We have tried to answer as many of your questions as possible within the FAQs so you will probably find the answer you need there, but if you need further assistance simply contact our team with your query by selecting the 'Get in touch' button in the top right hand corner of this page.

You can email our teams directly by selecting the subject of your query from the drop down menu provided. We have designated teams to deal with different matters so select the category that best suits your query.

To call and speak with one of our customer service advisors directly please dial: +44 (0)1865 312000.

Alternatively you can write to us by post to; Customer Services Team, Holiday Lettings Ltd., 2nd Floor, Barclay House, 242-254 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 7BY, United Kingdom

It's really helpful if you can provide us with your Advertiser ID, your Home ID and a contact phone number when you contact us.

Our business hours are 8am-6:30pm, Monday-Friday and we aim to deal with all queries within 2-3 working days.

If your account is now locked or you have forgotten the answer to your security question, please email us following the 'Get in touch' button on the right or call us on +44 (0)1865 312000 (8am-8pm, Monday-Friday).

When making changes to your photo gallery, you may find that you can't see these changes straight away when previewing your advert. Photo changes should update on Holiday Lettings within 60 minutes however it can sometimes take around 24 hours if you need to 'clear the cache'. This is a where your computer has stored the old version of the page and is not displaying the new changes.

You can try refreshing the page by holding down the 'Ctrl' key on your keyboard whilst pressing the 'F5' key which will 'force refresh'. If you are using a Mac, hold down the 'Command' key (or the 'Apple' key) and press 'R'. 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 updated advert correctly.

All messages from guests come into your Inbox page of your Holiday Lettings account so you can easily reply to enquiries, booking requests and other messages from there. Or just hit reply from your own personal email account to send a message back to the holidaymaker. Either way, the enquiry will be stored in your account so that you can see all sent and received messages with a guest on one page.

When you receive an enquiry to your email, you'll notice that the 'from' email address doesn't display the guest's email at this stage. Instead, you'll see what's known as an 'encrypted' email address that contains the guest's name. For example: Johnsmith1234@holidaylettings.co.uk. This is to ensure the safety of your enquiries and stop fraudsters attempting to intercept your enquires. Sadly, this activity is quite common and we have put this security measure in place to protect you and your guests. If you hit reply, your response will still be delivered to the guest and will also be recorded in your account pages. You will still be able to see the guest's details including their email address by clicking on 'View guest's details' in the 'Inbox section of your Holiday Lettings account.

You can control the email address that we send your enquiries to through the 'Details' section in your account.

You can do some basic checks to ensure that you always receive the booking enquiries we forward to you; 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.

To log in to your Holiday Lettings account you will need to enter your advertiser ID, password and two letters from one of the answers to your security questions. If you are having problems accessing your account check that you are entering the correct advertiser ID and password, as this is by far the most common reason for log in difficulties.

If you have forgotten your advertiser ID number or password you can reset your password by going to the Log in page and entering the email address registered on your Holiday Lettings account. We will then email you your Advertiser ID number and a link to follow to choose a new password.

If you have forgotten your advertiser ID or password and have not yet set up your security questions, you will be prompted to enter a phone number that is not displayed on your advert. If all of your phone numbers are displayed, then you will need to call us.

If you have forgotten the answer to your security question, or have locked your account please email us using the 'Get in touch' button on the right or call us on +44 (0)1865 312000 (8am-8pm, Monday-Friday).

Important note: Holiday Lettings will never email you to ask you for your log in details. If you receive such an email please notify us immediately.

You can change your questions by logging into your account, hovering over the 'Account' section and selecting the tab, 'My account'.

Select new questions from the drop down menu, answer it and then save the changes.

Please note: currently, you will be unable to edit Prices using Internet Explorer 9 browser as it is not compatible. You'll need to use an alternative browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome.

It's important to keep the prices in your advert up to date to ensure guests are seeing correct and current information. To edit your price table(s), see our step by step guide:

• Log on to your Holiday Lettings account.
• Click on 'Properties' and then 'Prices' next to the home you want to edit the prices for.
• This will open the pricing tables for your property.
• To edit an existing line of prices, find the row you want to edit and click on the drop down menu in the 'Actions' column.
• Select 'edit'.
• If you would like to completely clear a row, select 'delete'.
• Click on the 'Add rate' button to add new rows.

As late and early deals provide discounts on your normal prices, you'll be unable to edit your prices for the weeks that your deal is active. You can edit your prices again once your deal has come to an end.

Our system is very intelligent and will display your advert in holidaymaker searches that match the information on your advert. If you can't find your advert in a search that you have done, double check that the information listed on your advert correlates to the parameters in your search.

• If you are searching for particular dates, make sure that your availability calendar shows the dates are free for the entire period you are searching for.

• If you are searching by price and by date, please ensure that the date period you are searching is marked as available on your calendar and that the budget you are using would fall within the prices you charge for the dates in question. Don't forget if you're searching a period longer or shorter than a week you should ensure your budget allows for the change in price.

• If you are searching by group size, then be aware that your maximum-capacity rental rates table will make you searchable for group sizes of that number and four below.

• Check that you're searching in the correct locations that your home is listed in, the correct number of bedrooms listed on your advert and the correct type of property that your advert is listed under.

It's important that we hold up to date contact details for all of our advertisers. When necessary, please update your contact details on your account as soon as possible.

• Changing the contact details listed on your account

For security reasons Holiday Lettings staff are not able to change the contact details registered on the account on your behalf. In order to do this, log into your account and click on, 'Account', found at the top right hand side of the page.

We rotate all the adverts on a daily basis, so yours will be appearing in a different position every day.

We also find that people tend to search for specific dates and facilities, as well as smaller resorts. This means that your advert will usually appear on a shorter list. Please also remember that holidaymakers can re-order lists by price, size and location of the properties and therefore change the order of the results themselves.

A useful tool to help you to see the position of your advert in the search results and exactly where the hits to your advert are coming from is the 'Booking Manager' page, which can be accessed from your account. Click on 'View' underneath the title 'Hits History'. Here you will see a list of all the hits to your advert over the last 30 days. You can work out from the data and explanation here where you property appeared on the search results.

The page ID number at the end of the search thread tells you which page number of the search results your property appeared on. If no page ID is given, your property appeared on the first page of results!

Our calendars are quick and easy to update; simply go to your 'Properties' page and click on 'Availability'.

• Click once on the first date of the period you would like to mark
• Click once on the last date of the period you would like to mark
• Choose either 'unavailable' or 'available' and save

You can also update your calendar even when you don't have a booking to add simply by clicking on the link that says 'Is your availability calendar already up to date?' at the top of the page.

We recommend updating it every week as this gives a good impression to potential guests who view your advert - they can see it's been updated recently.

When you're using the online booking tool, your calendar will update automatically for you.

Please note: When updating availability using an iPad or an iPhone, you'll need to tap the start date for the period you want to select twice and then tap the end date for that period twice.

Currently, it is not possible to access your Reviews page in your Holiday Lettings account when using the following devices:

• iPad
• iPhone
• Safari Mac

To access the Reviews page, you'll need to use a device other than those listed such as a Windows PC.

You will be able to see the guest's details including their email address by clicking on the enquiry in the 'Inbox' section of your Holiday Lettings account.

You will then be taken to the conversation page with the holidaymaker, click on the blue 'View guest's details' link location on the right hand side of the page and your guests email address will be displayed.

Here at Holiday Lettings we really want your adverts to do well and we go to great lengths to make sure all adverts are in the best possible shape to receive as many enquiries as possible.

We do have certain minimum standards that help to achieve the best performance for not only your individual advert but also the site as a whole. Our customer service team review all adverts prior to activation and will let you know if any changes are required. For hints and tips on creating your advert, take note of the white speech bubbles next to each section when you're creating your advert.

• Your contact details and the address of your property

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

In addition, we require you to supply your registered residential landline telephone number on which we can contact you before activation.

• Property Name

To enable holidaymakers to distinguish one property advert from another, we require all adverts to have a property name. Reference numbers are not permitted. A memorable home name will stick in the holidaymaker's mind and help your home to stand out.

• Property 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. We cannot activate your advert without sufficient information in the Property Description.

• Photos

We require a minimum of four photos on every advert, which must include a selection of interior photos of your holiday property. Please ensure that you own the copyright to the photos you use and upload your original, full size digital files (that have not been re-sized) as we cannot activate adverts without original pictures.

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

• The Local Area

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. Providing people with this information inspires them to choose your property. Unfortunately we are unable to activate adverts without sufficient area and region information.

• Calendar

It is a requirement of your advertising contract with us that you display your property's availability to guests using the calendar on your advert. Your calendar must accurately reflect the current availability for the advertised property. Misrepresentation of availability of the advertised property is misleading to site users.

• Prices

To avoid misleading potential holidaymakers please make sure your primary pricing table reflects the maximum occupancy of your property, you can include up to three tables for different group sizes within your advert. Adverts where the prices do not reflect the maximum occupancy of the property cannot 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 prices with first night and last night completed in order for this search to work. If you do not have current weekly prices in your table your advert will not be found by our searches and for this reason we're unable to activate an advert without rates, or rates which are out of date.

• Original text

We cannot 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 and plagiarism is unacceptable.

• Single units only

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

If you require any further information or general advice, please visit our blog.

We have put together an advice page full of tips which should help you decide on a suitable price. We are not able to advise on the specific price you should charge for your property.

For copyright reasons it is strictly against our terms and conditions to copy text and photos from another advert. Therefore, we 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.

You can select the location of your home in the 'Location details' section from your 'Properties' page. It's very important that the location of your home is listed accurately so as not to mislead holidaymakers. We will check this when we activate your advert.

If we don't currently have the town or village where your holiday home is situated, you can create a new town when you set up your advert. We will check it and add it for you upon activation.

If you have a personal website for your property we can link to it from your advert and provide performance statistics for the number of times the link is used.

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. Go to the bottom of the 'Property details' page on through the 'Properties' section of your account 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 email us with a convenient time to call and we'll get back to you.

As per the terms and conditions of use of our website, we do not allow website addresses within the main body of your advert. Neither do we allow links to business or competitor sites. We reserve the right to remove and/or deactivate any links.

Your guests can leave a review of your home independently via your Holiday Lettings advert or your TripAdvisor listing (if you have one). You can also send them an invite to write a review through the 'Reviews' button in your Home Management page. As holidaymakers rely on genuine reviews in order to select the perfect holiday for them, we would encourage you to gain feedback through the review facility on your advert.

A review on your advert could make all the difference between an enquiry and a booking. That extra testimonial could persuade a holidaymaker to book your home over another. The more reviews you have, the more enquiries and bookings you're likely to receive.

Please see our section 'Reviews from your guests' for more details about this feature.

Holiday Lettings provide you with the ability to add an interactive map to your advert as part of your advertising subscription.

To add this feature to your advert, you'll need to log in to your account, go to the 'Properties' page and click on 'Location details'. To mark your home on the map, double click on the map and a red pointer will appear. If you are happy with the accuracy of the pointer location then click the "Save Location" button and a text bubble will appear to indicate that the location has been saved. To move the map to a different location you can either:

• Drag the map by pressing and holding the left mouse button
• Use the arrows on the control in the top left corner of the map

To zoom in and out use the + and - buttons below the control at the top left corner of the map.

To ensure your home is marked as accurately as possible, zoom in as closely as you can before adding the pointer. You can then zoom out a little (depending on the detail you want to show holidaymakers) before hitting the "Save Location" button.

Your interactive map displays the nearest attractions and restaurants to your home. Holidaymakers can easily see what they're interested in by ticking and un-ticking these places of interest.

Soon you be able to add restaurants and attractions to the map yourself. The existing information has been provided by TripAdvisor.

It's important to keep the prices in your advert up to date to ensure guests are seeing correct and current information. To edit your price table(s), see our step by step guide:

• Log on to your Holiday Lettings account.
• Click on 'Properties' and then 'Prices' next to the home you want to edit the prices for.
• This will open the pricing tables for your property.
• To edit an existing line of prices, find the row you want to edit and click on the drop down menu in the 'Actions' column.
• Select 'edit'.
• If you would like to completely clear a row, select 'delete'.
• Click on the 'Add rate' button to add new rows.

As late and early deals provide discounts on your normal prices, you'll be unable to edit your prices for the weeks that your deal is active. You can edit your prices again once your deal has come to an end.

We would recommend that you include additional prices for smaller group sizes in your current advert, as this will help to maximise your adverts exposure on the site and encourage smaller groups of people to enquire about staying in the property.

To add another pricing table for a smaller number of people, log in to your account pages and go to your 'Properties' page. Click on 'Prices' next to the home you want to add more price tables for. Click on 'Add rates for another group size'. You can add a maximum of three rental rate tables per advert.

Our calendars are quick and easy to update; simply go to your 'Properties' page and click on 'Availability'.

• Click once on the first date of the period you would like to mark
• Click once on the last date of the period you would like to mark
• Choose either 'unavailable' or 'available' and save

You can also update your calendar even when you don't have a booking to add simply by clicking on the link that says 'Is your availability calendar already up to date?' at the top of the page.

We recommend updating it every week as this gives a good impression to potential guests who view your advert - they can see it's been updated recently.

When you're using the online booking tool, your calendar will update automatically for you. When a booking request comes in, your calendar will be marked as 'reserved' for this period. You won't be able to select 'reserved' manually.

There is no 'unknown' (grey) as there was previously, as research has found that guests don't find this calendar status helpful when looking for a home. They may still enquire when the dates are marked as 'unknown' even though the home isn't available. If you're not sure you're letting over a certain period, you can detail this in the 'further details' section of your advert found in the 'property details' page.

Please note: When updating availability using an iPad or an iPhone, you'll need to tap the start date for the period you want to select twice and then tap the end date for that period twice.

Enabling your guests to pay by debit or credit card is easier than you may think and it's something more and more holidaymakers are asking for.

In order to show to your clients that you can accept payments via Paypal and / or debit and credits cards please visit the 'Account' pages and then click on 'Account preferences'.

Just below your contact details on your advert, you'll find your 'advertised since' information which shows how long your Holiday Lettings advert has been online. If your advert comes offline for any reason, this date will be reset to zero.

Once you've been advertising with us for a year, you will have an additional icon which highlights the number of years you have been listed with us. This is a great way to further reassure holidaymakers that you're well established on Holiday Lettings and make them more likely to enquire with you.

If you've started creating a new advert template in your account by mistake, or you no longer wish to use it, you can delete it to keep your account pages tidy. When you're logged in, visit Properties > My properties, find the template you want to delete and click on the little orange cross on the right hand side.

You can log on to your account at any point to add or amend your photos. Similarly, to replace an existing photo you can carry out the same process and upload a new photograph over the existing photo.

• Log in to your account and click on 'Properties' and then 'Photos'.
• Click on 'Add photos…' and locate the photo file within your computer that you wish to upload. Click the "Open" button
• Or simply click and drag the picture files from your computer into the dotted line box and drop them.
• Add descriptive captions to highlight the best selling points of your property by typing in the caption section associated with each photo

There are a few common problems people have when trying to upload photos on to the internet.

• You've updated your photos but the changes are not showing on your advert

This is a problem known as caching where your computer has stored the old version of the page and is not displaying the new changes. 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.

To see the latest version of your advert, bring up the page in question and then holding down the 'Ctrl' key on your keyboard whilst clicking on the 'F5' key which will 'force refresh' the page. If you are using a Mac, hold down the 'Command' key (or the 'Apple' key) and press 'R'.

• You're trying to upload photos to the site but your page always seems to time-out

If this happens you are probably trying to add photos that are too big for the speed of your internet connection. First, try adding each photo one by one. If you are still having problems use an image editor to resize your images to just 640 pixels across and 480 pixels high.

• You can't see any images on the website

It may be that your internet browser is blocking images from the Holiday Lettings site and that is why you are unable to see anything. To fix this you will need to click on 'Tools' on your internet browser page and then select 'Options'. From here you may then be able to click on 'Content' before clicking on the 'Exception' button opposite the wording 'Load Images Automatically'.

Once you have done this you will then need to click on the website listed in the white box saying 'www.holidaylettings.co.uk' and then click the button 'Remove site'. This should then allow you to see buttons and pictures on the website.

Alternatively, if whilst you are on the website, a bar pops up along the top of the screen saying it has blocked an image, you will need to click on the bar or 'OK' to allow you to see the images on the website again.

To rearrange your photo gallery, log on to your account pages and click on 'Properties', then 'Photos'. Click and drag a photo from one position to another and your photos and their captions will be swapped.

If you would like to delete the photo altogether please follow the below instructions:

• Log in to your account pages
• Visit the 'Photos' page from your 'Properties' page
• Click on the orange cross next to the photo you wish to delete

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 blog.

The TripWow slideshow is a feature experiencing a number if issues and will shortly be removed from all adverts, as we can no longer support this feature.

When someone submits a review through your Holiday Lettings advert (or your TripAdvisor listing if you have one) the review will be checked by TripAdvisor to make sure it meets the guidelines. You will then get an email asking you to confirm that the person was a guest at your property. The email will be sent to the address you have registered on your Holiday Lettings account.

Follow the instructions in the email to confirm or deny whether that person stayed at your home. You will not be able to read the review at this stage. If this isn't done within five days the review is automatically posted to your advert(s).

The full process is:

• A guest leaves a review via your advert page
• TripAdvisor checks the review to make sure it meets their review guidelines
• You confirm they stayed at your property via your Holiday Lettings account
• The review goes live on your advert on Holiday Lettings and, if you have one, your listing on TripAdvisor
• If you like, you can post a response to the review via your Holiday Lettings account. See our tips on responding to reviews
• TripAdvisor checks the response to make sure it meets their response guidelines
• The response goes live on your advert

You can manage your reviews on the 'Reviews' page on your Holiday Lettings account. Log in to your account and visit your Home Management page.

Because of TripAdvisor's strict checks in place on reviews and responses, it can take around 4-6 weeks (sometimes more in particularly busy seasons) for a review to get posted on your advert.

Anyone who has stayed at your home since January 2010 can leave a review. Each guest in the party is allowed to review your home as they may have each had different experiences.

Before the review is posted to your advert you'll have five days to verify whether that person stayed at your home. This is different to reviews for hotels and restaurants on TripAdvisor which are currently not verified.

The easiest way to collect reviews is via your account on Holiday Lettings.

Log into your account and click on the 'Reviews' button.

From here, you can collect reviews by sending an invite to any guests who have stayed at your property. Contacting all of your previous guests to leave a review is a great way of encouraging them to book another holiday with you.

You can also find your guests by going through old emails. You can still invite people to leave a review if they booked through another listing website or through your personal website. The only condition is that the person must have stayed at your property within the last 12 months. Once you have sent invites to your guests through the 'Reviews' button, close the 'invite past guests' box and refresh your screen. You should then see the column for 'Requests sent' update.

Your guests can still post a review without an invite. They can leave a review via your Holiday Lettings advert or, if you have one, your TripAdvisor listing.Some people go to great lengths to boost their reviews. You could get special business cards or flyers printed that ask for feedback.

The reviews system is managed by TripAdvisor, so to leave a review, a guest needs to sign up to TripAdvisor. They will be asked to provide an email address - this is so TripAdvisor can contact them if any issues arise.

We can appreciate that some holidaymakers may not want to sign up to TripAdvisor to write a 'one off' review. However the reason they need to do this is to ensure that reviews are as accurate as possible and that the reviews are genuine.

When leaving a review the guest will need to agree to TripAdvisor's terms and conditions. This is to confirm that the reviewer is not affiliated with your property to make sure that friends or family members don't post any 'fake' reviews. TripAdvisor has strict checks and ways of detecting fake reviews.

Signing up to TripAdvisor is a quick and simple process with only a few details needed. If the holidaymaker has a Facebook account they can sign in using their Facebook log in details, which is even quicker.

Reviews will not appear on your advert immediately.

Once a guest has left a review they will initially receive a 'thank you' from TripAdvisor for posting a review. In some instances, they may also be asked to 'verify' the review they have written.

The majority of reviews are posted to the 'Reviews' page in your account within a couple of weeks, however, it may take longer, especially during their busiest seasons. As we are in post high holiday season, there is a delay in reviews coming through so it may take longer than expected for reviews to be published. It can currently take up to 4 to 6 weeks for the reviews to come through the TripAdvisor system.

Reviews need to be checked by TripAdvisor moderators before they can be posted to your advert. If there has been a delay in posting the review, the guest will need to contact TripAdvisor directly using the Contact Us form.

The full process is:• A guest leaves a review via your advert page• TripAdvisor checks the review to make sure it meets their review guidelines (this may take some time because of the volume of reviews being processed, with particular delays at seasonal points throughout the year)• You confirm they stayed at your property via your Holiday Lettings account• The review goes live on your advert on Holiday Lettings and, if you have one, your listing on TripAdvisor• If you like, you can post a response to the review via your Holiday Lettings account. See our tips on responding to reviews• TripAdvisor checks the response to make sure it meets their response guidelines• The response goes live on your advert

Please be aware that after receiving your first review, it will take around seven to ten days for the overall review score to be displayed on your advert and on your advert preview in the search results pages.

You can give your side of the story by adding a response to a review. You may want to do this if you don't agree with your guest's comments, or just to thank them for leaving such positive feedback.

Visit the 'Reviews' page in your account to submit a response.Your response should be professional and courteous. Remember that your future guests will see it, so make sure it shows your home in the best light. See our tips on responding to reviews.

A guest can only leave one review on your advert per stay, so you always get the final say. Likewise you are only allowed to leave one response for each review you receive so take some time and consider your response carefully before responding. If there are other people involved with your account, make sure they know that you will be writing the response.

TripAdvisor will check your response to make sure it meets their guidelines. If approved, your response will appear directly under the original review. It will not be forwarded to the reviewer, but they may see it if they visit your advert again.

After a review has been submitted, you'll have five days to verify whether that person stayed at your home. At this point you won't see their review. You'll just be provided with their name and date of stay. The review will automatically be posted on your advert if you don't respond within the five days.

Once you've confirmed that a guest stayed at your property, the review will be posted to your 'Reviews' page in your account. You can read the full review by clicking on the 'Manage Reviews' tab. If you like you can post a response to the review via the 'Manage Reviews' tab. See our tips on responding to reviewsIt shouldn't take long for the review to be posted to your advert on Holiday Lettings after you've verified the guest. If you have a listing on TripAdvisor, it may take up to a week for the review to go live on that listing.

Please be aware that after receiving your first review, it will take around seven to ten days for the overall review score to be displayed on your advert and on your advert preview in the search results pages.

You have the opportunity to confirm or deny whether a person stayed at your property. At this stage you will only have their name and their date of stay. If you don't recognise the name, please consider whether it could be someone from the same party whose details weren't on the booking form.

Never deny reviews just because you're worried about what a guest has written. The reviewer will have the opportunity to resubmit their review and TripAdvisor will ask them for evidence that they stayed. If they provide this, TripAdvisor will post the review on your advert. At this point the reviewer will probably be more annoyed that you didn't allow them to post their feedback in the first place.

You can respond to any reviews that are posted on your advert – you still have the opportunity to have your say. See our tips on responding to reviews

It is very unlikely to happen, but if a guest threatens to write a bad review if you don't comply with their demands then contact our customer services team in the first instance.

You'll be asked to verify whether the guest stayed at your home and given their name and date of stay. This is all about verifying whether they can post a review on your advert – only people who have stayed at your home should be able to.

TripAdvisor is an open forum. In general reviews are trusted by holidaymakers because they are not filtered or biased. If you were able to filter your reviews, holidaymakers may lose confidence in even your positive ones.

You can give your side of the story by adding a response to a review. You may want to do this if you don't agree with your guest's comments, or just to thank them for leaving such positive feedback.

Visit the 'Reviews' page on your Holiday Lettings Home Management page to submit a response.

Your response should be professional and courteous. Remember that your future guests will see it, so make sure it shows your home in the best light. See our tips on responding to reviews

A guest can only leave one review on your advert, so you always get the final say. Likewise you are only allowed to leave one response for each review you receive so take some time and consider your response carefully before responding. If there are other people involved with your account, make sure they know that you will be writing the response.

TripAdvisor will check your response to make sure it meets their TripAdvisor's response guidelines. If approved, your response will appear directly under the original review. It will not be forwarded to the reviewer, but they may see it if they visit your advert again.

TripAdvisor is an open forum. As such, all reviews which meet its review criteria will be published. This is one of the reasons why their reviews are so popular and trusted with travellers around the world.

If you have reason to believe that the guest did not stay at your home or they have written the review on the wrong advert, please contact our customer services team.

You can respond to any reviews that are left on your advert, so you will always have the opportunity to give your side of the story. Remember that people don't always take reviews at face value – they will discredit a review if it seems picky or out of order.

The TripAdvisor overall rating displayed at the top of your advert, and in the search results page, is a pure average of the reviews that you have on your advert. The overall score is calculated on a weekly basis, so you may find that, following a new review, the overall score takes a little time to update.

At the moment, holidaymakers cannot search for homes with reviews or filter the search results by number/overall score of reviews. However, if you have a TripAdvisor advert, holidaymakers will be able to search by number of reviews/review score when they are viewing your TripAdvisor advert on the TripAdvisor site.

If your home is listed on TripAdvisor, the more positive reviews you have, the higher you will appear in the TripAdvisor search results. You'll find that even a few good reviews can move you quickly up the listings, even for the most competitive regions or countries.

When a review is posted on your advert, the search results do not update immediately. This is because the search listings are updated independently on a weekly basis. Also, TripAdvisor want to get your guests' reviews online as quickly as possible, so sometimes the number of reviews you have in the main body of your listing will not correspond with the number in the search results.

Reviews do not affect your place in the search results on Holiday Lettings. We randomly rotate all of our adverts on a daily basis. We may consider adding reviews to that process in the future, but whatever we do will be in the interest of driving more enquiries to all adverts on Holiday Lettings.

When a review is posted to your advert, the search results do not update immediately. This is because the search listings are updated independently on a weekly basis.

TripAdvisor want to get your guest's reviews online as soon as possible, so sometimes the number of reviews you have in the main body of your listing may not correspond with the number in the search results.

You can only transfer other TripAdvisor reviews to your advert. They may be with another company that is part of the TripAdvisor family. If this is the case, please contact us with the details of the advert or advert numbers that you would like the reviews transferring from and we will be in contact with more details.

If you want to transfer your reviews from other listing websites, you will need to ask those reviewers to leave their feedback again.

TripAdvisor has a weekly calculator that updates reviews on Holiday Lettings and the TripAdvisor network with the new reviews that have been posted and adds them to the search results. The reason your listing is not displaying is because this calculator hasn't processed the new information on the site.

Please check again in seven days and you should see your review added to the search results as well as to your advert.

After you've verified your first review you'll be able to view it in the 'Manage reviews' tab in the 'Reviews' section of your Home Management page and it will appear on your advert (and TripAdvisor listing if you have one) shortly afterwards.

In the case of your first review, there will be a delay of around seven to ten days before you see the overall score displayed at the top of your advert and on your advert preview in the search results pages. This is because the overall score needs to be calculated at TripAdvisor before it can be displayed. The overall score is calculated every seven to ten days.

If you cannot see your reviews on your advert this is probably because you do not have JavaScript turned on

To turn on JavaScript you need to follow instructions based on what type of browser you are using. Here are instructions for Internet Explorer and Firefox.

From the Tools menu of Internet Explorer, select the Internet Options. Click on the Security tab. Make sure the Internet globe icon is highlighted. Click on the Custom Level button to bring up the security options for your browser. Search through the menu for the Active scripting option. Make sure Enable is selected. Click the OK button.

From the Tools menu of Firefox (Windows), select Options. Select the Content tab and check the Enable JavaScript option. Click OK to close this window.

Firefox (Mac) Choose Preferences under menu bar. Select the Content tab and check the Enable JavaScript option. Close this window.

Refreshing the page should then display the button

Confirming, denying and responding to reviews can be done through the 'Reviews' page of your account. If you are not able to access this page, check the version of the browser that you're using. The reviews platform is not compatible with Internet Explorer version 8. Upgrade to Internet Explorer version 9 or use an alternative browser such as Firefox or Google Chrome. If you're still unable to access the reviews platform, please contact us with a description of the problem, which browser you're using and, if possible, screenshots of the error you're seeing.

Currently, it is not possible to access your reviews page in your Holiday Lettings account when using the following devices:

• iPad
• iPhone
• Safari Mac

To access the Reviews page, you'll need to use a device other than those listed such as a Windows PC.

Your TripAdvisor listing is synchronised to your Holiday Lettings advert. Any changes you make to your Holiday Lettings advert will change automatically on your TripAdvisor listing in around 10 to 14 days (although hopefully quicker). Most of the sections in your Holiday Lettings advert will appear in your TripAdvisor listing - currently, the exceptions are the HD photo display. The team at Holiday Lettings will remain your port of call for all advertising related questions.

The style of the TripAdvisor listing is outside of our control and currently any changes you wish to make can only be made to the content you create and which also appears on your Holiday Lettings advert.

It's quite possible that your home or holiday business is already listed on TripAdvisor. It could be listed in a number of ways, each delivering different levels of exposure for your home.

If you also advertise with FlipKey you will already have a full holiday rental listing and we have tried our best to ensure it hasn't been duplicated on TripAdvisor. There's no need for you to act now unless you also want to enhance the presence of your home on Holiday Lettings by opting for our Premium Advert with its extended features and search results page exposure.

Your home could have been mentioned by someone in a TripAdvisor forum. It is quite possible that someone at some point has searched for accommodation and come across your home on Holiday Lettings, then posted the link on a TripAdvisor forum asking others if they have any experience of that accommodation or area. This could include a link back to your Holiday Lettings advert, or any other site where your home is listed. However, it does not give you presence in the TripAdvisor holiday rentals section and it doesn't enable you to mould the content of the listing either.

We're aware that if you have a B&B it may already have a listing on TripAdvisor. As you probably know already, the extent/benefit of this listing will mostly depend on whether it is a paid, or free listing. Either way it can attract reviews; but only the paid version can showcase your property optimally. You'll reach a different audience by having a listing on TripAdvisor through your Holiday Lettings advert as it will appear on their holiday rentals section.

If you have a listing on TripAdvisor through Holiday Lettings your Late and Early Deal offers will now also be displayed on TripAdvisor as well as on Holiday Lettings. This means that your extra marketing will promote your holiday home to millions of potential guests from around the world.

Log in to your account to buy an Early or Late Deal. Or find out more about Deals.

The marketing extra, Spotlights, are solely for display on Holiday Lettings at the moment. If this changes, we'll let you know. TripAdvisor does not currently offer its own additional marketing options.

Your TripAdvisor listing statistics will appear in the same place as your Holiday Lettings advert statistics within the 'Dashboard' of your account. Enquiries will be clearly marked as having come from TripAdvisor or Holiday Lettings and a total number of enquiries will be displayed.

If you're looking for your home on TripAdvisor, remember it's listed currently on tripadvisor.com, tripadvisor.com.au, tripadvisor.co.uk, tripadvisor.ca, tripadvisor.ie and tripadvisor.es. Recently, this has expanded to tripadvisor.fr and tripadvisor.de and there will be further developments in the future.

TripAdvisor.com is TripAdvisor's most global site and acts as a hub for all of the other sites. Quite often you can enter one of the other TripAdvisor sites but find you end up on a page hosted by the .com site. Of visitors to the .com site, more than half are from outside the USA with up to a quarter from Europe.

The TripAdvisor sites that currently list holiday homes attract a combined 25 million monthly users. As the world's largest travel website it has a captive audience of keen and regular travellers and is focused on ensuring that they see, hear and engage with the latest addition to the TripAdvisor sites, holiday/vacation rentals. More holidaymakers use TripAdvisor worldwide than any other travel site, so the potential audience that your home is exposed to couldn't be any greater.

Plus, if you have only recently had your Holiday Lettings advert activated or upgraded it may take around 10 to 14 days to appear on the site.If you still can't find it, please contact us via the form at the top of this page.

Currently, holiday/vacation rental sections are active on these sites: tripadvisor.com, tripadvisor.co.uk, tripadvisor.ie, tripadvisor.com.au, tripadvisor.es, tripadvisor.fr and tripadvisor.de. However, in the coming months more TripAdvisor sites around the world will have a holiday rentals page activated.

TripAdvisor.com is TripAdvisor's most global site and acts as a hub for all of the other sites. Quite often you can enter one of the other TripAdvisor sites but find you end up on a page hosted by the .com site. Of visitors to the .com site, more than half are from outside the USA with up to a quarter from Europe.

The TripAdvisor sites that currently list holiday homes attract a combined 25 million monthly users. As the world's largest travel website it has a captive audience of keen and regular travellers and is focused on ensuring that they see, hear and engage with the latest addition to the TripAdvisor sites, holiday/vacation rentals. More holidaymakers use TripAdvisor worldwide than any other travel site, so the potential audience that your home is exposed to couldn't be any greater.

The multiple ways users can sort and refine their search options on TripAdvisor should ensure that your home is seen by many of those millions. What's more, compared to network upgrades offered by other holiday rental companies, your listing on TripAdvisor is a full page listing with a full search results page listing including photos.

Whilst not every visitor to TripAdvisor may intend to browse or enquire about holiday/vacation rentals, this sector of their business is of prime importance to them and as such they are promoting holiday homes to their enormous audience in order to encourage them to engage with their holiday home content. It may take some time to gain full traction, but the effort has already begun and holiday/vacation rentals are very much part of TripAdvisor's marketing efforts.

If you would like your advert removed from TripAdvisor, please contact us via the form at the top of this page. If you're absolutely sure about removing the listing it will take approximately 10-14 days to disappear from the TripAdvisor sites.

On Holiday Lettings you can choose which currency you enter your prices in and the holidaymakers can use the currency tool to convert them to a broad range of currencies that have more meaning to them.

TripAdvisor will display only one currency of rates, dependent on the country that the advert is being displayed in. For example tripadvisor.es and tripadvisor.ie will always display the rates in Euros, and tripadvisor.com will display in US$. On tripadvisor.co.uk your prices will be displayed in pounds Sterling.

The tripadvisor.es/.fr/.de sites have been designed and created by TripAdvisor. However, the translation button which allows viewers to translate the adverts from English to Spanish, French or German is a tool that is powered by Google and is not a system that we or TripAdvisor have any influence over.

The listings have the free text that advertisers have written themselves and the Google Translate tool can change these passages into Spanish, French or German. As it is translating passages without any knowledge of context, there are of course limits to what it can acheive. However, we are confident that this will enable Spanish, French or German speaking holidaymakers to have a good understanding of what property advertisers are trying to convey.

Holiday Lettings has over 10 years experience of marketing holiday homes worldwide and 21,000+ home owners trust us to showcase their homes. As the UK's busiest holiday home website we ensure it is our brand that holidaymakers see and hear about all year around, so that we bring you more enquiries and repeat bookings.

Holiday Lettings offers the biggest and most flexible range of advertising options for holiday home owners, ensuring that your advert is tailored to target your potential guests.

For more information visit our Advertise with us pages.

You decide how you want to advertise with us. Choose a free listing and pay only 3% on the bookings you receive, or choose an annual listing at a fixed price of £329 (both exclude VAT).

This table summarises the features of free and annual listings, helping you to choose the best option for you.

Find out more about advertising with us, or get in touch via the link above if you have any questions.

How do free listings work?

With a free listing there's no commitment or fixed term contract – you decide when to advertise and how long for. So you can fill empty days, weeks or months without having to invest in a full annual listing. It's free to list your home, with a small processing fee of 3% (excluding VAT) to pay on the bookings you receive. Guests pay a 5% booking fee which we automatically add to your rental price. These fees do not apply to annual listings.

What can I advertise?

Private cottages, villas, apartments, guest houses, B&Bs, annexes, camper vans and plenty more to boot. Even if you live at your place for most of the year, you can still open it up to guests for the days or weeks you're away.

Can I control who stays?

Yes, you decide if you want to accept a booking or not. With online booking you have 48 hours from when we send you a new booking request, otherwise the booking expires. Guests can still contact you by email or phone if they have questions and are not quite ready to book.

When do I get paid?

Peace of mind for guests is important to us. So with free listings we provide extra payment protection by taking all payments securely online and transferring the money to your chosen account approximately 48 hours after the guest has checked in. Please note: we only process payments on UK working days.

What are the booking conditions?

We provide you with a ready-made booking contract for each booking you take. This reassures the guest and also makes the full details clear, including the cancellation policy you've chosen. The guest needs to view and accept this contract before completing the booking.

Signing up with Holiday Lettings costs nothing and couldn't be simpler, register online or call our Sales team on +44 (0)1865 312030.

Advertisers pay just £329 + VAT for an annual listing.

Additional annual adverts are offered at the discounted rate of £299 + VAT.

For more information visit our pricing pages.

If you would like to advertise more than one property there are a number of options:

• Additional adverts - purchase another advert for your additional property at a discounted rate.

• If you manage 10 or more properties contact our Agent Services Team directly on +44 (0)1865 312000 or by email

Our adverts are designed to promote a single rental property; we do not allow more than one property to be advertised on a single advert page.

A member of our team can set up your advert for a £20 + VAT fee. You will need to provide us with the information required to create the advert. For more information relating to our advert inputting service call the Sales team on +44 (0)1865 312030.

We can translate your advert from Spanish, Portuguese, Italian or French into English, there is a fee of £25+ VAT plus an advert set up fee of £20+ VAT for this service. All adverts are displayed in English and you will need to be able to respond to enquiries in English.

For more information contact Sales on +44 (0)1865 312030.

Our golf and ski pages can be found under the 'Holiday Ideas' section accessible from the main home page. Your property will automatically be listed on these pages if you tick the box in Stage 3 on your Home Management page to say that your property either has a golf course on site or within 15 minutes' walk, or that your property is located in a ski resort. There is no charge for being listed on these pages.

As an advertiser if you recommend Holiday Lettings to a friend, and they end up advertising with us as a result, we will give you a free gift as a way of saying thanks.

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.

What are Spotlights?

• Spotlights are featured, in rotation, at the top of all search results pages
• They include any photo from your advert, location & price

Why opt for a Spotlight?

• 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
• A 12 week Spotlight for £199 + VAT

Holidaymakers look for bargains – that's why the Late Deal and Early Deal pages are some of the most popular on the website. They get up to 940,000 unique searches every month during the popular seasons.

Buying a Late Deal or Early Deal will put your home in these popular searches for your chosen weeks. You will need to offer a small discount on your normal rental rate for the period of the Deal. The discount will also appear in red on your advert in the search results – it will stand in all of the search results pages on the website.

Log in to your account to buy an Early or Late Deal. Or find out more about Deals.

You can attract the early birds by taking out an Early Deal. Early Deals are good for getting your booking season started earlier. You can entice holidaymakers with a bargain for booking early.

For four weeks your home will be featured in the Early Deal searches. You can choose which weeks you would like the extra exposure.

The Early Deal period that you're promoting must be for 1-4 consecutive weeks. You must have availability for all of them. You'll need to offer a discount on your normal weekly rental price.

The start date of the Early Deal period must be at least three months from the date you activate the deal. The end date must be within four weeks of the start date.

Log in to your account to buy an Early Deal. You can save money by buying three Deals at once. They will be credited to your account and they have no expiry date – you can use them whenever you're ready.

You can attract the last minute bookers by taking out a Late Deal. Late Deals are good for filling empty weeks by giving your property some extra exposure. They're great for getting last minute bookings and can be used all year round.

For two weeks your home will be featured in the Late Deal searches. You can choose which weeks you want the extra exposure.

The Late Deal period that you're promoting must be for 1-4 consecutive weeks. You must have availability for all of them. You'll need to offer a discount on your normal weekly rental price.

The start date of the Late Deal period must be within three months of the date you activate the deal. The end date must be within four weeks of the start date. Log in to your account to buy a Late Deal. You can save money by buying three Deals at once. They will be credited to your account and they have no expiry date – you can use them whenever you're ready.

You get a discount when you buy a bundle of three Deals at once. They can be stored as credits on your account to use for any of the homes that you advertise with us.

Offer credits have no expiry date. You can save them to use at the perfect time.

Log in to your account to buy the three Deal credits at the reduced price. Once you've made the payment the credits will be added to 'Add deals and spotlights' page in your account. You can activate them whenever you're ready.

You can still edit the price of an active Late or Early Deal at any point while it is live on the website. Visit the 'Add deals and spotlights' page from the 'Account' tab. The Deals that are currently displayed on your advert will be at the top of this page. Click the blue 'edit' link and you can edit the price.

You can't edit the currency of your rental rates or your normal rental rates for the same period of the Deal whilst your Deal is active. Make sure this information is correct before you activate the Deal.

It's difficult to change the dates of the Deal period for an active Deal. If you need to change them contact us as soon as possible and we will try our best to change the dates for you. The date it expires and is removed from our Deals search on the site will stay the same.

If your Deal has been placed on the wrong advert just get in touch and we will move it to the correct home. Contact us as soon as possible as the date it expires and is removed from our Deals search will stay the same.

We can't advise you on what discount you should offer with your Deal as it depends on what your normal rental price is. And, of course, you have costs to cover which you have a better idea of.

A 20% discount is the average rate that owners offer. However the more you reduce your prices, the higher your chances of securing a booking.

Your Deal will be displayed within the relevant search results pages for Late Deals or Early Deals. The discount you're offering will also be shown in red on your advert in the search results.

Make sure your Deal is still active by logging into your account pages and visiting the 'Add deals and Spotlights' page. Late Deals are active for two weeks and Early Deals for four weeks.

If your advert is listed on TripAdvisor, your Late or Early Deal for that advert will also be displayed on the TripAdvisor website. Your Deal offer will be shown on your TripAdvisor listing, in the Deals tab and also on your advert in the search results.

If you're not listed on TripAdvisor just log in to your account to upgrade to a Premium Advert and get the benefit of this extra exposure. Find out more about the extra listing on TripAdvisor.

A Spotlight will put your home at the top of the search results pages that are relevant to your location. Your Spotlight will be seen on average 25,000 times every week by people searching for homes in your area.

Spotlights are displayed according to the location search criteria entered by a holidaymaker. The homes with Spotlights randomly rearrange on the 'Featured Properties' carousel every 5-10 minutes.

If a holidaymaker clicks on your Spotlight, they will be automatically taken to your full Holiday Lettings advert.

More about Spotlights

Log in to your account to buy a Spotlight. You can buy a Spotlight for a 3 week, 6 week or 12 week period.

If you do not already have a credit on your account then click on 'Add deals and Spotlights' from you 'Account' page. Choose the home(s) you want a Spotlight for, how long you want it for, the photo you would like displayed and the start date. Payments can then be made as normal. You can buy a credit to use at a later date – you will need to buy this on the 'Buy and renew adverts' page.

If you already have a credit on your account you can use this when you like. Set it up through the 'Add deals and Spotlights' page and select 'Use credit' whenever you're ready to use it.

We've put together a handy table to show the best times of year to take out a Deal or a Spotlight for homes in different areas around the world.

Best times for a Deal or a Spotlight (pdf, 85kb)

Having your own personal website to market your home shows holidaymakers that you've taken the time and effort to create something professional and memorable. It will help to promote your Holiday Lettings listing even more.

We invest millions each year in online and offline marketing worldwide to make sure we drive more traffic to the website. But a personal website will help you promote your home independently of Holiday Lettings. With a personal website you can point people to see just your home, eg www.houseonthebeach.co.uk

Our WebCreator product gives you a website that is synchronised with your listing on Holiday Lettings. It will save you time and money buying, creating and updating your own website yourself or using a web designer.

Our WebCreator product builds a personal website for your home based on all the information in your advert. There's no extra hassle for you. Your website will be synchronised with your listing on Holiday Lettings. Whenever you make changes to your advert, your website will update straight away.

To buy the WebCreator product log in to your account and select 'WebCreator' from your 'Account' page. You will need to choose your preferred domain name, eg www.boulderscapetown.com, plus your own colour scheme, headers and font. Select 'Order now' and follow the payment instructions on the following pages. Your new website could be online within 48 hours.

More about WebCreator

Log in to your account pages and select 'WebCreator'.

You will be able to choose your colour scheme, headings and font. You can choose what information you want to be on your new website too and which photos to display (up to 24 can be displayed). Don't worry if you change your mind later – you can always edit your settings again.

Your WebCreator will automatically update every time you edit your Holiday Lettings advert.

There are things you can do to make sure people find your personal website:

• Word of mouth works wonders – drop it into daily conversations with friends, family and colleagues.
• Add a link to your website at the bottom of every email you send out.
• Include it on your business cards, leaflets and any other documents relating to your home.
• Advertise in the local newspapers or leave some leaflets in your local shops.
• Get social and link to it from any social networking sites you use such as Facebook and Twitter.

WebCreator is a direct link to your advert and has limited content, so don't be surprised if it doesn't come up too high in the search results for search engines like Google or Bing.

You can improve your place in the search engines with these tips:

• Register your site with Google so people can find it in this search engine
• Link to other websites from the useful links page and ask them to link back to you. Search engines love links – in general the more you have on your site, the better your place in the search engines.
• Regularly update your advert with new information, rental rates and availability so that your website is always up to date. Pages that are updated more often generally have a better place in the search engines.

Other tips for marketing your WebCreator (pdf,787kb)

If you have a personal website we can activate a link from your advert to your website for free.

In order to add a link, we would ask that you give us a link from your website in return. You will need to insert the link using this HTML code or send this link to your web developer. Once you've added the link email owner.links@holidaylettings.co.uk and we'll activate the link on your advert. If you need any help with setting up your link just email us at the same address.

Displaying your Holiday Lettings availability calendar on your website also acts as a reciprocal link. You or your web developer will need to insert our HTML code onto your website. Contact us to obtain the code.

You can display your Holiday Lettings availability calendar on your personal website. This will mean you only ever have to update one calendar. The best way is to 'embed' your calendar into your website, but you could just add a link to your advert.

You or your web developer will need insert our HTML code onto your website. Contact us to obtain the code.

Having your availability calendar on your website acts as a reciprocal link to Holiday Lettings. In return we can add a link to your website from your advert - just email owner.links@holidaylettings.co.uk to get the link activated.

To pay online using a debit or credit card simply log in to your account pages and visit 'Buy and renew adverts'. Select the annual subscription option if you would like the payment to be automatically renewed each year (we will always remind you before the payment is debited from your account, just in case you want to cancel).

If you prefer, send a cheque made payable to 'Holiday Lettings Ltd' to: Holiday Lettings2nd Floor Barclay House242-254 Banbury RoadOxford 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. Contact us if you would like further details about bank transfers.

All UK residents are subject to VAT (Value Added Tax) at 20%. If you are registered as a business in the UK you can claim this back.

If you are an EU resident and registered for VAT in your country of residence we are required to collect your VAT number to comply with invoicing laws.

If you run your holiday home as a small business and do not have a VAT registration in your country you will need to tick the check box that states that you confirm you do not have to pay VAT.

If you are not 'in business' then the VAT charge will apply.

If you are resident outside the EU then no VAT is charged.

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.

An invoice for each payment you make to Holiday Lettings will be automatically sent to the email address registered on your Holiday Lettings account. It can take up to a few hours after a payment is made for an invoice to reach you. If you fail to receive a copy of your invoice check your junk folder to ensure it hasn't been classed as spam by your email provider, otherwise contact us and we will be able to resend it to you.

• Changing the details on a invoice

Invoicing legislation restricts us from amending invoices. Holiday Lettings invoices are system generated from the details held on your account at the time of payment and we are not physically able to change these. Please ensure at time of payment that we have the correct invoicing details logged on your account.

• Trouble printing an invoice

If you are experiencing difficulty printing an invoice that we've sent you this is probably because you are using a web-based email client and are printing the whole page including the browser window.

If you highlight the invoice by left clicking and then dragging the cursor over the invoice details, right click, select "print selection" it should resolve the issue.

Alternatively, if you do not have the "print selection" function you can copy and paste the information into a word document and then print it out. To copy the invoice you would need to highlight the information you wish to copy, then right click and select "copy". Then you would need to open a word document , right click again and select "paste" to input the information into the document. You can then choose to save and/or print a copy.

We follow strict security procedures to ensure that your personal information is not damaged, destroyed, or disclosed to a third party without your permission and to prevent unauthorised access to it.

If for some reason you want your listing removed from the site before the end of your advertising time, please notify us by email. We do not give refunds for any unused advertising time.

If you pay by quarterly subscription, you must contact us at least three working days before the next instalment is due. No refunds can be given once a payment has been debited from your account.

If you're on an annual subscription you can cancel before your renewal date via the subscription link on your Home Management page. We do offer refunds on annual subscription but only if you contact us within three working days after the payment has been debited.

If you wish to remove your advert from the website for a period of time, we can store your account and your advert on our system so that it's easy when you come to re-advertise again. Just tell us that you want your account saved when you cancel your advert.

We are unable to freeze or store advertising time, so by removing your advert from the website you will lose any remaining unused advertising time you have paid for. However if you come back online before your advertising time expires, we can reactivate your advert until its renewal date. Contact us to discuss your circumstances.

An annual subscription takes away the fuss of renewing your advert each year, keeping your advert online and your booking enquiries coming in. Without a subscription, if you don't renew your advert on time, it will be removed from the site the next day.

On your advert's renewal date your advert will be automatically renewed for a further 12 months and the payment will be debited from the card used last on your account (see your last invoice to check which one this will be). We will always send you reminders and you cancel at any time before your renewal date.

Set up your annual subscriptionYou must have "made a payment before online" using a credit or debit card. At this time we're unable to offer subscriptions for Co-located Adverts.

1. Log in to your Home Management page.2. Click on 'Switch to subscription' in the advert's 'Status' column.3. In the pop up, tick the box for your advert to be automatically renewed.

Cancel your annual subscriptionIf you decide to cancel your annual subscription you will need to do this before your advert's renewal date. You will still need to make a manual payment otherwise your advert will be removed from Holiday Lettings the next day.

1. Log in to your Home Management page. 2. Click on the 'Annual subscription' link in your advert's 'Status' column. 3. In the pop up, tick the box to cancel your annual subscription.

You can control the email address that we forward booking enquiries to through the 'Your Account' button in your 'Home Management Page'.

You can do some basic checks to ensure that you always receive the booking enquiries we forward to you; 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. Remember that email can often be delayed a few hours by your internet service provider.

You can also check your enquiries by logging in to your Home Management page and clicking on 'Booking Manager'. You can read the full message and reply from here.

We can only forward your enquiries to the one email address registered to your Holiday Lettings account. We'd suggest that if you require more than one copy of an enquiry you set up an auto-forwarding function on your own email provider.

You control the telephone number that we forward booking enquiries to through the 'Your Account' button in your 'Home Management Page'.

If you are having difficulty receiving enquiries via SMS text alerts 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. 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, having plenty of room to receive new incoming messages.

Do be aware that if your mobile phone was switched off or out of reception when our system released the message to send to you, this may cause the text message to fail to deliver.

For help and advice on avoiding scams and recognising genuine enquiries, visit our advice page.

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.

The most common problem when responding to booking enquiries for your holiday home is that email reply to a holidaymaker will bounce back to your email service provider as failed. This is often a result of the holidaymaker typing their email address incorrectly, or their inbox being too full to receive any more incoming messages. Look at their email address carefully to see if there are any obvious mistakes you could rectify, such as their name or email provider missing a letter. If they have provided a telephone number then give them a call and answer their question straight away.

Holiday Lettings only receives as much information from the email enquiries as our advertisers do, so unfortunately if you are unable to contact the enquirer you will need to wait for them to get back in touch with you.

Your Inbox stores a copy of every message you receive from - and send to - enquiring holidaymakers and guests. Archive messages you've dealt with by clicking the tick box on the left hand side, followed by the archive icon that appears.

Quickly find archived messages, or other messages, in your Inbox by searching for either the reference number, date the message was received or date of the holiday.

We have created an owner advice page Maximising the potential of your advert, full of helpful tips on how to get the most out of your advert.

To keep an eye on how your advert (or adverts) is performing click on the 'Booking Manager' 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 or since your advert was activated. If you have more than one advert, the hits and enquiries will be combined to show the overall performance of all of your homes, so you'll need to select the home number for the advert you want to see the specifics of from the drop-down list on the left of the page.

Once selected, you'll be able to click on the blue link 'Source of hits' found in the 'My statistics' section so you can see precisely how those visitors found your advert. Currently, the hits are listed in chronological order so you'll find the latest hit by scrolling to the bottom of the page.

If you have a link to your personal website you can also see how many visitors have clicked out from your Holiday Lettings advert to your own website next to the text 'clicks to your site'.

Visit our owner advice pages for comprehensive information and advice on letting your holiday home including:

• Rental rate advice
• Converting enquiries into bookings
• Taking payments
• How to manage your bookings

We rotate all the adverts on a daily basis, so yours will be appearing in a different position every day.

We also find that people tend to search for specific dates and facilities, as well as smaller resorts. This means that your advert will usually appear on a shorter list. Please also remember that holidaymakers can re-order lists by price, size and location of the properties and therefore change the order of the results themselves.

A useful tool to help you to see the position of your advert in the search results and exactly where the hits to your advert are coming from is the 'View Enquiries' page, which can be accessed from your 'Home Management Page'. Click on 'View' underneath the title 'Hits History'. Here you will see a list of all the hits to your advert over the last 30 days. You can work out from the data and explanation here where you property appeared on the search results.

The page ID number at the end of the search thread tells you which page number of the search results your property appeared on. If no page ID is given, your property appeared on the first page of results!

Our system is very intelligent and will bring up your advert in holidaymaker searches that match the information on your advert. If you can't find your advert in a search that you have done, double check that the information listed on your advert correlates to the parameters in your search.

• If you are searching for particular dates, make sure that your availability calendar shows the dates are free for the entire period you are searching for.

• If you are searching by price and by date, please ensure that the date period you are searching is marked as available on your availability calendar and that the budget you are using would fall within the prices you charge for the dates in question. Don't forget if you're searching a period longer or shorter than a week you should ensure your budget allows for the change in price.

• If you are searching by group size, then be aware that your maximum-capacity rental rates table will make you searchable for group sizes of that number and four below.

• Ensure you are searching in the correct locations that your property is listed in, the correct number of bedrooms listed on your advert and the correct type of property that your advert is listed under.

It's important that we hold up to date contact details for all of our account holders, so please ensure that when necessary you amend your contact details.

• Changing the contact details listed on your account

For security reasons Holiday Lettings staff are not able to change the contact details registered on the account on your behalf. In order to do this yourself, log into your Home Management Page and click on the green button called 'Edit My Details' which you will find at the top left handside of the page. From here, click on the 'Contact Details' tab and edit the details accordingly before clicking on the green 'Next' button.

You will then receive an email from 'info@holidaylettings.co.uk' to the original email address registered on the account asking you to authorise the changes before they take effect. Make sure you click on the green 'Confirm Changes' button within 24 hours of receiving the email to activate the changes.

• Changing the contact name listed on your account

Log into your Home Management Page and click on the button called 'Edit My Details' which you will find at the top left handside of the page. Then click on to the 'Your Name' tab. You can edit the name on your account in the text boxes on this page, then click the green 'Save' button.

To log in to your Holiday Lettings account you will need to enter your advertiser ID, password and two letters from one of the answers to your security questions. If you are having problems accessing your account check that you are entering the correct advertiser ID and password, as this is by far the most common reason for log in difficulties.

If you have forgotten your advertiser ID number or password you can reset your password by going to the Log in page and entering the email address registered on your Holiday Lettings account. We will then email you your Advertiser ID number and a link to follow to choose a new password.

If you have forgotten your advertiser ID or password and have not yet set up your security question, you will be prompted to enter a phone number that is not displayed on your advert. If all of your phone numbers are displayed, then you will need to call us.

If you have forgotten the answer to your security question, or have locked your account please email us using the 'Get in touch' button on the right or call us on +44 (0)1865 312000 (9am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday).

Important note: Holiday Lettings will never email you to ask you for your log in details. If you receive such an email please notify us immediately.

We have heard of companies cold-calling our advertisers to sell their products, but please note these are not associated with our company and have not released any of your details to them. Unfortunately because you have listed your contact number on the website it is in a public domain and there is not much we can do to prevent these companies from contacting you. Approach anything like this with caution and make sure you fully research the company before agreeing to anything.

We often call you as part of our normal business practice but if you receive an unexpected call claiming to be from Holiday Lettings you may wish to verify that it is really us. Ask us to confirm the details of the last booking enquiry you received from us - information only you and our staff have access to.

If an advertiser wishes to have their advertisement removed from our site before the end of their subscription, this will be done as soon as we receive formal notice from the advertiser by email. No refunds will be given. If you pay for your advert by quarterly subscription, please ensure that we receive formal notification to cancel your advert and payment before the next instalment is due as no refunds can be given once payment has been debited from your account.

Payments for annual adverts or quarterly subscriptions relate to the specific advert and period for which the advertising was originally purchased. Advertising time cannot be switched from one advert to another.

If you wish to remove your advert from the website for a period of time, we store your account and your advert on our system so that if you wish to re-advertise the process is simple.

We are unable to freeze or store advertising time, so by removing your advert from the website you will lose the time you have paid for. However if you do decide to remove your advert from the website and then come back online before your subscription expires we can reactivate your advert until its renewal date. Contact us to discuss your circumstances.

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. Our owner advice pages contain useful information on income tax but we'd strongly advise you to also seek independent financial guidance relating to your specific country.

In order to have continuity and consistency across the site and to ensure that adverts compete for interest on an even playing field, all prices are displayed in GB pounds at the top of the advert page and in the search results. It is also necessary to approximate the tariffs into one universal currency so as to enable the budget search option.

Your advert does state the currency your prices were originally quoted in and viewers have the option of converting the prices in your rental rates table into a range of different currencies to compare the cost in a format that is most applicable to themselves.

Most standard buildings and contents insurance policies are not designed to provide cover for a property that's used as a holiday let. But there are specialist holiday home policies that combine buildings and contents with public liability cover, which protects you should your guests injure themselves at your property. Our owner advice article provides further information.

You can now tell us which is your preferred or native language. All you need to do is log in to your Home Management page and go to 'Edit My Details' where you can select your 'preferred language' from the drop down list under 'Languages spoken'.

Unfortunately we don't currently speak all of the languages available on the list, however by letting us know your preferred language we will be able to work towards trying to in future. For now we will continue to email you in English. For the languages we do speak – Spanish, Italian and French - we will try to call you in your native tongue.

You can also let holidaymakers know which languages you speak so that they can contact you in another language if they need to. To do this please select the tick boxes in the 'Languages spoken' section of 'Edit My Details'.

So that your personal information, account and booking enquiries stay secure, we are increasing the security on all Holiday Lettings accounts.When you next log in to your account you'll be asked to set your security question. You will be given a number of questions to choose from.Try and select a question that you are most likely to remember the answer to.

When you next login after setting your questions, you will be asked for:

• your Advertiser ID
• your password
• two letters from your security question

If your account is now locked or you have forgotten the answer to your security question, please email us following the 'Get in touch' button on the right or call us on +44 (0)1865 312000 (9am-5.30pm, Monday-Friday).

You can change your question via the 'Account' section of your account pages. Select a new question from the drop down menu, answer it and then save the changes.

If you own the property, you can run it as a holiday let with no questions asked in most destinations (see below for country or region-specific rules). If you're renting the property, you may still be able to let it out for short-term lets. Check your tenancy agreement to make sure.

The current rules and regulations in place for holiday lets are:

• In the UK, only some London boroughs have regulations – you'll need to obtain planning permission before running holiday lets in Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Islington, Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster and Camden
• In France anyone offering furnished accommodation to tourists must register the property with their local mairie (town hall); in Paris your property must be classed as 'commercial' to be used for short-term lets
• Spain's regulations are region specific and hard to pin down – in summary all short-term lets must be registered with the local town hall and licensed in certain regions, including the Canaries and Balearics and Catalonia
• In Portugal you'll need a Alojamento Local licence
• In Greece you'll need a Ellinikos Organismos Tourismou (EOT) licence
• In Italy you must inform the local council of your holiday let and follow their specific requirements
• In Malta you'll need to register with the local authority and, if you have a pool, there's an annual tax to pay
• Short lets in Amsterdam must have a hotel permit
• In the US, zoning regulations mark out dedicated residential zones and zones for tourist developments; specifically in New York City, holiday lets can only be rented out for 30 days or more

We recommend contacting the local council or authority to find out if any regulations apply in your area. It's also important to check whether you're paying the right tax on your holiday let – see our tax corner for more details.

When using your online booking tool for the first time, log into your account and go to the 'Payment preferences' page. From here, you can link to your PayPal account, or create a new one. It should only take a few minutes and the system will guide you through it each step of the way.

Log into your account to be guided through the process.

Your online booking tool has been designed to make life easier for you and your guests:

• Free – it costs nothing to use
• Easy - manage all your bookings in one place
• Trusted - guests pay you by credit/debit card or PayPal knowing that everything is safe and secure, and we transfer payments straight into your account
• You'll benefit from the lowest possible PayPal fees (UK based owners benefit from 1.4% instead of 3.4%; 1.9% for international transactions; 20p per UK transaction or 0.35€ if cross border transaction)
• There's no commitment – continue to take other forms of payment if you wish

PayPal charges a small commission fee – the lowest possible – for processing each of your payments. See more about PayPal fees in our PayPal FAQ.

We chose PayPal as the payment facilitator for your online booking tool as it's an extremely secure and efficient way of transferring payments online. It's trusted by thousands of big online brands and used by millions of consumers every single day.

Once you have a PayPal account linked to Holiday Lettings, the online booking tool can take payments on your behalf and transfer them to you.

We may use other payment providers soon, but for the moment we are only using PayPal. We've negotiated the lowest possible PayPal transaction fee that's available in your country.

For payments made in the UK to UK PayPal accounts, the rate is just 1.4% compared to the usual 3.4%. For payments made outside the UK to UK PayPal accounts, the rate is 1.9%. Most European transactions within a country attract a 1.9% rate with an additional 0.5% for cross border transactions. Further afield the rate will range between 1.9% and 2.9%; the cross border fee will vary from 0.5% to 1.5%.

PayPal also charges a standard £0.20 for each transaction.

You can find more information about PayPal by visiting the 'How it works' page of your account and clicking on 'common questions'.

A guest checks your listing and on Holiday Lettings and sends an enquiry in the normal way. An email (and SMS if you're signed up) is triggered to you, letting you know you have a request waiting in your Inbox.

If you want to accept the booking you can create a quote from your Inbox to confirm the total costs for the holiday. This is based on the details you provided in your Settings, but you can make changes to individual quotes as you go along, if you want.

Once submitted, a quote email will be sent to the guest, which asks them to make a payment to secure the holiday.

Anyone who advertises one or more properties with Holiday Lettings can use the app. Also, if there's more than one person looking after the property, such as a partner or relative, they can download the app too and manage enquiries on the go.

Using your Apple or Android device, search for 'Holiday Lettings' in the App Store or on Google play for Android. Select the app and download it. Log in using your Advertiser ID and password, then you're ready to get started.

No, the My Property app is free.

Yes, you have full use of all the app's features for your first 15 properties. At the moment, you can only update calendars and create quotes for your first 15 properties, but we hope to change this soon. You can still respond to enquiries and booking requests for all of your properties.

To make sure the app works as quickly as you need it to, we only save messages from the last four weeks here. Log in to your account to see any older messages.

The app uses all the settings you've saved on your Holiday Lettings account. If you need to change anything – such as your cancellation policy or booking contract – you'll need to log in to your account to do this, rather than using the app.

1. All iOS versions (Apple)

2. Android (API 10+ / version 2.3.3 upwards)

If you are unsure which version of Android you are using, try searching for 'Holiday Lettings' in your app store. If your phone isn't supported the app won't appear.

At present the Holiday Lettings app has only been developed for iPhone and Android devices, as they represent the majority of the market. We hope to expand this in the future but it will depend on demand.

No, My Property is for everyone. The app makes managing bookings a breeze, whether you're using our online booking system or not. However, if you're not using online booking you will miss out on some of the app's extra features, such as creating quotes or accepting online bookings.