You don't need a website!

Everything to do with using your own website to advertise your rental property. Design, usability, hosting, getting listed on the search engines, optimising your site, pay-per-click, etc, etc.
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Gwion
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Joined: Sun Feb 06, 2011 4:41 pm
Location: Snowdonia, Wales.
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Post by Gwion »

Oops. You're right of course to slag me off for not following up this post. Sorry. But better late than never.

I think accusations of trolling are a bit harsh however. I did try and be as honest an open as possible in the original post. And is this not one of the better debates on LMH?

So, in defence of the original idea, I was suggesting that there were alternatives to building a website. I was not suggesting that cottage owners should not have a presence on the internet. There are counter arguments of course. I feel Colin put it best.
colinc1234 wrote:A website can take a few years to become established. Naturally it depends upon how much effort you put into the marketing.

Good reasons for a website also include:

1. it should add value when you come to sell the property.

2. It is a real help for return guests. Gives them somewhere to click through to rather than going to OD and so on. Let's say they have lost your email....so they can google the house name and read your contact page.

3. You can never tell whats around the corner. Think of it as a small insurance policy for the day when you decide that OD is just not up to it.

4. I often think people looking at an upmarket house expect it to have its own website. When you are charging £3k for a week - well with that money surely you would wouldn't you?

I also think that good agencies will listen to and work alongside owners. If helping to make the owner happy means that not all the bookings go to the agency then that's life.

So yes a loud yes for websites

Thank you

Colin
I hope Colin doesn't mind if I summarise. A personal website will:

1. Add resale value
2. Help returning guests to find you
3. Safety net for the future
4. Add credibility

4. Add credibility. Good argument. A good website definitely adds credibility to any holiday cottage. I might counter that a bad website would have the reverse effect and any credibility is only afforded if guests every get to see your website. But still, a very good point.

1. Add resale value. I can see your point of view but I'm not convinced. Most personal websites I've seen on here would add little to the value of a self catering business.

3. Safety net for the future. Not sure. I think you're asking a lot for a personal website to pick up the pieces if an agency goes horribly wrong. I'd suggest most people would have to turn to another agency, quickly.

2. Help returning guests to find you. I think this is the best argument. I can well imagine guests searching google for a specific cottage they visited a couple of years ago. They wont find your personal website by searching "Self Catering Snowdonia" (for example) but may well have more luck if they can remember specifics, "Chez ColinC1234 Holiday Cottage somewhere near Betws Y Coed I think" (for example).

My honest opinion, if you're rental turnover is less than £25K per annum I remain unconvinced that a personal website is a good investment for non technical cottage owners.
Self Catering Accommodation
http://dioni.co.uk
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Nemo
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Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:15 am
Location: Norfolk

Post by Nemo »

Gwion wrote: My honest opinion, if you're rental turnover is less than £25K per annum I remain unconvinced that a personal website is a good investment for non technical cottage owners.
Well that depends on the investment cost? As the price of creating a website on a simple template, designed especially for rental owners, such as dare I say Promote My Place (sorry kev :wink: ) costs just £69 a year currently, then this is a fraction of the cost of one of the adverts with the big listing sites.

From what I read here then non tecchie owners have found the process relatively easy.

If you intend to rent your property out for years to come then it's well worth the investment from the outset. The sooner you create it, the sooner it starts to be found by the search engines.

I had less than £25k turnover when I started, but created a basic website which was found by my guests in a search even in the first year for certain keywords. I've never looked back despite my website becoming an embarrassment over the years as I'd thrown it up in such a hurry (now remedied of course!) Maybe if I was listing a five star property it wouldn't have worked, but with template websites so readily available, in my opinion, you can't go far wrong. :D

Websites can and should be the hub to any business, to which all other marketing methods should link. However if you're just trying to promote owners to use an agency, then no, you don't want them to have their own website (as I have personally found out in this last week!)
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Do you need a web site if you are a regular member of the public who advertises via one of the big listings sites and has perhaps just one holiday let? No, I don't think you do need one strictly speaking, but that does not mean that having one is not desirable. I advertise on two of the private holiday rentals sites and these are where I get all my bookings, but with the increase in horror stories about fraudulent transactions I get a lot more traffic via my own web site because having seen my place on, say, OD the prospective guest then Googles around for more info. My site was built via Promote My Place and the combined cost of PMP plus my domain name is peanuts really. I think I have most bases covered via the rentals listing sites, my own web site and an FB page and I genuinely do believe that there are advantages to having my own site even if it does not directly fuel the majority of my bookings.
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I'm not even going to bother this time :roll:
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

I advertise on three big websites but, still, just under half of my income for this year (so far) has been generated through enquiries directly from my own website so as a straight calculation my little outlay of £69/annum with PMP pays vast dividends. However, I don't know for certain how they found me (except for the returns, obviously) so I still keep paying the big boys in order to generate the other half and a bit of my bookings and to achieve SEO for my own website.
Vince
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Joined: Tue Jul 01, 2014 10:11 am
Location: Javea, Spain

Post by Vince »

Casscat wrote:with the increase in horror stories about fraudulent transactions I get a lot more traffic via my own web site because having seen my place on, say, OD the prospective guest then Googles around for more info.
This. This. This.

I always google hotels that I've found on booking.com or another site before I book. If I can't find their own website ( where they may have a booking engine that gives me a better price ) I'll usually look elsewhere if I can.

It's the credibility thing.
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Ross Hugo
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Location: cornwall
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Post by Ross Hugo »

A few points to consider:

There are some excellent tools out there that help you build and maintain some excellent websites at very little cost.

There are also some excellent tools out there that allow you to take online bookings with little or no technical knowledge.

If you rely on the big portals to bring you bookings, there is always the danger these can dry up. Why be left without a back up? Many of these portals are also all moving in the direction of commissions rather than subscriptions, so the costs can soon add up.

As your business grows and develops, your database of past enquirers and guests is a great source of potential bookings. A simple email campaign directing them back to your website takes little effort and often bears fruit.

I don't think it's essential to have your own website but if you're not using an agency, I believe a modest investment would make sound commercial sense.
Ross Hugo
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