Joaquín Leal of Interhome explains how to correctly manage your Spanish holiday home.
For so many years Spain has been leading the top tourist destination lists as one of the most iconic and attractive places for travelers from all over the globe. If your love of visiting the country leads you to buying a home in Spain, and you want to cover its running costs by renting it out, you need to think carefully about the different aspects of monetizing your investment.
Obviously renting out a home in Spain is not the same as being a landlord in the UK as apart from the geographic distance involved, there are different rules and regulations involving renting your Spanish home.
Find a good local rental partner
Do you want to stay back in the UK while your holiday home is working for you? If so, a reliable rental partner is needed, someone capable of managing the whole business of your holiday home while you are not available on the spot. On a very basic level, this includes what happens if something goes wrong and there is some kind of weather related emergency and you need someone there to act.
The reasons why to partner with an expert agent of holiday rentals are many. We would highly recommend to check if your potential partners are able to promote your holiday home in the top distributors of the market such as Airbnb or Booking.com, in addition to their own distribution channels.
Also, make sure they can easily overtake all of the operational tasks as management of check-ins and check-outs, solving on-the-spot requests by the clients and dealing with maintenance and cleaning services.
Last but not least, thanks to partnering with a company that offers you a full property rental management, you will always have an expert price adviser at your disposal: they will suggest you the correct price according to the market situation so you don’t have to check market prices in order to position your home in the correct price range. This results in a positive optimisation of the occupancy of your holiday home.
How to wow your guests
It is not a secret that good images sell. Although it seems obvious, a lot of owners and agents still keep uploading poor-quality or badly lit pictures to online rental portals.
Customers make an immediate value judgement based on the look and aesthetic of the holiday home. In order to give a great impression you need to prepare high-quality photos that accurately represent your product offering, but also ‘sell it’. Use a bit of styling so they can see themselves in your home – maybe having a glass of wine or a meal on the terrace or balcony.
You should communicate properly everything your holiday home has to offer. The images must show what exactly is your accommodation – people want to see all three bedrooms, if it’s for a family where space or configuration is key.
Furthermore, if you want to impress your guests make sure your holiday home is well decorated and clutter-free. You need to offer more than just a comfortable place to sleep.
Customer musts in Spain!
Being able to meet customer expectations is one of the most important things you should keep in mind. Competition is high out there, and customer feedback quite transparent these days.
In most parts of Spain, a pool is one of the most important attributes your holiday home must have – whether a private or shared pool. If not possible, make sure your property is located near the local beach. In addition to this, clients will be expecting air conditioning system and Wi-Fi. Therefore, you need to listen to your customers and try to upgrade your home according to their suggestions, comments and expectations.
Know the rules
Be aware of the Spanish tax rules and rental regulations. In some areas or individual communities, short-term lets are not permitted or strictly limited so get your lawyer to check this before you buy a property to let. In other areas such as Andalusia you will need a licence and your property will need to comply with fire and safety regulations. Every self-governing region of Spain has its own rules on this.
To find out more:
Interhome is the holiday rentals specialist from Switzerland and Europe’s largest provider of holiday homes. With more than 50 years’ experience in the industry and over 80 local service offices Interhome continues to pursue the same promise: to assist owners in the professional rental of their holiday homes. Phone: +34 934 09 05 23 E-mail: [email protected]
