Mallorca in high summer is glorious by day and, in the wrong bedroom, brutal by night. Thick stone walls that kept the house cool in June have spent all of August storing heat, and by the time you go to bed the room is still 29 degrees. If your finca has no air conditioning — or one tired unit that can't keep up — here's what actually helps.
First, work with the house
Old Mallorcan homes were designed to handle heat, if you use them the way they were meant to be used.
- Close up by day, open up by night. Shut windows and shutters while the sun is on the house to keep the hot air out, then open everything once the outside air drops below the inside temperature — usually late evening.
- Make a cross-breeze. Two openings on opposite sides of the room move far more air than one. A fan in a window, facing out, pushes hot air out and pulls cooler air in behind you.
- Cool the person, not the room. A cool shower before bed, light cotton or linen bedding, and a glass of water within reach do more than you'd think.
Where a fan stops being enough
A fan moves air; it doesn't cool it. On a still, humid night when the outside air never really drops, a fan just circulates warm air over you. That's the point where people lie awake — and it's exactly the night a real air conditioner earns its keep. An air conditioner actively removes heat and humidity from the room, rather than just stirring it around. The difference between the two, on the worst nights, is the difference between sleeping and not.
Not all portable air conditioners are the same
This is where most people get caught out. The familiar portable unit is a single box with a wide hose out of the window. The compressor — the part that does the work and makes the heat — sits inside the room with you, and the hose tends to draw warm air back in behind it. On the hottest nights, that design fights itself.
A portable split unit is built the other way round. A slim outdoor unit hangs on the window frame, connected by a thin flat hose, and the compressor and its heat stay outside the room entirely. It's the same principle as a fitted split system — except nothing is fitted, and nothing is drilled.
The easy fix: a split air conditioner, delivered
You don't need to buy a unit for a two-week stay, and you can't install a fixed one in someone else's house. A portable split solves both. We bring one to your finca, mount the outdoor unit on the included window bracket, seal the opening, and start it running before we leave. No tools, no drilling, nothing left behind. After your stay, we collect it.
We rent one machine and one only: the Midea PortaSplit. It cools rooms of up to 42 m², and because it's a heat pump it heats them just as efficiently out of season. We'll help you match it to the right room if you're not sure.
See split air conditioner rental →
Good to know
My finca has no AC at all — can you still help?
Yes. Nothing is installed and nothing is drilled. The outdoor unit hangs on a bracket that clamps to the window frame, and it all comes away with us at the end of your stay.
What kind of window do I need?
Most work: standard tilt-and-turn windows, French windows, balcony doors and roof windows. The one thing we agree with you beforehand is where the indoor unit will stand, because the connection to the window is two metres long.
Is it noisy?
The compressor sits outside rather than in the room with you, which is the single biggest difference to a one-box portable unit.
When should I arrange it?
Summer availability moves fast. Message us as soon as your dates are set and we'll sort the rest.
More on making a rental feel properly yours: the things that quietly disappoint in a Mallorca holiday rental — and how to upgrade them.
