Why Use Rental System?

We've had two properties since July 2008. I did a bit of research and Rental Systems was the only company I could find that allows on-line booking. Personally, I think the system is fantastic! The benefits from my point of view are:

Booking calendar is automatically kept up to date,
clients can pay on-line using plastic - no cheques in the post etc.. reminders are sent if payment is due
the system automatically send clients arrival instructions and any further information you've provided
the system can also keep the property manager informed about future guests
it also sends a reminder a week before departure and a request for feedback on return home

I've built my own website (www.lagos-apartments.co.uk) - many of my clients come through it (some via another holiday property site (owner's website link) others from local interest site www.lagos.me and quite a few through google)

There's a one-off setup charge of £50. Rental Systems take a 2% commision - 10% if booking obtained from the villarenters site. There are various settings you can make such as discounts, preferred arrival days, pricing options setting a refundable breakage deposit. This is automatically returned to the client if you don't make a claim. Getting payments from them is no problem. We've registered a UK and Portuguese account with them so can transfer to either. You can't withdraw until the first booking has completed (I think this may be an anti-fraud precaution). There's a one off nominal charge to allow you to withdraw funds before bookings have completed and for each early withdrawal there's a small charge. I think it's worth it. I recommend them.

The alternative would have been to do all the above tasks myself. You can set the system up to be more or less automatic. I find there are a lot of emails from other sites that I reply to and never hear from again. It can be very time consuming.