While our guest support is available 24/7, communication with property owners follows normal business hours. We manage communication through dedicated WhatsApp group chats for each property or owner. This ensures that your requests go to the right member of our team and that there’s a searchable record of discussions.

Please avoid calling individual team members or sending messages outside the group for property-related matters. It helps us work faster and avoid confusion.

At CTRL Booking, we handle pricing exclusively through a dynamic pricing tool. This system continuously adjusts prices based on demand, seasonality, market performance, competitor listings, and your property’s performance. Through our extensive testing, we’ve consistently seen higher overall income with this approach compared to fixed or owner-decided pricing.

Some owners may feel tempted to suggest higher nightly rates, believing it will bring better returns. However, when prices go too high, occupancy drops significantly. A property with a few high-priced bookings will always underperform in comparison to a fully booked calendar with smartly adjusted rates. High prices also attract guests with very high expectations, increasing the risk of negative reviews and refund requests.

This dynamic pricing tool starts with conservative pricing to “test” the market response. As the system gathers data about how well your property converts views into bookings, it begins to push prices higher. This means your listing must be competitive from day one to trigger this upward trend. We’ve learned from experience that the best results come when we retain full control over pricing, which is why our agreement gives us exclusive pricing rights.

Owner stays are treated like guest bookings when it comes to cleaning. This means your property will be cleaned and set up to the same high standard we offer to paying guests, and the standard cleaning fee will apply.

If you prefer to use your own towels, linens, or want something done differently (e.g., no consumables left out), it’s essential to notify us before each visit so we can adjust preparation and pricing accordingly.

Utility bills (water, electricity, internet, taxes) must be paid promptly by the owner. We strongly advise setting up automatic payments via standing orders or online banking. Delays in payments lead to serious guest complaints, which damage your property’s reputation.

In repeated cases of late payments or service interruptions, we will impose additional administrative fees. Our team has to manage angry guests, resolve emergencies, and possibly compensate bookings—all of which take time and resources.

Where this applies, we help set up your Municipality account for paying the short-term rental tax, which is legally required. This tax is collected from guests at the time of booking and appears in your monthly report as a deduction. We then pay this tax to the Municipality on your behalf.

No action is needed from your side once the account is set up, but please make sure you understand that this amount is not part of your profit—it is a guest tax passed through our accounting system.

All tax-related obligations, including VAT, income tax, or any other applicable levies, remain the sole responsibility of the property owner. While we are happy to share general insights based on our experience, we are not licensed tax professionals. For anything involving compliance, declarations, or financial reporting, we strongly advise you to consult a qualified accountant or tax advisor who can provide guidance based on your specific situation.

In the middle of August, we experience the busiest period of the year, with a sharp increase in daily check-ins and check-outs, as well as additional issues to resolve. During this time, our entire team must strictly focus on core operational tasks to ensure all guest turnovers, maintenance issues, and property preparations are handled correctly and on time.

For this reason, we are unable to take on any additional work outside our standard operations, no matter how minor it may seem. This includes onboarding new properties into our management program. Even if a property is almost ready and requires only a simple step to finalize and publish, we will most likely postpone this process until after the peak period is over. Our priority during this time is to maintain the highest quality of service for existing guests and owners.

During August, when many Cypriots take their holidays, Paphos becomes a very popular destination for local tourism. As a result, we host a significantly higher number of Cypriot guests compared to any other time of the year. Based on our experience, this guest group tends to be more demanding and often raises a high volume of complaints, especially regarding cleaning standards. It is important for property owners to understand that this does not reflect a decline in the quality of our cleaning or services. On the contrary, we try to be especially excellent in our services because we know what to expect during this month. It is a recurring seasonal phenomenon, where the feedback we receive can sometimes lack clear reasoning or proportion. Every August, we expect and manage this increase in complaints, and we reassure you that our service standards remain consistent and professional throughout the year.

We do not handle communication with building complex management companies or owner committees. These often involve issues like shared pool maintenance, communal water tanks, elevator faults, or parking allocations, which require official authorization from the property owner.

Please ensure that you personally handle communication with the complex’s representative when issues arise. If you need us to provide photos or notes to support your communication, we can assist—but we cannot act as your representative in these matters.

Neighbour interactions can make or break a short-term rental. The behaviour of nearby residents—or your guests—can severely impact your listing’s ability to stay active on platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. Unfortunately, this is a sensitive area we have limited control over once a problem emerges.

When Neighbours Are the Problem

We’ve encountered cases where neighbours repeatedly harassed guests—confronting them directly, making threats, or creating a hostile atmosphere. Even though we did everything right as managers, the guest experience was still negative. After multiple complaints from different guests, Airbnb took action:

“We understand the problem is outside your control, but repeated guest dissatisfaction means we must deactivate this listing.”

That’s why we urgently need you to inform us in advance if you’re aware of any problematic neighbours. We need full transparency. If the property is in a building or neighbourhood where previous incidents have occurred, or where one specific neighbour is likely to cause issues, we must know before onboarding the listing. This allows us to assess the risk and decide if the property is suitable for short-term rental management.

We can not act as mediators in disputes between owners and residents, nor will we be held accountable for neighbour harassment that affects your guests’ experience. While we will always cooperate and provide assistance (e.g., documentation, photos, timeline of events), owners are responsible for managing and resolving conflicts with neighbours.

When Guests Are the Problem

While we do our best to screen guests and prevent noise or disruptive behaviour, no system is perfect. We always aim to maintain good relationships with neighbours. In fact, when we happen to interact with them, we actively encourage them to contact us directly if there are any issues with noise, guest behaviour, or property usage. Most complaints can be handled quickly if we’re notified early.

However, if guests are consistently disrespectful or cause tension in the area, we will take immediate steps:

• Remind guests of house rules

• Warn or penalize as per platform policies

• Decline similar guest profiles in the future

But if neighbour complaints persist and platform warnings are issued, we may have to suspend management of the property altogether, especially if the property attracts repeated conflict.

What We Expect From Owners

–  Disclose any known neighbour issues before we list the property. Silence on this puts us—and your income—at risk.
–  Inform us of any past incidents with neighbours and guests. Even one or two is enough to warrant caution.
–  Support our approach in de-escalating tensions, including occasional reminders to your building’s residents or complex management that our team is available and proactive in guest control.

This is a two-way street. We protect your investment and reputation, but we can only do that if we know the full picture upfront.

From our experience managing short-term rentals, keys for interior doors, such as those for bedrooms and bathrooms, tend to get lost easily when provided to guests. These are small items that are often misplaced, accidentally packed, or forgotten entirely by guests, and once lost, we have to change the entire lock of the doors, which can be a headache especially for older or specialty locks.

To avoid this recurring issue, our policy is to:

• Keep either one copy of each or all existing copies of interior door keys safely stored by us or the owner.
• Not provide interior door keys to guests as part of the standard key handover process.

This ensures the keys remain available and intact for future use of the property, including long-term rentals, owner stays, or family use, where privacy between rooms may become more relevant.

In the rare event a guest specifically requests an interior door key (e.g., for privacy during a long stay), we will evaluate the request on a case-by-case basis and proceed only if the owner agrees.

Sometimes we need to purchase items for the property—either because something broke, was damaged by a guest, or because the item was never there in the first place and is now necessary.

• For low-cost items, we pay upfront and include the cost on the next invoice. If it’s an expensive item, then we may issue an invoice to you just for that one fee and we proceed after payment has been made. This depends also on the urgency of the matter.
• We may charge for delivery, installation, or assembly, depending on how much time or external help is required. This is because our staff needs to allocate time to manage and deliver such tasks, especially when urgency is involved during a guest stay.

We always aim to balance quality with cost-efficiency and will never make unreasonable or unnecessary purchases. We will always inform you first and will not act before confirmation, unless it is an emergency that affects an active guest stay and we have informed you but have not received a reply yet.

As part of the property preparation process, we ensure that all essential electrical appliances—such as table lamps, kettles, toasters, microwaves, and similar devices—are fitted with UK-standard 3-pin plugs. This is necessary because Cyprus uses the UK plug system, and we aim to eliminate the need for adapters, which can be inconvenient for guests and may cause connectivity or safety issues.

If any such devices in the property have non-UK plug types, we will convert the existing plugs to UK-standard 3-pin plugs wherever possible and safe to do so. We do not replace entire appliances, only the plugs.

This step ensures a smoother and more reliable experience for guests and aligns the property with local standards.

Owners should note that this plug conversion is a standard part of the onboarding process, and any request not to modify specific plugs must be communicated in writing before setup begins.

For the smooth and professional execution of our cleaning and maintenance operations, it is essential that properties are vacant whenever our staff is scheduled to work. Our team follows structured procedures designed to be carried out independently, without the presence or supervision of property owners.

When owners are present during these visits, it often leads to interruptions, as staff are asked for directions, advice, or requests for changes. This disrupts workflow, delays the tasks, and can strain the working relationship we have built with our team. We have encountered situations in the past where this became a nuisance for our staff, affecting morale and the quality of work.

For these reasons, it is a strict policy that we only send our staff to properties that are vacant and fully available for the scheduled works.

We understand that during property preparation, especially for new listings, owners may wish to participate in order to expedite readiness. In such cases, if we agree to make an exception to this policy, it is mandatory that:

1. Owners do not give instructions or feedback directly to our staff during their work.

2. Any questions, concerns, or issues must be communicated only to the management team of CTRL Booking, who will handle them appropriately.

This ensures our staff can work without disruption, maintains internal harmony, and keeps the process professional and efficient.