Tips · 20 October 2026

The best time to refresh your holiday rental listing

Before bookings pick up, it’s worth taking a few minutes to make sure your holiday home is ready to stand out. These five simple checks can help guests feel confident choosing your home when they start planning their next trip.

A couple is planning to rent a holiday home for ten days next August. They compare a few listings, look through the photos and check the amenities. If parking isn’t listed, they won’t message the host to ask. They’ll just pick another home.

So when should you update your listing? On Holidu, we see the same pattern year after year: guests book about as many summer nights in January and February as in all the months before. That leaves less time than it seems. Some changes take multiple days to reach every booking platform, and new booking rules only apply to bookings made after you set them.

So the order matters. Start with the groundwork, your prices and seasons for next year. Then go through five checks: your photos, your amenities, your description, your booking rules, and whether your home is live on every booking platform.

Why next year’s prices and seasons come first

Before the five checks, set your prices and seasons for next year. Your minimum stay and arrival days are set per season, so your seasons need to be in place before you can set the rules guests check before they book. For the full steps, see how to set your prices early.

Why your first photos decide whether guests open your listing

Guests decide in seconds whether to open a listing. That’s why a professional photoshoot is included in your onboarding in most regions.

Your first photo is the cover image on every booking platform your home is listed on, so it’s the first thing guests see when they compare homes. The photos after it decide whether they keep looking or move on, since guests are much more likely to book your holiday home if they are impressed by your photos.

Look through your gallery the way a guest will:

Put your strongest photo first, such as the view, the pool or the living room in daylight. If guests come for summer, show the outdoor space they’ll use.
Show every room and the outside from different angles, in at least 10 horizontal format photos.
Use only bright, sharp images that show the uniqueness of your holiday home.
Ask yourself how many guests your holiday home can accommodate, and let your photos show it: a dining table that seats everyone, enough outdoor seating, every bedroom and bathroom.

To reorder your gallery, go to Properties in your Holidu account and open the Photos tab under Configuration. Then drag and drop each photo to its place. Order them like a walk through your home: outside first, then the living area, kitchen, bedrooms and bathrooms.

Homes with professional photos see around 20% more bookings within six months. Our local photographers have a lot of experience with holiday homes: together, they’ve photographed more than 35,000 properties for Holidu.

If you don’t have professional photos yet, request a shoot before bookings pick up in January. The photographer has to schedule a visit, and your new photos usually reach your booking platforms within a week of the shoot. Look for the photoshoot banner at the top in the Photos tab, or ask your local team what’s possible.

Which details guests check before they book

When guests compare homes, they look for what makes their stay work: parking, Wi-Fi, air conditioning, a crib for the baby. Many filter for these details, and if an amenity isn’t selected in your listing, guests who filter for it may not see your home. Changes can take up to 24 hours to reach your booking platforms, so start here, before you refresh your description.

Go through each category under Amenities:

Turn on everything guests can use for free. For extras that cost money, such as towels or airport shuttle, add the price.
Think about summer: pool, garden, terrace and barbecue are all very popular. Make sure to turn them on if you offer them.
Make sure your beds fit your guest number. Under General information → Capacity & rooms, the number of guests you accept can’t be higher than your number of sleeping places (a double bed counts as two).

Accurate amenities mean guests arrive expecting what they read, which helps you avoid cancellations and compensation claims.

How to refresh your description without starting from scratch

Do this right after your amenities. Your description is built from your amenities and property details, but it doesn’t update by itself when you change them. Once your amenities are up to date, give your description a fresh look.

Under Title & Description, click Generate new description and Holidu will ask you to share essential details for guests. Bullet points or keywords are enough:

Highlights: what makes your home special, such as the view, the garden or the quietness.
The location: what’s nearby and how to get around.
Anything guests should know to avoid surprises, such as a busy street or ongoing construction work nearby.
House rules, so guests know what to expect before they book.
Local experiences, such as guided tours, cooking classes or boat trips.

Compare the new text with your current one and choose Use new description if you prefer it. You can also have it translated automatically into 9 languages, so guests can read it in their own.

How to set rules that keep guests booking

Before they book, guests check three of your rules: how many nights they have to stay, which days they can arrive, and what they get back if their plans change.

If these rules don’t fit their trip, they simply book another home.

Keep them flexible enough for most guests, and save stricter rules for the dates that need them. Changes apply to new bookings only, so set your rules before bookings pick up in January.

Minimum stay: set per season under Configuration → Pricing. Longer in your busiest weeks, shorter in quieter months. For Easter or a bank holiday weekend, add a short season with its own minimum stay and arrival days. If you applied Holidu’s price recommendation for next year, your seasons already have a suggested minimum stay.
Flexible Stays: opens the gap nights between long bookings to short stays of 1, 2 or 3 nights, at up to 50% more per night. Turn it on under Configuration → Discounts.
Cancellation policy: guests who book months ahead want to know they can change plans. Flexible cancellation terms remove the top reason guests abandon a booking. You can choose the policy per booking platform, from Flexible to Strict.

Not sure what works in your area? Ask your local team.

How to check your home is live on every booking platform

Everything above only helps if guests can book your home, so make this your last check once your other changes are in place.

Open Distribution channels in your property and check the status next to each booking platform:

Online: your home is listed and bookable there.
Action needed: something you can fix in your account.
Pending: the platform is reviewing your listing, or a fix you made is being processed. This can take up to 48 hours.
Offline: an issue Holidu’s team is working on.

If a platform rejects your license number, your account shows the format it expects, with examples, next to the error. Correct the number, or upload a document that shows it’s right.

Once you’ve fixed anything, give it up to two days, then open your listing on a couple of platforms using the links in Distribution channels. That’s the quickest way to see your home the way guests will.

Your timeline, month-by-month

In October: set your prices and seasons for next year, and request a photoshoot if you don’t have professional photos yet. The shoot takes the longest, because a photographer has to schedule a visit.
Next: update your amenities, then your description, then your booking rules. You can do all three in one go.
Before Christmas: make sure your home shows Online on every booking platform. If you fix anything, give it up to two days to reflect the change.
By January: guests start booking their summer, and your listing is ready. If your photoshoot happens later, the new photos go live and your current ones move to the archive.

Frequently asked questions

When is the best time to refresh my listing?

Before the new year. Bookings on Holidu are quietest from October to December and pick up in January, when guests start planning their summer. Start with your prices and seasons in October, and finish with a check of your booking platforms before Christmas.

How quickly do my changes show on booking platforms?

Most changes reach your booking platforms automatically, but not all at once: amenity changes, for example, can take up to 24 hours. New rules, such as a different minimum stay, apply only to new bookings, never to ones already confirmed. Give your changes a day, then open your listing on a couple of platforms using the links in Distribution channels to check.

Will changing my amenities update my description?

No, your current description stays as it is. Generate a new one under Title & Description, or edit the text yourself.

Can I get new professional photos?

If your home has never had a Holidu photoshoot, look for the photoshoot banner in the Photos tab. If your home has changed significantly since your last shoot, for example after a renovation, talk to your local team. Holidu’s photo team decides whether a new shoot is possible.

Can I choose which gap nights Flexible Stays opens?

Not one by one. It applies to all gap nights that match your settings, but you can still block any dates you don’t want to open, and switch it off at any time.

Your listing, ready before next summer’s guests start looking

You can do each of these checks in your Holidu account or in the Holidu Host App, and your local team can help when you need it.

Your account → Properties

Go to your account

New to Holidu? There’s no subscription: you only pay when you earn.

Tips