| Advertisers' Most Frequently Asked Questions |
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1. How do I get started? |
If you're ready to advertise now please Click here to fill in our order form.
The quickest and easiest way to get your property on the Internet as soon as possible is to pay by credit card and send your photos by email. Simply select the type of advertising you want, pay on-line, fill in your property details on-line, email your pictures...and leave the rest to us!
We can accept payment and photos by post but please be aware that postal
delays and cheque processing will delay the creation of your advert.
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2. How do I pay and how much? |
The quickest and easiest way to pay is on-line by credit card. We also accept pounds sterling cheques drawn on a British bank.
Click here for details of our prices and payment methods
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3. Do you charge commission? |
We don't work on a commission basis. You pay us an up front fee at the start of your advertising and we create your property advert and promote it on the Internet for you. You generally need only one booking to more than cover the cost of your annual advertising bill then you can just sit
back and enjoy all the profits from the rest of the year's bookings. We find this the simplest and most cost-effective way to work for the mutual benefit of both ourselves and our property owners.
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4. How soon will my property be on the Internet? |
If you send us your property details today, pay by credit card and email your photos, your on-line advert will be on the Internet within 2 working days.
Click here to advertise now
You can also pay by pounds sterling cheque (drawn on a British bank) and send your photos by email. However, we will not be able to process your order until we have received your payment and pictures.
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5. What services are you offering me? |
Your property will be advertised on a high profile web site which attracts visitors from 80 countries worldwide.
We'll promote your property advert on all the world's major search engines. Drawing on our specialist knowledge of Internet technology and search promotion techniques we'll create your brochure in such a way, as to give you the best possible chance of Internet visibility and booking enquiries.
Our service includes all of the following benefits:
- Change your brochure whenever you wish - rental prices, contact details, property facilities etc
- Maintain your own on-line availability chart
- Site visitors make enquiries via a direct email link from your brochure
- 4 colour photos (up to 10 in total if you choose)
- View your number of page visits at any time
There are lots of optional extras so you can tailor-make your advertising to suit your
particular property. Your holiday home could be our Star Villa for a month, for example, or be featured in our
special Top Golf, Ideal Hideaway, City Breaks or Top Ski categories.
For full details of our advertising services please click here
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6. How will you present my on-line advert? |
Your holiday home will be displayed in our tried and tested on-line brochure format with the emphasis on photos because we know from experience just how important these are in attracting booking enquiries.
Your pictures (4 are included in the basic advertising price) will appear at the top of your advert. We will process them to ensure the best possible image quality but remember that the best quality and most interesting photos are likely to attract the most booking enquiries.
Your photos, with optional captions underneath, will be carefully balanced with just the right amount of headlines, descriptive text, property detail and colour.
The format is comprehensive yet concise - it's popular with our site visitors because they can see at a glance everything they need to know about a property.
Your advert will include your contact information - direct email link and also phone/fax numbers if you wish. We'll also put handy links for site visitors at the foot of your advert - currency converter, holiday planning calendar, postcard service and "Tell a Friend" email link so visitors can spread the word about your property to family and friends.
If you wish, we'll also put a link to your own on-line availability chart which you can create and maintain yourself so site visitors can see at a glance the dates when your property is available for letting or booked (this is an optional service included in the basic price).
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7. How will I receive enquiries? |
Site visitors will be able to send a booking enquiry direct from your on-line property ad by clicking on the email link in your contact information area. You can also have your phone, mobile phone and fax number on your advert if you wish.
We ask that you respond to all genuine enquiries as promptly as possible, even when they relate to dates which are already booked. Failure to answer enquiries reflects badly on our site and has an adverse effect on our other property advertisers.
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8. How will people find my property ad on your site? |
Our technical experts are constantly promoting this site on all the world's major Internet search engines.
This specialised Internet promotion and a variety of other marketing techniques ensure we have a consistently high profile on the web, bringing holiday seekers from more than 80 countries to our property adverts.
Sometimes Internet surfers will click straight through to your advert after doing a keyword search on one of the big search engines. Or they may find our main site pages first in which case they can use our powerful and sophisticated search features to
find exactly the right kind of property to suit them. Our site visitors can search by place name, keyword, number of beds, price, date availability, property facilities etc.
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9. Can I change my advert? |
You can change nearly all the details on your on-line brochure whenever you wish via the password-protected members'
area of our site. You will receive your password after you have proof read and approved your advert. Changes you can make yourself include contact information (useful if you're going away for the weekend or on holiday), rental prices and property facilities. This is a completely
free service. The only things you can't change are your photos and descriptive text - we can do this for you for a small
administrative charge.
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10. How do your availability charts work? |
Our on-line availability charts are a free, optional service. You can create and maintain your own chart via our password-protected members' area after you start advertising with us.
Site visitors will then be able to see at a glance the dates when your property is booked or available. This saves time for the site visitor and cuts down the number of time-wasting enquiries you receive.
You are likely to receive more interest in your property if you maintain a chart - but don't forget it's your responsibility to keep it up to date.
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11. How many photos can I have on my advert? |
Four colour photos are included in our basic advertising price but you can have up to 6 more on a second web page. For prices
Click Here.
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12. Can I advertise without photos? |
We only advertise properties with photos because we know from experience that this is the best way to get results. Good quality photos are the single most
powerful "selling" tool for your holiday home. Few visitors will waste time making a booking enquiry about a property they can't see.
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13. What kind of photos should I send you? |
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The vital importance of supplying good quality, interesting photos can't be over-emphasised. Good pictures will grab a site visitor's interest...bad pictures will send that site visitor straight off to someone else's advert!
We recommend 6 x 4 inch landscape format colour prints. Portrait prints and even square prints are OK
but they should be sent in matching pairs as this will improve the appearance of your advert. You can have a
mixture of both but remember to keep them in pairs.
When choosing or taking photos avoid excessive
contrast and shadows caused by bright sunlight, especially when shooting interiors close
to windows. Try to produce a balance of photos that show the best aspects of your property -
external and internal shots - and try to incorporate local scenery and features.
Avoid taking shots too far from the subject and exclude peripheral items which detract from your subject.
Most people with normal sized vacation properties choose 4 photos while larger properties benefit
from more (up to a maximum of 10) with extra property description on a second brochure page.
Generally speaking, we find the more photos you have and the better quality they are
the more success you will have with your advertising.
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14. How to send photos? |
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The best and quickest way to send photos is to use the "photo upload" facility
provided on your advertising application form. It's really easy to use - you just
select the picture number in question (1,2,3 4 etc.) then press "BROWSE" to find
the saved and corresponding photo image file on your local disk. Just press "UPLOAD"
and the image will be transferred to our server. You will see the image on the screen.
Do this for each image file you upload.
Digital Camera Photos
Most modern digital camers provide an easy facility to upload digital images to
your PC, normaly by a USB connection. Most of these images are high resolution
and much to big a file size for our purposes. Many manufacturers provide a PC
utility to post process images by reducing their size and quality. You can also
use standard windows photo processing software.
You should aim to produce you image file around 300 pixels wide x 200 pixels deep
(about 4 x 3 inches on a 15 inch monitor working at 1024 x 768 resolution).
Save them as "jpeg", "jpg" or "bmp" format using
a medium quality setting at the advised size using your PC Program.
Aim to keep your image files less than 150k bytes in size.
Scanning Photos
You can use a scanner to to process photos. If you have access to an image
scanner you can email scanned images to us. Many manufacturers provide a PC
utility to post process images by reducing their size and quality. You can also
use standard windows photo processing software.
Images should be scanned at about 300 dots per inch and should preferably be landscape format.
Scanned images should be saved at around 300 x 200 pixels in size.
(about 4 x 3 inches on a 15 inch monitor working at 1024 x 768 resolution).
We can process most image file formats but we prefer formats such as "jpeg",
"jpg" or "bmp".
Remember to keep file sizes under 150k bytes.
Sending photos by EMAIL
We process all images to achieve the best possible results. Name your
image files clearly in the priority order you want to display them starting in
rows from left to right. Make one image per file and send one image file attachment per email.
It is possible to send image files as file attachments with most email software programmes.
Send your images to photos@villarama.com
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15. Can I post my photos?
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When you order you will be instructed where to send your photos.
Please remember that postal delays may hold up the creation of your advert.
We can't start processing your order until we have received an on-line order,
your photos and payment.
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16. Can I have a link to my own web site? |
Yes, we can provide a URL link on your brochure to your own web site. We charge 2 different rates depending on whether the link is to a private web site or a commercial site. Our definition of a private site
is one which advertises only those holiday properties already advertised on our own site. In other words, if you advertise a single holiday property on this site you cannot have a private URL link to
a different site which advertises 2 or more properties. However, if your own web site advertises 4 different holiday homes, for example, and all those properties are individually advertised on our site, you will be able to have a private URL
link on each of your adverts.
We charge a higher fee for a link to a commercial site which is defined as a web site advertising multiple properties (and possibly other goods and services) other than those advertised on this site. We reserve the right to refuse any URL link which we regard as inappropriate.
Click here for URL link prices
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17. Can I advertise more than one property? |
You can advertise as many properties as you wish but we have a strict policy of only one property per advert as we know from experience that this is the best way to
generate booking enquiries. The tried and tested format of our adverts is popular with site visitors who can see at a glance all the key details they need to know about your property -
including pictures, prices, facilities and date availability. Our clear, concise presentation and clarity of information gets results. A more general advert about several properties on a single web page would be confusing and
unappealing for the holiday seeker who would be likely to move swiftly on to a more straight forward ad. We've been in this business for years so we know what works and what doesn't!
Of course it costs more to advertise several properties but bear in mind that this is the best way to generate booking enquiries and you generally only need one booking per property to cover your annual advertising fee.
We offer attractive discounts to multiple property advertisers - the more properties you advertise, the cheaper each advert gets.
For details of these discounts click here
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19. What rental income can I expect? |
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The number of booking enquiries which you can expect your advert to generate and your resulting rental income will depend on a variety of factors - many of which are beyond our control.
The location, style, standard, price and facilities of your property are all key factors which will influence the success of your advertising.
As a rough guide, the Spanish properties on our site are rented out at an average price of around £150 per person per week. Our owners tend to vary their prices according to the season and depending on how well their bookings are going at any one time. One of the many benefits of advertising with
Villarama Vacation Rentals is that you can change your prices and other advert details whenever you want.
Check out what local agents in your area are charging and make sure you under cut them - obviously Internet holiday hunters expect to pay less when they're booking direct an owner.
Many of our owners in the most popular holiday areas manage to secure bookings for several months of the year, including the high and even low season.
Obviously a town apartment in an inland area largely undiscovered by tourists is unlikely to generate the same level of interest as, for example, a seaside villa with a private swimming pool in a top holiday spot.
Bearing these points in mind, there are several things you can do as a property owner to maximise the full benefits of our flexible advertising services in order to generate a good level of income from your holiday home.
We offer our owners a wide range of services to enable them customise their advertising to suit their particular property and their own circumstances. Our most successful owners are those who play the most active part throughout their advertising period.
For example, we strongly recommend that you make use of our owner-maintained availability charts to show the dates when your property is available for letting.
So neither you nor our site visitors get frustrated by time-wasting booking enquiries. If you find you have a last-minute gap in your rental
season, perhaps due to a cancellation, you can make use of our special "late availability" service to generate interest from
site visitors specifically looking for a holiday let at short notice.
For details of our various promotional options designed to help you tailor-make your advertising to generate the best possible level of booking enquiries, please
click here.
Please also refer to the question heading below: "Do you guarantee bookings?"
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20. Do you guarantee bookings? - new advertisers' hot tips |
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We don't guarantee bookings because, as described in the topic heading above, this depends on too many factors beyond our control. However, we provide our owners with powerful
tools designed to help them maximise their rental income.
What we do guarantee is that we'll ensure your property is presented on our site
in an attractive, clear and professional format and that it has a high profile on the Internet.
We'll do everything in our power to bring site visitors to your advert...but we can't make them book! A lot depends on you.
Here's some hot tips to help you bring in those all important booking enquiries:
- Put time and effort into creating your initial ad - it will pay dividends later. Think carefully about relevant keywords to put in your headline. Make full use of our description areas to write interesting, carefully considered text which grabs attention and highlights all the best features of your property and location.
- Supply the best possible quality and most interesting photos you can. Great photos can mean the difference between success and failure. See our topic heading "What kind of photos should I send you?"
- Charge reasonable prices! Check the prices of comparable properties in your area. Don't forget people normally expect to pay less when booking direct from owners. Alter your prices according to the season. Make your rental tariff table clear and easy to understand at a glance.
- Respond to all genuine booking enquiries quickly, fully and courteously - even if the enquiry is for dates when your property is already booked. All enquirers are potential future customers so help them, cultivate them...why not put them on your email Christmas card list?!
- Prepare an interesting, helpful and informative newsletter or guide to send as an email attachment or by post to enquirers. This is your chance to really "sell" your property with plenty of information about all its benefits, local attractions, seasonal events, maybe a good restaurant guide...
- Create and maintain your own availability chart so site visitors can see at a glance when your property is available or booked. This service is optional and included in your basic advertising price
- Participate in our price searching so site visitors can see only those properties which match their price range (optional service included in your advertising fee).
- Make use of our extra promotional options to give your property a boost - e.g be our "Star Villa", put your property in one of our special sections (Top Golf, Ideal Hideaway, Top Ski, City Breaks) or make use of
our late availability service to fill last-minute gaps in your rental season.
Click here for details.
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