Hi Sue, You need to take a security deposit on your property which can be a deterrant against folks not treating your apartment with respect. We also make sure every booking we get complete a booking form/terms & conditions with names of all parties, ages of adults if under 21yrs & ages of all children & signed by the lead name. Having a reliable honest person to manage your property is also a good idea then they can relay things back to you e.g. checking that the number of guests on the booking form is correct & that they are who they have said they are on the booking form. We have had experiences of over occupancy and have been able to act on it through our manager letting us know, ie with-holding the security deposit in lue of monies owed. It is a learning curve really, only experiences (good & bad) will make you more alert , not everyone will look after your property as you do yourself. We tend to advertise our property locally & also on some of the free websites available, we do pay to one website of which we have had some good response from. Cheers Jayjan

Agents are ok if you can find a good one but if you are not there and don't have a neighbour to keep an eye on things you lose control over who they are letting to.

We had a bad experience some years ago with an agent on the costa del sol, promised lots of good quality clients, monthly payments to bank etc. Reality was they only rented it at peak periods. One period they let to 8 youths (should have slept 6). We were out here at the time and called in they day they left and before the cleaners had gone in and it was trashed, cigs stubbed out on the fireplace wood and carpets, burger cartons all over the garden, broken lamps. another time they let to a spanish family and according to neighbours more than doubled the occupancy and had dogs. After calling a stop to renting it took ages to get the money from the agent and had to go to law.

I think using the web would be best. I have an apartment rented on 6 monthly lets and its worked out ok. The best tenants are the elderly who come Oct to March many of them from scandinavian countries. Although I do have friends who have had serious problems with long term too.

I would suggest using one of the internet listing sites. Type a few key words into Google and pick a site that comes up on the first page.
If you manage the enquiries yourself you can at least get some idea of who is coming. This means you can weed out the large single sex party and choose ones you like the sound of. There's still no guarentee of course, but it's better than handing complete control to an agent.
As previously mentioned, make sure you take (and cash) a sizeable security deposit.
You can then find someone to manage the property for each booking.
You will find a lot of very good advice for owners of holiday rental properties on the forum at http://www.laymyhat.com