Lay My Hat

I used to advertise our Florida Villa in Private Villas Magazine at a price £650 per year (6 issues) I used to get a good bookings but now there are so many people advertising that last year I only got 1 booking,I had been with them 5 years, so now I only use the Internet to advertise,
I don't think the Glossy Mags give us property owners value for money !! I don't know what I would do without the Internet now. Also there are loads of British who own Villas in Orlando
and so much competition that you can rent a 5 bed 3 bath villa for about £400 a week...some Internet sites even refuse to take on any more villas as they already have too many..

Regards
Stephen

Hello
I use non internet advertising for the first 3 months of every year in a glossy. This is aimed at people who will be coming to France primarily to look at houses with a view to buying. And have successfuly had bookings for March and April

Lotty

Welcome to the forum, Lotty

Thanks for sharing an excellent tip!

Over the last five years our marketing and its results have changed substantially.

1. We advertised in the Sunday Times during the early months of the year. Initially that was quite successful in bringing in enquiries and bookings. The results dwindled to very little and have stopped.
2. We advertised in the Owners in France (Brittany Ferries) brochure and website. That was successful and remains so but at a reduced level.
3. We advertised on a number of websites. Most were quite unsuccessful and brought hardly an enquiry. However one, French Connections, brought in a good number of enquiries and bookings and remains our single best source.
The most noticeable change is that nearly every enquiry we get arrives via e-mail. We get very few telephone enquiries these days.

There are two other obvious things. The first is that the percentage of guests who fly and hire a car is on the increase. The second is that the percentage of guests who have stayed with us in previous years is also on the increase.

Have other owners noticed similar trends?

Alan

It's been a few years since I was involved in self-catering but the trend that I was seeing was that daily ads (eg. Times, Telegraph, etc.) provided a poor ROI. Monthly publications were better, but worsening. Annual publications were OK. ie. the longer the shelf life of the publication, the better ROI it seemed to give. By the time of the sale of the cottages, about 40% of business came from repeats, a further 40% from the internet, 10% through the regional tourist board's main publication, and the remaining 10% in miscellaneous publications/ads. It didn't make sense to spend large sums on this remaining 10%.

I'm sure if we were still at the business today, we'd be doing all our advertising online and not bothering with printed publications at all, and possibly not even bothering with regional tourist board membership.

Aaron

Aaron
Thats a very interesting point you make about withdrawing from membership of the regional tourist board. I am currently contemplating that very issue. Advertising in their brochure (Cumbria Tourist Board) is now prohibitive and no longer as productive as it was. The only reason I retain my membership is now to promote our "4 Star" recognition. One feels obliged to do this as most of the independent Holiday Listing Sites on which I advertise (not sure about yours) feature the Tourist Board Gradings. For the life of me I cannot understand why they do so when the Tourist Boards are probably their main competitor. If you think about it, by featuring Tourist Board Gradings, they oblige advertisers to maintain their memberships and apply for grading. As you are aware, all of this is very expensive and does not leave small businesses with much available finance to promote themselves on independent Listing Sites such as yours. Thus they (independent sites) are - to some extent - killing their own trade by promoting Tourist Board Gradings. I hope that some of them will observe my comments as this is an issue which I frequently consider.
Alan

Hi Alan

Part of the problem, I suspect, is that you are in a minority and that most members need to be a member year in year out, not just for grading reasons, but also for the (expensive) advertising available through them. Alas, not everyone (far from it!) is yet getting the best from alternative means of promoting their businesses, such as the internet.

I have a very young son right now but in 5-10 years from now (once I'm a little more settled with fatherhood! ) our plan is to invest in a holiday cottage or two. I won't be bothering with CTB membership for this because I feel confident that I could fill the properties purely through internet advertising, and with very little in the way of overheads. Sure, this would mean I can't get an ETC/AA/RAC grading and some people might wonder why, but I don't personally think the costs would justify the benefits for us.

Aaron

PS - FYI, and to answer your question, our UK self-catering site will list gradings in people's descriptions (if people wish to include them) but we don't make a special point of highlighting them otherwise.

I'm replying to this topic as I'm in the same part of the world as Alan and Aaron - and I'm not a member of the local Tourist Board (despite the fact that in past life I was involved with Tourist Information Centres and other visitor facilities!).

This is for the same reason that I have never opted to let our cottages through a cottage agency (as opposed to website listing agency) - they are interested in my money, but will not promote my cottages with the same passion and enthusiasm that I do. If a potential customer enquires about a certain week, the tourist board (or cottage agency) will try to sell them a different cottage. I will aim to sell them a different week. Also, very few visitors actually understand the grading system.

Our cottages are therefore not graded. And to my knowledge this has only ever deterred one enquirer (whose husband worked for a Tourist Board and therefore insisted on a graded cottage1). For info, he local council or local tourism association often operates a local grading system which is based on the national scheme, but is much cheaper. This grading system may or may not be acceptable to others.

Anyway, I shall stop chuntering and hope that the above helps.

Cheers

Christine
www.stybarrowcottage.co.uk
www.troutbeckcottage.co.uk

I was interested in what you were saying about tourist publications...just going on our own habits..we tend to pick up tourist information when we are actually in the area...so advertising in these publications is it just attracting folk looking for somewhere to stay once they are there...or do folk send for info before they arrive or are thinking of exploring that area...or has the internet changed tourist info completely?

Because of our habits I have so far steered away from tourist publications...in 4 years we haven't had one person say that they have chosen us because we are in the middle of a National Park...our location is a bonus but not a pull if you see what I'm saying.

our location is a bonus but not a pull if you see what I'm saying

Are we talking about the house that is directly on the beach with the 180 degree views of the sea?

yes - both houses have that 180 degree view - in fact Utah more!!...but also they are also in the Cotentin & Bessin Marshlands Regional Nature Park..it is like being in the Peak District except we are marshes,coast and rivers - I think it is beautiful & in the winter when it all floods with the sky reflected in the water - we have the big skies here like Norfolk & the flatness in parts like the fens....but it is very different! (Yes I know I sound Irish...that's because I am half Irish & this is the side that's talking now!!)

But what I'm trying to say is that folk aren't aware of all of this until they actually get here...thus my question re tourist information & advertising...do folk choose an area to go for a holiday then find out about the area or vice versa?

I'm really surprised that no-one has yet mentioned The Lady magazine http://www.lady.co.uk/ It is THE place to advertise Holiday rentals to the UK market & Yes it is that old fashioned magazine where you advertise for nannies as well!

When we first bought our apartment I advertised in the Classified section under Balearics during Jan/Feb - the key booking months - & we were inundated with phone calls. We no longer need to advertise there as we are already fully booked for next Summer with all bookings coming via our portal. But it is definitely worth it for your first season & remember you are targetting those holidaymakers who don't use the internet (Yes they do exist!)

Other options depending on your property location are specialist magazines such as those for walkers, bird watchers, cyclists etc.

The key thing is to record the sources of all your enquiries/bookings & analyse which work for you.

Zelda,

I think you make a very important point about non-internet marketing in general and the Lady magazine in particular.

It is all too easy to get over-excited about the Internet and personal websites. Popular as they are, not every holidaymaker has access to the Internet or books his/her holiday through the Internet or personal websites. Many, many holidaymakers still use travel agents, magazines and brochures as their source of information.

A league table of non-internet marketing resources could be as valuable as Search Engine Ratings.

We, the property owners, want bookings rather than ratings, don't we?

Alan

Coming from a marketing background I feel I can speak without referring to my obvious 'bias' towards all things Internet

Any business should spend its marketing budget in a manner that ensures the Maximum amount of information is accessed by the Maximum amount of prospects.

This means ensuring that you have 'synergy' (from my marketing days ... sorry!) between all the 'media' you use. For example, any 'press ad' should contain a 'call to action' which is either to contact you via telephone, send off for a brochure or visit your website. Likewise, your website should mention your 'ad' or 'offer' in this months 'such and such magazine'.

I would never have thought of 'pitting one against the other', unless the budget is extremely tight.

Speaking of alternative magazines ..... the County Life magazines are extremely well read (by dentists and hairdressers in particular!) and the publishers are often keen to provide a couple of pages 'advertorial' in return for a 'weeks holiday' prize.

Failing that, as has been mentioned 'specialist' magazines are often a High Impact / Low Cost alternative. Particularly if you are near a Golf / Motorsport / Skiing type venue.

The key to successful marketing on a low budget is to 'think laterally', don't go head to head with the 'big boys' when you can exploit a 'niche' and let your 'personal service' stand out

livinginitaly wrote:Speaking of alternative magazines ..... the County Life magazines are extremely well read (by dentists and hairdressers in particular!) and the publishers are often keen to provide a couple of pages 'advertorial' in return for a 'weeks holiday' prize.

How do you approach a magazine about this sort of thing? I thought these advertorials were centered around a "theme", requiring more than one business of the same kind in the article.

We were featured in the Guardian Newspaper Travel Section a few years ago. Well, featured is hardly the word, there's one sentence that mentions our website and phone number.

A freelance reporter had contacted the Long Island Wine Council and the B&B Association. I have a friend in both places, so between us, we showed the reporter round for 3 days. My job was to show her parks, beaches, also some restaurants, not accomodation, but she did ask to see our place and we were thrilled to get a mention in the article. This received a very positive response and generated several bookings. The first UK guests to arrive then gave us rave reviews, in effect, kick starting our UK client base and we now get a few UK families every year. It was the best thing that happened to us.

However, when this article was written, there were hardly any weekly rentals available here, now it's growing fast and I am trying to get a local Association together (more about that later).

My question is this. How can we pitch the idea of another article more focused on weekly rentals by owner? Is there an Association of Travel Writers who may be willing to include it in a Newsletter or does it have to be done by writing individually to each publication? OK, that's more than one question, but I guess I don't know where to start generating this kind of interest!

We would provide free accomodation for the writer (except high season of course) and the hospitality of the people here is legendary - someone could have a great time!