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Renting your holiday rental

Setting a price:

When setting a price for your holiday rental you first need to decide if there is a minimum amount you need to generate to cover any overheads such as a mortgage, heating, lighting, staff, insurance and so on.

As many of these will be billed on a monthly basis start by working out the total overheads for the year and then divide this figure by 52. By doing it this way you help to take into account periods when the property may not be occupied, seasonal variations and five week months.

Remember, that your figure should ideally allow you to generate a profit rather than just providing enough to cover the bills. This will help to ensure that you have something in reserve should the property not be occupied for any period of time.

Once you have an idea of how much you need to generate the best place to start looking is with the competition - that's where your guests will look! If ten other holiday rentals in your neighbourhood offers exactly the facilities as you for £100 a week less, you may have a problem generating enough bookings.

This doesn't mean to say that you have to cut your price, just that you have to justify why your holiday home is more expensive then the rest. Perhaps your holiday home offers luxury furnishings and includes a car for the period of the rental.

At the moment we have several properties on the Discovery Villas site that have exactly this - a "unique selling point".