Villas that show a bit of personality
14 November 2025
The last 12 months has seen a strong pick-up in buyers wanting villas that operate well and profitably as rental businesses.
In the main, these buyers have been looking for options around $400-$500,000 and they want to see property for sale that can be taken on with no real need for investment (time or money) in staff, or systems or marketing.
For the last of those, having a distinct brand - as well as the channels and materials that support it - can be a major plus. We don’t think it’s a coincidence that the villas we’ve most recently sold or have offers in process for at asking price are those that don’t just rely on AirBnB for their guests.
Obvious, to some degree, but here are some of the options for owners wanting to build that brand personality for their property.
Website
Ten years ago it probably was a considerable task to produce an attractive website for a rental villa and use that as a channel to drive bookings.
That’s not really the case any more. Multiple platforms - Squarespace, Wix - give an affordable and relatively straight-forward means for anyone to build a smart property website that builds the sense of the a villa running as an intentionally commercial enterprise.
Social media
In the last week we’ve had two parties bidding over a two-bedroom villa for sale in Ahangama that has an Instagram profile probably the envy of many boutique hotels. Those guys aren’t hoping to buy it for its IG account but both have seen that channel and appreciate the value it brings in terms of direct enquiries.
As with a website, creating something from scratch can seem a daunting process. But with apps and other free software, creating what appear to be slick and professional posts and reels isn’t now such a time consuming task.
Printed materials
Most well run rental villas will have printed materials of some sort, sharing with information with guests on arrival. Going a bit beyond the most basic options and showing off a bit of style and personality is another route to building an individual brand.
Most buyers looking at a villa available for rent will stay a night or two themselves and seeing these touches again encourages the sense of the property being run pro-actively rather than just in the hope of bookings when possible.
Uniforms
Again, this is not rocket science (!) but smart uniforms with a bit of unique branding really help give the idea that the operation and strategy for the villa has been well thought through.