What you're buying
Uploading process
Photos
Updating details
Updating availability
Testimonials
Special offers/late availability
Prices
Payment
Advertising
Attractive to holidaymakers
The booking process


What you’re buying
The concept is simple:
Step 1. You put your property and contact details on the Colours of Spain website
Step 2. Colours of Spain advertises the website to independent UK holidaymakers
Step 3. The holidaymaker makes direct contact with you and books your property

Note you pay an annual fee to advertise on the site - Colours of Spain doesn’t charge commissions on your bookings.


Uploading process
You can place your advert on the Colours of Spain website from your own computer with our easy to use intuitive programme, which guides you step by step through the process.
We ask all property owners to supply the same standardised information by filling in the information templates plus some free text for you to highlight the features of your property. This means that holidaymakers can compare like with like, but also get a flavour of the individuality of each house. As you progress from one template to the next, the information is automatically saved and stored as a draft. You can access this draft from your account. This means that if you’re interrupted or simply don’t want to fill in all the information in one go, you can go back to it later. You can start this process now by clicking on Set up an account and following the instructions.


Your advert can include photos and text about your property allowing you to include many more details than a newspaper or magazine. We advise you to print out and have a look through the templates before you start filling in the information to make sure you’ve got to hand all the details we ask for. It’s a good idea to write the descriptive text before you go online so you can copy and paste it in the relevant place. Although the filling in process may take half an hour or so, the result is a very information-rich advert, which will save you time in the long run. The more information the holidaymaker has, the more likely he/she is to book immediately with minimal time-consuming requests for further details.

Click here to download property detail templates.

Once you have completed the process and paid for your advert, Colours of Spain will check the content and approve before the advert goes live. This will usually only take a couple of working days and your 12 month subscription period will commence from this live date. When you have successfully created and paid for your advert, you will have your own secure account with your own log-in, from where you can modify your advert, update availability, create a special offer etc. If you have more than one house, you will be able to manage all your houses from the same account.

If you haven’t got access to the internet, you can contact us and we will post you a hard copy of the templates for you to fill in by hand and send back to us to be uploaded. There is a charge of £25 for this service.


Photos
A good photo is probably the single most important element of your advert. It’s worth taking some time to get it right. Ideally your photos should show the outside of the house, the important areas of living space (main bedroom, kitchen, living room) and a shot of the garden/outdoor areas if you have them. They will look best if taken on a bright, blue-sky day – visualising yourself there on a glorious sunny day is a nicer mental picture than in the rain!

It is important you make sure that you own the copyright to (or have express permission from the owner to use) the photos you upload or send to us. If we scan your photos, the electronic rights belong to Colours of Spain Limited and the electronic images may not be re-used without our permission.

The price includes 4 free photos which you upload yourself. If you so choose, you can have up to 6 extra photos (max 10 in total) at an extra cost of £5 per photo. You can upload digital images, ie photos from a digital camera, photos from a "traditional" camera developed onto a CD or scans of hardcopy photos.

To upload the photos yourself
At the end of Step 1 in the upload process you are asked to upload your photos. The instructions on the form will take you through what you have to do. Ideally your digital images should be landscape format, jpg files and not be bigger than 300k. If you haven't got a digital camera, but still want to upload your own photos you can either get your film developed onto a CD or get your existing prints scanned onto a CD.

If you want Colours of Spain to upload your photos (and you have digital images), you can send us your photos on a CD or email the photos to the following address as attachments: photos@coloursofspain.co.uk. There is a charge of £10 per photo.
• Remember to include your name and address and property reference code (given to you when you create your advert).
• Specify which photo you want to be the main image. This is the photo that will appear in the thumbnails of your property and will be the main photo in the complete property details. This photo is normally a view of your house or flat from the outside.

If you send them by post, send them to either of the addresses below. If you want us to send them back please enclose a s.a.e. However, we prefer to keep them in case we ever need to upload them again.

If you want Colours of Spain to upload your photos (and you haven't got digital images), you can send the original printed photos to us and we will scan them for you. There will be a charge of £10 per scan and we can't be held responsible for the loss of or damage to these photos or the reproduction quality. If you send them:
• Please write your name, address and property reference code (given to you when you create your advert) on the back of all the photos
• Specify which photo you want to be the main image. This is the photo that will appear in the thumbnails of your property and will be the main photo in the complete property details. This photo is normally a view of your house or flat from the outside.

Send them to either of the following addresses below:
Colours of Spain Limited
Via Romana, 22
Talamanca de Jarama
MADRID, 28160
Spain

Colours of Spain Limited
64 Hill Top Road
Oxford OX4 1PE
UK

Photo prices
First 4 photos (included in price of advert) Free
Extra photo (max 6 - to give 10 in total) £5
Each photo scanned and/or uploaded by Colours of Spain £7


Updating details
You can edit, change or add to your advert any time you like - 24 hours a day 365 days a year.
If you need to change any of the advert (maybe your own contact details change or you have work done on the house and want to reflect that in the details or you simply want to describe it differently), you can log into your account, select the “Edit” link and go back into the templates where you can make the changes. Once these changes are approved by us, the new copy will appear automatically in your advert. Note you can’t change the advert so substantially that it is actually an advert for another house! This would be very confusing for holidaymakers using the site. If you no longer rent out your house, you must contact us immediately so we can remove your advert.


Updating availability
We ask you to update the availability of your property every time you get a booking. We will send you a link to this page with each enquiry you receive as a reminder to make the update once the enquiry turns into a booking. It is important the availability information is accurate and up-to-date to avoid disappointing holidaymakers, who use this information when deciding which properties to book.


Testimonials
You have the option of displaying testimonials (maximum 5) from previous clients as part of your advert. Each testimonial can consist of up to 25 words and must be accompanied by a name and address. There is a charge of £5 per testimonial. There is a section in step 3 of the property templates where you will be asked if you want to include testimonials.


Special offers/late availability
You may decide at a certain time that you want to have a special push on getting bookings. This may be because your house hasn’t filled up as fast as you were hoping and you want to offer a discount or you’ve had a last minute cancellation and want to re-advertise late availability. In any case when you log onto your account, you will find an “Add special offer” link. From there you will be able to write the details of your special offer (max 25 words), which once approved by Colours of Spain, will go live. There is a link from the home page to the Special Offers page and one of the Special offer houses is displayed on the home page as an example. There is a charge of £25 per month to advertise a special offer.


Prices
The prices are as follows:
Advert with 4 free photos £100
Extra photo (max 6 - to give 10 in total) £5
Each photo scanned and/or uploaded by Colours of Spain £7
Property details uploaded by Colours of Spain £25
Testimonial (max 5) £5
Special Offer (per month) £25
VAT 17.5%


Payment
You can pay online by debit or credit card using our secure gateway at Worldpay. We also accept cheques in sterling or in euros. If you want to pay by cheque, please make it payable to: Colours of Spain Limited. If your cheque is in euros, please send to the following address in Spain:
Colours of Spain Limited
Via Romana, 22
Talamanca de Jarama
MADRID, 28160
Spain

If your cheque is in British Pounds, please send to this address in the UK:
Colours of Spain Limited
64 Hill Top Road
Oxford OX4 1PE
UK

Advertising
We actively promote our website and company name, not just through online search engines - but through a huge variety of media, (including national press and specialist magazines) throughout the UK - something which has been overlooked by other internet ventures.
It almost goes without saying that the first and probably most important way to advertise a website is by getting a high ranking with search engines. Our website has been optimised for search engine listings and has been submitted to all the main directories. Additionally Colours of Spain is advertised in and actively contribute articles and industry editorials to newspapers and specialist magazines. We are also present at all major trade fairs.

We pay special attention to targeting out of season holidaymakers, ensuring a better all year round rental income - not just the summer months when it's easy to get visitors.
Many property owners have told us they could fill their houses 50 times over in July and August – it’s the rest of the year that’s more difficult. We advertise in publications that target groups of people who aren’t tied to taking their holidays in the high season.

Attractive to holidaymakers
We offer your clients, the holidaymakers, a highly practical, free travel guide - tailored to the region they're visiting and their own personal interests - to download and take with them.
We want to give the UK holidaymaker as many reasons as we can think of to visit our site and look at your property. Apart from the unique choice of British and Spanish owned properties in all areas of Spain, we also offer a free travel guide. The Guides are written by locals from each region and aim to give the holidaymaker insight not only into what there is to do/see etc in Spain, but also how Spaniards go about things and how our holidaymakers can get the most out of their holidays. Unlike the traditional guidebook, holidaymakers can download and take with them only those pages which are relevant to the region they're visiting and to their own personal interests. Additionally the part supplied by the property owner (Top 3 Guide) gives a unique directory of specific places to eat, visit etc as recommended by you!

The booking process
You indicate on the forms you fill in how you want to be contacted. This may be by phone, fax, e-mail or any combination of the above. Most holidaymakers prefer to make an enquiry/booking by e-mail and we strongly recommend that you include this as a contact option. Of course, if you request people to contact you by e-mail you should check your e-mails regularly (and reply!). If you are away from home and can’t access your e-mail for some time, it may be a good idea to get a web-based e-mail address (eg yahoo or hotmail) so you can read your messages wherever you are.

The first e-mail from the holidaymaker is sent to you via the Colours of Spain website and a security copy is also sent to us. This means we can send you another copy if you are having problems with your e-mail or lose the original.

Tips to convert enquiries into bookings:

• Reply quickly – holidaymakers often shortlist a few properties and may well choose the first one that answers their query.
• Be enthusiastic about your property, but also be accurate with the information you give.
• Be patient with all enquiries – even ones which ask for information you’ve already supplied.
• Be friendly – the independent holidaymaker does a lot more work to organise their holiday than the package holidaymaker and the human contact element in that organisation is an important part of the holiday experience.

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