Ten mistakes that cost holiday home owners money.

The ten

• •Charging the same price all year. By far the most expensive mistake, and the easiest to fix.
• •A first photo showing the interior instead of the view, the outdoor space, or whatever makes the place special.
• •Photos taken on a phone, on a cloudy day, with the curtains half closed.
• •A title that only names the property type. "Apartment Marbella" says nothing. "Sea view, sleeps 4, 3 min from the beach" does.
• •A minimum stay that sits on the same number all year.
• •Not replying within the hour. Guests ask three properties at once.
• •Being only on Airbnb, while Booking.com pulls a different and often older audience.
• •Hiding the drawbacks. It earns bookings and bad reviews.
• •Sending no message before arrival. Most irritation is created in the first ten minutes.
• •Cleaning by rotating people without a checklist. Every bad review starts here.

Which ones first

If you only want to tackle three: start with pricing, your first photo and your response speed. In our experience those three explain most of the gap between a property at thirty percent occupancy and one at sixty.

The rest is refinement. Important, but only once the basics are right.

What is deliberately not on the list

Investing in the interior is not there on purpose. Not because it does not help, but because it is almost always the most expensive answer to a problem that lives somewhere else. A new kitchen does not fix a weak first photo.

Replacing furniture makes sense when guests mention it in reviews, or when your property visibly lags its price bracket. Not as a first step.

• •Pricing, first photo and response speed have the biggest impact.
• •Put in your title why someone would book, not what it is.
• •Write down the drawbacks. It costs a booking and saves a review.
• •Investing in the interior is rarely the first step.