No more Croatia Holiday Home Rentals but a great offer

[totalcroatia]

I see from Martin Westby's latest newsletter that he is stopping his vlla rental service, and recommending all his clients to join Holiday Rentals with an extremely good intro offer of just 50 euro a year if you sign up by next monday.

For the longterm property guys here, it is almost ten years since Martin's book on buying property in Croatia (thought - how about a 10 year reunion of the agents of 2004...) and he was the first dedicated villa rental service for Croatia from memory. Seems like he is carrying on will other cro stuff though, and an updated rental law publication is imminent. Here is the link to his announcement

www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/announcement-villa-rentals.html

[crojoe]

Nov 12, 2013 7:44:13 GMT 1 totalcroatia said:

I see from Martin Westby's latest newsletter that he is stopping his vlla rental service, and recommending all his clients to join Holiday Rentals with an extremely good intro offer of just 50 euro a year if you sign up by next monday.

For the longterm property guys here, it is almost ten years since Martin's book on buying property in Croatia (thought - how about a 10 year reunion of the agents of 2004...) and he was the first dedicated villa rental service for Croatia from memory. Seems like he is carrying on will other cro stuff though, and an updated rental law publication is imminent. Here is the link to his announcement

www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/announcement-villa-rentals.html

Not that I know much about renting villa's but 115 euros for one ad and they promise 1 booking sounds a little steep? Is it?

[umoran]

More like twelve years and my first post in nearly ten . I always lurk but I felt I had to respond to this thread.I hope I got my user name right - if not then phonetically it's a winner as well.I'm definitely up for a reunion -lets say Dalmatia at Easter and I will buy the Posip. It's sad for me personally to close off my villa rental section but the transfer deal is a good one , if you have a villa that needs filling. I'ts only 50 euros for 12 months with a guaranteed booking and they will even transfer across your details from another website - all in the same cost. You don't have to have known me for 12 years or even like me and Croatia Holiday & Home - anyone can apply, but the deadline is strict for the 18th November.
I'm not stopping the site or the newsletter just changing emphasis a bit. There's a saying about don't be an early missionary because they get boiled alive , instead be the second mouse because that's the one that gets the cheese.
We can discuss this and other philosophical points in more depth at Easter.

[ZAD]

A little misleading in my opinion. I know many people who rent their property via holiday-rentals (now homeaway.co.uk) When I first read this thread, I assumed it was 'the' holiday rentals, who charge around £350 a year, but every owner I know fills their apartment / villa for at least two months. Obviously a different "Holiday Rentals".

[ZAD]

As an aside, there is also Flipkey (part of Tripadvisor), Booking.com, Air B'n'B, to mention a few who have massive global impact and only charge commission on the booking. The days of paying in advance to advertise your rental property are rapidly diminishing.

[umoran]

Not sure who "the" holiday rentals you refer to are -the 50 euro deal is with www.holidayrentals.com/ - and has a good section on Croatia -http://www.holidayrentals.com/holidayhomes/Croatia.htm.

[umoran]

I don't think the upfront price model is dead. The commission deal you mention is with Trip Advisor (run by Holiday Lettings)who charge 3%.I think Villa Renters” charge 10% on bookings.Personally I'd rather take my chances with an upfront cost.
Horses and courses.

[ZAD]

I'll agree to disagree. As you say, horses for courses.

Best wishes.

[zvekov]

Sadly..I have to agree with zad... Not the famed holiday-rentals.co.uk now homeaway.co.uk.. The market leader. It is some other site.. I wouldn't pay €5 for them let alone €50. They have to chart well for me to compete with 5000 other renters.. Otherwise I will only do it on a commission basis. Check Alexa.com

[janskov]

It is probably the best deal Martin could get and I am not going to take it. This site has been around for some time and I was on it for a couple of years with absolutely no results. To be fair to them I did a new search (things do change) for holiday rentals croatia and a few other searches with vacation and apartment rental in them - and nothing.... they don't appear anywhere in the first 20 hits.
I have had sad experiences with similar sites and I am sure that after one year and no booking you won't get your money back, but you will get an offer to just stay another year for free.
I have been in this rental business for 10 years, so do I qualify for the get-together :-)

[umoran]

Hi Jan, Good to hear from you. The villa rental section at Croatia Holiday and Home aimed at foreigners owning Croatian properties and was to my knowledge the first site of its kind. It was very successful in the early days and generated all the advertisers some bookings for a very modest £85.00 a year and was number one for the search engines for the first four or five years.
That was then - nowadays it is impossible to compete with the big players so I decided to close down the site from December 1st. Instead of just doing that and moving on I asked a number of “big” companies what deal they could offer people from my site who might want to transfer across. The best deal came from Holiday Rentals.com who has very good search record and made what I thought was a very good offer for people with property in Croatia .
Holiday Rentals are a major player and to get a year’s advertising for 50 euros is a bargain. You are guaranteed a booking that will get your 50 euros back in booked rental payments-if you don’t get a booking you are a platinum member for life - for free.
Say you are on Owners Direct already – say you gamble 50 euros with the Croatia Holiday Home deal. Included in the 50 euro’s price Holiday Rentals will copy the details from your existing listing – so no tedious filling in your details. I don't see how you can lose for 50 euros. If you get no bookings then have a life time of free advertising on one of the top five companies - if it gets you bookings then it worked and you have choices when Owners Direct come asking for their £200.00 on renewal.

www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/announcement-villa-rentals.html

[crojoe]

Nov 14, 2013 0:50:51 GMT 1 janskov said:

It is probably the best deal Martin could get and I am not going to take it. This site has been around for some time and I was on it for a couple of years with absolutely no results. To be fair to them I did a new search (things do change) for holiday rentals croatia and a few other searches with vacation and apartment rental in them - and nothing.... they don't appear anywhere in the first 20 hits.
I have had sad experiences with similar sites and I am sure that after one year and no booking you won't get your money back, but you will get an offer to just stay another year for free.
I have been in this rental business for 10 years, so do I qualify for the get-together :-)

Does anyone use ebay (holiday rental) or gumtree to advertise their holiday homes in Croatia? I ask as they have loads of properties for Spain and USA but I could not find one for Croatia. To keep prices low on ebay you just put 99 pence for a card or brochure to be sent to the winner via email, not the actual rental price, which then can be dealt with off-line to save money of ebay/paypal fees. Or, just include the deposit price (off £50 they take £2)?

This is the only advert I found under "holiday rental croatia" : www.gumtree.com/p/flats-houses/holiday-home-in-croatia/1034764021
But there are loads for other places, so it looks to me that this is an untapped area.

On google these guys ranked on first page for keywords "holiday rentals croatia":
homeaway.co.uk/Croatia
ownersdirect.co.uk
holidaylettings.co.uk
casamundo.co.uk
housetrip.com
tripadvisor.co.uk

[umoran]

Hi Crojoe,
S.E.O can be contradictory I checked ""holiday rental croatia" out at Alexa - and Im in 4th place for that phrase in the world at position 3 million and something - and I cannot make the Croatia villa rental business work! The irony!
With no search phrase Holiday Rentals . com is the 25,000th most popular site globally of any website anywhere! (BBC is at 52 in at that list to give you a gauge) Owners Direct.com is at 112,000 and Owners direct .co.uk is at 16,000. Home Away is at 12,000. So Holiday Rentals.com are not one of the top players but they are in top 5 or 6 villa rental companies and 50 euros is much cheaper than £200. I had a quick look at companies that spee in Croatia and then suddenly you are in the 2-3 millionth ranking section.
It remains a judgement call but surely the price confirms it - the cost is only 50 euros. Apparently I own the 4th most successful website on the planet for that search phrase but I just paid my own money for my house at 50 euros because I know it to be a good deal.
You cannot contact Holiday Rentals direct about the deal because it is off their list –it is an exclusive deal negotiated by me – so you must follow the process at:
www.croatia-holidayandhome.co.uk/announcement-villa-rentals.html
Or you do not qualify and the deadline to have paid is Monday the 18th of November.
Incidentally their team just completed the transfer of the house at no time or extra cost to me and I spent 20 minutes tidying up the bits that needed it like rates and calendars and the property is now live and advertising.

[keepsmiling]

Umoran, deadline too tight, need to do a lot more work to get ready. Not much warning old chap, so can't meet your deadline.

[umoran]

Hi thanks for the reply - I'm umoran but I think 3 days is plenty of time to send an email and complete a payment form. I wished I'd gone for a more upbeat user name now too!