Holiday Home Rental - 3/4 - Advice and tips for holiday home owners on how to rent out a holiday home

April 16, 2009 2 Comments

Holiday Home Rental Performance Guarantee

To follow up with the Holiday Rentals Offer Code we published yesterday, we have also been sent another very interesting offer – a rental enquiry guarantee where you can get your money back if HomeAway Holiday Rentals don’t manage to generate 20 enquiries for you in the first year. Please visit Holiday-Rentals.co.uk/advertise for more information.

Here are the terms and conditions of the guarantee:

You must be a first time advertiser with Holiday-Rentals.
You must use the promotional code given when placing your order.
Rental rates must be displayed for at least 1 year in advance.
Availability must be confirmed or updated at least once every 2 weeks.
Properties that receive 20 booking enquiry emails or more via Holiday-Rentals.
(as displayed in your account) will not be eligible for a refund.
Your area must receive an average of at least 20 enquiries per property per year.
Your property must be available for rent at least 7 months a year.
Your property must not be a timeshare.
The enquiry guarantee is not valid if the property is sold during the subscription period or is leased on a long let basis for more than 3 months.
Our Guarantee is only valid for the basic subscription fee of £189 (ex VAT).
Notice must be given before the end of the first years subscription.
Refunds will be given at the end of the first years subscription.

Like the discount code this offer is listed with an expiry date of 31st May but may be extended.

The offers cannot be used together so it’s the 15% discount or the performance guarantee.

Filed Under: Offers Tagged With: featured

April 15, 2009 Leave a Comment

Holiday Rentals Offer Code

We’ve just found a 15% discount code for new adverts at Holiday-Rentals.co.uk, recently merged with USA giant HomeAway and already one of the largest and most successful holiday home rental websites out there. One of the main benefits of using HomeAway Holiday-Rentals to let out your holiday home in the current financial climate is that they are part of a huge family of leading websites around the world. So if the Brits are too hard up to rent out your holiday home you might find you get enquiries from potential renters from The Netherlands, Denmark, USA, Finland etc

More details and offer code.

Who do you use to advertise your holiday rental property? Please leave a comment to share your experiences with holiday rentals or any other lettings by owner website / directory.

Filed Under: Offers

March 26, 2009 5 Comments

Buckingham Palace holiday letting

Seems as if the credit crunch is hitting the highest in British society !

A new listing on holidaylettings is described as follows :

“A gated property with secure parking and armed guards, this is the perfect property to relax in complete luxury. Exquisitely furnished with many priceless antiques, royal collections and rare artefacts. 400 people work at the Palace to cater to your every need, including domestic servants, chefs, footmen, cleaners, plumbers, gardeners, chauffeurs, electricians, and two people who look after the 300 clocks.

The palace consists of 19 state rooms, 600 bedrooms and 78 bathrooms. There is an adequate sized banquet hall to entertain your guests in the evening and a throne room which is an unusual but popular additional feature.

The owners do reside in the property but are discreet and are available should you require any assistance. They also own other properties throughout the United Kingdom. Please contact them for further details.”

Looking at the guestbook Cherie and Tony would highly recommend a stay at the palace, and Mr Bush could “sure get used to having his newspaper ironed every morning”.

The listing says they will consider stag and hen parties as well as house swap. I’m sure they will get some enquiries for the latter !

If you would like to join high society and advertise your holiday home for let on holidaylettings, you can now take advantage of their rental enquiry guarantee. If you sign up for the annual option and get less than 20 enquiries in a year you can apply for a full refund.

Photo of “security” courtesy of holidaylettings.

Filed Under: News

March 9, 2009 Leave a Comment

Surge in holiday home rentals continues

Over 1,500 new holiday homes were added to holidaylettings.co.uk in February 2009 with around 20% of those new villas and apartments being located in Spain according to a report for holiday home rental

The increase in the number of homes advertised with holidaylettings suggests to me that

People are having difficult selling their holiday homes

People are struggling with their Eurozone mortgages

Holidaylettings is cementing it’s position as leading portal for holiday rentals by owners

People are looking for new income having less job security than previous years.

Holidaylettings have analysed their booking enquiries and reckon that :

“while the summer holiday is still the priority for those seeking a holiday home to rent this year, last minute enquiries for ski and half term breaks in February were up 34% compared to the same month last year. Similarly, early indications show that Easter will have the same impact on April bookings.“

Again this shows partly holidaylettings dominance and excellent position in search engines and increased branding (including on airlines) but also that more people than ever are looking to build their own holiday and stay at a holiday home instead of a hotel.

HolidayLettings has also revealed the impact the strong Euro is having on booking enquiries:

“Enquiries for accommodation in Turkey, sent during February, were up 65% year-on-year. Croatia experienced similar demand with booking enquiries up 73%.”

My own question is : Will the surge in availability of holiday homes to let at a time of weakness in the economy create sharp discounting by holiday home owners desperate for some income ?

Please let me know what you think by leaving a comment.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: featured

March 1, 2009 Leave a Comment

Renting your holiday property

When advertising your holiday home, make it stand out from the crowd. It is worth remembering that, in 2009 there are many more properties on the rental market than ever before. Due to the credit crisis we are all sick of hearing about by now, people are renting their second homes out of necessity.

Advertising Online
To start with, type in typical search words into a search engine that relate to your property such as the resort name and the type of property. An example search might be “rent apartment benalmadena”. Now look at which websites come up in the results, if any are holiday home rental websites then they should be on your shortlist to advertise with.

Use these links to research the prices your “competitors” are charging and note down any thing that might put people off renting from the existing advertisers and have a think if you have the solution to the problem. You need to sell your property to a viewer so talk up the good points and make it personal. Write how much you love the local area, how eating breakfast on the sunny terrace is a great way to start the day. That sort of thing will get you the enquiries.

There are many free holiday home rental websites now but in my experience of renting out both my own holiday apartment and a portfolio of villas for an overseas property investment company it is simply not worth the hassle of setting up an entry, and keeping an availability calendar up to date for the few or none enquiries it brings. Choose one leading paid directory such as holidaylettings.co.uk or holiday-rentals.co.uk and put the time into making a good advert that stands out from the crowd.

There’s loads more tips on how to rent out your holiday home on this website. Feel free to leave a comment with your own tips or suggestions.

Filed Under: Advice

February 15, 2009 2 Comments

Holiday Home Rental Tips for Owners

More holiday home rental tips for owners of a holiday home :

Prioritise getting the high-value weeks booked, and be prepared to do deals. In case you hadn’t noticed, there is a recession on, which means people will have less money to spend on holidays. You are also competing with a growing number of owners.

Market your property to specific groups. “The romantic-breaks offer is a good year-round one for smaller properties,” says Sylvia Blomeley, senior property consultant at Toad Hall Cottages. “People want detached cottages somewhere pretty, where there are good walks or views.” An open fire will add to the appeal, as will a large hot tub if you can squeeze one in.

Invest in contemporary furnishings: there is no shortage of discounts at stores right now. Choose wipe-down leather sofas or designs with removable covers, such as those at Ikea.

Listen to the letting agents’ advice: if they tell you to put in a flatscreen television, then do so. In a tough market, such details can be all-important. The more expensive the property, the more holidaymakers will expect the latest high-tech equipment.

Read up on tax law. Revenue & Customs treats holiday lets more favourably than ordinary buy-to-lets – and even allows you to offset any loss you make against your income as a whole. At the same time, you must follow certain rules: the property must be furnished, available for a minimum of 140 days and actually let out for at least 70 of them at a market rent (which means no mates’ rates). They can be let for longer-term occupation (more than 31 consecutive days), but not for more than 155 days a year. Confused? Go to www.hmrc.gov.uk and search for “holiday lettings”, or consult an accountant.

These holiday home rental tips I spotted at an article in The Times aimed at UK second home owners.

Filed Under: Advice Tagged With: featured

February 6, 2009 Leave a Comment

Advice for British expats in Alicante

Over 1 million Britons have bought a house in Spain over the last decade

Some are not prepared for when the “dream turns sour” according to a report in yesterday’s Telegraph. To remedy this British citizens that have gone the whole hog and moved to Spain will be able to take advantage of free advice surgeries following calls for help during the British & European economic crisis. The outreach programme is being held initially for people living in the Alicante region and is organised by the British Consular Service in partnership with Age Concern and the Department for Work and Pensions.

The surgeries will run every fortnight at two different venues across the region, according to the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO). Launched by the UK’s minister for consular affairs, Gillian Merron, the move is set to benefit Britons who have relocated to Alicante and surrounding province.

The surgeries will offer a range of advice about pensions, UK benefits, healthcare, charitable organisations and moving back to the UK. Visitors to the sessions will also advised of their eligibility for Spanish unemployment benefit and other help. Those using the service will be guaranteed confidentiality.

Consular staff will run the advice surgeries in the areas where it is considered they are needed most. This includes running sessions from the Age Concern centre in Torrevieja.

On her visit to expat communities on the Costa Blanca, Merron said that many Britons living in Spain were not adequately prepared for when “the dream turns sour“, according to a report in The Telegraph.

“Life happens and things go wrong whether people stay at home or move abroad,“

. . . she told the paper.

The minister said that problems were exacerbated by the differences between the systems in the UK and Spain.

“It is made worse out here, where people don’t have access to the services they are used to in the UK. The Spanish system is very different to that at home and people have to be aware of that and the problems it may bring.“

“We want expats to know they have not been abandoned by the British government,”

. . . said Ms Merron of the scheme which she hopes will extend throughout Spain and eventually other countries where there are a high concentration of Britons living abroad. But she said the priority must be on informing British people about the difficulties they may face before they make the decision to move abroad.

“One of the biggest problems is that people don’t integrate into the local community. They have to be made aware that to make things work it takes strong commitment to learning the Spanish language and fitting in with the local way of doing things.

“Before people give everything up in the UK they should know what the deal is here. I want them to be prepared for difficult times and think twice before making the move.“

Filed Under: News Tagged With: advice

February 5, 2009 1 Comment

Annual travel insurance with long trip duration

The Search for Annual Travel Insurance for long stay holidays

When you have a holiday home overseas it’s great to be able to take trips out there throughout the year. If you do travel regularly one thing that can keep the costs down is getting an annual travel insurance policy.

The thing is, when I have looked for a cheap annual insurance policy online it is always with a restriction on how long you can travel for. I have just bought a fresh annual insurance policy and the most appropriate deal I found was at Direct Travel Insurance. The thing I liked about this site was that you can choose an annual policy with 30, 45 or 62 days trip duration limit.

It’s only for UK residents though so it’s no good if you have made the full move abroad permanently.

To give you an idea of the cost if you are looking for a policy that will cover you for a couple of months, when I looked through it was coming up with a good annual policy valid for trips upto 62 days at a time for under £65 for an individual /£95 for a couple. This included scheduled airline failure, £10mill medical expenses, and all the usual you expect in a fully comprehensive policy.

If you have any tips for the best travel insurance annual policies for holiday home owners please leave a comment and let us know.

Filed Under: Offers

January 30, 2009 Leave a Comment

Tips on Buying a Home Overseas

How to choose a holiday home

Inspired by this article about Property Investor James Caan from the Dragons Den I have set about with my own advice for anyone looking into buying an overseas home. In the article I link to above James Caan talks about his holiday home in Cannes. I have quoted that at the bottom of this article.

Are the flights secure ? – Flight routes can always be cancelled or can be made summer only severely denting your rental prospects. Consider if there are alternatives if 1 or more of the existing routes are cut. Whether or not this is worth worrying about will depend on how established the existing routes are and how many airlines or departure points are available to the nearest airport. If you are buying on the Costa Del Sol, no worries there will always be lots of UK-Malaga flights.

Don’t take risks with currency fluctuations. Unless you are a gambler at heart (and have contingency funds), it is simply not worth not securing the purchase price as soon as you can. Just consider what happened at the end of 2008 with the € / £ conversion. Two people could have agreed an off-plan property purchase for €100’000 at the same time in Feb 2008, the one who secured their currency on the spot would have been €20’000 better off than the one who waited till the completion date. Have a look at TorFX for currency advice

Do you want to rent out your holiday home ? A lot of people do this with a view to covering the running costs of having a holiday home, others look to rental income to pay interest on borrowed money they used to make the purchase. Have a look at our hints on renting out your holiday home

James Caan’s overseas property tip and my final advice – Detail & Research.

He bought his apartment in Cannes eight years ago for £600,000.

“It’s now worth £2.4million, and that’s in a market where everyone says prices don’t go up much,” he says.

“First, I narrowed down the choice to southern France, as it’s so quick to fly there for weekends, then I spent six months researching the market. There are so many fabulous spots on the Côte d’Azur, but you have to understand the location, down to knowing how values differ from one part of the street to the other. If you don’t, there is a high risk of getting it wrong.”

Judging Cap Ferrat and Antibes too quiet for his daughters, Jemma and Hannah, St Tropez too far from the airport, Monte Carlo lacking a beach and Nice too pebbly, he chose Cannes. Villas in the hills were discarded in favour of seafront apartments. He scoured the entire length of the Croisette to find the only block of flats set back from the traffic. He worked out the optimum height for an apartment – above the trees, below air-con units – which left him with the fifth floor.

“There was nothing for sale on the fifth floor of that block, but the wonderful thing about buying a holiday home is that there’s no rush,” says Caan. “Six weeks later, an owner wrote to say he would sell. I flew back there, walked straight to the balcony, looked at the view and bought it.”

Filed Under: Advice

January 26, 2009 Leave a Comment

Win a One thousand pound holiday

Guest post from Win a Holiday blog.
At our blog we do one thing, list online entry competitions with flights or holidays as prizes. It might be ideal for people with a holiday home as you can get a free holiday to somewhere completely different or maybe win flights to the destination where your villa / apartment is located. Below is an example of what we publish. . . .

Prize:
In this free to enter competition you can win a £1000 voucher to spend on a Thomson holiday.

How to Enter:

Go to the Win a Thomson holiday page on the Thomson website and enter your contact details. You will be registering to receive email updates from Thomson.

Once you have registered on the site you will automatically be entered into the prize draw. No purchase is necessary.

Closing Date:

There is one prize draw for the £1000 holiday voucher every month. The winner will be selected at random by computer on the last working day of each month.

Filed Under: Offers

Get Free Advice & Tips