Rental Valley and its personal transparent approach to property lettings

A decade of growth and success

Rental Valley was founded 10 years ago in Amsterdam. It all began when Viv and Niels decided to rent out their own properties in the Netherlands and had some unpleasant experiences with the rental agencies involved. As Niels Marcelis, founder and CEO of Rental Valley explained, “Me and my wife had two houses which we wanted to rent out. We decided to use rental companies, but that really did not go well - they did not pick up the phone, neither reply to our emails - and finance wise it was not looking great”, adding, “This was when we realised that we had to find an alternative to rent and manage our two houses”.

This situation sparked their ambition to launch their own holiday rental business to provide the services that were lacking from other rental companies: prompt communication, financial transparency, and no empty promises. The business idea, which originated from conversations at a kitchen table in the hope of finding a solution for a current issue, has grown into a business that oversees around 500 houses across the coastline of Portugal, Spain, and the Netherlands. “There was a problem which we had to solve. We were already managing our own properties, so we thought, let’s do it professionally”.

Passion and commitment to excellence

Since 2014, Rental Valley has been managing properties for homeowners along the European coastlines and has now an impressive portfolio of holiday property rentals, making it a distinctive company within the industry. As Niels explained, “We wanted a company that is creative for the owner, and which provides a hassle-free process. The property owners give us their house, and everything is taken care of very quickly and efficiently.” Rental Valley relies on a young, driven team of 25 workers representing 11 different nationalities who handles the task with real concern for both the homeowners and their guests. “The distinction is that, in addition to the guests, Rental Valleys also concentrates on the owners, offering them a unique level of individualised care”, shared the CEO.

Known for its perfect combination of being a transparent company, with a fast communication approach, Rental Valley’s attention to detail and to its customers’ needs has translated into a devoted client base. The clients of Rental Valley are living a stress-free experience because the company looks after their properties and maximises their income. Regarding the transparency factor, the CEO said that it requires a lot of systems and development to be this transparent as there is a lot of money involved in this business. He went on to say, “We have a system that shows every euro from the beginning to the end in one portal, which makes it fair to the homeowners to track all their lettings”. Communication-wise, customers can get in touch with the owner support team and speak with someone at any time, as there is always someone available 24 hours to take the calls.

Rental Valley’s values and services

Rental Valley has in average 18% more rental turnover in comparison with individuals renting properties by themselves. “Rental Valley had a gain of 8% compared to 2023 regarding the Portuguese market which is great,” Niels stated, referring to 2022 as being “extremely good because we faced the post-Covid-19 factor where everyone got excited with holidays”. Following a constant increase of interest from property owners and guests in the Algarvian and Spanish markets, the business intends to grow into additional Mediterranean nations, such as Croatia and Italy. Nonetheless, it is crucial to note that the company strongly emphasises the quality of the services provided over expansion. “We grow but we stay very personal - keeping our values in place is a must”, the founder and CEO of Rental Valley pointed out.

While both homeowners and visitors can choose from short-term and long-term lettings through Rental Valley, 98 percent of rentals are for short visits. Therefore, Rental Valley provides a variety of packages according to the demands of the property owners. These packages range from the most popular – Full Management - which includes all services from booking management, check-in, cleaning, maintenance, and so forth; to packages that only include optimising the booking process – Online Management - or even simply taking care of the client’s house while they are away – Property Caretaker.

Moreover, Rental Valley works with different booking platforms in order to provide high occupancy rates for the calendars of its clients. From that kitchen table in the Netherlands to 80 thousand bookings completed over the last decade, Rental Valley has created a lot of happy memories. If you are curious about how Rental Valley could change your property letting into a hassle-free experience – then go on and make an appointment with them.

For more information please contact Rental Valley on (+351) 808 808 214.

After studying Journalism for five years in the UK and Malta, Sara Durães moved back to Portugal to pursue her passion for writing and connecting with people. A ‘wanderluster’, Sara loves the beach, long walks, and sports. 

Sara J. Durães