Road construction in front of our rental

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Our whole-house rental is on a quiet end road in the Catskills in NY. We advertise it as a quiet, peaceful getaway - with no cell phone or wi-fi. It’s on a creek and sits on a hill above a bridge on the road. Unfortunately, next spring they will be replacing the bridge. This means they will build a temporary one-lane bridge on our property in front of the rental cottage (it’s a dead end road, so they can’t do a detour). While the construction isn’t right in front of the cottage - the parking, front lawn, back yard and 28 acres of woods will still be accessible, it’s going to be a mess on the road and on the driveway to the cottage. During the week, they will be doing construction - bringing in trucks, pounding in pilings, cement trucks, etc, etc. Hopefully they will not be doing work on weekends, but we can’t guarantee. They will also put in stop lights to direct traffic on the one lane temporary bridge.

We are trying to figure out if we will even be able to rent the cottage next summer. It may be 6 months worth of work - April to September. We aren’t super busy in April & May, but we are regularly booked June - October.

Should we reduce our rates and put clear descriptions of what is happening in the listing? Or just rent it like usual and explain to people when they book?

I’d love to hear if anyone has dealt with this sort of situation before.

Thanks!

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Why reduce rates already?

Just make it clear in the listing description that there are roadworks between these dates, and that there can be some inconvenience.

You can still reduce rates later when you do not get bookings.

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Don’t reduce rates. Do write up an explanation of what will be happening, that you send to everyone who inquires or requests to book:

"Dear XXX;
Thank you for you Inquiry or Request to Book. We want you to know, upfront, that the county has decided to replace the bridge below our cottage during the period X to Y 2018. This will entail some weekday daytime noise and disturbance on the road and driveway, but there are still 28 acres of woodland solitude for you to enjoy, as well as the front and back yards. We apologize in advance for any inconvenience the construction may cause during your visit.

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Just chiming in to agree with what the others said. I’ve got a similar situation, in that the subway next to our house will be out of commission for several weekends. Personally, I’m doing a mixture of taking a weekend off to rest, and letting folks who already booked that there will still be shuttle service and sending them an online article about the construction so they have as much info about it as I do.

Communicate first, drop prices later. :wink:

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