New Website Wanted !

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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CSE
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Post by CSE »

kevsboredagain wrote:
AndrewH wrote: Edited for a spelling correction - sorry Kevin!
Anyone can make spelling mistakes :oops:
Then along come the spelling grammar police. Unfortunately we have come acoss them on this forum too
Never try to out-stubborn your guests.
Jensen
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Post by Jensen »

Many thanks for all your replies :D

My major concern with a new state of the art Holiday rental website for a single property is that no body is going to find it unless there is budget to index/market it !!

And that's where the problem is !! I have friends in buisness that spend hundreds of pounds a month with google ad words and it works and they get more business !

With one rental property you have a max turnover due to the amount of weeks in a year hence limited advertiseing budget !

Yes ?
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kevsboredagain
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Post by kevsboredagain »

I’m fairly sure you’re about to receive a whole load of responses on LMH contradicting your assumptions.

A basic website for a rental property can be made for the less than the income generated by just 1 week of rental. You have to ask yourself, will having a website gain me 1 extra booking in the first year? I think 99% of owners would say yes to that question. In my opinion, your current site is probably losing you more income than it gains. The yearly cost of hosting a website amounts to about the same cost as a typical rental change over clean.

It’s true, you won’t be able to generate all your bookings from a website and it’s only a small part of your advertising. I myself allow up to 10% of my turnover for advertising. Sure, I could save lots of money by reducing this to zero but then I’d get no bookings and hence no income. I could increase it but I probably wouldn’t get any more bookings. I personally would not waste my money on Google AdWords either as I don’t see this as cost effective for a small website and single property rental, unless you really know what you’re doing. The cost of running a website amounts to your own time updating the calendar and prices and anything else. It’s minimal and about the cheapest form of advertising you can have. The only recurring expense is the hosting, which is again minimal.

How to get your site found: This does take time and you have to write some decent content. There are lots of free sites out there where you can also give the address of your website. You can create a Facebook page and promote yourself for free. Youtube as you’ve already found is free.

You are not alone though with these thoughts. I see time and time again owners who are unwilling to invest in advertising but complain at the lack of bookings. At work we have owners who advertise with either no or really poor websites. They achieve very minimal bookings. When asked if they would like a website the answer is the same. “Sorry but I can’t afford one” I myself couldn’t continue financially with such low bookings and could not afford not to have one.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I can only repeat what Kev has said, you can easily make back the cost of a website unless you choose to spend thousands. Everyone should have a website in this day and age, it's nonsense not to. That then becomes your marketing hub - wherever you choose to advertise, (unless commission only sites) you then put the link to point them back.

Even if you're using commission sites, you can put masses of information on there of places to go, things to do, eating places etc, to help people once they've booked.

Don't think about it too hard, just get some recommendations and quotes if you don't want to build your own. Start with Kev here; he's not pushing his services but he's just as capable as many out there of producing what you need.
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