Are your holiday home's rental income in Costa del Sol melting away due to emergency repairs and maintenance bills? Lack of maintenance eats away your property's profit.

Standard changeover cleaning won't save you from major maintenance bills or property wear – The cost of lacking maintenance cannot be controlled

The root cause is often found in the operating model – or the lack of one. 

Owning a holiday home on the Costa del Sol was supposed to feel easy.

Your own place in the sun, carefree visits, and maybe a bit of passive rental income. The reality for many, however, is something completely different. The phone rings in your house constantly:

• the cleaning wasn't done properly – you read about it in Airbnb reviews
• the tenant complains about stains, or you read about a shabby general appearance in the feedback: "not match the photos"
• the windows need to be washed every now and then
• the oven handle is loose and the oven cannot be used
• the gas bottle is empty and the customer is complaining
• the AC is broken (actually, the remote control batteries are dead or the filters are just uncleaned)
• the jacuzzi is dirty and the rental agent's cleaner doesn't know how to clean it
• someone needs to be found to visit the property and fix the deficiencies
• the apartment is troubled by an ant problem or other pests.

Suddenly, you find yourself managing your property with difficulty from afar like a small project — from hundreds or thousands of kilometers away.

The problem is usually not the agent – but the standard operating model In most rental apartments on the Costa del Sol, the agency handles organizing the cleaning. 

Often, the property owner's assumption is that "the agency takes care of the apartment".

In practice, it is a fast and as cheap as possible changeover cleaning. Its purpose is to get the apartment ready quickly for the next guests: the bathroom is washed, sheets are changed, and the apartment is vacuumed.

It works well as long as everything goes perfectly.

The real problem begins when normal wear and tear or small maintenance needs appear in the apartment, which do not belong to regular cleaning.

A typical chain goes like this:
• The cleaner reports the matter to the agent or doesn't report
• The agent asks the owner what to do
• The owner tries to solve the matter remotely
• The agent looks for a contractor — or the owner looks for one themselves

The matter might also be forgotten on the agent's desk and left hanging if a contractor is not found immediately. 

Or the found contractor promises to handle it, but doesn't.

Every single visit results in a separate invoice, even if it's just an inspection visit. If the owner arranges the contractor themselves, the agency can still invoice for opening the door or coordinating.

How small oversights turn into continuous extra costs

A typical situation: 
the AC is left to its own devices for months because a changeover cleaning doesn't clean it. 

The tenant reports that the air conditioning is not working

.• the agency finds someone to inspect the air conditioning unit and informs the owner
• if the agency cannot find anyone to inspect the device, the owner tries to do it themselves remotely
• Someone visits to inspect the device for 30 €/h + IVA and concludes that it is too dusty to function, and additionally, the remote control battery is dead
• Someone is sent with new batteries to vacuum the device
• The owner receives an invoice for at least 2-3 hours of work

This is not an isolated fault, but a good example of how the system turns small, ordinary matters into multi-stage costs.

Another typical situation: 
Windows getting dirty

A changeover cleaning wipes the handprint off the balcony's glass door, but the windows and balcony glasses are not washed. Eventually, one of the tenants complains that the windows are in an outrageous condition.

• the agency reports the situation to the owner and asks if the windows can be washed
• a window cleaner is sent to the site, and this quickly results in an invoice of at least 60-200 euros for the owner

The windows continue collecting dirt from that very second, and the situation repeats itself within a couple of months at the latest.

For the tenant present at the time, the look is bright and clean, but the next tenants always end up in an apartment whose general appearance gets shabbier and shabbier. 

This is the erosion of appearance and value, which directly affects rentability, profit, and the customer experience.
The end result is a surprising amount of hassle, delays, and extra costs from even the smallest things.

A visit just to inspect the matter by a maintenance man, hunted down with great effort, can cost more than fixing the problem itself.

A single pack of batteries is not expensive, but it costs money when someone has to drive it separately to the customer.

At worst, the original problem might still remain untouched in the apartment, waiting for all future tenants.

Often, a holiday home is the result of years of work or a carefully considered investment. Many owners take good care of their homes themselves and assume that a home on the Costa del Sol is maintained with the same mindset when it is handed over, for example, for holiday home rentals.In practice, however, this does not always happen if no one is responsible for the holistic care of the apartment.

The standard and general appearance of the apartment decrease constantly over time when maintenance is lacking

It no longer interests future tenants in the same way because it is shabby and "does not match the photos." A critical tenant may even demand a direct refund on the rental price.

Yield decreases. Repair bills grow. At worst, your own vacation begins with the first days or even weeks spent making repairs and maintenance.

Over the years, I have seen dozens of apartments where the owner has paid for separate maintenance, window cleanings, and repairs throughout the year. Still, the apartment might have looked more worn year after year.

Individual problems were attempted to be fixed, but no one was responsible for the whole. The apartment was managed one event at a time, not as continuous maintenance. Usually only at the point when the problem had grown so large that it could no longer be ignored.

Your guest does not see the operating model – they only see the condition of the apartment

The changeover cleaning quickly returns the apartment to a ready-to-use state — but dirty windows remain unwashed and a detached door handle waits on the table.

Many matters related to the condition, comfort, and general appearance of the apartment – such as battery and gas bottle replacements, technical cleanings, descaling, deep cleaning of textiles, and small ongoing repairs – remain completely outside of this.

It is not a matter of poor cleaning, but that these things simply do not belong to a standard changeover cleaning. The apartment may look neat at a quick glance, but long-term care is missing, and the holiday home gradually begins to look worn.

When reality is revealed to the owner on site

The owner dreams about their own holiday home.

Many owners only notice the situation when arriving on site themselves after months.They have been looking forward to entering their holiday home, and opening the door does not lead to a great Costa del Sol feeling. Instead, they are faced with a shabby wall full of luggage scratches and greasy stains, and the hallway is dark because a light bulb has burned out.

A thick mat of dust blows out from the AC when inspecting it, explaining why customers have complained about a smell in the apartment. The TV remote control is out of battery.

The sofa is saturated with food stains, even though the mental image six months ago was of gorgeous, new, and fresh decorative cushions.

The coffee does not come through the espresso machine due to limescale, and the shower floods because the floor drain is clogged with tenants' hair.You notice many other things that require action.

You think about grilling and taking a dip in the jacuzzi before starting the apartment renovation in the morning.
Grilling remains a dream because the gas bottle is empty. You have to tighten the screws on the terrace furniture so that the wobbly chairs don't break under you while admiring the sunset. The jacuzzi water looks sketchy, and there is something sticky on the edge of the tub.

Understanding grows and the situation opens up through experience on site

You have been reading customer reviews from your tenants with a bit of surprise, but you are starting to understand why "the apartment does not match the photos" and the hints that the rent should be adjusted downwards slightly to improve occupancy. And at the same time, the rental yield.

The apartment does not match even your own mental image right now.

Just a moment ago, tenants were competing for it, and you too enjoyed spending the evening on a squeaky-clean terrace in the sun. Something has happened when the apartment is this shabby.

Yet, you have separately agreed to order window and terrace cleaning several times after a Calima when your rental agent called. They resulted in a big bill, and yet the apartment is this untidy. There is something to complain about in everything.

The apartment wears down gradually, even though it is cleaned

Quality holiday home maintenance means much more than changing sheets. Small details matter in determining whether the apartment looks like a finely maintained property in the eyes of a guest—and your own—or a battered rental apartment that has seen better days.

Multiplier effect

A tenant does not consider it very important to be careful with anything when the apartment is already shabby, and in the worst-case scenario, small damages multiply because of this.

It is difficult to raise the standard of the apartment back to the level of the mental image

If your apartment's "standard drops" due to a lack of deep maintenance and its desirability decreases in the eyes of tenants, it shows in the reviews and directly disrupts rental yield. More empty days may come than you expected.

When maintenance is then awakened by the owner, for example once a year, it does not directly raise the desirability of the apartment back to the targeted level; instead, complaints and mentions of the apartment's deficiencies remain in the depths of the Airbnb page.

In addition, the circle closes, and the apartment starts to wear down again without maintenance, as long as the operating model does not change.

One partner handles everything - Sunnyhost PREMIUM

Sunnyhost PREMIUM is built to solve exactly this problem.

Instead of the apartment just being cleaned between tenants or with weekly cleanings, its condition and general appearance are constantly taken care of in connection with changeover cleanings and during monthly visits.

Small repairs, window cleanings, checks, and maintenance actions are done as part of normal operations before they turn into guest complaints, maintenance visits, or extra invoices.

What does this mean for the owner?

Simplier everyday life. One responsible partner. One invoice. Peace of mind.

Your apartment stays clean, functional, and presentable even when you are far away.

The purpose of PREMIUM care is not to increase maintenance costs, but to shift maintenance to be proactive and comprehensive in a cost-effective way.

When the apartment stays constantly in good condition:

• occupancy rate stays higher
• you can ask for a better price for the property
• maintenance debt cannot grow
• separate expensive maintenance visits decrease

Click and read more: PREMIUM

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