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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.
oldpolicehouse
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Post by oldpolicehouse »

Hi,
well after a year and a half my house is "almost" ready I am at the stage now where I am cleaning cleaning cleaning!! There is still work being done in the garden..but appliances are in, beds are in, furniture is in and waxed! I am exhausted but excited.
Just to say thank you all for your advice x
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Ben McNevis
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Post by Ben McNevis »

Daviot?
Cheers, Ben
www . scotland-cottage.com www . scottish-cottage.com


Visiting Glenrothes? It's one of your Fife-a-day
oldpolicehouse
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Ben

Post by oldpolicehouse »

Yes Daviot???
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Ben McNevis
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Post by Ben McNevis »

I should have been a detective perhaps but what it really shows is that you've done your Facebook page already and that means that wherever you advertise, the growing band of savvy guests will be able to find you to book directly rather than letting HA or TA keep you and your guests apart!

You've done a magnificent job on the refurb, particularly getting the stonework exposed. It makes all the difference. Did you do the work yourselves or get "professionals" in?
Cheers, Ben
www . scotland-cottage.com www . scottish-cottage.com


Visiting Glenrothes? It's one of your Fife-a-day
oldpolicehouse
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Post by oldpolicehouse »

Yes you should have been a detective! lol...and thank you for looking :lol: It has been a fair process..but we got the builders in! and a local stonemason...the house had gone to ruin and has been saved The locals love it ..including me as I live next door.
I will not be using that fb page for the bookings as who wants to stay in a house that looked like that with the mould and fungus....but www.ScottishHighlandCottages.com I also have the same name as a fb page and will link etc. The web site is ready to go all I need are photos of what it looks like now which may I say is ..pretty amazing. Just waiting for the painters snagging (think he wants to come back for more dinner)!
looking at Booking.com initially
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Ben McNevis
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Post by Ben McNevis »

Don't let me put you off going with Booking.com... though I feel duty-bound to try!

There's no doubt that it will get you bookings. That's the upside but there are two serious downsides to think about:

1. You don't get to write your own copy, so people booking are relying on the sketchy formulaic copy written by BC's 'experts'. If you argue with them for long enough, you will at least end up with a description that is not wildly inaccurate, but their description will fail dismally to convey the feel of the place and you will have no opportunity to attract the kind of guests that you are expecting by emphasising the local attractions and activities that you would do if you could use your own words.

2. If, at a later date, you decide to leave BC, they do something sneaky (and, I think, illegal): They keep your page on the BC website but they change the content to show nearby properties which CAN be booked on BC. As far as Google sees, your property still exists on BC. As a user sees (having reached the BC page via a Google search for your property by name) there is no mention of your property, just the alternative accommodation. Thus, for anyone searching for "The Old Police House, Daviot" or "The Old Police House, Inverness" the first google result will be the Booking.com page promoting other properties.

It makes Homeaway look ethical!
Cheers, Ben
www . scotland-cottage.com www . scottish-cottage.com


Visiting Glenrothes? It's one of your Fife-a-day
oldpolicehouse
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interesting

Post by oldpolicehouse »

To be honest I was going to go it alone with the marketing etc but was prompted to use a company....mainly due to marketing etc. I see your point though! are there any out there that are not sneeky! the place is perfect for up here as it is the gateway to so many places and there are not many holiday homes as yet

Susan
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Ben McNevis
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Post by Ben McNevis »

I don't know if you've seen it but there's a sticky thread on the Listing Sites section: viewtopic.php?t=257
how to find the best listing sites to advertise on

It's probably worth applying that logic.

From a standing start, you probably want maximum exposure for the first few months. I think that means that you want to advertise on a commission basis so that you can spread on to a lot of sites without upfront cost.

Later, you might consider switching to subscription on one or two sites and ditching all the others. It all depends on how easily you hit your occupancy target and whether there are any decent subscription sites still in existence at the time!
Cheers, Ben
www . scotland-cottage.com www . scottish-cottage.com


Visiting Glenrothes? It's one of your Fife-a-day
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

I certainly wouldn't suggest using booking.com as your first place to advertise, partly for the reasons Ben describes (just from reading that it would put me off as an owner) but equally because I don't think it's the right place to advertise a self catering cottage in Inverness. It's certainly not where many of us would search for self catering properties. Do your keyword searches on an incognito window and see what sites come up on page one and two of Google.

Secondly, don't throw away your efforts with your facebook page. Madness! It's up and running, you have over 250 likers so all you do now is update the page with the more exciting stuff. You can create an album just for the work, move all the past photos in there and then have lots of photos of it in its final state from here and now. Everyone loves a refurbishment story. :)
oldpolicehouse
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Thank you

Post by oldpolicehouse »

Thanks you all for your great advice, Nemo, I will be keeping my fb page but linking it to a new one with the house as it is now also I will have a book in the cottage showing the refurbishment and how we got to where we are today. Inverness is difficult as at the moment large companies are taking up the b&b's so there are not many places around for holidya makers..:-) the 250 likes are mainly locals watching the progress... this week photos I have a few days to get it up for the golf open on the 7th Excited :-)
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