If you rent out your Spanish holiday home I’m sure you use the internet to try and increase your bookings but are you using to its full potential? I have rented out my cave house in Cullar (a beautiful house with a pool but carved into the mountainside) for three years and have increased my bookings markedly even during the recession. Here are some quick tips for success with your online rental campaign.

1. Get on a good rental website

Without at least one listing on a big site you will get lost in the crowd. We use OwnersDirect which charges an annual fee but has been well worth it in terms of bookings. There’s no point in spending the money and then rushing the listing: you need to publish a really appealing ad on the site with good photos and really talking up your strengths and facilities – read the competition listings for ideas! Alternatively you can try a site like Villarenters.com which has no annual fee and which allows online booking with credit card; the downside to this approach is that they take a commission and also you have to honour all bookings made online.

2. Design a website

Don’t be afraid to put together your own website. If you don’t know how to, involve a friend or relative with IT experience. Choose an emphasis (“family”, “luxury”, “activities”) and back this up on your site with the text and photos. We aimed at being welcoming and friendly and include lots of photographs of local scenic beauty spots. There are companies like webs.com that will allow you to design a website (using one of their templates) for free and they will help you get it online.

3. Links

To get your website noticed you will need to link it from as many other sites as possible starting with your rental website which will allow you to link from the listing to your site. If you search “how to get links” on Google you will find lots of ways to link to your site and get it up the rankings in search engines like Google and Bing.

4. Free advertising

Search around online and you’ll find a lot of sites where you can advertise your property for free e.g. Angloinfo.com, Kugli.com, Friday-ad.es.

5. Articles

Writing articles about your area and posting them on sites like ezinearticles.com and articlesbase.com brings a double benefit – you can link them to your site and tell people about the wonders of your area. They can be quite short articles just about local features or activities. Remember – include lots of photos!

6. Forums

There are lots of Spain-related forums where you can mention your property or link to its website (just search “forums spain”). Remember to respect the rules of the forum – some of them don’t like you to advertise blatantly. They are usually free to join. Examples are absolutespainforums and eyeonspain.

7.  Keep your booking calendar up to date

Your ads and website will probably have a booking calendar to show availability: most important to keep them all up to date.  It is frustrating for a potential customer to request a “free” slot and discover it is in fact already booked.

8. Adjust your pricing as necessary

Take some time over your pricing and make adjustments if there are any quiet or overbooked periods e.g. if you have a place with a pool it will have to be much cheaper during the months when it is out of use.  Look carefully at what the competition are charging because your clients will.

9. Social networking sites

Sites like Facebook are becoming increasingly important for marketing. You can include photos and details of the property on there and send round updates to your friends and contacts (like “now taking bookings for 2010” or “photos of local fiesta added”). You can even Twitter! (I haven’t quite got that far yet).

10. It’s hot - show off the pool if you’ve got one!

If you have a pool it’s a big selling point in a hot country like ours so feature it prominently; a big photo of our pool is on the front page of our website.

The article is one of many about Spain and issues facing English-speakers who live there to be found on the www.Advoco.es website.  For Spanish lawyers offering service in English look no further!