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Renting your holiday home

Marketing ideas:

When deciding how to meet the needs of your guests try to stay flexible and make your property appeal to as wide a range of people as possible. If you're still not sure of what may work for the holiday lettings market in your area, here are a few ideas to get you started.

Holiday lets:

Still the most popular option with holiday home owners, short and long term holiday lettings are an ideal solution for home owners who just want to rent their accommodation.

Romantic Breaks:

If you have a holiday home that is in a great setting, or an area that is renowned for being a romantic getaway, then you may want to consider this option. The advantage is that you don't need to be on site to achieve a romantic break. So how do you achieve a romantic break? Well, atmosphere. High quality furnishing provide a sense of luxury, fresh flowers provide colour and a complementary bottle of wine, fruit and chocolate provide the finishing touches.

Culture Breaks:

An increasingly popular alternative to the package holiday, culture breaks appeal to a wide range of people and are often associated with Spain, France, Portugal, Italy and the Algarve.

You could offer a range of activities from wine tasting and cookery classes to painting or hill walking. Unless you plan on employing staff this option is a more hands on approach and can be hard to manage form a distance. Alternatively you could approach local companies that offer day courses and see if, in return for the extra business, they will offer your guests discounted rates.

Activity Holidays:

For the slightly more adventurous, activity holidays may have more of an appeal and could include anything from mountain biking to white water rafting. As with culture breaks this can be a great solution for those looking for a lifestyle change rather than just wanting to rent a holiday home. However, you could team up with a local outdoor pursuits centre and offer your guests discounted rates on activities.

Company Breaks:

A few years ago "team building" exercises were all the rage amongst companies. Well, with flights becoming ever cheaper a new trend is starting to appear and personally, I think it is going to catch on.

Why have a board meeting in a stuffy office, watching the drizzle and gloom outside, when you could be sitting around a table in a lovely, warm, bright, converted farmhouse, sipping wine and having your meeting in relaxed informal atmosphere.

This option has some great benefits for both sides and can really to wonders for your working relationship.

And finally....

Don't be scared to use a little imagination - if you've come up with a great way to make your holiday letting stand out from the crowd, do a little research to see if it's viable... and if all looks well, go for it.