Operator, not agent

How we work

Why the name on the contract decides everything

Short-stay accommodation looks like one business and is legally two. In the first, a company lets accommodation in its own name: it is the operator, it is the guest's counterparty, and it carries the obligations that come with that — notification to the regional authority, the basic requirements of the Flemish tourist accommodation decree, a fire safety certificate from the mayor, a registration number in every listing. No professional authorisation is needed to do this, because nobody is acting for anybody else. In the second, a company acts for an owner: it lets the owner's property, handles the money, and takes a commission. That is estate agency, regulated in Belgium since the law of 11 February 2013, reserved to those registered with the professional institute, and carrying protected titles that may not be used by anyone else.

We are in the first category, and when an owner wants their property put to work the arrangement is a lease rather than a mandate. The owner receives rent. We contract with guests in our own name. The operator's obligations are ours, which is where they belong, because the owner is not the one who will be asked for the fire safety certificate. It also gives the owner something a commission model does not: one counterparty, one payment, and no exposure to what a guest does on a Saturday night.

There is one check that comes before all the others and it is the one owners skip. In an apartment building, the deed of co-ownership and the co-ownership rules may prohibit or restrict short-term letting, and a decision of the general meeting can be enforced against an owner who ignores it. Reading those documents takes twenty minutes and sometimes ends the conversation. We would rather it ended there than after a listing has gone live, money has been spent and a neighbour has written to the syndic.