How to Settle with Owners Simply and Error-Free

Melanie – 19 August 2025 – 3 min read

Every month, the same challenge comes around: settling up with your owners. Sound familiar? For many holiday parks and letting businesses, it’s still a complicated and time-consuming task. And the truth is, in most cases, the complexity is self-inflicted.

When you allow too many different agreements, you lose oversight, and with it comes unnecessary stress. The best approach? Keep it simple and transparent. That way, it works for both you and your owners, while building trust along the way.

What is an owner settlement?

An owner settlement is the calculation of rental income received, minus the agreed commission. This can be calculated on a per-unit basis (e.g., caravan, lodge, or cottage) or across a group of properties.

Sounds straightforward, doesn’t it? In reality, it often gets complicated. Here are just a few of the factors that can trip you up:

• Do you settle per booking, monthly, quarterly, or yearly?
• Do you recognise income at booking, arrival, or departure, or spread it across months?
  Are extras like pets, linen, or cleaning charges passed on to the owner – and if so, fully or as a percentage?
• Do you offset outstanding owner invoices before making a payout?
• Do you apply different commission rates depending on season, length of stay, or booking channel?
• Do you create pooled settlements with fluctuating values by date or period?
  
   

And that’s only the start. Almost everything can be negotiated, but do you really want that? If all 50 of your owners have slightly different agreements, you’ve created a full-time job just preparing statements.

 

 

Keep it workable, for you and your owners

Of course, sometimes flexibility helps secure a particular owner. That makes sense commercially, but operationally, it can be a headache.

The solution is to establish a clear and consistent structure. You can still allow some variation in commission models, but build everything around these three principles:

1. Equal periods

Make sure all settlements are issued at the same time. If a new owner joins mid-month, create a once-off statement to cover that period, then bring them in line with the rest going forward.

2. Consistent settings

If you pass certain costs, like pet fees, on to the owner, do this consistently across the same group of owners. That way, you avoid confusion and keep your reporting clean.

3. Logical grouping

Group owners based on:

• Type of accommodation (standard caravan, deluxe lodge, etc.)
• Size or layout (2-berth vs. 8-berth)
• Features and amenities (hot tub, refurbished, dog-friendly, etc.)
• Agreement type (fixed return vs. percentage commission)
  
   

And remember: you set the rules. Keeping it structured benefits you as much as your owners.

Transparency builds trust

Clear agreements bring peace of mind, fewer surprises, fewer queries, and more focus on what really matters.

When owners have full visibility of how their income and deductions are calculated, they’re less likely to raise concerns. And if they do spot an issue, like an incorrect VAT rate, you can resolve it quickly and strengthen trust in the process.

 

 

 

Let the system do the heavy lifting

Spreadsheets? Hidden formulas? Manual calculations in your accounts package? That’s yesterday’s way of working.

Today, you can use a reservation and finance system that does the hard work for you:

• All rental income and booking data are stored in one place
• Automatic calculations based on your rules
  Instant owner statements at the click of a button
• Alerts if a booking changes after it’s been settled
  
   

That means fewer errors, less admin, and a much smoother process.

 

Ready for simplicity?

Want to take the stress out of monthly settlements? Then it’s time to streamline your model.

👉 Interested in seeing how it works in practice? Request a free demo today.