“AVOID HELLOGUEST AT ALL COSTS
As an agent for a family member property owner, I had a dreadful experience with this company. Avoid at all costs - there are many more professional companies out there. They refuse to notify you when placing guests which can results in double bookings if the property is unavailable. They then feel it is their right to bill you for their own cancellation fees, which is absurd. My client paid to onboard them, including their photography fees and all their other cleaning fees etc, but refused to pay them for their own cancellation fees. They then took ME to court without notifying me - and they know I live overseas - and I don't even own the property. I ended up having to pay their cancellation fees AND legal fees to avoid a County Court Judgement which had already been illegally lodged in my name. I have now referred them to my lawyers to take them to court for this illegal action on their part. AVOID AT ALL COSTS for your own peace of mind whether you are an agent or owner. They are completely unprofessional.”
“I have a flat in London and I needed someone to manage as I cant do it myself. A friend recommend HelloGuest and have been using their services ever since. They got the property advertised quickly and have helped with some maintenance issues. Customer service has always been helpful and respond quickly to my questions. I would recommend using them if you need a good management service and you cant do it yourself.”
“I have been using Hello Guest for several years on and off. I had to stop renting during the pandemic and came back to live in the UK for a period of time, Have moved back abroad and got Hello Guest to rent and manage my property again for short lets. Its easy service to use, I just get in touch with them for when to rent the property. They advertise it on different booking sites and I get monthly statements with earnings. Never had any major problems with guests or parties which I have read about in some Airbnbs, I know they screen guests and have a few days minimum stay. Recommend them to others.”
“DO NOT USE!!!!
They are absolutely abominably run, and seem not to know what is going on.
I had multiple issues with them so can’t write all of them down, but will show an example of two of the worst:
1) There was no booking for a certain week. I arrived to the flat and thee were guests there. I contacted HelloGuest who said it had been booked in. I sent them the calendar which clearly shows there was no booking. They refuse to acknowledge this so I had to pay for 2 nights in a hotel. They refuse to refund and completely ignore the fact that there was no booking in the calendar!
2) Guests arrived when I was still there having not cleaned yet. They specifically told me a cleaner would arrive at 5.30. I assume if they told me this the guests would not be scheduled to arrive until at least an hour or two after this. The guests arrived at 5pm and I was then told my HGelloGuest that that was their schedule. Again they refuse to take any responsibility. They cannot even apologise for their own mistakes, and refuse to acknowledge of any wrong doing.”
“She have rented flats in he area for 20 years. This was our worst experience. Flat 2, 69 Marchmont St compared unfavourably with other flats we have rented. Shower head was broken, one electric outlet didn't work, no tea or coffee pot in "fully equipped" kitchen. Shower head repaired in four days. Outlet never fixed. Told there was a kettle and we could go buy tea-coffee pot if we wanted one. Television has no easy access to UK main channels.Extension cord draped across a wall. The seam of a cushion on the small sofa was slightly torn on arrival. The tear was more pronounced after we sat on it for five weeks -- our stay. Told it was our fault and charged the full deposit. Booked for 8 weeks, we had to cancel the last three on account of a proveable medical problem. We were denied any refund. The carpet in the stairwell was torn (could be dangerous) and discoloured and the wall plaster was cracked. There was no contact with a live person either onsite or by phone. Not recommended.”
“I have used Helloguest initially for short lets and then long term rental. I prefer renting the property for short lets as I can stay occasionally when I'm visiting. Short letting was going very well until COVID when bookings were really affected. As I depend on the income from the flat I was pretty desperate what to do. Discussed with Helloguest who offered the option to rent on a longer term basis. The advice was sound as they did manage find someone to rent over the last period which has been difficult and provided me a lifeline financially.
The tenancy is due to end soon so I am considering going back to short letting as it seems bookings are picking up. Im happy with Helloguest and appreciate that I have the option to use them for short or long term letting. They have helped me out in a difficult period, always acted professionally and provided helpful advice. I would recommend using them for rentals.”
“I’ve recently started working with Helloguest and so far everything has been very good. They quickly got back to me, Veronica the owner called me directly with an assessment of my property and she immediately took over. Since then, I’ve basically not had to do much after the listing was set up, they manage the guests, bookings, cleaning, checkin. I would definitely recommend them for anyone who is looking to do the same.”
“Helloguest took over management of my property which I had listed on several booking channels like Airbnb, Booking.com and Plumguide. I did get into a bit of a mess as my calendars were not being blocked properly on the other channels when I got a booking, I had to manually check everything and had a couple of double bookings. Helloguest managed to get that sorted out taking over my existing profiles and getting things correctly set up. They added more booking channels and its get automatically blocked on the other channels when bookings come. They also helped optimise a few other settings that I wasn't aware of to get more and better quality bookings. Overall very happy with the service, good level of technical knowledge and has taken it off my hands so I don't have to be as involved, thank you Helloguest team!”
“We were not sure about renting out our place for short lets, we had rented it previously as an AST but the last tenant treated the place very badly so we were considering other options. We contacted a few short let management companies, most didn't respond. HelloGuest were quick getting back to us and the seemed most knowledgeable. They gave us some good advice and recommended that we could try short lets for a trial period to see if it could work for us and what sort of bookings and income we could get. We were quite surprised as we got a few bookings within the first week it was advertised and we have got a good number of bookings for the next few months. We have not had any major problems, just a couple of small things at the start that were sorted out quickly.”
“I bought a property in Manchester which I wanted to rent for long term letting as I got offered a job somewhere else but a friend recommended to try letting my property on Airbnb instead. They recommended Hello Guest which they had used previously for their property. The main benefit for me is that I can stay in the property whenever I want, im not based in Manchester but do come back often to visit friends and family. I just ask the team at Hello Guest to block out any dates im coming and they get rentals for the days its available. The service has been very good so far and works for my needs. As im not around I cant manage the property and the rentals so its better that someone else can take care of it. Would recommend this company if you want someone to manage things for you.”
“Initially I was using another agent in Edinburgh but they have gone out of business. I needed to find another agency at short notice who could manage my flat and provide a full service to manage it as I don't live in the area. I had some existing bookings which I needed them to be able to manage the guests and the cleaning. They took over my profile, communicating with the guests and had cleaners available to get the property ready. So far the service has been great, everything was set up quickly and I haven't had any issues. They asked if I could post a review which I am happy to do so and recommend.”
“We decided to try short letting our holiday home in Newquay. Previously we had it rented for long term tenants. We heard about the demand for staycations and our property is ideally located near the beach. Hello Guest helped us create the listing and advertise it on the short let booking sites. They also advised us on pricing and deposit levels. Honestly we didn't know what to expect and we only started advertising it just before the summer holidays. It got bookings straightaway and was booked out almost the whole summer which is fabulous! We never expected it to be this popular and the rent we got was a lot more than if we rented out for the long term again. We still don't know how many rentals we will get in the next few months with COVID but so far it has exceeded our expectations. We would definitely recommend using Hello Guest to manage things.”
“Would recommend helloguest, its a great little service, Veronica and Emily were so helpful and fast getting my property advertised on all the booking sites. They have a customer service team always online which was perfect as I didn't want the hassle of dealing with guest enquiries. I did try managing my listing at first for a while but realised it takes a lot of time which I no longer had as work was getting busier. Also a lot of guests were contacting me at different times which wasn't always convenient. I have pay them a fee for managing the property but well worth it for me. Use these guys if you want someone to do it for you.”
“After having several negative experiences I was extremely happy to meet Veronica, owner of Helloguest. Professional, detailed oriented, communicative, and flexible with the needs of each guest. So far we always got 5 star reviews overall and for cleanliness which was one of the main issues I had with the other companies I used. Also responding to guests very quickly was important and I can see that's being done. Would certainly recommend to anyone.”
“I have travelled extensively around the world for work for the past 30 years and I have never before felt compelled to write such a review. I have used both Airbnb and Booking.com in the past and due to the current pandemic was happy to recommend to my son and his friends that they should opt for self-catering rather than a hotel.
They found what they thought (from the photos) a nice centrally located apartment. On arrival the found that the apartment was actually lower ground floor (not advertised as such) which in itself would not have been an issue but the fact that the flat was dirty (hairs on the floor, in the bedding and shower), soiled Ben linen and a rotten tomato and chicken bone on the kitchen floor made it completely unfit for purpose and certainly in breach of the contract they had entered into with Booking.com. The property was “managed” by Hello Guest who would not respond to numerous calls. My sister based in London managed to speak to a representative from Hello Guest (Veronica) who requested that we sent an email. This was done and the implication was that a cleaner would be sent to rectify the matter. However nobody turned up (they waited from 1 pm - 9 pm approx) despite trying to contact again, Hello Guest’s representative did not reply or send a cleaner and they were therefore obliged to book a nearby hotel that I had used on previous visits to London.
When Hello Guest finally did respond they offered a 50% on the cleaning charge - ludicrous particularly as no cleaner appeared for some 8 hours.
I would strongly recommend NOT using HelloGuest for any booking! Simply abominable”
“UK Block Management:
We used Hello Guest to manage a few of our blocks across the UK with 10+ units in each pre-covid. They ran a great operational setup that really helped us utilize the frequent slack period between tenancies, would recommend”
“I have used HelloGuest initially for short lets and then to let my property on the long term, they have given me sound advice and are always very professional in communication. They were able to get my property rented to some very nice tenants. I might go back to short letting if things pick up again and like that I can use HelloGuest to do both. I am happy with the service and keeping using them for rentals”
“Couldn’t be happier as a host
I have 2 flats that are being managed by Hello Guest.
The pandemic has been affecting bookings for over a year now but thankfully the team at Hello Guest managed to secure some bookings, mainly health professionals staying.
I have seen some bookings from tourists lately which is heartening to see as it has been a while.
Their services is second to none. They take care of absolutely everything from cleaning to laundry and checking in my guests.
I would warmly recommend them to host like myself. They’re really making my life easier.”
“The team at Helloguest really were excellent when it came to listing/managing my home in London, they were able to onboard my home very quickly and were able to find guests in an extremely short window! I would be happy to recommend them for any host looking for short let management!”
