How to prepare your holiday let for a photoshoot

Great holiday let photography starts before we arrive. We can light a room, straighten a line and balance a window, but we can't make a cluttered worktop look calm or a creased duvet look crisp. An hour or two of preparation is the difference between a nice gallery and one that fills the calendar.

Use this as a checklist the day before your shoot. Prepare it the way you would for your most important guest, then take away about a third of the things on the surfaces.

Throughout the property

• Every light bulb working, and the same colour temperature in each room if you can manage it
• Windows cleaned inside and out, especially any with a view
• Personal photos, paperwork, chargers, cables and remotes put away
• Bins emptied and out of sight, including in bathrooms
• Welcome folders, house rules and laminated signs removed for the shoot
• Rugs straight, cushions plumped and chopped, throws folded neatly

Kitchen and dining

Clear the worktops almost completely. Leave one or two good-looking things: a bowl of lemons, a stack of cookbooks, a coffee machine if it's a selling point. Kettles, toasters, drying racks, cleaning sprays and fridge magnets all go in cupboards. Lay the table simply for the number of guests the property sleeps; it tells people the size of the place instantly.

Bedrooms

Beds are the most-viewed rooms on a holiday let, and the easiest to get wrong. Pressed white linen photographs beautifully. Make every bed tight, with no creases at the foot, matching pillows, and one throw and two cushions at most. Bedside lamps on, wardrobe doors closed, luggage racks and spare bedding out of the room.

Bathrooms

• Toilet seats down, every time
• Shampoo, razors, toothbrushes and bath mats removed
• Fresh white towels, folded or neatly hung, one set per room
• Glass, taps and mirrors polished; water marks show

Living spaces and the wood burner

If you have a wood burner, lay a fire ready to light and tell us. A lit fire is one of the strongest images a West Wales cottage can have, especially for autumn and winter bookings. Clear the coffee table back to a book and a candle, and switch off the television.

Outside

• Lawns mowed a day or two before, hedges trimmed, paths swept
• Cars moved off the drive and away from the front
• Garden furniture out, clean and arranged; cushions on
• Hot tub filled, cleaned and covered (we'll take the lid off for the shot)
• Bins, hoses, recycling crates and toys put away

On the day

Plan for us to work room by room with the property empty of people, and expect a typical cottage to take one to two hours. If a cleaner is finishing up, ask them to start with the rooms we'll shoot first. Anything that can't be fixed on the day, tell us and we'll work around it in the edit, within the honest-editing rules we stick to.