+34 687 488 152
Rental Tonic
  • Boost Your Bookings
    • Rental Marketing Services
    • Copywriting for Holiday Rentals
    • Holiday Rental Websites
    • Holiday Rental Coaching
  • Rental Investment
  • Owner’s Essential Toolkit
  • Marketing Blog
  • About Us
  • Testimonals
  • Get in Touch
    • Privacy Notice
  • Search
  • Menu

Archive for category: Business Planning

Practical advice on running a holiday rental property or holiday let

Wave goodbye to your last guest of the season, but don’t relax just yet!

Wave goodbye to your last guests of the season, but don’t relax just yet!

September 12, 2016/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Marketing Tips /by Louise Brace

High season is over. You’ve said farewell to the last guests of summer, and brushed away the final grain of sand from your doorstep. You can breath a sigh of relief… Hang on! Don’t relax just yet. You’ve got work to do to get your holiday rental ship shape and ready for this year’s autumn/winter season and for the coming year’s spring/summer bookings.

If you want to run a successful holiday rental business, there’s no sitting on your laurels after high season. Now is the time to plan, update and maintain contact with your valued guests. So, what’s next?

Half-term break

family friendly holiday rental marketing

Depending where your holiday rental is located you might have 4-6 weeks turnaround between the end of the summer season and the all important half-term school break. Many families choose to catch the last rays of sunshine in the October half-term.

If you have a family-friendly holiday rental, this will be a key week for you, which if prepared well, can be the start of some valuable family repeat bookings.

Here are some ways to put your family-friendly holiday rental in front of potential half-term guests.

  1. If you have your own holiday rental website, write an article, or listicle, for your blog on the Top Attractions/Activities for Half-Term in your area and share it like crazy
  2. Promote special half-term offers on the advertising portals you are using
  3. Use your social media profiles to shout about the reasons why spending half-term in your destination is fab, fun and family-friendly
  4. If you don’t already, start to connect with family-friendly specialists via social media and tag them in your ‘Things to do’ and ‘Promotional’ posts. Make the posts fun, interesting and shareable.

Seasonal marketing

Blue skies and swimming pools might be the primary draw for guests visiting your holiday rental, but if you want to attract low-season bookings, you need to paint a four-seasons picture.

Even if your destination enjoys year-round sunshine, show potential guests what your holiday home looks like dressed up for Christmas; how locals celebrate New Year’s Eve and Easter, or what your ski destination looks like in the spring and summer months, with flowers blanketing the ski slopes.

Just after summer season ends, start to populate your advertising listings and website with autumn/winter seasonal photos and quirky mentions of what guests can expect during this time. During, or just after the Christmas period, you can start to add seasonal photos and descriptions for spring and summer next year, and so the cycle goes on.

Of course you will always focus on your high season, but adding a touch of four-season magic, could be just what your holiday rental needs to secure those low season bookings.

Keep in touch

If your guests leave your holiday home happy. Having had a positive holiday experience. Keeping in touch via email marketing is not just a courtesy, it’s a very impactful way of getting them back for another stay. Repeat guests provide the best ROI (return on investment). You don’t have to spend a lot of marketing budget on them. In their case it’s time and effort, over budget. Plus they often reflect your ideal guest profile, which means they are likely to stay loyal and recommend you to their friends and family.

When the busy holiday season is over, get in touch with your guests. Tell them what they can expect out of season. Use an early bird discount for next summer to get to them to fill out a post-stay survey, keep them up-to-date with your latest offers and articles, and of course, invite them to follow you on social media.

Review your holiday rental marketing

Better the devil you know? Not when it comes to spending your hard earned holiday rental income on marketing. At the beginning of each year, or at the end of each advertising contract, you need to decide what provides the best ROI (return on investment) and ditch what doesn’t perform.

Stay on top of new platforms, investigate local portals focused on your destination and develop your own holiday rental website and social media profiles. Perfecting your self-promotional channels will ultimately provide a better ROI and more credibility for your holiday rental business.

Focus on the audience

We’ve already discussed adapting your holiday rental marketing to attract families during half-term, but you can also target couples looking for a quiet break, retirees looking to get away for the winter, or group activity bookings: golf, hiking, cycling, etc.

Remember: consumers like added value over discounts, so think about offers that will make them feel as they are getting extra:

  • Special one month winter stay prices
  • 14 days for the price of 10, or 7 from the price of 5
  • Long weekend special promotions
  • Weekday rates for weekend stays

Maintenance check: fix and replace items

Holiday rental maintenance checkOn to the boring stuff. I know, I know… But keeping your holiday home updated, clean and fresh, and with a full inventory, is an essential part of your holiday rental business.

Here are some of the spot checks and updates you need to do after the busy season ends:

  1. A lick of paint will freshen your place up and make it feel like new
  2. Buy new bed linen and towels. After a season of lotioned up guests, your sheets and towels will have seen better days
  3. Give the cupboards a clean to get rid of unwanted breadcrumbs, coffee stains and sugar granules.
  4. Stock up on complimentary items, such as coffee, tea, soaps, toilet paper and washing up liquid, etc. Make sure your new guests won’t be left short.
  5. Make a recce of utensils and cutlery: Recently, an owner mentioned to me that when she came to clean up after her last guests of the summer, she had no teaspoons left! You should be keeping check throughout the season, but after the last guest has left, make sure you restock all kitchen utensils and cutlery, ready for new guests, new season!
  6. Maintenance check: Check all your kitchen appliances function properly, light bulbs don’t need changing, the toilet flushes and there are no dripping taps.
  7. Bathroom and kitchen fungus: With so much usage during high season, areas such as the bathroom might need a touch up. Make sure all surfaces, tiled floors, showers, etc. are cleaned and free of mildew and if you’re feeling up for it, why not reseal the bath and shower edges, so everything looks sparkling new.
  8. Wash down your patio and terrace: If you can invest in the rental of a jet washer to bring out the original colour of your patio and get rid of all the dirt in between the tiles, go for it!

Write a list of things you could have done better and action them for next season!

Changeovers, marketing and advertising, guest communication, post-guest surveys, maintenance, and security. Now is the time to evaluate how success your holiday rental business was this year, and what you can do better for the coming season. Need help bringing all this together to create a holiday rental success? Rental Tonic is here to help!

Finally… Give yourself a pat on the back. Yep go ahead, you deserve it!

Help guests respect your community and neighbours

Love thy neighbour and make sure your guests do too!

August 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Guest Service /by Louise Brace

Working in the holiday rental industry and living in a tourist destination I have a high tolerance level to holidaymakers, but this summer season we have had some particularly bothersome renters, who would annoy even the most patient of neighbours (like me!)

Holiday rental owners have a responsibility to protect both the communities they live in and the local neighbourhood. And let’s face it, nobody wants the nightmare of turning up to do a changeover to find a wrecked home, after some particularly disrespectful guests have left their mark.

If you want to create a successful and long-term business out of your holiday rental property, you definitely don’t want to fall out with your neighbours. To ensure your renters love your neighbours as much as you do, there are a few things you need to prepare and communicate before they arrive. After all…

Happy guests + happy neighbours = a perfect combination!

1. Vet your guests

Part of our duty, as conscientious holiday rental owners, is to vet potential guests before confirming a booking. We have a responsibility to protect our industry; to stop holiday rentals gaining a bad reputation, by allowing unruly guests to stay in our local communities.

The type of guest you allow to rent your home, should depend on where you live, the type of property you own and the community you represent. If you live in a small complex or urbanisation, where a high percentage of residents are owners or year-round renters, it doesn’t make sense to accept a group booking of young party animals. That’s just not great for community spirit!

2. Share community rules and regulations

This summer a group of young lads stayed in our urbanisation, who decided to swim naked while young children were in the pool (including mine!); brought bottles of alcohol (no glass allowed) to the pool, and proceeded to get drunk every day by the pool, break furniture by using it as floating goal posts, and generally cause quite some havoc. Funnily enough, the other holiday guests didn’t want to use our pool and probably wouldn’t want to return. So, the owner who allowed this group to book their home, probably affected future bookings of other owners in the urbanisation. Vet your guests!

community rules for guests

Your contract should include the main community rules that visitors must abide by, such as swimming pool etiquette, parking and noise pollution. And reiterate those rules on arrival in your welcome information. You can set out the information in a friendly and comfortable manner, rather than as a schoolmaster laying down school rules.

3. House etiquette

Guests will respect you and your property a whole lot more if you create a guest-friendly etiquette list. You could even create a fun list and frame it. Include green rules on water and air con usage, and a little reminder that you enjoy a happy coexistence with your neighbours and want to keep it that way!

There are friendly and fun ways to impart rules, which don’t put your guests off for future bookings! Here’s one I created a while back for an article on preparing an eco-friendly holiday rental.

Holiday rental guest rules

4. Encourage them to meet the neighbours

I have a great relationship with my neighbours and am always happy to help visitors with anything they need to know about the house or neighbourhood. If you let your guests know that your neighbours are residents, it might instill a little more respect in how they treat the community, instead of arriving with the idea that this is a ‘pure’ tourist complex, where everyone is in ‘holiday mode’.

5. Highlight the law in your area

If guests know that a neighbour or community has the right to make a complaint against them for untoward behaviour, they may think twice about stepping out of line. New holiday rental regulations in Spain mean a community can complain to the police about a renter’s behaviour and the owner has the right to give them 24 hours notice to leave.

6. Guest ratings

The introduction of guest rating systems hasn’t been received with the greatest of enthusiasm by owners. Many of whom don’t have personal, face-to-face interaction with guests. However, over the long-term, if a guest profile can be rated based on how they treat accommodation, it could save you from having a bad guest experience. Something we definitely want to avoid.

I received a five star guest rating this summer, during a stay in Cornwall, and was so delighted to receive it, I was eager to continue to be a great renter in the future. Just as an owner feels when she receives five star ratings from guests.

Maybe I am feeling particularly disgruntled about having my peace shattered this summer, and, of course, I don’t want you to put your guests off! But the experience made me realise that responsible owners must take action to protect our communities and the reputation of our industry.

Before I go, I came across Noise Aware, a nifty little device that sends you a noise violation alert if your guests exceed the noise limit during designated quiet times. It’s noise protection for short-term and vacation rentals. What’s not to love!

Image credit:

Dive bombing by Elliot Moore

Rental Tonic call for help

Help us shape the future of YOUR holiday rental marketing

May 30, 2016/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Marketing Tips /by Louise Brace

Rental Tonic has been working with holiday rental owners since 2012. Yes, we’ve been around that long! During that time we have built-up a resource portal focused on how to build a successful holiday rental business.

We have coached many of you, built your holiday home websites, worked with you to create advertising descriptions that WOWed your ideal guests, and showed you how to successfully stage and photograph your property.

Now as we move into our next phase, growing into a brand new kind of holiday rental coaching business, we want to share the moment with you.

In fact, we want YOU to be part of that moment. To help make it happen.

Rental Tonic call for help

We are super excited to be creating brand new content modules, tailor-made to help you develop a business delivering full calendars and happy guests!

Over the summer we’ll be fine tuning our content. To do that, we need your help. We know our business inside out, but in order to support your holiday rental needs, we want to know your business inside out too.

Talk to us about your business

So I would like to invite 7 holiday rental owners or managers to talk to me about their business, to help us understand and create solutions to your biggest challenges:

What support do you need to help your holiday rental business grow?

And what do you struggle most with in your holiday rental business?

 

In return for sharing your challenges with us, I will give you a FREE 30 minute marketing review. Then I’ll share ways on how to make quick and easy improvements that WILL make your advertising more successful!

 I only plan to speak to seven owners, so don’t delay in getting in touch. Don’t forget you will benefit from a free coaching session!

Shoot me over an email to louise@rentaltonic.com to help us create the next generation in holiday rental marketing training. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain!

How to Make a Lucrative and Legal Income From Your Spanish Villa

February 8, 2016/10 Comments/in Advertising, Business Planning, Holiday Rental Blog, Industry News, Legal and Finance, Villa Marketing Spain /by Louise Brace

So you own a Spanish villa that spends a large part of its life sitting empty? I’m sure you don’t need us to tell you how lucrative it could be for you to rent it to holiday makers while you are not using it, or even while you wait for a suitable buyer.

We’ve seen some amazing good news stories from owners who have turned around their fortunes by embracing holiday rentals as a source of income. For example, one of our owners was on the verge of losing his townhouse to the bank, but with a clever niche-marketing strategy he now consistently gets 30+ bookings each year, bringing in an important income of £25,000 to £30,000 every season. Not only did he save his house from being repossessed, he also paid off his debts, and is now looking for another rental property to buy.

Another of our clients who owns a luxury villa in Spain was struggling to find a buyer when the market crashed, but rather than reducing the sales price and selling for less than it cost him to build the villa, he instead decided to rent it out. He managed to achieve £140,000 worth of bookings after commission in his first year which has seriously helped towards his initial building costs and tax bills. That’s not a figure to be sniffed at!

Obviously any income you make from your holiday rental is taxable, just as your earnings from employment would be. And since 2013 the 17 autonomous regions of Spain have been introducing a licence procedure for holiday rentals, which works to ensure the industry is well-run, professional, and offers quality accommodation for tourists, which can only be a good thing!

Registering your holiday rental in AndalucíaAndalucia is the latest region to approve a very simple and free registration system, so that you can get your all-important licence number, which will allow you to use all of the online marketing channels available to you.

The law was approved on 2nd February and the law will come into effect on 12th May 2016, giving owners time to register.

Registering your Spanish villa for holiday rentals is a no-brainer, especially if you advertise your villa online to attract bookings (who doesn’t?). Many owners are too busy to set up and manage their own website and marketing strategies, so just like our clients we mentioned before they work predominantly with specialist rental agencies and listing sites to bring in bookings. But increasingly, these listing sites will only be able to advertise properties that hold a licence number, as we have seen with Airbnb and HomeAway in Catalonia, who faced big fines themselves from the Spanish authorities for continuing to advertise holiday rentals that were not registered.

If you own a holiday rental in another region of Spain, we recommend you read our article, which gives a quick run through of the latest requirements for registering a holiday rental in each region, so you can be sure that you are doing things the right way.

As sure as Benjamin Franklin was about the certainty of death and taxes, we are even more certain that villas with a licence number are going to have a massively out-perform those properties that are unregistered.

Think about it, you will have a massive advantage over clandestine rentals in terms of customer confidence, quality and legality, so you can easily take a lion’s share of the market from guests who will book your place over the unregulated villa next door – he may be trying to avoid the taxman, but that’s a false economy if he doesn’t have any income anyway!

As we mentioned before, there is no need to panic at all about the new Andalusian decree, unlike some tabloid reports it’s there to protect owners and guests alike and it’s free and simple to register.

We are going to be helping a couple of our villa owners through the paperwork as soon as the register opens to see how it all works, then we will report back with as much help and advice as we can offer to smooth the process for you.

Read our complete guide to registering your holiday rental in Andalucía.

Lifetime Listings with Tots to Travel

Welcoming Guests this Summer Holiday Season

March 20, 2013/4 Comments/in Business Planning, Eco-Friendly Rentals, Guest Service, Holiday Rental Blog /by Louise Brace

I know many owners here in Europe are preparing to welcome their first holiday rental guests of the season as the Easter break begins.  The old adage “first impressions count” is never more important than when trying to run a holiday business, so why should a holiday rental be any different to a quality hotel?  Guests have the same needs; they may be stressed out from finishing up at work, tired from the journey, possibly with over excited children, and all they want is to arrive and find everything perfect so they can get straight on with the job of relaxing and having a good holiday. Read more

stage holiday property to look inviting but real

Buying a property to rent overseas – video guide

January 31, 2013/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Holiday Rental Blog /by Louise Brace

This is the time of year when people inevitably start thinking of new horizons and sunnier climes.  We have the usual raft of “Wanted down Under” and “Holiday Home Sweet Home” type programmes gracing our daytime viewing, and thoughts may well turn to the “wouldn’t it be nice to own a little B&B somewhere…” variety. Read more

Holiday Villa Marketing Goals for 2013

The 6 Steps to Successful Holiday Rentals

December 31, 2012/0 Comments/in Advertising, Business Planning, Holiday Rental Blog, Marketing Tips, Web Design /by Louise Brace

Over the past few weeks I have been running a survey to find out exactly what your biggest challenges are when it comes to running a holiday let business. Read more

Holidaymakers questions booking self catering accommodation

Revealed: The Extras Your Holidaymakers Want

October 30, 2012/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Guest Service, Holiday Rental Blog, Industry News /by Louise Brace

Self-catering holidays used to be simple affairs: rudimentary facilities and little opportunity for holidaymakers to find out much about where they were staying before they arrived. That’s all changed with the rise of the internet and social media. Read more

Happy guests and glowing testimonials

What Happens When You Aim for A Holiday Niche… And Deliver!

October 23, 2012/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Guest Service, Holiday Rental Blog, Marketing Tips, Villa Marketing Spain /by Louise Brace

A couple of weeks ago I received a lovely email from one of our villa owners in Spain, with a glowing testimonial from some repeat guests she had staying. The villa is marketed by an agency we work with, family holiday specialists Tots to Travel, with whom the guests had booked their stay. Read more

Yoga on holiday is a middle-class indicator!

How To Ensure Your Holiday Property Appeals to The ‘New Middle Class’

October 9, 2012/0 Comments/in Business Planning, Holiday Rental Blog, Marketing Tips /by Louise Brace

A report in The Sunday Times at the weekend stated that 7 out of 10 Britons describe themselves as Middle Class. There were various sub-groups under this banner, but then it went on to name “50 things that make you middle class”. I’ve had a quick scan through and picked out the ones that should ensure your holiday property will appeal to 70% of the British (all written with my tongue very firmly in my cheek I have to point out!). Read more

Page 2 of 41234

Search the Site

Latest News

  • Running a Holiday Let BusinessHow Vacation Rental Management Is Changing Following COVID-19September 26, 2020 - 9:09 am
  • Why you should buy a UK holiday home in 2020_Rental TonicWhy you should buy a UK holiday home in 2020September 12, 2020 - 10:46 am
  • Destinationaire Awards_Rental TonicWho wants to be a Destinationaire? We do!July 16, 2020 - 11:52 am

Follow us on Facebook

We’re a sociable bunch!

Come and join in the conversation.

        

Latest Articles

  • Running a Holiday Let BusinessHow Vacation Rental Management Is Changing Following COVID-19September 26, 2020 - 9:09 am
  • Why you should buy a UK holiday home in 2020_Rental TonicWhy you should buy a UK holiday home in 2020September 12, 2020 - 10:46 am
  • Destinationaire Awards_Rental TonicWho wants to be a Destinationaire? We do!July 16, 2020 - 11:52 am

Rental Tonic Search

Review our Privacy Notice

Rental Tonic Privacy Policy

© Copyright - Rental Tonic - Enfold WordPress Theme by Kriesi
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Pinterest
  • Youtube
Scroll to top

This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies.

OKLearn more

Cookie and Privacy Settings

How we use cookies

We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.

Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.

Essential Website Cookies

These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.

Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, you cannot refuse them without impacting how our site functions. You can block or delete them by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website.

Other external services

We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.

Google Webfont Settings:

Google Map Settings:

Vimeo and Youtube video embeds: