What To Consider When Buying a Vacation Rental Investment Property
7 Vacation Rental Selling Features For Easier Online Marketing, Know Before Investing
In this article we are going to look at some generic selling features that can boost the rental potential of your holiday home and attract more renters. Certain features of your vacation rental can make your online marketing easier by creating more appeal.
There are many options for travelers to consider when renting a vacation home is your vacation home on the tops of their lists?
When buying a vacation rental the point is to be successful with renting out your property, but what if the property your buying is of little interest to vacationers? Chances are your vacation home is not the only option for vacationers, if it is that this is likely a problem. So, with that being said how can you make sure your vacation rental is a contender among the rest in the market? Below is a short list of 7 features to consider before buying a vacation rental or holiday home.
1) Distance from airport – this is probably the first thing
to consider when investing in a foreign country. Although I am not a big fun of properties that are right in a flight path, I still think that travelling distance is a make or break factor for some travelers. If you arrive late at night in a foreign country than driving for 2 hours to reach your final destination is not appealing to most people.
2) Number of airlines flying to the area and from where – another important factor that would affect the size of your target market. For example, I would love to rent to more people from my original area of Italy because I know they would really enjoy the facilities and the competitive prices of the Costa Blanca. Unfortunately, there is no direct flight from my region of Italy to that part of Spain. And I know that the thought of connecting flights or driving for four hours to Rome to catch a direct flight is not an appealing one for most families.
3) Road infrastructure to get to the property from the airport – again, this will affect the travelling time to reach the property and can be a decisive factor to ensure your guests start their holiday in the best possible mood.
4) Public transport infrastructure – some people don’t drive or don’t like the idea of travelling in a foreign country. If your property is served by good transports than this will boost your income because it will widen your appeal.
5) Leisure activities – these are often top of the list and can be very important to attracte specific niches. However, they must not be the only factor to consider, which is what often happens. For example, some of the most frequently discussed attractions for holiday home investments are golf courses. It is true that if you have a property on a golf resort you can certainly charge more but you can only do that to golfers. In addition, these properties are certainly more expensive to run. So, often an independent property that is within 20 minutes drive from a golf course can be more profitable as it can appeal to a wider audience. Likewise, the proximity to other leisure centers like theme parks can be a boosting factor. However, if these activities are only open for the summer than they will only boost your summer bookings. So again, you should always look at these factors when considering an investment but how much of a boost they provide it really depends on the type of investment you want to make and the number of properties available around them. The same can be said for proximity to the beach. A front line property will surely command higher premium in high season, but for winter bookings is not necessarily attractive. Likewise, the proximity of a vacation property to a skiing station is very appealing for winter bookings, but it would be pretty irrelevant for summer ones.
Proximity to lakes and natural parks – these are particularly boosting factors for inland properties. Not everyone wants a beach holiday but a flat in the middle of nowhere is not necessarily appealing to them. So, if there are spots of natural beauty they can certainly be an attractive factor for some clients and boost income from these type of target market.
6) Shopping and leisure activities – even though they are in self-catering premises, most people on holiday want to be able to go out in the evening for a nice walk and a nice meal. So, the proximities to restaurants, and leisurely premises can surely be a rental boosting factor.
7) Proximity to Spa facilities – this is one of my favorites because not only it can boost rental income but it also offers an efficient way to “repackage” your holiday home for low season bookings.
This is certainly not a finite list and if your property doesn’t have all of these amenities nearby it doesn’t mean it is a bad investment. The main message here is that you should identify your ideal target market, based on what the location of your property offers. You won’t be able to appeal to anyone, so don’t try!
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