Dear Sir,
I am prompted to write to you about the ever continuing arguments regarding the letting of properties in Majorca for holiday use. This subject has attracted remarks and opinions over a lengthy period and has not resulted in any constructive or acceptable conclusion.
Majorca is a holiday island and relies heavily on tourism for its well being. Accommodation is an important consideration to be taken into account when booking a holiday and this facility should be available to potential clients when booking a holiday on Majorca.
Another point which requires attention is that of owners of properties who have purchased their property primarily for their own use, but undertaken some holiday lettings to help with their over heads. I do believe that provision of properties for holiday lettings does require some sort of controls to ensure that minimum standards are maintained and properties rented do live up to the acceptable standards required by the clients.
I am a lover of Majorca and taking into account all the pros and cons believe it is arguably one of the premier holiday destinations in the world. We have the pleasure of owning a home on the island for many years and enjoy our frequent visits. Our property is our second home and whilst we did let the property for some years, it is now only for our own use. When we first purchased the apartment we did let it out to assist us with our cash flow.
From this one apartment we expanded the facility through a comprehensive colour brochure to a wide variety of self catering properties both luxury villas and well appointed apartments. In addition we listed a selection of boutique small hotels and one or two larger luxury hotels. Half our business was with these hotels and half with self catering properties. The relationship we had with both the hotels and property owners was excellent and we soon learned that the clients requiring hotels rarely were interested in self catering properties and conversely clients in self catering properties only rarely changed to hotels. Our complaint level was so low it was hardly worthy of consideration and our main source of business soon became to be repeat business and recommendation. Our contracts with property owners was very stringent and covered all items to ensure customer satisfaction The contracts also made it quite clear that all owners were responsible to declare income to the authorities and to pay any tax require Our contracts were produced in Spanish (a sizable number of our owners were Majorcan) and English. All properties had local accessible management who had to speak Spanish and English and indeed some cases Majorcan. Our hotels were essentially privately owned and our relationship with the owners was without exception one of friendly cooperation and mutual respect.
We provided whatever the clients requested from one item only to the whole package, flights, travel insurance, transfers, accommodation and car hire etc. We were full members of ABTA and we were civil aviation bonded.
It was a pleasure to run this small business and increased our love of the island. The relationships we formed were excellent and made it a pleasure to come to the island. I would like to think that the Majorcan authorities would appreciate the several and complex issues regarding this situation and arrive at a satisfactory conclusion which would benefit this wonderful island of Majorca to their satisfaction and that of property owners and hoteliers.
Yours sincerely,
Name withheld by request