Help for setting up your property advert - Frequently Asked Questions on booking holiday accommodation

Frequently Asked Questions / Help

Advertising with Holiday Lettings

• Why advertise with Holiday Lettings?
• What is included?
• How do I join?
• How do you market the Holiday Lettings website?
• How long does it take for my advert to become live on the site?
• How does your 'recommend a friend' programme work?

Charges

• How much do you charge?
• How do I pay?
• Is there an alternative to paying annually?
• Do I need to pay VAT?
• Are payments I make secure and do you store my payment card details?
• How do I use a promotional code?
• Do I need to pay income tax on my rental income?

Setting up an advert

• I'm pressed for time, can you set up my advert for me?
• I have more than one property. Can I advertise them both/all on one advert page?
• What is the minimum you expect from me before my advert is activated?
• My town/region is not listed - what should I do?
• I'm not sure what to write - can you help me with completing the text?
• Can you help me decide how much to charge for my property rental?
• Another property on your site is very similar to mine and in the same location. Can I copy their text and/or photos?
• How often do I need to update my Availability Calendar?
• Can I have a link out to my own website from my Holiday Lettings advert?
• Can I pay extra to be listed at the top of the search results?
• Do you offer a translation service?

Adding Photos

• What if I don't have my photos on my computer?
• How should my photos be configured for the best results?
• Can I change the photos on my page at a later stage and/or add more?
• Do you have any tips on what photos to display and how to present them?
• When I try to upload photos to the site it always seems to time-out. What can I do?
• I have updated my photos but they are not showing on my advert!
• How can I delete a photo?

Managing Your Holiday Lettings Adverts

• Can I make changes to my advert once it has been published?
• Do you offer any premium advertising on your site to increase my property's exposure?
• How can I improve the performance of my adverts?
• How do I know how much interest my advert is getting?
• Can I exchange my current property for a new one?

Troubleshooter

• Why can't I login?
• Who can I speak to for help?
• What happens if I forget my password?
• I'm not receiving my email enquiries
• I'm not receiving my SMS alerts
• Avoiding scams/recognising genuine enquiries
• How can I get a sample booking contract?

Frequently Asked Questions / Help

Advertising with Holiday Lettings

• Most visited website: Over 2 million holidaymakers visit the site each month
• Best value for money: Up to 20 photographs, availability calendar, free SMS text alerts all included (no commission)
• Personal touch: Dedicated customer support and expert advice just a phone call away
• Market leader: Award-winning company established in 1999 and now part of Rightmove, a FTSE250 company
• Unrivalled marketing: Huge investments in online and offline marketing and PR initiatives

Full-page advert Unlimited property, area and region descriptions plus tariff table and guest book

Quality search page listing Photos and descriptions to maximise exposure on the search results pages

Photo gallery Up to 20 colour photos including 4 panoramics

Availability calendar Edit and update your own availability calendar 24/7

Location map Pinpoint the exact location of your property with an interactive map

Enquiry form Receive bookings direct via email from your own enquiry form

Free SMS text alerts Enquiries can also be sent to your mobile phone

Home Management page Log in 24/7 to make updates, add extra marketing options and monitor the performance of your advert

Owner advice area Visit our owner advice pages for comprehensive information and advice on letting your holiday home

Free advice Our customer service team are on hand to assist you with your advertising and any questions you may have along the way

Free photo help Free help and advice on uploading the best quality photos for your advert including free photo optimisation

Signing up with Holiday Lettings costs nothing and couldn't be simpler, register online or call our customer service team on +44 (0)1865 312000 who will be glad to assist.

• We advertise in over 28 magazines and newspapers monthly, reaching more than 16 million readers.
• We achieve extensive media coverage across the national and regional press. See press cuttings and press releases.
• We are proactive in our marketing and have invested heavily in our 2009 Advertising Campaign which highlights the excellent value for money that holiday homes can offer. Already seen by millions on the London Underground, our campaign continues to promote holidaylettings.co.uk via taxi advertising in major cities throughout the UK including London, Edinburgh, Oxford and Cardiff.
• We achieve top search engine rankings and invest heavily in online marketing to ensure the highest levels of holidaymaker traffic to the site.

We aim to thoroughly review and activate completed adverts within 4 working hours (Monday - Friday 9.00am - 5.30pm).

Did you know studies show that 4 out of 5 holiday home owners do not rent out their properties and over £4 billion is being lost in rental revenue each year as a result? Are your family and friends missing out on a potential source of extra income? If you recommend holidaylettings.co.uk to a friend, and they end up advertising with us as a result, then we'll give you a free gift as a way of saying thanks!

Charges

Advertisers pay just £185 +VAT per annum for a Classic advert or £235 +VAT for a Premium advert. Additional Classic adverts are offered at the discounted rate of £109 +VAT. There are no extra fees or commissions to pay.

For more information visit our pricing pages.

If you manage 10 or more properties contact our Agent Services Team directly on +44 (0)1865 312035 or by email

The quickest and easiest way to pay for your advert is online using a debit or credit card. Simply login to your Home Management page and select 'Make a Payment'.

If you prefer you can send a cheque made payable to 'Holiday Lettings Ltd.' and send it to Holiday Lettings, 2nd Floor Barclay House, 242-254 Banbury Road, Oxford OX2 7BY. Cheques in currencies other than British pounds are subject to an administration fee of £10+ VAT.

Alternatively we accept bank transfers, but please note this is subject to an administration fee of £10+ VAT. Send us an email if you would like further details regarding bank transfers.

In addition to annual advertising we offer a quarterly subscription priced at £60 +VAT per quarter.

What is a Holiday Lettings subscription?

A Holiday Lettings subscription is like a standing order that leaves your credit card account at regular intervals.

How does it all work?

We set up your account to send payments at quarterly intervals until you cancel the agreement. You will be shown the total for today and the total for the next payment at the bottom of our payment page.

Please make sure your advert meets our minimum requirements so we can activate it as quickly as possible, your advertising period starts from the day you make your first payment with quarterly subscriptions.

How do I cancel my Holiday Lettings subscription?

Send an email to subscription.cancel@holidaylettings.co.uk, or telephone us on +44 (0)1865 312000 our office hours are 9am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday.

Will the regular amount ever change?

We always aim to be competitively priced compared to other companies in the same business. If we do change our prices you will receive an email notification from us at least 7 days before the payment is due.

What if my credit card expires or is stolen?

Expired cards will continue to work with the subscription. If your card is stolen, we will have to take the new card details to continue your subscription.

Can I pay for both Classic and Premium adverts on a subscription?

Quarterly subscriptions are not available for Premium adverts.

All UK residents are subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) at 15%. If you are registered as a business in the UK you can claim this back. Residents of other EU countries pay the price excluding VAT , if you are registered for VAT in your country of residence we are required to collect your VAT number to comply with invoicing laws. Residents outside of the EU do not pay VAT.

Protx, a division of Sage (UK) Ltd, provides our payment system. This means we are able to accept payment online by debit/credit card for most of the world's best-known cards. We do not store your payment details on our website.

Enter your promotional code when you register on the site, this will be taken into account when you make your payment and the advert is activated.

You will need to pay tax on income from your property. The UK has double taxation agreements with most countries to prevent you from paying twice. You will need to declare all income tax you have already paid and then pay any difference. Seek independent financial advice relating to your specific country.

Setting up an advert

A member of our Customer Service Team can set up your advert for a £20 +VAT fee. As you know your property better than we do you will need to provide us with the information required to create the advert. Normally this is either from another website if applicable or a form which you can fill in to give us the details.

In addition to the input we can translate your advert from Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian or French into English, there is an additional fee of £25 +VAT for this service.

For more information relating to our advert input or translation services email us or contact Customer Services on +44 (0)1865 312000.

Please note that all adverts are displayed in English and you will need to be able to respond to enquiries in English - we cannot assist with your enquiries.

Our adverts are designed to promote a single rental unit, we do not allow more than one property to be advertised on a single advert page. If you would like to advertise more than one property, an additional advert is charged at a discounted price - simply click 'add a new property' on your Home Management page to begin.

If you manage 10 or more properties contact our Agent Services Team directly on +44 (0)1865 312035 or by email

Here at Holiday Lettings we really want your advert to do well and we go to great lengths to ensure all adverts are in the best possible shape in order to achieve as many enquiries as possible.

We do have certain minimum standards which ensure the best performance for not only your individual advert but also the site as a whole. Our Customer Service Team reviews all adverts prior to activation and will let you know if any changes are required. All advertisers receive a follow up phone call or email once the advert has been activated to help you get the most out of your advert.

Home Description

This is an important part of your advert and is designed to provide an introduction as well as inspire those reading it to pick your property pick your property. It should provide a broad and enticing overview of the kind of holiday potential guests could expect to have if they came to stay at your property, without going into too much detail about specific facilities (these can be mentioned later on). We will not activate your advert without a Home Description.

Photos

Pictures are the most important aspect of your advert. They are often the first thing people look at and are therefore crucial to guiding first impressions of your home. Enticing photos will encourage people to look further into the photo gallery and the rest of your advert.

There are 20 photos slots included in the price of our Classic Advert which allow you to showcase even more of the best features of your home and the local area. A recent survey of our holidaymakers highlighted that 79% of them consider a wide range of photos as 'essential' when searching for a holiday home to rent. Having good photos will help maximise the rental potential for your property and help boost the number of people that view your advert.

We require a minimum of 4 photos on every advert, one of which must be an interior shot.

Take some time to look at our tips for uploading the right photos to help achieve the best results for your advert.

Area / Region information

The details you give about the area around your property are important for telling potential holidaymakers about all the great things there are to see and do in your area. Providing people with information about what there is to see and do in the region and the local area will inspire them to choose your property.

• Focus on your target market - think about what would attract families to your area, what would be great for couples or groups of friends.
• Describe the landscape, climate and atmosphere of your area.
• Mention seasonal events such as festivals, markets and concerts.
• Give useful information about the nearest shops, restaurants and markets.
• Be enthusiastic - think about what attracted you to buy in this location.

Unfortunately we are unable to activate adverts without sufficient area and region information.

Rental rates

To avoid misleading potential holidaymakers please ensure your primary rental rate table reflects the maximum occupancy of your property, you can include up to 3 tables for different group sizes within your advert. Adverts where the rental rates do not reflect the maximum occupancy of the property will not be activated.

Our system is designed in such a way that allows holidaymakers to search using many criteria including budget. It is important that you include current weekly rental rates with first night and last night completed in order for this search to work. If you do not have current weekly rates in your table your advert will not be found by our searches and for this reason we will not activate an advert without rates, or rates which are out of date.

Copied Text

We will not activate adverts where there is text which has been copied from another advert. The success of our site depends on the variety and unique content of every advert; we do not allow plagiarism.

Multiple properties

A property advert on Holiday Lettings pertains to one holiday unit, not multiple units. Only one unit should be represented in an advert, we will not activate adverts advertising multiple properties.

Your personal address and the address of your property

We do need you to supply both your own residential address as well as the full address of the rental property before we can activate your advert. This information will not be displayed on your advert and will not be available to the public; it is for our internal records only.

If you require any further information or general advice please visit our owner advice section on the site.

Use the search pages to be sure your town does not already exist, if you are certain this is the case you can create a new town when you set up your advert. If your region is not advertised please get in touch with our Customer Service Team who will be glad to help.

We do not visit the properties ourselves so we are unable to create the text on your behalf. To help you, we have compiled extensive guidance on how to complete each stage of your advert based on our experience of what helps an advert perform well. This is available by clicking the links above the text boxes in each stage, and further advice can be found on our page of tips on creating an effective advert, linked to from your Home Management page.

We are not able to advise on the specific rates you should charge for your property. However, we have put together an advice page full of tips which should help you come to a suitable price. In addition to this we recommend that you look at comparable properties in your area to ensure your property is competitively priced.

The base currency on our website to allow holidaymakers to compare prices on the search results pages is in GBP. If you enter your rental rates in another currency (e.g Euros or US dollars), then the system will convert this into GBP at the current exchange rate for comparisons on the search results pages. Therefore, in order to ensure that your home remains competitive, we recommend that you double check the conversion to GBP periodically as exchange rates do change.

For copyright reasons it is strictly against our terms and conditions to copy text and photos from another advert. We therefore ask that each advert is unique, with text written in your own words and your own photographs. This will also give your advert a more personal touch, helping to inspire holidaymakers to pick your property. It is worth taking the time to put plenty of thought into your advert during the initial set-up, as this will pay off when your advert receives more interest!

Because an up to date calendar helps the performance of your advert in the search results listings, as well as giving a good impression to potential guests who view your advert, we recommend updating it every week. Our calendars are quick and easy to update; simply go to stage 6 on your Home Management page and follow the instructions.

Yes, and you have two options in doing so. If you reciprocate the link (that is, add a link on your own website back to Holiday Lettings), then your link out is free of charge. If you would prefer not to link back to us, there is an annual fee of £30 +VAT for a non-reciprocal link. Go to the bottom of Stage 1 on your Home Management page for further information.

When you have added the link onto your website, please email us to let us know on which page of your site you have added the link e.g. www.mysite.co.uk/index.htm, and we will activate the link to your website.

If you run into difficulties changing your website we can guide you through the process. Simply e-mail us with a convenient time to call and we'll get back to you.

Our nightly random rotation of the search results ensures that the search results are fair to all our owners. Keeping your availability calendar up to date and ensuring your advert stands out is the best way to get noticed!

We can translate your advert from Spanish, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian or French into English, there is a fee of £25+ VAT for this service. All adverts are displayed in English and you will need to be able to respond to enquiries in English - we cannot assist with your enquiries.'

For more information relating to our advert input or translation services email us or contact Customer Services on +44 (0)1865 312000.

Adding Photos

You can post photos to us at: Holiday Lettings Ltd., 2nd Floor, Barclay House, 242-254 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7BY, United Kingdom. We can then scan these digitally for you and add them to your page. Please enclose a stamped and addressed envelope if you would like these returned. We do not charge for this service which includes up to 20 photos including 4 panoramic photos for a Classic advert and 24 photos including 4 panoramic photos for a Premium advert.

Photos should be jpeg files (.jpg ending to the image file). If you are able to set or resize the images we recommend setting them to roughly 500 pixels wide. The file size should be no greater than 50K otherwise they will take too long to appear for visitors to your page. You can normally edit your images on your computer using image software such as Paint, Paint Shop Pro or PhotoShop.

You can logon to your account at any point to add more photos or replace previous photos for your page. To replace a picture, upload a new picture over an existing one and this will over-write the previous image.

We recommend picking your best photo for the first position in your photo gallery and this will also be displayed on the search results page as a thumbnail image. External shots work especially well here. Also take a look at the photos that you are using. Are they selling your property to its best ability? Do you have a good mix of internal and external photographs are they attractive and well lit? Holidaymakers like to see what the interior looks like before even thinking of committing to a booking. They will also be keen to see any attractive scenic shots from the property or nearby, remember you are selling the area too! If you would like to know how to take the best photos of your holiday home visit our advice page.

If this happens you are probably trying to add photos that are too big for the speed of your internet connection. You ideally need to use an image editor to resize you images to just 640 pixels across and 480 pixels high.

You may be experiencing a problem with your computer storing an old version of the page and so not showing you your new photos on the new page. This problem is called 'caching'. To make sure you're seeing the latest version of your advert, try bringing up the page in question and then holding down the 'Ctrl' key on your keyboard whilst clicking on the 'Refresh' button on your browser. If you can't find a 'Refresh' button, hold down 'Ctrl' and press 'F5' on your keyboard. This will do a 'forced refresh' of the page.

Caching only affects you when you view the page from your own computer, so other people looking at your advert will be able to see the advert correctly.

You can over-write an existing photo by uploading a new photo in its place. If you would like to delete the photo altogether please contact us

Managing Your Holiday Lettings Adverts

When you register with holidaylettings.co.uk you are given an owner id number and can select your own password. You can then use these at any point to logon to your account to add properties, change details, add/replace photos, pay or request activation of a new property.

Our Premium advert includes all the features of a Classic advert plus more space for photos, an enhanced search result listing and as a result more exposure! If you have already paid for a Classic advert and would like to upgrade to Premium please contact us on +44 (0)1865 312000 or email us.

Spotlights are a great way to increase exposure for your holiday home beyond its advert page and make your advert visible to holidaymakers who may not otherwise search specifically for that property type or location.

What are Spotlights?

• Spotlights are featured, in rotation, on the left hand side of all search results pages
• They include any photo from your advert, brief description, location & price

Why opt for a Spotlight?

• If your home is in an area less well known with holidaymakers it will bring it to their attention
• If your home is in a competitive area it will help highlight your advert amongst the many
• Through the rotations, over 25,000 displays of your mini-ad will be seen each week

What are the Spotlight options?

• A three week Spotlight for £70 +VAT
• A six week Spotlight for £125 +VAT

NB: Wording and layout of Spotlights is managed by Holiday Lettings. There may sometimes be a waiting list for Spotlights, if so, we will inform you immediately as to the next available start date upon receipt of payment.

There are many things you may be able to do to increase your advert's effectiveness:

How much information have you provided on your page?

We recommend including as much information about your property and the area as possible. Be sure to include all the words and phrases that you think potential visitors to your property may search for on the web to improve your chances of your advert getting found by the search engines.

How well are you selling the best features of your property?

Remember the objective of your page is to sell your property - don't miss off any important attractions or features of your home.

Make good use of the 'Home Summary' field when completing your property details page.

This summary is shown to holidaymakers on the search results pages when they are deciding which properties to look at in more detail.

Is your property appropriately priced?

Take a look at other similar properties on this and other sites to see that your are not overcharging. You can also refer to our pricing advice page.

Do you provide sufficient information to your visitors?

Specifically is there enough information on pricing, availability, facilities etc. If there is an easy way to get to your area such as a cheap airline provider then tell people who they are and any useful information. Often if you don't answer visitors' questions they don't bother writing to ask, they just move on to another property that does.

It is important that you have listed the correct town and region spellings on your property page, as these will affect what traffic your advert attracts from the search engines. Take a look at the 'Search by destination' page to see how other advertisers in a similar location have listed their property. If most holidaymakers don't know the name of your town but you are on the outskirts of a far more renowned town perhaps it would be best to list it under this location.

Visit our owner advice pages for more top tips to successful marketing.

To keep an eye on how your advert is performing click on the view enquiries section of your home management page. From here you can see the number of hits (visits to your page) you have had over the past 30 days and the number of enquiries you have had over the course of a year. You can also see exactly how visitors are finding your page by looking at your hits history. If you have an active link you can also see how many visitors have clicked out from your holidaylettings advert to your personal website.

It is not possible to exchange your existing property advert for a new one. If you would like to withdraw your current advert please let us know you will then need to create a new advert for the new property.

Troubleshooter

It may just be that you need to press the 'back' button and try again. If you have experienced consistent problems logging onto your account it could be that you have set your browser not to accept cookies. On your browser click on Tools, Internet Options, then click on the Privacy tab. Now click on the "Edit" button and where it says "Address of website" type in www.holidaylettings.co.uk and click the "Allow" button. This will let your browser accept cookies from our site only. Please note that you need to then close your browser completely and open a new one for these changes to come into effect.

If you ever have any problems with our site, please use the contact us form to send us an email or call +44 (0)1865 312000 (9am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday).

If you have forgotten your password simply click 'owner login' on our homepage and enter your email address under 'forgotten your password' to have your password re-sent to you.

You can do some basic checks; firstly check there is plenty of room in your email inbox, and secondly that the email address contacts@holidaylettings.co.uk is not being deemed spam by your email server. If you find email from this address in your spam/junk folder then simply add the address to your address book to stop it happening again.

Once you have checked the above you can try sending yourself a test enquiry using the contact form on your advert. Please remember that email can often be delayed, if you do not receive the test email within a couple of hours please do contact us and let us know.

In the meantime you can check your enquiries by logging in to your Home Management page and clicking on 'View Enquiries'. You can read the full message and reply from here.

Firstly, check the number you have provided. To do so, log in to your account and click into 'Contact Details' from your Home Management page. Please confirm that the number in the SMS alert box is correct.

Secondly, you need to check that the mobile is working properly and that your network provider is covered by this service.

You should also make sure that your inbox is not full. If you require any further assistance please contact us.

When you're receiving enquiries for your holiday home directly to your email inbox, it's important that you're aware of how to spot potentially fraudulent, or scam, emails. Although the majority of enquiries sent through holidaylettings.co.uk are genuine requests from holidaymakers, you still need to be vigilant when checking and responding to your enquiries.

Please visit our advice page for help and advice on avoiding scams/recognising genuine enquiries.

Please contact us if you would like a second opinion.

Advertisers on our site can contact our Customer Service team for a sample booking contract. This should be used as a sample only; you will need to add information regarding your own property and its hazards. It is important that you have this contract approved by your solicitor to ensure your terms and conditions comply with the local and national regulations.

We would recommend sending this contract out when taking a booking, and you should ensure you have received the signed copy back with your deposit. The contract is equally as important as the payment.