Classified Listings

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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Mountain Goat
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Post by Mountain Goat »

HelenB
You'd get a better rate through him, though ads can be placed by anyone, BA or not.

Of course, you could ask him about HotLine...... :wink:
Goat
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Mountain Goat
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Re: Classified ads

Post by Mountain Goat »

Jane Bennett wrote:
Mountain Goat wrote:I find personal contacts/friends/friends of friends best
The Spectator is interesting, and worth getting to flick through their holiday classifieds. It's upmarket but not totally out-of-sight, with an emphasis on France and Italy. We always get replies, but they're hard work: (a) sure rental until it turned out 11 teenagers (meek and quiet was the description) were being dumped on us while the parents were up the road, (b) 100% certain, good 2 weeks, whole chalet etc. until they admitted they all smoked 'but would try not to', (c) others but dates didn't suit. It's worth a go, and you only have to burn 7 fivers a week on a reasonable ad.

Goat
Last edited by Mountain Goat on Sat May 27, 2006 10:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

I've already been a beneficiary of Hotline.
A-two
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Post by A-two »

Susan, to get the required number of bookings, your neighbour would without doubt be spending a lot more on advertising than he needs, I think.
Jane, you are 1000% correct in my humble opinion.
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Jane, Joanna,
His prices are quite a lot more expensive than mine too, but nevertheless he has better occupancy than me with this form of advertising. Whether it is more cost effective to do this or advertise on numerous internet rental sites as I do, I don't know.
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

Susan, as with the owner Marcus mentioned, I would be fascinated to know exactly what type of ad your neighbour puts into the Lady, and how frequently he advertises. Lineage vs semi-display makes a significant difference to the ad's ability to compete on the page, and obviously, the more text you're prepared to pay for, the more responses you're likely to get too. The Lady is not ineffective, (as mentioned, from 2 insertions of a 30-word lineage ad last year, I received 3 inquiries and one booking) but it just depends on your budget. I'm saying that by spending less, I suspect you will be just as effective on a few well chosen listing sites. I used 2 paid listing sites this year (adding a third more recently) - who knows how much more I'd have had to spend in the Lady (+ or - Chez Nous) to pull in the same number of bookings.
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la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

I have only gleaned info from another forum on which he post's, but I believe it is a 6 month advert in the Lady (no idea on cost for this) and presumably a big photo ad in Chez Nous - unless you have one of these I don't think it is worth bothering. Bearing in mind a tiny photo with CN is about £800 per year, a quarter of half page ad must be £2000+ (or several good rental listing sites!)
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

To give you an idea based on last year's prices in The Lady, a 6-month ad entitles you to 10% discount. The 30-word lineage ad I put in would have set your neighbour back just under £350 - and with 30 words, the info you can give is still very basic; in my case I included my website address, which no doubt helped me get those 3 inquiries. The same as a semi-display ad, which carries a minimum of 50 words, would have cost the best part of £800. Those figures included VAT.
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