5 strategies to alleviate tenants and landlords stress over Christmas shutdown periods

Christmas is fast upon us and while some offices continue to trade as per usual, others are taking additional days off between public holidays to recharge and reset for 2024.

While property management is considered by some as a '24/7 role', it's important to have procedures in place that allow you and your team to enjoy some well-deserved time off during the festive season. Here are five tips to appease your customers and clients during Christmas and New Year's Eve.

1. Create a plan about how your office is going to trade over this time

If you haven't decided your trading hours already, make a decision as soon as possible on whether:

a) you will close the office, but only for the public holidays;

b) you will close the office for a set period of time; or

c) you will remain trading, but with skeleton staff.

Knowing the finer details of who is available will give peace of mind and confidence to control the work load during the week of Christmas and New Year's Eve, or upon re-open of the office.

2. Advise your tenants and clients of your trading times with plenty of notice

Now that you've set your Christmas shutdown period, it's important to communicate with tenants on how to report maintenance issues and pay rent during this period. Similarly, you should inform your clients on what they can expect if their home is available for rent over this period. Information is key to customer and client satisfaction, so set the expectations to ensure no one is left to assume how things will work.

3. Create a list of FAQs or Troubleshooting Guides for Tenants

As most property managers know, the months of December and January seem to be the time for maintenance issues such as power outages, overloaded circuits or air conditioner faults. The good news is that some of these issues don't require a tradesperson to remedy the issue. Prepare and send out some FAQs or troubleshooting guides for your tenants prior to the silly season, so that they can try to fix the problem first before determining whether a tradesperson is needed or not.

4. Ensure you have available trades operating during the Christmas and New Year's Eve period

Urgent maintenance requests unfortunately won't cease over the Christmas period. Ensure you have available trades lined up, and notify your customers and clients of their contact details alongside suitable reasons to engage them. Outline what will be classified as an emergency for direct contact, as opposed to items that should be reported to the office for attention upon the office reopening.

5. Keep clients and customers regularly reassured and notified of the processes in place

This is your chance to wish your clients and tenants a Merry Christmas, and to assure them that your agency has processes in place to ensure everything will be okay in your absence.

Want to read more? You may be interested in our Christmas lights compliance for tenants and landlords article.

Find all our property management articles here.