Property Essentials

Here you will find a selection of our tips and advice on letting your holiday rentals. Everything is covered from decorating to preparing your holiday homes.

Before you rent out your holiday homes you should consider a few valuable points, ie How do I prepare, maintain and clean my property? How secure is my property? and What type of insurance should I have in place?

Here you will find the answers you are looking for.

Preparing your property
Decor and Furnishings

Preparing your property

Now you have decided to rent out your property you will be thinking of how to get the most out of your holiday home. Firstly you need to check the property for any problems that can be fixed now rather than later when they could cost you more money. Meet your neighbours. They can be the best source of information about the area, places to eat and may even be able to help you with looking after your property while your away and maybe even hold a spare set of keys for you. They may even know people who could be useful to you for example a handyman, cleaner or gardener. Dont wait for them to introduce themselves, knock on their door and say hello! For local information the best places to visit are your townhall and the nearest tourist information office. They will be able to tell you when your rubbish is collected, the dates of national and local holidays. They will also be able to give you information on local services, emergency numbers and utilities. Walk around your holiday home as if you were a holiday maker. What would you expect to be seeing? What would make your holiday run smoothly? Remember, if people like your holiday home they may want to return in the near future! Keep as much knowledge of the area in your holiday home as you can. Have a list of good eateries, great places to visit and make sure you hang on to leaflets and attraction guides. Here at Direct Holiday Lets we aim to give you as much advice as we feel will help you get your holiday rentals ready to rent. So take a look at our information on decorating, maintanance, furnishings and lots more!

Decor and Furnishings - The right and wrong ways.

If you have just bought an off plan holiday home, you may be lucky in the fact that it is newly furnished and freshly decorated. If this is the case then you are in a good position to consider holiday home rentals. However, unfortunately most properties will need at least painting and a few items of furniture to make the place ready for your holiday guests. The overall completed style should be one of cleanliness, comfort and welcoming. You need to be thinking of how to attract the widest range of holiday makers. This means your decor and furnishings must reinforce the image of a property that is warm and welcoming and not one of a cold faceless hotel room. Remember, your guests are paying good money to stay in private holiday homes, not in cheap hotels. How you decide to decorate and furnish your property will largely depend on your own personal tasts. This is fine as you should try to personalise the property but before you go about ordering the wallpaper and chesterfield sofas please read our do´s and dont´s below. Do´s 1. Neutral tones work best Choosing an off-white and natural colour scheme will help give your property the widest appeal that is likely to get you the most booking enquiries. 2. Add those personal touches Include small areas of colour and add throws, rugs, ornaments, pictures or paintings to add interest and style. This will help to give the feeling of a home from home. 3. Remember quality not quantity When choosing utensils and furniture remember they should be durable. Better quality items tend to stand up to more wear and tear and you wont have to replace them so often. You will also find visitors tend to treat light quality items with more care and respect. 4. Choose easy to clean fixtures and fittings When choosing fixtures and fittings choose those that you can easily clean that will still look good at the end of a long rental season. 5. Have a lockable cupboard or store room A private storage space will save you from bringing things back and forth when you visit your property. You can also put away anything you dont want broken. Dont´s 1. Overspend on stylish expensive features Unless you are aiming your property at the top end of the market, dont go for quality and expensive, cutting edge designs. 2. Cut corners Always choose fixtures and fittings that will last. This will save you time replacing them often and will also help to create a better impression on your guests. 3. Have lots of clutter lying around Keep your belongings stored away for when you visit. Your guests will not want to feel like they are intruding in your home. So try not to personalise it too much. 4. Fill your holiday home with cast offs If you want paying customers to rent out your property its no good filling it with your old tatty furniture. It wont make a good impression! 5. Make guests bring everything Allow your property to be a home from home. If your guests don´t have to bring everything with them they are more likely to re-book in the future. Supplying your guests with the little extra´s will make all the difference. Towels and linen are an obvious example, but items like beach towels, hairdryers and an iron will make their stay much more pleasant. We hope that you have enjoyed reading our holiday letting advice guide. This list is by no means conclusive and contains just a few tips on the things you can do to make your holiday rentals that bit more attractive to your guests. We hope these little pointers will help you get your property ready for your rental guests. Just remember that thinking about your guests now, will save you a lot of time and money in the future! If you already have well established holiday home and have anymore tips that you would like to share with us please send us an email. We always love to hear from our customers with their thoughts on our website and how to improve the content. Happy Renting!!