Zimbali Holiday Rentals (The Bush Telegraph)

The past holiday period was busier than ever in Zimbali in terms of number of visitors and holiday nights booked through our short-term holiday rentals business. As Zimbali matures, the number of homes developed and made available for holiday bookings increases and the desirability of the estate as a premier holiday destination increases. Having had the privilege of witnessing Zimbali develop first hand from its inception 17 years ago in 1996 to the amazing estate it is today, I am more bullish than ever on its future and status of being Southern Africa’s premier resort and lifestyle estate destination. 

The new homes that have been developed on the estate over the past five years have taken the architectural solutions to our tried and tested guidelines to a new level. Certain architects such as Theo Coetzee have almost single handedly redefined contemporary Zimbali architecture, while others who have been involved for almost two decades, such as Chen Sagnelli and Dennis Boyd who each have close to 100 Zimbali homes to their credit, have embraced contemporary design and materials to create some very special residences. The 2012 new build of the year award, if there were such an accolade, would have to go to Nigel Tarboton’s (Metropole Architects) design of 23 Forestwood Drive. This home has been listed with Seeff Properties at R32m. Adjectives such as awesome, sensational, spectacular or ground-breaking fail to capture the essence of what has been achieved on this site. Faultless design, engineering and construction have resulted in what can only be described as a residential residence at the very highest level of quality possible. So many people attempt to get it right but seem to fail either on the design or implementation side. Nigel has not done as many homes in Zimbali as some others, but each project seems to have resulted in something highly impressive. For those vacant land owners in Zimbali contemplating a new build my advise would be to spend a considerable amount of quality time on design – both in and out, before moving onto site. Most design aspects can be efficiently resolved with detailed 3D rendered drawings prior to the construction period. The ideal is to limit changes to the minimum once your contractor moves on site. 

For those Zimbali homeowners who already have a home and are renting their property for holiday purposes, or considering doing this, our extensive experience in this regard may be of use. Analyzing only our own holiday rental data for the 2012 calendar year, we can report that we did 364 bookings (basically one for every day of the year), over 2,180 nights booked at an average rate per night of R3,287.30. The highest average rate per night was achieved in December 2012 at R4,774.29 and the lowest in February 2012 at R1,716.39. Unsurprisingly the peak month of the year was December with 72 bookings and 661 nights booked. The low season months in terms of bookings were February 2012 with 97 nights booked across 13 bookings, and October 2012 with 80 nights booked across 20 bookings. The Easter holiday period is fairly busy but nothing like December. For April 2012 we booked 290 nights across 51 bookings. At 44% of nights booked the April period relative to December is characterized by shorter bookings, mostly clustered around the public holidays. On the whole the tenants that book through us are very well behaved and look after the properties. They love the Zimbali lifestyle and resort environment and many plan to invest in the estate. We find that most of the problems arise from properties that have not been serviced, maintained or cleaned sufficiently. At the top of the list are Air-conditioning units, which pack up over the summer period. We strongly advise our homeowners to have their air-conditioning units serviced every year just prior to the summer season. We can write a book on the things we have had to deal with. Waking up at 02:45 to check for spare keys because a guest has returned from a wedding and lost their set or being phoned by a tenant to come around and light a braai, is simply par for the course. There is an Afrikaans saying, which I love, and which often seems appropriate: “Daar is nie pille vir domgeid nie!” (translated: there are no tablets for stupidity).

(Author: Andreas Wassenaar, Extension to article published in The Bush Telegraph, Feb 2013)