HELP

Search on the site to find properties you’re interested in, and contact owners directly with any questions about their property.

Search

Use the search box located on the left of every page, or try an Advanced Search.

Browse

Click one of the regions on the homepage map and continue until you find properties you’re interested in. Most of your questions should be answered on the property listing pages.

Shortlist

Click the 'Save to Shortlist' button on any property listing page to bookmark properties you’re interested in. Then visit the Shortlist page to view the properties you’ve saved and make enquiries.

To make a booking, contact the owner or manager directly from the information on the property listing - either e-mail or phone them. Please mention Holiday Houses when you contact them.

During peak times, it may take longer for the owner or manager to respond to your message. Please wait at least three business days to hear back from them.

We are unable to book properties on your behalf.

Please contact the owner or manager directly.

If you have an issue with how we've handled your credit or funds, we can help resolve your issue here.

Security is vital when it comes to booking a place to stay online. We want to help keep you safe, so here are six simple things to bear in mind when booking a holiday house:

1. If you click a link in an email, check the website address you're being sent to. For Holiday Houses, the URL in the address bar will always start with https://www.holidayhouses.co.nz/ or https://secure.holidayhouses.co.nz/.
2. Never provide your credit card number or password by email.
3. Never send money overseas. The vast majority of our house owners are based in New Zealand, so if you’re asked to send money to an offshore bank account you should think twice and contact us.
4. Upgrade your browser, as the latest versions of web browsers like Internet Explorer, Google Chrome and Firefox include anti-phishing features.
5. Don't respond to pressure. Scammers use scare tactics and urgent language to trick you into handing over confidential data.
6. If you see something dicey, let us know by getting in touch through the contact us page.

For more information on keeping yourself safe, visit Trade Me’s 'Safe Computing Centre'.

And remember, if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

We have two pricing models for house owners. You can either Pay Per House with our subscription plan or Pay Per Booking with our commission plan.

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Multiple house discount

We offer generous discounts to owners with multiple houses. Our current discount structure is as follows.

1 house	Full price
2 to 4 houses	12.5%
5 to 9 houses	15%
10 to 29 houses	20%
30 to 49 houses	25%

Please contact us if you have more than 50 houses to discuss our pricing options and what we can offer you to maximise your exposure on the site.

When we invoice you the discount we apply is determined by looking at the number of valid listings you have on your account with us. To count as a valid listing the house must be on a 12 month term and have a current paid invoice.

When your houses are renewed they will all receive the same discount.

When you add a new house you might enter a new discount range in which case we’ll apply that discount on the new house, and when we renew your houses they will all receive the same discount.

Short term listings

We also offer short term listing options. These listings do not qualify for Multiple House Discounts.

Short term listings can be attractive if only want to list your house out for a limited amount of time (over summer for instance). Don’t forget that renters are looking for holiday accommodation all year round, and many baches receive bookings for the busy summer period during winter. To maximise your chance of fully booking out your bach you might want to consider having the house visible on the site all year, but blocking out unavailable dates in the calendar. The Pay Per Booking model is ideal for this situation, as you only pay for bookings you receive, not how long you spend on the site.

Our short term listing prices are:

Tier	One month	Three month	Description
Classic	$69	$129	Our standard listing
Silver	$99	$219	Higher exposure: nearly double the leads of Classic listings*
Gold	$169	$429	Our highest exposure: three times leads of Classic listings*

*Based on enquiries from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015

Silver listings received 171% of Classic leads per house. Gold listings received 295% of Classic leads per house.

Find out more about listing tiers

Create your holiday house listing

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How booking requests work

When you have a Pay Per Booking house we will send you booking requests from interested renters. You have the option to accept or decline these bookings and we will charge you commission on any accepted bookings.

You can accept or decline bookings on our site by clicking the button on the email we send you, or by logging into your Holiday Houses account and clicking "View all enquiries" for the appropriate house. Please respond to booking requests as soon as you can so the renter can find alternative arrangements if you can’t accommodate them.

We will charge you commission on all accepted bookings. We do not charge commission on any bookings you decline or cancel.

How do I get paid?

We will charge the renter’s credit card when you accept the booking. We will do this immediately if you have selected instant confirmation, or we will wait until you respond to our booking request email if you have chosen 'on request'.

How do I contact the renter if I want more information?

We know many Holiday Houses owners want to talk to their guests before approving their booking, so we include the renter's details in the request we send you. That means you can easily contact the renter directly before you accept the booking if you need extra information from them.

Will I be charged for declining a booking?

No, we only charge for bookings that go ahead. That means if you accept a booking but have to cancel it at a later date you won’t get charged commission.

What happens if I need to cancel a booking?

That's not a problem. We know that bookings sometimes fall through, so you can easily cancel an accepted booking through your holiday houses account. View your bookings by clicking "View all enquiries" for the appropriate house.

You need to create an account to list a property. Fill in as many details about your property as you can, and add plenty of photos – it will save people contacting you with unnecessary questions.

Just login to edit your listing at any time.

You can now import external calendars that support the iCal format into Holiday Houses to make it easier for you to manage your calendar. The benefit of this is that all dates your holiday house is booked for will display in the calendar regardless of which site the booking occurred, so you won't have renters enquiring about dates that aren’t available, or double booking. The imported calendar/s will synchronise every 30 minutes, or when you click the refresh icon. Days blocked by an imported calendar will be displayed on the calendar with striped gray cells. You can easily remove the calendar by clicking the trash icon - all of the events associated with that calendar will also be removed.

Step 1: Log into your house details and go to your booking calendar under 'Bookings and enquiries'

Step 2: Click the link 'Import calendar' and a pop up box will appear

Step 3: Name the calendar you're importing and paste in its URL. Click import.

Your imported calendar will show blocked out dates with greyed out boxes.

You can also export your Holiday Houses calendar so you can keep your other calendars that support the iCal format synchronised. The export includes dates booked through Holiday Houses, and excludes those imported from other calendars. Please note that every listing on your Holiday Houses account has it's own calendar, which will need to be exported individually.

Step 1: Log into your house details and go into your booking calendar under 'Bookings and enquiries'

Step 2: Click the link 'Export calendar' and a pop up box will appear

Step 3: Copy the URL. You can the pase this into your other calendar applications.

Once you confirm a booking in the system, the renter will automatically receive an email from us encouraging them to leave a review after they have checked out. Renters can rate your property from one to five stars and leave feedback about their experience.

In order to recognise an enquiry as an official booking, we need you to add the enquiry to your booking calendar. To do this, please follow the following steps:

Step 1: Log into your Holiday Houses "My Account" page.

Step 2: Click on view all enquiries/bookings

Step 3: Click on "Create a calendar booking from this enquiry"

Once the booking has been added to your calendar, the renter will automatically receive an email from us to leave a review after they have checked out.

If you don’t follow these steps and add the enquiry to your calendar, we won’t know that the enquiry converted to a booking, and therefore we will not prompt the renter to leave a review.

Holiday Houses is promoted online and offline and receives over 200,000 visitors per month (statistic from Google Analytics).

Your listing will appear in search results when people search for properties in your area, from the main region to the suburb, for certain keywords (e.g. swimming pool, beach) and by price and availability.

Our prices vary depending on how much exposure you want. We use a lot of factors to determine your position in search rankings, but for default searches (where the renter has not specifically ordered the results themselves) we separate the houses by listing tier.

NOTE: Pay Per Booking houses receive a significant boost in our search rankings.

Tier	Position	Description
Gold	Top of the page. Ahead of Silver and Classic listings.	Our highest exposure: three times the leads of Classic listings! Gold listings received 295% of Classic leads per house from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015 Your house will appear in our Super Feature rotator at the very top of search pages, and will also appear as a Silver listing. The Super Feature rotator shows our gold houses in random order.
Silver	Ahead of Classic listings	Higher exposure: nearly double the leads of Classic listings! Silver listings received 171% of Classic leads per house from 1 September 2014 to 31 August 2015 Your house appears below the Super Feature rotator, but ahead of Classic listings.
Classic	Standard positioning in search rankings	Our standard listing. Your house appears below Gold and Silver listings.

• Holiday Houses is the largest holiday home advertising site in NZ, with over 9,000 homes listed.
• Your property details will be available 24 hours a day to holiday makers around the world.
• Each listing has its own web page and address which will not change, so you can use it for additional advertising such as newspaper ads.
• You can upload up to 30 photos to help showcase your property.
• You will receive a weekly report for your listing, including the number of times the listing has been viewed and a summary of enquiries received.
• You can login and change your listing anytime at no charge.
• You can use our booking calendar and map system to display your property on our availability and map search pages.

We will continue to develop and expand Holiday Houses. We can be contacted here if you would like further information.

Create your holiday house listing

All pre-paid listings are non-refundable. This includes (but is not limited to) where you choose to remove your house from the site before your listing period is up.

If you have an issue with how we've handled your credit or funds, we can help resolve your issue here.

In order to keep your property in top-notch condition, and keep your guests safe, we recommend the following:

• Ensure you have functioning smoke alarms. The NZ Fire Service suggest installing long-life photoelectric smoke alarms in every bedroom, living area and hallway. The battery for these smoke alarms doesn't have to be replaced for up to 10 years but check them regularly to ensure they're working 100%.
• Have a fire extinguisher at your holiday house so you and your guests will be better prepared to put out small fires before they become big ones.
• Create an escape plan, and have this information available in a welcome pack for guests when they arrive at your property. Also, provide information about where they can find a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, emergency phone numbers, and where they can find the nearest hospital.
• Contact your local authority to see if there are any health and safety regulations or by-laws that you need to comply with.
• Identify potential hazards and ensure you meet regulations to minimise any danger associated with them. Swimming pools, decks, chemicals/poisons are just some of the potential hazards to keep in mind when safeguarding your home.
• Ensure your appliances and heating devices (eg, oven, heaters etc) are in working order and checked periodically to make sure they're safe.

We recommend that you check with your insurance provider to ensure you have adequate coverage in the unlikely event that something goes wrong while a guest is occupying your property. It may be worth taking out public liability insurance on top of your home and contents insurance to ensure your home is covered for rental activities – talk to an insurance expert for advice.

Any money you get from renting out your bach, house, a room, a caravan or a sleep-out is taxable.

To get your taxes right you:

• Must include your income on an Individual tax return (IR3). This can be filed online and, for most people, it's due 7 July
• Can claim expenses for the time you rented out the space - such as rates, insurance, cleaning and advertising
• Need to keep clear records to confirm all income and expenses

Visit the Inland Revenue website to learn more. (http://www.ird.govt.nz/property/property-rental)