So you have bought yourself a beautiful villa or apartment in Spain (I guess this is true elsewhere as well) and you have hardly got any bookings, despite what that nice salesman and your property agent told you. What do you do next? I get asked this all the time and the response is always the same, the first thing to check is the prices you are asking, invariably they are way too high. I see people trying to get the same for a 1 bedroom apartment as you would pay for a 3 bedroom villa and then wonder why nobody has booked it. So be realistic, do your home work and find out what they actually go for throughout the year. This is important as anyone can get bookings during the peak season but if you can get bookings all year round it should be all profit.In the winter if the pool isn't heated you can discount the pool as well, only the mad would use it in January.

The next most important thing to is make sure you have good photographs and by that I mean ones that sell the dream, after all that is what a holiday is. I have seen over the years that if the main photo is a nice one of the villa or swimming pool with a blue sky background, it will get many more visitors than a similar one with a cloudy or grey sky background. Even worse is to use a photo of your sitting room as the main photo, you might be very proud of it, but it won't attract visitors!

Thirdly, take your time to write a good description, include everything that holiday makers would want to see, don't assume they already know. The description of your holiday rental should contain details such as how far away is the pool, bars, restaurants, beaches, night life, water parks, golf courses, airport etc. At the very least some basic information on all these attractions should be shown as well. Remember most visitors probably haven't a clue about the area your rental is in, you need to tell them, don't rely on phrases such as "phone for more details", most people will not and why should they as the next advertisement gives them everything they could possibly need to know.

Finally and you would think this was obvious, make sure you include a phone number or numbers that they can actually reach you on, if you are out most of the week include your mobile or even work number. I have found customers generally will not phone back or leave a message, they just go on to try their next choice. In the same context, check your emails regularly, once a week is not good enough, for best results I have found replying to emails immediately and phoning them (if they included their number) worked extremely well.