Free listing for villa owners
Villa-Owners! ... set up a free listing for your villa in the Sporades, Pelion, N. Evia ... on my Sporades villa site 'www.SkiathosGreekVillas.com' - run by Kevin James, owner of Orchard Villa Skiathos.
l set up www.skiathosgreekvillas.com because the excellent advertising site (not a booking agency) of "ownersdirect.co.uk", which I used since 1998, was taken over by the 'Expedia' travel group. Expedia re-named the site as "Vrbo" ("Villa Rental By Owner" - www.vrbo.com), and forced bookings to be made via the site (not direct with owners!) à la 'AirBnB', with a fee of 11%+ payable to the site. The site also doubled listing fees to owners, and enforced their own contractual terms for rent payments, cancellations, and refunds.
Despite these outrageous changes, Expedia has falsely re-named the O-D site to - and kept the O-D URL, so searchers for "owners direct" are hi-jacked to Vrbo.com!
(full details - click 'Fair Pricing'). But I have now 'tuned' the www.SkiathosGreekVillas.com so that searches such as "Villa to Rent in Skiathos" etc. bring up www.SkiathosGreekVillas.com on 'Google' page 1 and 2, and "Skiathos Villas from Owner Direct" on Google page 1. So now I can offer a villa advert listing to other owners (free until at least next year - and of course, without charging you any website booking fees or commissions).
To qualify, your villa needs to be classic traditional N. Aegean or Cycladic style (no multi-floor square house designs please!), and in the Sporades area - Skiathos, Skopelos, Alonnisos, Pelion, and N. Evia. It needs one main floor, shutters, and red-tiled roofs or Cycladic flat sun-terraces. It also needs a private pool and garden (or shared with one other villa only), a wide sea view, and to be within 10-25 mins drive of sandy beaches, tavernas, a village and harbour, and all services.
The only condition is - the rental paid must be as in your price chart, and no part of it taken by other websites.
'Bottom-line' - see 'How it works' ...
First, you contact me, and I set up and maintain your advert free as below. To explain why you cannot access the site to do this yourself ... it is so I can customise the SEO* for each villa listed. * Search Engine Optimisation (for better results for Google etc. villa searches)
Then, holidaymakers who want to book your villa contact and pay you directly, using either the (free) site messaging system, or the contact details you ask me to display in your listing.
To request a listing now, or just find out more, click ⇒ "Enquiry" to send me a message like "Please call me about a villa listing", and I will get back to you.
... and to assure you the site is impartial: until now I listed only my own 'Orchard Villa'. This is slightly reflected in some of the general 'Skiathos' content, but I will change this when other owners start to use the site.
I offer you a free villa-listing advert until next year. You can then choose to continue with a subscription of probably €150 per year, which includes all the free website advertising services described below, and the licence fee for the site-builder software.
How it works
After I set up the listing as below ...
Enquiries for your villa can come direct to you, or be forwarded as below; and if you wish, your advert can show any of ... your name - tel.no. - email address - own-site URL. I and my site will not accept or arrange bookings for you; the rental contract, conditions, and payments are all made solely between yourself and the renter subject to the 'no-fee' terms below.
Set-up and Maintenance
I have set up and maintain www.SkiathosGreekVillas.com by using a property-rental site-builder, "PromoteMyPlace.com" for a licence fee which I pay.
I add your listing to the site free, per your instructions. I can copy material from your listing on another site, or use text and photos you email to me.
(note - you cannot access my site yourself - nor can your guests, e.g. to register unmonitored reviews!)
I then revise/edit your advert free per your instructions - including updating your availability, bookings, and prices.
I also configure your listing SEO* (a facility provided by the PMP software), and offer you free advice for editing the advert for best advantage of the SEO. * Site-Engine Optimisation - internally configuring the site which I do to optimise your chance of showing in Google results for searches by villa-seekers.
How do you receive enquiries and booking requests from www.SkiathosGreekVillas.com?
I can either set up your listing to send 'Enquiries' direct to you; or I will act as a (free) 'post-box' and forward them to yo,so you can negotiate bookings direct with the booker (but I will not accept bookings on your behalf, or set up rental contracts on your behalf - I do not act as a booking agent in any sense).