So you have a brilliant idea to purchase a perfect holiday home and start renting it out to holiday makers. But where do you start? This small but mighty question is the reason your property has been lying vacant for weeks, months, maybe years in some cases.

There is no doubt that purchasing and preparing your apartment or villa for holiday rentals brings quite a large to-do list. But this guide aims to make the whole process simpler and easier and put you on the right track to start renting out your holiday home. Before you know it you will be watching the rental money roll in.

Location Location Location

This is a crucial aspect of purchasing a holiday home to rent out as it determines it's popularity or it's chances of gaining interest and successful bookings. For example, if you buy right in the heart of a particular tourist resort there will be so many people looking for a place to stay you are sure to get lots of enquiries, but you will also have lots more competition so this doesn't necessarily mean actual bookings.

If you buy in a more rural area then it may not be as much volume of people wanting to enquire, but of the ones that do enquire there is much more chance of them making a booking as there will not be many others to choose from.

Rooms and Features

You will need to think about how many bedrooms your property will have. A place with more bedrooms is generally more expensive but it can generate more rental bookings as more often than not it is families and groups that want to book.

As for features, you will need to think about such things as garden, pool (private or shared), balcony and terraces, air conditioning for hot weather, heating and/or fire for cold weather, open plan kitchen and living room or separate and also bathrooms (how many and do they have baths or showers). Just like the number of bedrooms, the more it has the more expensive it will be to buy the property but it will also mean you have more to offer to renters and you can gain more interest and charge a higher price.

Furnishing

After you have purchased your property it is then time to furnish it. It is advised that you buy quite basic furniture so that it is less expensive to replace if it gets broken or worn down. However at the same time it does need to be decent enough so it doesn't break or wear easily and also so it looks nice to renters and they choose to come back again, and also to look nice for your advert.

Advertising

Last but not at all least, is the advertising of your property which is really the only way in which you can gain rental bookings. There are a number of ways you can do this.

First of all you can pay a monthly or an annual fee to certain websites in which you create your own advert with information and photos of the property, with an availability calendar and prices, and you will supply your contact details so any potential renters will contact you direct and you carry out the booking yourself. The more popular the website is, the more expensive it is to advertise and there will also be so many others advertising similar properties in similar locations so you will have lots of competition. It is then your challenge to make your advert as appealing as possible so that it stands out against the rest without being deceiving.

The other way in which you can advertise your property is to advertise for free on a particular website and then if you receive a booking, the website company takes a small cut of the booking fee. This can be beneficial because it means if you have a bad year and don't have many bookings then you will not have paid to advertise your property so won't be out of pocket. Another advantage of this method is that the company will usually look after your renters on your behalf, I.e. Will meet and greet, hand over keys, be a source of information for the guests and also will help with any problems. An example of one of these such websites is www.turkishvillarental.com.

So what are you waiting for. Have a look at available properties for sale in your chosen destination and there is always help available to aid you in the buying process and advise on what is a good investment