Preparing Your Holiday Rental in Istria for the Season: Checklist

In Istria the rental season roughly runs from May to October, with the busiest weeks in July and August. The first guests often arrive around Easter or the May holidays, and by then the house should be in the state your listing promises. A winter of damp, a couple of bura storms and months without anyone opening the windows can leave more to do than you expect.

This checklist is written for owners who live abroad and rent out a house or apartment in Istria. It focuses on the building itself: the things that break, leak, peel or stop working, and that are much cheaper to fix in March than on a Saturday in August with guests at the door.

When to start: work backwards from the first booking

The most common mistake is starting too late. From April onwards, good tilers, plumbers and painters across Istria are booked up with exactly the same pre-season jobs for everyone else. In many coastal towns, noisy building work is also restricted during the summer months, so anything bigger than a small repair has to be finished before the season starts. Rules vary by municipality, so check locally if you are planning more than maintenance.

• January–February. Walk through the house (or have someone do it) and make a list of everything that needs attention. Send photos and get rough prices.
• March. Book the trades for anything that involves tiling, plastering, painting or plumbing changes.
• April. Finish repairs, paint, then do the final checks of water, electrics and air-conditioning.
• Two weeks before the first guests. Final walk-through, test everything once more, fix the small things.

Inside the house: walls, ceilings and damp

Winter damp is the number one source of pre-season work in Istrian holiday homes, especially in stone houses and ground-floor apartments that stay closed from October to April. Look for:

• Dark spots or mould in corners, behind wardrobes and on bathroom ceilings.
• Peeling paint or crumbling plaster near the floor on stone walls, often with white salt crystals.
• Stains on ceilings under terraces, flat roofs or upstairs bathrooms.
• A musty smell that does not go away after a day of airing.

A fresh coat of paint hides mould for a few weeks, then it comes back in the middle of the season. If the cause is a leak or rising damp, that has to be dealt with first. Our article on damp in old stone walls explains the usual causes. For the surfaces themselves, interior painting with a breathable or mould-resistant paint is the normal fix once the wall is dry.

Bathrooms and kitchen: what guests notice first

Guests forgive an old-fashioned bathroom, but not a dripping tap, black silicone or a shower that floods the floor. Before the season, check each bathroom properly:

• Silicone joints around the shower and basin: replace if they are discoloured or coming away.
• Grout and tiles: cracked or missing grout lets water behind the tiles.
• Taps, shower heads and toilet cisterns: Istrian water is hard, so limescale builds up quickly. Descale or replace.
• Water heater (boiler): check it heats properly and that the safety valve is not dripping constantly.
• Extractor fan: if there is one, make sure it still works. A bathroom without ventilation will grow mould by August.

In the kitchen, check the hinges and doors of the units (rental kitchens get heavy use), the seal along the worktop, the sink drain and every appliance. If a bathroom is simply worn out after years of guests, the off-season is the time to replace it. Our guide to bathroom renovation for a holiday home covers materials that survive rental use, and bathroom renovation or smaller plumbing repairs can be booked before spring.

Water, electrics and air-conditioning

A house that has been empty for months needs a careful restart. Turn the water on slowly and look for drips under sinks, behind toilets and around the water heater. Let every tap run for a while to clear stale water. If the water was drained for winter, check that nothing cracked.

For electrics, test every socket and light, the outdoor lights and the main consumer unit. If the residual-current device trips when everything is switched on, or the lights flicker when the air-conditioning starts, call a qualified electrician rather than resetting it and hoping. Older houses often were not wired for several air-conditioning units, a dishwasher and a hob running at the same time. Electrical work is always done by qualified electricians from our network.

Air-conditioning is essential for summer bookings. Run each unit in cooling mode before the season, clean or replace the filters, and check that the condensate drain is not blocked. Servicing the units themselves is a job for an air-conditioning technician.

Outside: terrace, shutters, garden and roof

Bura and winter rain are hard on everything outside. Walk around the house and check:

• Wooden shutters (škure) and doors: flaking paint, loose hinges, catches that no longer hold in the wind.
• Mosquito nets: torn nets are one of the most common guest complaints in summer.
• Terrace tiles and steps: loose or cracked tiles are a trip hazard.
• Roof and gutters: pine needles and leaves block gutters and downpipes; slipped roof tiles cause the stains you found inside.
• Outdoor furniture, pergola and shade: tighten, repair or replace before the photos on your listing stop being true.
• Garden: cut back overgrowth, check the irrigation, clear dry vegetation near the house.

Window and door work, including new mosquito nets, and garden and outdoor care are worth arranging early, because everyone wants them in May.

Small upgrades that are worth it before the season

Pre-season is a good moment for small improvements that make the house easier to rent and easier to look after:

• Repainting a tired room or hallway in a washable paint.
• Replacing a worn laminate floor in a bedroom, or adding protective strips at the entrance.
• Adding hooks, shelves or a wardrobe where guests have nowhere to put luggage.
• Replacing old lights with brighter, energy-saving fittings.
• Fixing doors that stick or locks that are hard to use.

If the list is getting long, it may be cheaper to treat it as one small renovation rather than ten separate call-outs. You can get a first idea of costs with the renovation cost calculator.

How we help with pre-season preparation

Our holiday home maintenance covers maintenance, pre-season preparation and urgent repairs across Istria. You send photos or a video on WhatsApp, we give you a rough price range, and for each job we bring in the right trade from our network: a plumber for the water heater, a painter for the damp wall, an electrician for the sockets. You get photo updates as the work is done, so you can see the result from home. We do not offer cleaning, pool maintenance or key-holding, so those are best arranged with your local agency or caretaker.

If the winter left more damage than usual, read our guide to looking after a holiday home between seasons to avoid the same problems next year.