Help - complete novice in Spain

[Suki]

Hello everybody,

I've been reading this site for a few days now and have found some very useful information already, but I have a few (well several) questions and would appreciate any advice you could give.

I realise that some may have been already covered but am extremely short of time and a complete novice with all the technical terms

Basically, my husband & myself bought our house here in southern Spain about 6 years ago but have found things extremely difficult financially especially over the past few months - so our solution, short term initially, is to let the house out for holiday rentals (we still have a base to stay in the UK).

I know that it is very late in the season to be starting out but I understand that the Spanish tend to book late - so, fingers crossed .

I have started by in-putting some details on a template from independent owners (which I found from this site) so at least I will have a website to refer people to.

1) First daft question - the domain name - iowners say keep it short and simple but they also say try to incude a reference to the type of property and its location

So for example do I call it something like www.countryhouseinspain.iownersnet or www.casalospajarosspain.iownersnet or what?

2) The house has four bedrooms but we only want to let three of them as we only have one bathroom and we want to store our possessions in the 4th room.

At the moment we only have beds for 5 people - a double room, a twin bedded room and a double room with only one single bed in it. Should we go to the expense of buying another single bed plus bedding or leave it as 5 bedded? ( We also have a pull out bed suitable for a child - would that be acceptable to use?)

That's enough for now I think - sorry to ramble on for so long but thank you for reading.

[Tizfata]

Hi Suki and welcome aboard.
I start from the bottom. I remember very well what is like to furnish and put all the necessary things in a house. At the very beginning, when I was scared to death that none would show up, I was thinking of moving things from one apartment to another (like glasses and plates...). Then bookings came and I went shopping. So my suggestion is that you move a bed from the twin bedded room and change the bedlinens.
About the domain name, I am completely unaware about SEO & Co. but I can say that I like casalospajaros.xyz .
In bocca al lupo (good luck in Italian) and be sure a lot of more savvy advice will come.
PS: 3 bedrooms with one a bathroom could be hard. Any chanche you can build a second little bath, maybe ensuite... When in France I saw in 2 different chambres d'hotes two en-suite with non-brick wall (sorry for my poor English) very well made. With some tricks the cost should be reasonable...

[CSE]

Here ae some of our thoughts on this.
· Check that you can rent out the house, with your deeds and local community (if you have one) the local concello and maybe there are rules that are published by The Junta de Andalusia.
· Get a good Gestoria and check how to set up a business, you will need to pay taxes and obtain insurances etc.
· Look at the local market and look at prices and to see if the properties are being booked up. We live in Galicia so our market is very different to yours but the Birts are not flocking to southern Spain as they did a few years ago.
· You say you think the Spanish are late in booking up, so are the Spanish going to be your main market? If so why choose iowners as the websites are only in English and seemingly aimed at that market.

[Suki]

Thank you for your replies,

Tizania - we would hope to build at least one en-suite next year if things go well but this year we do not have the time or the money. Maybe it would appeal to a party of four.

There is a house for rental near us that, according to their website, sleeps up to 12 and only has one bathroom - I think that's going a bit far!

Ian & Irene - I'm doing a website on iowners because it's free and seems fairly straightforward to use. I don't really know who the main market will be but I think wherever we advertise it will be useful to have a link to a werbsite with more info and photos than in a standard ad.

Iowners also have the facility to add your website in other languages and I would hopefully place it in Spanish, French & German as there seems to be quite a few holiday-makers from these places here already (plus a few Brits!)

[Holiday Almeria]

If you have Spanish as a language, or someone that can speak it for you, Niumba and Segundamano are the ones that work well for me. Enquiries are still coming in for July and August despite being booked and shown on the calendar. Niumba is currently free and Segundamano costs €7, but you will need to pay with a Spanish debit/ credit card.

Mark

[Suki]

Thank you for that Mark - I've already had a look at Niumba and they do seem good - how come they don't charge, is there a hidden catch?

I don't speak much Spanish but I do understand a little especially reading it but I'm still concerned about handling any enquiries

[Holiday Almeria]

No catch, easy to set up and use. There is a charge of about €50 if you want to be in a featured position. I think they are going to start charging for other features in the near future though.

Last year there were less than 20,000 properties listed, this year there are 3 times as many. July and August (except 2 weeks) were booked by the end of May and am still getting enquiries. No- one has queried the prices either which is a good thing, just booked. They do however like to pay the security deposit on arrival and have it returned on departure. Some have also baulked at having to pay 25% then full 6 weeks before arrival. They all accepted it last year and I have to wait and see to make sure all monies are paid up before arrival.

Mark

[Suki]

Some have also baulked at having to pay 25% then full 6 weeks before arrival. They all accepted it last year and I have to wait and see to make sure all monies are paid up before arrival.

Mark

Do you mean that you let them pay it later?

[Holiday Almeria]

No, they accept the fact they pay in full or they don't stay, although some don't like it and would rather pay 50% deposit and 50% on arrival. Last year it ran smoothly, but the first don't arrive until the 2nd week in July, so it will soon be time to give a gentle "nudge" to remind them of the remainder .

[CSE]

Ref official establishments you should read this:
http://www.andalucia.com/forums/viewtop ... 22&t=20153
It seems that getting yourself legal is the best step as it saved this posters pocket.
Maybe contact theses folks too.
http://www.raar.es

[Nightowl]

Niumba are very good for the spanish market - I'm getting quite a few enquiries at the moment, as you say, the spanish do book late.

Sorry for the generalisation but some renters also like to squeeze as many people in as possible so you have to be very firm about what your capacity is and make sure that they know you will cancel the booking mid stay if they go over capacity.

I've also found that people dont like paying up front but you have to stand your ground on that one - I've managed to convince people by saying that it works both ways, after all, if they book and don't the balance up front, what is to stop me from accepting a 'better' booking prospect 2 weeks before their due date and cancelling on them, refunding their 25% deposit but leaving them without a holiday?

Up front payment does stop the scenario of those who think 'well we'll book it and pay 25% and if we don't feel like turning up/change our minds (having not paid the other 75% up front) , then that's all they'll lose (leaving us losing the other 75%).

forgot to say, good luck!

[brenda]

Hi

Good to meet you this morning.

Niumba are good BUT their enquiries often come by phone rather than email that can be difficult if your Spanish is limited.

www.spain-holiday.com is an excellent site and, as people in general are booking later this year, you should still get a good return on bookings.

www.ferienhausmiete.com is the free site I was telling you about. You just need to put a link on your iowners website to get the free listing.

€60 will get you a years listing in the Sentinella magasine that, as you will know, is the local freebie specifically for this area.

Good luck and let us know how you get on. You have my email address now so contact me anytime you like - for advice or a shoulder to cry on!

[Gite Guru]

You're better off going for something that people will actually search on, although I'm not sure how much difference it will make on a sub domain of te Iowners website.

Head over to Google's Keyword Tool and try out a few different search terms and see what comes out high up and you think you have half a chance of ranking highly for.

hth,

GG2

[Bellywobble]

Brenda, do you have an ad in the Sentinella (I haven't managed to get one for ages)? If you do, is it worthwhile?

I've often wondered if it's worthwhile advertising to people who are here anyway but as the bookings are not exactly rolling in, I'm ready to consider anything!

[brenda]

We haven´t advertised in the Sentinella this year but did so last year and got a fair response. Every enquiry led to a booking.