residential , the company ventured into managing holiday lets six years ago, and this quickly became a key focus area for the growing company, which now manages a portfolio of over 60 holiday lets in the Hastings and St. Leonard’s area. 

A specialist property management system

Having relied on their previous technology solution since their launch in 2007, We Love Property changed platform after their original solution was retired, but found that it did not meet their needs, experiencing a number of problems with bugs, data issues and the features offered not being a good fit for their property management requirements.  

After comparing several systems, the company was referred to MRI by a friend in the industry, and booked a demo of the Sales and Lettings system. “To be quite frank, I’m not good at being sold to”, explained Amanda Burlington, owner of We Love Property.

“I don’t like people trying to blag me, and that’s what was happening with the other guys. MRI have been so easy to deal with.” 

The team were also impressed by the quality of MRI’s support offering compared to their previous solution.

“We once had a glitch on our old system and it took them two and a half days to come back to us. I don’t see us having the same glitches with MRI, and the system seems very user friendly, so I’m happy.”

Streamlining accounting processes

A key factor in We Love Property’s decision to choose MRI Sales and Lettings was its accounting features. The team were struggling with the functionality offered by their previous solution and wanted to invest in a platform which could better support their needs. 

“I’ve had some clients with me for years, and it’s lucky that I knew how much I need to pay them each month, because the accounts on our old system were actually painful, to the point where I was losing money”, said Amanda. “I’d have been better off with Excel spreadsheets. It was particularly difficult dealing with overpayments. Now, when somebody pays the rent in advance I can manage that easily.” 

Capitalising on an expanding market

With the success of the Airbnb model as well as growing interest in staycations since the COVID-19 pandemic, We Love Property is seeing a surge in the number of landlords offering their properties as holiday lets. With holiday lettings offering a secure income stream for investors as well as higher commission rates for property management firms, the market is growing rapidly, with more providers beginning to move into the space.  

With viewings not forming part of the holiday letting process, Amanda also explained the importance of accurately visualising properties to potential tenants, and the impact this has on the customer experience. “There are people talking to us all the time and we’re taking on more and more holidays lets. It’s a big industry and Hastings has had write-ups in national press”, explained Amanda.

“We need to be realistic with our photography, and be very transparent about what we’re providing people. I’m so busy growing the business and I need a system that can keep up with that. With MRI we’ll have a clean start on all our data.” 

To find out more about how MRI’s estate agency software could help you build efficiencies into your processes, contact us to arrange a demo.