February on the Costa del Sol is the quiet month before the quiet stops. The Easter bookings are already rolling in, the summer calendar is starting to fill, and the owners who take this season seriously are using these few weeks to get their properties — and their paperwork — ready for the real year. The difference between a smooth season and a stressful one almost always comes down to what was done in February.
Here is the checklist we run through every year on the properties we manage, laid out plainly for owners who want to do the same on their own.
The short version
The work splits cleanly into five areas. None of it is dramatic on its own, but all of it is much easier to handle now than in mid-July with a full house.
- Maintenance and inventory — sort what is broken, worn or missing while the property is still empty.
- Photos and listings — refresh anything that looks tired, dated or simply wrong.
- Pricing — review last year’s numbers and set a realistic calendar for 2025.
- Paperwork — licences, insurance, community obligations and guest registration.
- Guest experience — the small things that turn a good stay into a five-star review.
1. Maintenance and inventory
After a winter of little or no use, most holiday rentals need a proper once-over before the season starts. Air conditioning that has not been run for three months. Pool pumps and filters. Hot water systems. Window seals. Balcony furniture that has spent the winter out in the rain. All of these are cheap problems in February and expensive problems in August.
The rule we use is simple: walk through the property as if you were a guest who had just arrived. Try the shower. Open every drawer. Turn on every lamp. Sit on every chair. Check that the remotes actually work. Count the wine glasses. Things that feel fine to an owner passing through for an hour can be very obvious to a family who is trying to live there for a week.
While you are at it, make an honest note of anything that needs replacing. Linens that are past their best. A non-stick pan that is no longer non-stick. A kettle that leaks. A sofa cushion that has lost its shape. None of these are dramatic — and that is exactly why they get forgotten until a guest mentions them in a review.
Priorities: air-conditioning service, pool equipment check, gas and electrical safety, anything with a filter or a flame, bedding and towel stock, kitchen basics.
2. Photos and listings
If your photos are more than two years old, they probably need updating. Furniture moves. Cushions fade. A coffee table you replaced last summer is not in the pictures. A new building across the street changes the view from the terrace. Guests notice when the photos do not match the reality, and when they notice, they leave it in the review.
February is a good month to bring a photographer in. The light is kind, the property is empty, and the photos will carry the listing through the whole high season. Even a modest refresh — a new hero shot, a few updated interiors, a sharper kitchen photo — makes a measurable difference on Airbnb and Booking.com.
While the photographer is working, re-read your listing description. Andalucía has changed in the last two years. Benalmádena has changed. Málaga city has changed. If your copy still talks about “ideal for winter sun” when the reality is that 80% of your bookings are families in July and August, fix it. The listing should describe the property guests actually stay in, not the one you remember from 2019.
3. Pricing for 2025
Look at what you charged last year, what you actually got, and what your calendar looked like. If you were booked solid by April for the whole summer, your prices were too low. If you had August weeks still open in July, they were either too high or your listing was not competitive enough. Both problems are fixable now; neither is fixable in August.
Dynamic pricing tools like PriceLabs, Beyond and Wheelhouse have become standard in the industry and are worth the small monthly fee for most owners. But even without a tool, a simple review of your pricing rules — last-minute discounts, minimum stays, weekend premiums, season boundaries — usually turns up two or three things worth adjusting before the first real wave of bookings.
One point we remind owners of every year: the Costa del Sol market is not in trouble. Demand is strong. The question is rarely whether guests will come — it is whether you are priced sensibly for your property, your location and your direct competition.
4. The paperwork side
This is the unglamorous part, but it is the part that costs owners the most when they get it wrong. Before the season ramps up, make sure:
- Your VUT licence (or equivalent regional tourist rental registration) is valid and displayed on every listing where it is required.
- Your insurance — home, contents and civil liability — specifically covers holiday rental use. Standard residential policies often do not, and discovering that after an incident is not where you want to be.
- Your community-of-owners situation is documented. The rules around what a building can and cannot permit have become stricter, and if you are in a community that is likely to raise the question, you want to know where you stand before a neighbour does.
- Your guest registration process is set up properly. Every overnight stay has to be reported, and the systems and data requirements are stricter than they used to be.
None of this is particularly complicated. It is just the kind of thing that is much easier to handle calmly in February than in the middle of a busy August weekend.
5. Guest experience — the small things
The best-managed properties on the Costa del Sol do not win because of marble worktops or designer furniture. They win because of the small touches: a proper welcome note, a bottle of local wine, a printed guide with genuinely useful tapas recommendations instead of a generic tourist leaflet, towels that have actually been replaced this year, sheets that smell of detergent and not of winter storage.
Before the season starts, walk through what a new guest experiences in their first hour: the key handover, the arrival instructions, the Wi-Fi password, the air-conditioning remote, the kettle, the first coffee of the holiday. If any of those are awkward, fix them now. Most five-star reviews are written — or lost — in that first hour.
Our own welcome packs get reviewed and refreshed every February. Small things we have added recently: a one-page Spanish-to-English cheat sheet for common restaurant phrases, a short note about tap water (safe to drink on the Costa del Sol, but guests always ask), and a clearer map of where to park.
A calmer perspective
None of this is difficult. It is just work — the kind of work that is easy to postpone in February and impossible to do in July. The owners who put in two or three focused weekends now tend to spend the rest of the year dealing with real holidays and happy guests, instead of crises and refunds.
The 2025 season will reward the people who are ready when it arrives.
Ready to hand this over?
If you would rather not spend your February weekends on maintenance checklists, photographer visits and insurance paperwork, that is exactly what we do. Our team manages a portfolio of properties across Benalmádena, Mijas Costa, Marbella, Málaga city and beyond — end-to-end, from legal compliance to the welcome note on the kitchen table.
Have a look at our Property Management page to see what is included and what our 25% flat fee covers.
