Holiday Rental Essentials - The Extra Details

When I used to search for holiday rentals you could only go by the owner's description and photographs. These days more and more sites now feature ratings and reviews from previous guests. To me, these ratings of actual guests are invaluable. I like to read other people's opinions of how suitable a property is for children, or how easy it is to get to the nearest beaches, shops and restaurants. An unfortunate side effect of this is that the places with the highest ratings and rave reviews seem to book out far in advance.

Around three years ago I had a few nights in Florence with my husband. We stayed at Hotel Davanzati, which at the time was Tripadvisor's top rated hotel in Florence (currently it's at number five). One of the key things that guests raved about at this hotel was the aperitivo hour that they have every evening. Between 6.30 and 7.30pm guests gather to have complimentary Prosecco, wine and nibbles.

We came across a similar 'happy hour' when we stayed at the Orbit In in Palm Springs (pictured above). The Orbit In is currently the top rated B&B/inn in Palm Springs. At this boutique hotel they served their own signature cocktail along with wine, beer and popcorn.

These little touches are what makes one hotel stand out from another and make guests more likely to leave a (positive) review.

We are heading to Greece in a couple of weeks and I have been interested by two emails that I have received from a couple of the hotels we have booked.

Our hotel in Mykonos sent us a form to complete to create a 'bespoke experience'. Basically this means that we can select a room fragrance and the scent of our shower gels and shampoo and conditioner. We can also select from a 'pillow menu' and request exercise equipment to be left in our room. These selections are all free, but there is a wide range of add on items that you can select as well - from candles, to personalised beach bags, to the contents of the mini bar.

One of the places we are staying at on Santorini, also sent me an email following the booking I made via Expedia, thanking me for the booking and asking if we wished to order breakfast supplies for our room. Again, this is something that we would pay for, but the cost seems quite reasonable and it is a good service to offer.

I'll be sure to report back on both of these experiences when we return from our trip in October.

We posted very early on in this series on holiday rental essentials about how nice it would be to offer a welcome pack to guests. On other forums, I have read that home owners will leave dog beds and bones if guests have dogs, or toys and treats if young children are staying.

These little thoughtful touches are what makes a holiday memorable. In my experience, everybody likes to receive something extra for 'free' (even if the cost is factored into your fees). This could be a bottle of the local olive oil, a bottle of wine, or even just a couple of bottles of water.

For this week's holiday rental essential, I guess I am not really suggesting you do something specific, but rather have a think about what you might be able to do that could make your rental property stand out from the rest. We would love to hear what you have in mind. Please leave comments below.

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