If you are already dreading the thought of the imminent onset of those dark and dreary autumn and winter days, try to bring a little sunshine and relaxation into your life by planning your summer holiday 2009 whilst the memories of this years holiday are still fresh in your mind, or better still, how about booking a short break away during the next few months to find some much needed winter sun?
With the children now back at school and the cool chill of shorter autumn days now upon us, your thoughts may already be turning to next summers holiday or perhaps you are looking to get away from the damp and dreary British winter for a few days in sunnier climes.
So once you have drawn up your shortlist of suitable countries where the amount of sunshine and average daily temperature is significantly warmer than Margate or Skegness in January or July, the next most important decision is where to stay. The alternatives to booking a hotel room or two rooms and more if you have a family are numerous. It just takes a little thought and advanced planning?
With the growth of the internet, the advent of cheap and plentiful flights especially throughout Europe, there is so much choice and flexibility when it comes to booking a holiday break whether it be a weekend in Paris to a full two week break with all the family in Spain… With the advent of cheap flights from an increasing number of UK airports to dozens of resorts around Europe, there has never been more choice and flexibility in terms of when and where to go!
Your choice really is without limit! Fancy a holiday villa in Majorca, Menorca or Ibiza, a stunning apartment in Tenerife, Lanzarote or Fuerteventura, a vacation rental in one of the many states in America, even South Africa or Australia. Wherever you want to go, you are sure to find the right type of accommodation to suit your needs!
However despite all of these wonderful choices of destinations, the wrong choice of holiday accommodation can put a real dampener on what should be a time of carefree relaxation under foreign skies, a time to relax and distress from the daily grind in the UK.
For families of more than the typical 2 parents and 2 children, and for those who may consider extended winter breaks for example, the typical hotel offering can be very restrictive not to mention the expense!
More and more people are now aware of the many real benefits in renting a holiday home, apartment or villa directly from the owner.
In order to make the most of their investment, many holiday property owners are keen to let out their properties as often as they can in order to generate that all important extra revenue.
Renting your own holiday apartment in Tenerife or Lanzarote, a holiday villa in Majorca or Menorica or a holiday cottage in Scotland or Wales, gives you so much more flexibility in terms of privacy, sleeping arrangements, and quite simply, being able to do what you want when you want! No more rushing down 6 flights of hotel stairs each morning to make sure you don’t miss breakfast!
It has never been easier to locate holiday apartments and holiday villas to rent and all manner of self catering holiday accommodation anywhere in the world!
The advent of the Internet has given rise to many holiday property rental websites where you can choose in the comfort of your own home, the resort, the time and the type of accommodation which suits you best.
The choice of accommodation and the countries where these self catering rental accommodations can be found, is limitless. There are villas or apartments to rent in Florida, Spain or even the Caribbean, with private or shared pools on or near golf courses, quaint country cottages in France, England or Ireland, townhouses in Tenerife, Lanzarote or Fuerteventura with shared gardens and pool complexes, mountain chalets in the French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss Alps, suitable for self catering, walking , skiing and adventure holidays.
So whatever your budget, you will find a good quality and reputable holiday property rental website can provide you with rental holiday and self catering accommodation to suit your every need whether its a golf holiday, a weekend city break or some form of exciting activity holiday or that relaxing beach holiday.
Renting self -catering accommodation including holiday villas allows you to make the most of what each country has to offer.
From coastal villas, apartments, townhouses, studios or rustic fincas you can take advantage of wonderful sun drenched beaches, fabulous golfing resorts, or if it’s rural tranquillity which you seek, then accommodation set against a backdrop of soaring mountain peaks, lush green valleys and quiet rural retreats will be just for you.
November 19, 2009
Why Renting Holiday Accommodation is so Popular?
November 3, 2009
Generate More Holiday Property Rental Income
From holiday homes in Spain, vacation rental properties in Florida, beachside villas in Barbados, Antigua and Tobago, luxurious villas in Mallorca, Ibiza and Menorca, beautiful apartments in Tenerife and Lanzarote, idyllic country cottages in England, Scotland, Ireland or Wales, rural holiday homes in France, Italy and Portugal, Cyprus or Turkey, not forgetting the picture perfect ski chalets in the French Alps, Italian Dolomites or Austrian Tyrol- people from all over the world have taken advantage of the increased economic prosperity over the last few decades to invest their hard earned savings in some form of bricks and mortar.
In addition to buying your holiday home for its likley future capital appreciation, I suspect that you are also very keen to generate income from your investment by means of letting our the property for a few weeks or even months each year.
But with so many properties out there to choose from, it is important that you consider and plan a careful strategy in order to market and promote your property in the most cost effective way, to ensure that your efforts ultimately yield more rental income, than you are spending in marketing, advertising and other related costs.
So here are some tips and ideas which I think you will find useful in ensuring that your property achieves and even surpasses your expectations in terms of generating rental income.
1.Know Your Break Even Point!
How much income do you need your property to generate each year to cover any mortgage, maintenance costs and local authority charges and taxes- not forgetting of course, the monies you may have to spend on advertising and promoting your investment property? How much does it really cost you to maintain your property each year. You need to include any mortage costs, maintenance costs, local authority or muncipal taxes and levies etc. Once you have calculated this figure you will then be able to calculate how much each week you need to charge our your holiday property for in order to at least break even and cover your costs. Knowing this may also allow you to be more flexible when it comes to setting the weekly rental price of your property. This is especially useful in a competitive market or during times when, quite simply, there are fewer people looking to rent holiday homes.
2. Set An Advertising Budget (And stick to it!)
Clearly it would be disappointing to find that despite your best efforts, you have actually spent so much money in promotional and advertising costs, that it has wiped out any potential profit from your total rental income. In the world of business, many companies would tend to set a marketing budget of anywhere between 5% & 10% of their total annual turnover. This would seem to make sense, and if you see your investment or holiday rental property as a business- which I suggest you should-then you can use this 5-10% figure as good guideline in helping you to set a sensible advertising budget.
3 Know Which Methods Are Working (Keep Records)
A marketing director of a well-known company was once alleged to have said that he believed about 50% of his marketing budget produced profitable returns. The problem was, he didn’t know which 50%! This may sound funny, but alas, it is an easy trap to fall into and its cause is largely down to not keeping records or tracking exactly where each new business enquiry comes from.
This problem is so widespread amongst all businesses that it goes to explain somewhat, why many companies have now started to ask their potential and actual customers that most valuable of $64,000 questions- “Where did you learn about us?”, or “Where did you find us?”.
Some sage business guru once said “Turnover is vanity, but profit is sanity!”. In other words your campaigns must be cost effective and generate more in ultimate rental income than the cost of the promotional activity itself. Some campaigns may well bring in rental enquiries and even some actual bookings but at what cost?
4. Understanding Your Cost Per Enquiry.
If you are going to be able to understand which of your advertising campaigns are more successful and produce the best results, it is vital that you have a mechanism for recording the results of your various marketing and promotional activities. This will allow to ditch those methods which have a very low return on your investment, conversely it will also allow you to focus more on those methods and areas where the majority of your enquiries and bookings are coming from.
5.Use The Pareto Principle (The 80/20 Rule!)
In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto created a mathematical formula to describe the unequal distribution of wealth in his country, observing that twenty percent of the people owned eighty percent of the wealth. In the late 1940s, Dr.Joseph M.Juran inaccurately attributed the 80/20 Rule to Pareto, calling it Pareto’s Principle. While it may be misnamed, Pareto’s Principle or Pareto’s Law as it is sometimes called, can be a very effective tool to help you manage effectively.
Despite all of your various efforts at promoting your property, you will probably be amazed to calculate that most of your booking enquiries will come from one or two sources- this is what we mean by the 80/20 rule. Providing you are not like our unnamed hapless marketing manager referred to in point 3, then you should be able to use this valuable information to really focus on those activities which achieve the most profitable results.
Summary
So there you have it! Some tips and examples as to how you can leverage the rental income producing ability of your holiday home, whether it be a villa, townhouse, cottage, ski chalet or apartment.
In future articles I will be covering the issues of where best to advertise your property and how to ensure you are promoting your property in the most advantageous and effective way.