Starter Kit. Idea 9 of 500. Cluster 1
Villa management services for absentee owners
The mechanism, from the book
If Sri Lanka earned what the Maldives earns per visitor, the visitors it already has would bring in $2.4 billion a year more.
The first step
Call 10 owners of holiday villas who live abroad or in Colombo, found through estate agents and friends abroad, and ask one question: what goes wrong when you are not there. Write down the three answers that repeat, then offer the first owner a month of management, bookings, cleaning, repairs and a monthly photo report, at a fixed fee. One signed month is the proof.
- Who pays first
- A villa owner living abroad whose house sits empty or badly run, and who would rather pay a fee than keep losing bookings.
- What leaves today
- Villas owned from abroad sit empty for weeks at a time; local management fills the nights and keeps the fees on the island.
Ask first
- Department of the Registrar of Companies. Ask how to register a small management company that will hold client money.
- Inland Revenue Department. Ask how management fees and rent collected for owners should be recorded for tax.
Check before you spend
A written contract with each owner, a separate account for owners' money, and insurance covering staff and guests while you manage the house.
Find out these three numbers
- How many owners abroad leave a villa empty for most of the year?
- What share of rental income do owners expect to pay a manager?
- How many hours a month does one villa take to run well?
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
From the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? by Dr Maheshika Halbeisen. The idea and the mechanism are the book's; this kit was written for the site.