Advertising Your Holiday Property with Holiday France Direct

Before letting your property, there are a number of factors you’ll need to consider, some of which are listed below; however,

for detailed guidance, contact a solicitor.

- Are you permitted to let?

- If you property is located on a complex, are there rules which you or your guests need to be aware of?

- Have you got insurance cover in place for the building, contents and guests?

- What are the tax implications of letting your property?

Is your property suitable?

To make your letting successful, it’s important that your property is appealing to your target market and is fully and appropriately equipped. Some things to think about are:

- A high standard of fittings and furnishings will not only last longer, but will be more attractive to your customers

- Who are your target market, and what will they need?

- Extras such as providing local information, right down to special touches like tea/coffee, flowers or chocolates on arrival and a guest book

Managing your Property and Pricing

By managing your own lettings, you’ll need to have procedures in place for responding to enquiries and bookings effectively.

You’ll also need to look at how to manage details such as changeover days, security deposits, what to do in an emergency, laundry and cleaning services.

When pricing your property, it’s good to compare with others in the area. You’ll also want to decide on high, mid and low season differences. It’s vital to get your pricing right, neither too high nor too low.

Your next step is to prepare your advert. In order to make your property more appealing, it’s important to describe the area and highlight things to see and do – both on and off-site. Remember to think about your target customers. What things are there appealing for families (beaches, zoos and theme parks) or couples (wine-tasting, golf, gourmet dining)?

To enter your advert online, you will need to have ready:

- Full details of your property, including the distance from the nearest main town plus the property’s postal code

- Images of your property, 1 main plus 6 additional. These need to be jpgs at least 300 x 300 pixels

- Your rental prices

- If applicable, tva or siret number

A Note about Images

An attractive, bright and clear image of your property does the selling for you! Whether for your web or your brochure advert:

- Take your image on a bright day and from an attractive angle.

- Our advert layout lends itself to landscape images – sorry, we don’t accept portrait pictures.

- Include the swimming pool if you have one and ensure garden furniture is attractively arranged.

- Your web advert should include a selection of internal images. This gives prospective guests reassurance

- If there are people in any of the images, we require their written consent to use the image. Parental consent is needed for images of children.

- Web images need to be at least 300 x 300 pixels

- (Brochure images need to be 300dpi, 90mm wide x 60mm high)

If you’re ready to advertise online now, please go straight to our booking pages. These take you through step-by-step, filling in all your property details and uploading images.

The booking form is set out in 5 easy stages. You should save each section as you go and complete all 5 stages in one sitting. Please avoid gaps of more than about 15 minutes when entering information or saving it in order to avoid being timed-out.

One of our team will then review your advert and contact you with regard to payment – we no longer take credit/debit card numbers via this site in order to comply with latest card payment protocols. Once we have received your payment, your advertisement will then be uploaded to this website. Please note that when we review your advert, this may include minor changes to text to tidy in addition to opening your availability calendar and providing your account number for access to discounted travel with Brittany Ferries and your password to access the online owners area.

We will ask you to provide proof of ownership of the property that you are advertising with us. Please forward a utilities bill or similar to:

Holiday France Direct

New Harbour Road South

Poole

Dorset

BH15 4AJ

The deadline for inclusion in our 2011 brochure, distributed in October, is 1 August 2010.

- Complete the application form. You’ll need to pay a deposit of £100 (€120) to secure your advertising space

- Send us your image. These can be either hard copies included with your posted application, or emailed to enquiries@holidayfrancedirect.com (remember to name your files appropriately and put your/your property name in the subject heading)

- Send your completed form, proof of ownership (eg a recent utilities bill or ‘acte de vente’) and images to Holiday France Direct, FREEPOST (PY1481), POOLE, Dorset BH15 4BR

- Following your application, you’ll receive a proof of your advert for approval

Please note: If you are booking a brochure and online advert, please send your brochure advert details to us as above. From your application, we’ll create a starter web advert which you can later update and enhance.

Don’t forget that your designated property advisor will be on hand to help you review your advert and answer any queries. Our team has over 50 years’ combined experience with Brittany Ferries.

Tel: 0871 244 1245 or email enquiries@holidayfrancedirect.com