Statewide lockdowns and metro and regional travel restrictions have left property management business, Flairbnb, with empty properties.

Flairbnb is a property management business which manages a holiday rental property in Ararat, founder Rachel Allan said the property is a "great little place" to stay.

"We have got about 20 properties in Ararat, Ballarat, Melbourne, Bellarine and the Surf Coast and the one in Ararat has been one of our top performing properties across our portfolio," she said.

"It is also the one which hasn't been in lockdown as much as the others.

"The owners are Ararat people but they are currently based in Melbourne for work and wanting to move back to Ararat at some point so they are holding on to the property and we are managing it for them.

"It's been a great little place, the one in Ararat."

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Ms Allan said the Ararat property has been starved of tourists for the majority of the pandemic.

"Because of the lockdowns the majority of the people staying in the property have been workers, so people who are coming to Ararat to work on the wind farms or at the hospital," she said.

"It has been really hard for people travelling, we have had times with no one allowed to travel and sometimes just regional Victoria with border closures, sometimes it is the whole of Victoria.

"We have had very few people from interstate."

Ms Allan said she hopes people will travel locally, as they did last Summer due to the international border closure.

"No international visitors and people not able to go and travel overseas has meant more people are out exploring their backyard," she said.

"The Victorian government has been putting a lot of money into campaigns getting people out into regional Victoria.

"As a result we have seen an increase in people visiting from Melbourne and other regional centres who want to travel regionally, it's nice to see.

"We have put a two night minimum on the property to try to encourage people to stay in the area a bit longer.

"In the past we have had quite a few bookings from people who come to go to the Aradale night tours, then it's too late for them to go home so they stay.

"I want to see people stay there and go off to the cafes and spend a bi of money in Ararat as well."

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Ms Allan said the pandemic hasn't massively changed the way Flairbnb conducts business.

"We are not a greet and meet guest business, our philosophy is that guests are happy because they can get the key to the house and it is theirs until they leave and it is like a home away from home," she said.

"We have been in very low contact anyway.

"What we have done is changed the suppliers of our linen for example so now we get linen from a company that does really high sterile and hygienic cleaning and washing of the linen and preparation of it and everything.

"There are so many ways guests can contact us, we have people who if something happens can go and visit them to make sure everything is okay.

"We have had to remove shared food to avoid the spreading of germs and have had to step up how we clean properties, we have always had high levels of cleanliness but now we sanitise everything, Glen 20 has become our best friend.

"We have to make sure people feel safe in the house and it is clean, sanitised and things like that."

Ms Allan said the the Californian Bungalow property should attract plenty of interest once travel restrictions ease.

"People have been wanting to get off the tour's traps as well and move away from where the big groups of people are," she said.

"Ararat is perfect for that, you can still do a day trip to Halls Gap, to the Grampians and all of the tourist things but they can be away from the tourist crowd."

The Ararat holiday rental property in Ararat can be booked below: https://www.flairbnb.com.au/accommodation/cosy-californian-bungalow-in-ararat/

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