Breaking into the Holiday Rentals Market

The holiday rentals market in Crete is a tempting option for those who own a Crete property. Letting out your villa, house or holiday home can bring a good income. The Buy-to-Let boom has led to many property owners hoping to cash-in on the lucrative holiday rentals market.

However, it can bring lots of work, co-ordination and sometimes hidden costs.

You will need to acquire an EOT licence, issued by the Greek National Tourist Organisation. This is a legal requirement if you intend to rent your Greek or Crete property on a short-term basis to tourists.

You will also need to think about using the services of a Crete Letting Agent, or Crete Property Management Agent to handle the holiday bookings, ‘meeting and greeting’ the clients on arrival, taking deposits, taking full payments, cleaning, maintenance and any other the day-to-day issues.

Points to consider…

• Personal Occupancy. Think carefully about the amount of personal occupancy you want. Take into account that you yourself may have to forsake the peak periods to allow holidaymakers to use and pay for the property rental.
• Property Management. Consider if there is someone locally who can be relied upon to manage the property if you don't live locally. You will need to find someone reliable to clean and maintain your holiday home. You need someone to do the laundry, the change over, meet guests and generally be on call should any problems arise. If you do not know of such a person, you might need to engage the services of a local property management agent. Consider the costs and implications carefully in each case.
• Children & Pets. Consider whether you will accept children, pets or smokers. You are reducing your market by excluding these groups but at the same time your property is open to possible damage.
• How Much to Charge. You don't want to run at a loss but at the same time you do not want to price yourself out of the competitive holiday rentals market either. Check out local competitor's prices.
• Pricing Structure. Keep your pricing structure simple and have three seasons. Low season: October - April, Mid season: May, June, September, Christmas and Easter, High season: July and August.
• Finding Guests. This can be the tricky part. To get the most financial benefit from letting out your holiday home you need to fill it with paying guests.

Internet

By far Internet advertising is the way forward to promote your holiday home.

You can sign up with one or several holiday-let web sites. These will charge you anything from £30.00 - £150.00 pounds per annum to list your property. Other sites do not charge a one off fee but claim up to 20% commission fees on any booking made through their website. Some holiday letting sites require you to upload the listing yourself while others ask you to send the information and photos and they do it for you. All e-mail enquiries are forwarded directly to you and you have to handle all the administration yourself.

Finally, however you decide to market and promote your Crete property in the holiday rental market, we wish you good luck!