C. Marketing your holiday home

1. Deciding how much to charge

This depends on the property, its location and how well it is furnished and equipped. To get an idea of how much to charge go to dotvilla.com and look at the properties in your area, this will give you an idea of the going rates. Or, if there are local holiday letting agencies in the area, go and see how much they charge for a property similar to yours

2. Print advertising

Newspapers:

You can advertise your property in the classified sections of local or national newspapers. The cost varies from paper to paper, but it is not cheap. The disadvantage is that they only cover specific countries or areas, you can only give the briefest of details, pictures are costly or not available, and the advertising only lasts until the next issue of the paper.

Holiday magazines:

There are various holiday accommodation publications where you can advertise. You can show more details, and often a colour photo. But again this can be expensive, they mainly cover one country, and once the publication is printed you cannot make changes.

3. Internet advertising

The Internet has revolutionised the advertising of holiday properties. Now you can show full details of your property and full colour photos to a truly world-wide market. There are many sites to choose from, but we believe dotvilla.com is the best both in terms of results and user-friendliness.

Better distribution than a tour operator

Dotvilla.com enables you to market your property better than any tour operator can market their holidays. You can show comprehensive details, full changeable rental rates and availability, and up to 15 photos. Order, preview and update your advertisement on-line:

If you have access to the Internet you can enter all the details for your property advertisement and make your order on-line through the dotvilla.com site. Then just post your photos to dotvilla.com, (or send scanned files by e-mail) and your advertisement will be live on the site within two working days. More importantly you can update any of your details at any time on-line, so you can make sure the very latest availability and rates for your property are displayed on the site. You can also change the contact telephone number and e-mail address if you move or you want some one else to take the bookings while you are away for a while.

Now you know all the ins and outs of letting your holiday home, it will not only be lucrative, but good fun too! Happy letting!