The real stages, in the order they arrive
The first year with a property manager always follows the same order: survey and analysis, signed mandate, putting things in order across filings, safety and equipment, photography and listing copy, publication on the portals with a single calendar, first bookings at a building price, the season, a monthly statement with the transfer on a fixed date, reading the numbers at the end of the season and maintenance through the first winter. How quickly it starts comes down to one thing only: how ready the house is.
Here are the stages as they actually turn up, including the two nobody talks about: when we tell an owner that their house will not go live as it stands, and when they get annoyed about the price of those first weeks.
1. The first fortnight: survey and analysis
During the survey the furniture is the last thing we look at. We look at the location relative to what a guest wants (sea, town centre, parking), the real bed spaces rather than the ones on the deeds, the state of the systems, air conditioning and hot water, the missing equipment, the light in the rooms. A tired air conditioning unit in May is a broken unit on 14 August, with the house full.
Then comes the part owners do not enjoy hearing. If a house is not ready, we do not publish it. A listing opened too early collects those first lukewarm reviews, and they stay attached to the property for years. When it needs saying we say it plainly, with a list of what is missing.
2. The mandate, and what goes into it
The mandate is not a form to sign in a hurry: it decides who does what for the next twelve months. Four things belong in it.
- The scope. Which services are included (publication, pricing, guest handling, cleaning, linen, check-in, compliance) and which are paid for separately.
- The excluded spaces. A locked wardrobe, the garage, a room that stays yours: it goes in the mandate, not agreed verbally.
- The weeks you block. How many there are and how much notice is needed to book them. They are yours and nobody touches them, but they go into the calendar before guest bookings.
- Term and exit. How long it lasts, how it renews, what notice is needed to leave and what happens to bookings already confirmed.
On the fee our rule is a single one: no fixed costs, no monthly fee, only a percentage of revenue. If you are offered something different, ask what you pay in the months when the house sits empty.
3. The first month: putting things in order
Here the paperwork and the house are handled together. On the paperwork: the CIN, compulsory since 1 January 2025 and to be displayed in listings, the notifications to the council and the police, and the tourist tax, which has different rules in every council.
On the house: safety first, with gas and carbon monoxide detectors and extinguishers. Then the equipment that separates a holiday home from a second home: enough linen for the changeovers, crockery for the bed spaces advertised, a second set of keys. Finally the small jobs everyone puts off, the torn insect screen and the shutter that will not come down. The full list is in the guide on what you need to start.
4. Photography and writing the listing
Photos come after everything is in order, never before, with the house prepared exactly as the guest will find it: beds made, table laid, no boxes in the hallway. The listing text is not a list of rooms: it answers the questions a person asks themselves before booking, how far the sea is on foot, where you park, whether the air conditioning reaches the bedroom.
5. Publication and the single calendar
The listing goes live on 50+ portals, not on one or two. They all draw on the same calendar through the channel manager: when a booking comes in through one channel, the dates close everywhere at the same moment. That is why double bookings do not happen.
6. The first bookings: why you start below price
This is the point where owners get most restless, and it is only fair to explain it in advance. A freshly published listing has no history and no reviews: to the portals it is a profile with no past and it gets shown less, to guests it is a risk and it gets chosen less. Same house, same location.
The first bookings exist to buy the two things you cannot buy any other way: history and the first reviews. To win them the house is priced below the value it will hold after a season. That is not selling it cheap, it is paying the entry fee once. A listing with two years of reviews starts from a different level, and you will get there: just not in the first month.
7. Through the season
In season the house stops being a project and becomes an operation. Between one guest leaving and the next arriving there are only a few hours, and inside those hours sit the clean, the linen change, the check on what has broken and the restocking of supplies. The unexpected is the job: the lock that jams at eleven at night, the neighbour ringing about a leak. The owner usually never notices, and that is rather the point.
8. The monthly statement and transfers on a fixed date
Every month you receive a statement with the bookings for the period, the gross amounts, the portal commissions, our fee, the operating costs (cleaning, linen, consumables), any repairs, the tourist tax collected from guests and paid over to the council (a pass-through item, not your revenue) and, at the bottom, the net. The transfer goes out on a fixed date, not whenever it happens to suit.
One thing we always say, because in this industry it cannot be taken for granted: there is no separate summary for owners. The document you see comes out of the same data we work from. If someone offers you a "simplified" schedule, ask to see the real one and watch how they react.
9. End of season: reading the numbers
Once the season closes you look at the house through its numbers: nights sold, average price, where the bookings came from, which weeks stayed empty and why, the cost of maintenance, the reviews. Concrete decisions come out of that: raise or lower the minimum stay, change the cancellation policy, carry out the work that moves the price (a second air conditioning unit, an outdoor shower) and leave alone the work that does not.
10. The first winter
Winter is not dead time, it is the window for the jobs that are impossible in season: repainting, changing the boiler, sorting out the small bathroom, checking systems and window frames before a guest checks them for you. In parallel the following year is prepared: rates, calendar, your weeks, new photography if the house has changed. When it reopens, the listing starts again with history and reviews, and it no longer has to buy its way in. The second year is a different trade altogether.
Last updated in August 2026. We review figures, rules and references periodically; before making tax or operational decisions, check the linked sources and your circumstances with a qualified adviser.
Carry on with these
- How to choose a property managerThe questions to ask before you sign.
- What a house in Sardinia really earnsWhy the gross figure tells you almost nothing.
- What you need to start: documents, safety, equipmentThe checklist for getting everything in order.
- Short let or long let: how to decideThe comparison is made on the net figure.
- All the owner guidesNine guides on tax, compliance, returns and management.
Want to know where your house would start from? Ask for the free valuation: we tell you what is missing and how the first year is set up. The owners page explains how we work.