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Marketing your Villa
Owning a villa here is like owning a small hotel. Mr. Marriott and Mr. Hilton have exactly the same basic problems - competition from other owners, maintaining the property to a high standard and attracting guests at the right price to keep the place full and still make a healthy profit.
They market their products very carefully and villa owners MUST do the same. If you sit back and wait for your management company to fill the villa, you could decrease your chances of success. This is largely because if you only rely on the management company for bookings, after all the tour operators and middle men have had their cut, there's not much left for you.
You have to create your own bookings - it's as simple as that. Here are a few tips on how to do that.
You need a website - nothing fancy but good pictures, links and details of services, facilities and prices. Don’t wait until after you close on the property. Start today as marketing your villa will need careful planning and a sound business strategy.
You should contact commercial rental websites to market your business for you.
Some will charge an annual fee and provide free advertising. Others will provide free access and charge you a percentage of every booking. Remember, 80% of something is better than 100% of nothing. Search the internet yourself and find the ones that appeal to you.
You need it to be ahead of the competition:
Your villa must be in pristine condition. Buy a DVD player, large screen TV, pool table, Sony Playstation, hot tub and dart board. Don’t charge extra for “extras”. If you offer inclusive tax, pool heat, internet access and lots of extras like a cot, highchair, playpen and a buggy, and they are all included in the basic price, your guests know exactly what they are getting and what it will cost. All these features need to be included in all your advertising.
Generate business on the Internet.
You need to spend at least an hour a day on the various internet chat rooms, promoting your villa and seeking bookings. The Florida Brits Club is a good place to start.
Advertise in Newsagent's windows, local press, golf clubs, etc.
Approach local firms and offer their staff discounts. If they have a staff newsletter, ask if you can advertise in it. Remember to have some snazzy business cards and flyers printed. Include a good quality photograph of the villa and a list of the amenities.
If you do all of this, for a typical 3 bedroomed villa, you should eventually be able to ask around £450-£500 a week on average throughout the year and fill it for about 30-40 weeks. Go as low as £300 in the quiet times - £700 in high summer and Christmas. This could bring in about £12-15,000 a year by year three. Why not until year three? Like any other business, there are start up costs. You can’t expect to hit the ground running and don’t expect anything more that a break even situation in the early years.
In dollar terms, running costs, including a typical 75% mortgage should be about $1,500 per month or $18,000 a year. As stated, income by year three should be up to about £15,000 a year, or about $22,000-$24,000, but ONLY if you do all of the above. If you just sit back and do nothing, you might not be breaking even by year three, even with a good management company.
However, you aim must be to eventually organise all the bookings yourself and only rely on your management company to fill in the gaps and do what they are supposed to do – Manage! The big question is, how soon can you get to that stage? It could take you a year or two, so in the early stages, you need to work with the management company and rely heavily on any bookings they can bring you.
The villa you will have bought, if bought though us, will be in a very sought after area. It is almost certainly going to be worth much more in the future. This means that even if you break even, or perhaps make a loss on rentals, the capital growth on your investment should by far outweigh any loss.
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