The scheme operated by the government supported Scottish Tourist agency, called VisitScotland and their grading system is to be adopted over the whole of the UK.
But it is massively unpopular in Scotland.
There is a petition to the Scottish Parliament complaining about them.
They are seen to be bureaucratic and top heavy, they lose money every year, which must be paid for by the Scottish taxpayer, and they have now given up the responsibility for selling members properties.
Their inspectors look at every property and decide on the grade for that year.
Here is the percentage breakdown of self-catering members of VisitScotland as of to-day.
VisitScotland have 3600 members soe of whom more than one property Out of 5000 or so vacation rental properties on their books, 150 are five stars, 1,600 have four stars, just under half have three stars, 800 have two stars and a very small number have only 1 star.
But it is reckoned that a further 5,000 properties offered for self-catering Scotland are ungraded and have nothing to do with VisitScotland.
They look after their own properties, they promote by themselves without support from the tourist body, often through the use of their own websites and specialist web site directories.
They do very well thank you very much.
They do better in terms of occupancy than over half of the Visit Scotland graded members.
VisitScotland do comprehensive research into occupancy levels and it is easy to get comparisons from the figures.
This shows a summary of Scotland's results looking at unit occupancy in weeks for different VisitScotland grades versus ungraded.
Ungraded, 55%occupancy - 29 weeks of lettings a year.
The research measures ungraded as well as graded.
VisitScotland graded properties One star49% Two stars46% Three stars 56% Four stars 57% Five stars 70% 36 weeks So, after all this money ploughed into grading, funded by the VisitScotland members and with the annual VisitScotland losses made up by the taxpayer, the fact is that it does not pay off properly unless you have a five star property! We sold 44 weeks last year, in our own single property in the Highlands.
We are lucky - we have only one property and we are in Glencoe, superb position.
But we have no grading and no support from VisitScotland.
We do all of it through our website.
It is a paradox this result.
I believe that when people do the work for themselves they usually make a remarkably good job of it.
They work every day of the week, they graft all day long and in the end it either works or they pull out.
Those people who turn the job over to others to do for them will not do so well.
But they can work less hard, and this is an advantage to many property owners.
So you pays you money and you takes your choice.
Work less hard at marketing and as a property owner you will probably be OK when selling your property for vacation rentals.
But your agencies will take a significant slice of your income, and that is fair because they are doing most of the difficult work.
All you have to do is to take the bookings, get the house cleaned and maintained and bank the cash.
Up to you.
John
But it is massively unpopular in Scotland.
There is a petition to the Scottish Parliament complaining about them.
They are seen to be bureaucratic and top heavy, they lose money every year, which must be paid for by the Scottish taxpayer, and they have now given up the responsibility for selling members properties.
Their inspectors look at every property and decide on the grade for that year.
Here is the percentage breakdown of self-catering members of VisitScotland as of to-day.
VisitScotland have 3600 members soe of whom more than one property Out of 5000 or so vacation rental properties on their books, 150 are five stars, 1,600 have four stars, just under half have three stars, 800 have two stars and a very small number have only 1 star.
But it is reckoned that a further 5,000 properties offered for self-catering Scotland are ungraded and have nothing to do with VisitScotland.
They look after their own properties, they promote by themselves without support from the tourist body, often through the use of their own websites and specialist web site directories.
They do very well thank you very much.
They do better in terms of occupancy than over half of the Visit Scotland graded members.
VisitScotland do comprehensive research into occupancy levels and it is easy to get comparisons from the figures.
This shows a summary of Scotland's results looking at unit occupancy in weeks for different VisitScotland grades versus ungraded.
Ungraded, 55%occupancy - 29 weeks of lettings a year.
The research measures ungraded as well as graded.
VisitScotland graded properties One star49% Two stars46% Three stars 56% Four stars 57% Five stars 70% 36 weeks So, after all this money ploughed into grading, funded by the VisitScotland members and with the annual VisitScotland losses made up by the taxpayer, the fact is that it does not pay off properly unless you have a five star property! We sold 44 weeks last year, in our own single property in the Highlands.
We are lucky - we have only one property and we are in Glencoe, superb position.
But we have no grading and no support from VisitScotland.
We do all of it through our website.
It is a paradox this result.
I believe that when people do the work for themselves they usually make a remarkably good job of it.
They work every day of the week, they graft all day long and in the end it either works or they pull out.
Those people who turn the job over to others to do for them will not do so well.
But they can work less hard, and this is an advantage to many property owners.
So you pays you money and you takes your choice.
Work less hard at marketing and as a property owner you will probably be OK when selling your property for vacation rentals.
But your agencies will take a significant slice of your income, and that is fair because they are doing most of the difficult work.
All you have to do is to take the bookings, get the house cleaned and maintained and bank the cash.
Up to you.
John
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