For many people, having a holiday apartment is a sure sign of success, however for many of the same people this is something that they can't take advantage of for the majority of the year. Thus, it makes economical sense (and even from a responsible homeowners perspective, using things in a home will keep them from breaking down more quickly or getting rusty from disuse) to let out your holiday home on the vacation rental market.
For those who aren't treating renting their vacation home as a steady income, the best place to host is something like Airbnb or another platform that relies on the idea of a sharing economy. Another option would be to choose a local or specialized website in order to rent your home. For example, if there's a website for listings that are specific to your city or region, or if your holiday home is a camper van, there are plenty of websites who only show vacation homes that qualify as camper vans or converted caravans. These also have the added boon of being used mainly by people who don't rely on rental income as their main source of income.
For people who are renting their home and relying on that revenue as their primary/secondary source of regular income, we recommend two options: firstly, look for an aggregator of travel housing options to make sure that your holiday home is shown to as many different types of travellers as possible. If your holiday home is in an area that is usually only frequented by tourists in the summer months, listing it on a website that also hosts travel options for businessmen or for those who travel with families may expose your holiday home to more potential bookings, and possibly bookings that can be made during the off=peak season. Secondly, we recommend that you try to list your home on as many websites as possible. While it may seem daunting to list your holiday home on multiple platforms, there are many tools now that help homeowners automatically sync calendars and keep their listing running smoothly while being shared with multiple partners and housing websites.
It's a good idea to think carefully about how much work you're willing to put into maintaining and running your holiday home. If you can't maintain it or be easily available for guests to contact you, many would suggest that you can use a property management company to manage the property for you, meaning that you will have little/nothing to do with the day to day management, and thus saving you a lot of time and stress. However, if you like the idea of giving personalized attention to your guests, that will also affect the types of platforms you may want to use in order to host your apartment.
It is wise to read the terms and conditions of listings before you register your property with any particular company as well. Some don't allow you to list across multiple platforms, or some carry strict fines if you have to cancel any of your booked travellers. Another thing to look for is how much each platform will charge in commission or flat fees for every booking you make. Depending on how much you are charging per night for travellers to use your vacation home, you can lose up to 30% of your profits in fees and commission alone!
Overall, the point of renting out your vacation home is to provide an extra source of income to you and your family while participating in the sharing economy. It can be an extremely satisfying venture and one that can benefit your family in many ways, as well as putting your vacation home to good use, bringing joy to many families and travellers on their holidays.
Martin Wynn
