My first question is: How much does it cost?

Well the simple answer is: only US $96 per year
(there is a one-off intial set-up fee of US $30)

the full answer is:

We expect that you get dozens or even hundreds of mails a year extolling the virtues of one or other holiday rental site - you probably got one from us. You probably advertise in print too, and it all soon mounts up.

That's why we decided to keep our fees as low as possible - less than $2 per week - whilst still being able to offer a quality service.

Some sites offer free listings, some are a lot more expensive than we are, so why should you join VillaLynx?

Our commitment to you is to provide your listing for a minimum period of one year, to constantly keep the site interesting and useful, to strive to get as many site visitors as possible.

Your commitment to us is for a minimum period of one year, and the fee is payable via our secure payment service partner PayPal - we never have your credit card details.

What you get for your subscription:

  • Lots of detail about your property

  • 10 images

  • Downloadable copy of your page

  • Easy editing

  • Easy to use control panel

  • Flexibility in what appears on site

  • Quick loading pages

  • Special offers/late deals entries

  • Constantly changing feature properties

  • Property of the week feature (at extra cost) on front page

What we do behind the scenes:

  • Complex but constant search engine placement campaigns

  • Advertising in UK, US and European press

  • Friendly help and advice as required

  • Manual touch-up of images as required

  • Constantly improving site

  • Targetted opt-in newsletter to holidaymakers

  • Various other services such as web site hosting and design (at extra cost)

  • Oh, and 5% of our revenue goes to various charities which we think are worthwhile


     

So, why should I put my villa on the VillaLynx web site?
What information do you have about my villa?

What do you do that no-one else does?
  • We offer a comprehensive range of services for both owners and guests - services that make your life easier and your property easier and more attractive to rent.
  • Easy navigation - Map Drill down straight to your property or a simple jumpstation to show the villas in a particular country, region or town

  • Local colour - we provide details of local amenities such as restaurants or places of interest near your villa - and you can add your favourite places to them

  • Rich information quality - our site is a place to come and browse, attracting both owners and guests time after time

  • Specialist sections for activity holidays such as golf and ski - making our site more attractive to those sectors

 
  • As much as possible - We want to put ALL the information you can give us onto VillaLynx.com so that guests do not pester you for information which they can obtain on-line

  • High quality images - you can have up to 10 images of your villa on the site for the basic monthly cost, including a floorplan if you have one

  • Your guest book - comments and reviews.

  • Your availability calendar (optional) or even a link to a calendar service you already use.

  • I have a video, can I upload it? Not the full video as this would be too big and too slow to view over the Internet. We are currently investigating the possibility of adding video clips to the site
  • Real feedback - your guests can put their comments on the site, letting future guests know what your property is like

  • Guestbook on the web - if you send us a copy of your guest book, we'll put it on the web straight away

  • No more expensive brochures - your brochure is here on the web in its entirety, not just a short precis and what's more all pages can be saved by visitors as a PDF file for viewing offline or sending to their friends

  • No more timewasters - since all the information is here on the web the only people who will ever contact you are those who are genuinely interested in renting your property.

How does your search engine work?
How do I know if my listing is effective?
But won't the personal contact be missing?
  • Users can search on lots of criteria - such as price, number of bedrooms, available amenities and of course location

  • Where will my villa be on the list - we asked 600 villa owners what the biggest problem with using the Internet is, and many of them said that their villas were at the bottom of the list. A bit of a pain when your villa is one of a hundred near Grasse or Disneyland!

  • To solve this problem - we rotate the order in which we list villas so that everyone gets the same chance of being at the top of the list

  • Can I pay to ensure my villa is always on the front page? No. Everyone gets the same treatment - this is fair to all.

  • My villa has very special features - can I add them to the search page? If demand for a new property feature is high enough we will add it.

We maintain statistics, which you can view via your control panel, for all of the following:

  • Actual visits to your property's page on VillaLynx.com

  • All click-throughs to your own web site

  • All enquiry forms filled in in VillaLynx

  • All click-throughs to your e-mail address

  • All click-throughs to you phone number (optionally displayed)

  • All availability checks on your property (if you choose to maintain a calendar)
  • Personal contact is important - and it remains an essential part of the process here on VillaLynx.com.

  • Your guests use us as the initial information source and they will still need to speak to you.

  • In fact you need allow the checking of availability via your calendar at all, thus ensuring your guests must contact you prior to booking.