Preparing for success in holiday rental market

Just been reading an article in the May 14 edition of "Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine" - Prepare for success in holiday rental market caught my eye.

It says that homeowners in tourist hot spots should be preparing now if they wish to benefit fully from 2014 holiday rental market according to the Overseas Guides Company -

Richard Way who is the editor of the Overseas Guide Company is warning holiday home owners that there are new rules governing holiday lets in some countries now.

Read the information below and then See the jmlvillas.com advice

The article advises some top tips:

1. Register the property as a tourist rental in Spain, Greece and Portugal. The local council requires a licence. If you don't the property owner risks a fine - €3,000 to €30,000 in Spain for example. Apparently depending on the location the owner might also have to present passport details of the paying guests at a local police station. Rather tricky if you have arranged the holiday let on line and you will therefore need a local agent to check renters in and out plus comply with local police registration regulations.

The top tips remind the property owner that you may have to collect a local tourist tax from the renters.  See article at jml Villas.com website regarding  Taxe de séjour       http://www.jmlvillas.com/page/Taxsej

So if you have a holiday rental already that you let out check to see if you should be registering that property.
 
2. Declare your rental income - an area at jml Villas that we have been reminding holiday home owners about for years. However authorities in many countries now look at holiday home websites and agency sites now to see what properties are being let out. The Internet has proved very successful in creating lets for owners, but not all owners declare the income. Years ago when letting out a holiday rental in France, we declared the rental income to the authorities in France, paid tax there, however as the UK has tax treaties with many other countries the information submitted to the French authorities was submitted to the UK tax authorities so only a single payment was made. There are tax treaties with most European countries.

3. Use a managing Agent -   As stated in the last paragraph of "1" above you need a local agent. We have recommended this since 2001 at jml Villas.com . This can be just for handing over keys, arranging repairs, cleaners welcome packs plus, or assisting finding holiday rentals.

4. Manage it yourself - Well that can be done as well, but not so easy if you are at a distance from the property. If you live in Spain and your holiday rental is in Spain local to you or live in  England and the holiday let is not 150 miles away, easy.

5. Presenting the property for letting - on the jml Villas.com site we say     PRESENTATION (for web photos — brochure) Make sure that you submit good clear photos of the property. Sun shining on it, blue skies help. Make it look more inviting. Consider having the dining table set, a bottle of wine on the table as well. Beds should be made up, leave the television on and internal lights as well (particularly lamps on tables and units that can be seen in the picture). Try to avoid having people in the photos. If you need extra ideas, just take a look at some of the property lifestyle magazines available in newsagents in most European countries. We have prepared a guide for owners of longer term letting properties and similar rules will apply for self catering vacation rentals — But they will naturally have to be fully furnished CLICK HERE FOR DETAILS  The article in "Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine" says very much the same as said above.

6. Offer a welcome pack -  we say that too -"provide a "Welcome Pack" if you want to provide one — bottles of wine for example or more if the visitors are arriving late"

7. Information about what is happening in the area the property is located in -  maps, brochures, restaurant cards and more. You will soon find that your guest will add to the information you provide.

8. Get suitable insurance -  the article says that "your household and contents insurance policy should be to provide adequate cover for holiday rentals, including the necessary third party liability and cover for vacant periods" jml Villas says "  You must make sure that your property is properly covered for holiday lettings.You should advise the insurance company that it is being let for this purpose.In some countries (France for example) the people renting must also take out insurance by law,but you must also be covered. If you are looking for a policy visit our Insurance section "

All in all very useful information, personally I think this article should have been published much earlier in the year by Landlord & Buy-to-Let magazine, but of course they might not have been supplied with it earlier and has been published in other places.

So at the end of the day if you do have a holiday rental that you want to list and not pay a lot for the listing (£12.50 for a year including UK VAT or € / $ equivallent) with a link to your personal website, then you need to visit jmlVillas Here