Advertising a holiday let for sale online can be daunting. Not that the task is challenging; the issue comes with the sheer number of websites out there. Local area guides, tourist sites, accommodation directories, search engines and now web portals competing for your advertising budget.
The web portals are a fast growing sector, offering enquiries and bookings, usually on a flat annual fee. They are typically owned and run by large enterprises with a global database of thousands of properties. Here is a summary of the main players:
Note. Information below is correct as of June 2011. Please check individual websites for updates.
| Portal | Monthly Site visitors (global) | Worldwide properties | UK properties | Fees |
| Holiday Rentals |
40 million visits | 290,000 | 7,500 | £239 |
| Holiday Lettings | 46 million unique | 40,000 | 10,000 | £219+vat |
| Villa Renters | 6 million unique p.a. | 13,000 | 169 | 2% or 10% commission |
| Owners Direct | 100,000 enquiries | 33,000 | 2,738 | £169+vat |
| Pure Holiday Homes | n/a | 15,500 | 4,434 | £147+vat |
Holiday Rentals is part of the Home Away group which also operate other accommodation based websites including homeaway.com, vacationsrentals.com and ownersdirect.co.uk in the UK. Within the group they have over ½ million villas and holiday homes available for let. They offer a money-back guarantee if you receive less than 20 enquiries in the subscription year.
Holiday Rentals - Owner homepage.
Holiday Lettings is the main rival to holiday-lettings.com and was acquired by Tripadvisor in June 2010. Tripadvisor, which is in turn owned by Expedia, also bought flipkey.com in 2008, a US holiday home portal. The group now offer listings with access to Tripadvisor site users, gaining a much wider audience for holiday homes. They also offer a money-back guarantee to match holidayrentals.com
Villa Renters is part of the Daily Mail and General Trust group, with a portfolio which originally focussed on the Mediterranean but now covers the world. There pricing in model is different in that it is based on a commission on bookings. They also provide an online booking system under name of rental systems to help manage bookings.
Pure Holiday Homes are a relatively new entry in to the market who were shortlisted for the best accommodation website in the 2010 Travolution Awards.
Owners Direct is also part of the Home Away group. They have a performance guarantee with a refund if less than 12 enquiries are generated in the year.
Read our guide to making the most out of advertising on holiday letting portals.
