Time for a change

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.
susanmary
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Time for a change

Post by susanmary »

Hi everyone

Have decided to do a new website for the villa and hopefully get more traffic /bookings for 2013. My current web page is by I-owners and I am looking at Promote my place they will even build the site for me for £49 if I don't have the time' which is a bit of a plus. I am also looking at weebly.com and Wordpress. Has anyone got any opinions on any of these sites for ease of use generating traffic general impressions of these sites for attracting business. Am already on Spain.holiday.com who are the best performers at present so will be renewing with them also. Any pointers in the right direction wul be great. Many thanks for your help.
lorca
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Post by lorca »

We´ve just made a new website with Weebly which was dead easy (and actually a lot of fun) to use - very impressed!

I don´t know whether the web host you choose affects the amount of traffic you get or the business you get. Does it? I would have thought this was down to the owner to make the site as attractive, comprehensive and easy to use as poss - but I my be wrong?? :oops:
If not now, when?
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

I made a website this year with Promote My Place and I am very pleased with everything about it. I did it myself and it did take time. Now and then I got a bit lost in the technical stuff but there was always a very prompt answer to my emailed questions. I don't know about the traffic generating aspect - all I can tell you is that I get about 250 hits a month, 75 % of which are new visitors. I have had quite a few bookings through there. In contrast, my HL ad is only getting about 130 hits per month ( it used to be as much as 700 in the good old days of HL)

If you do decide on PMP I have a code which gives you £10 discount and me £10 credit on my renewal. 453158
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Lindisfarne
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Post by Lindisfarne »

Hi Felicity - Just had a look at your website and it's fantastic

It look very professional indeed and the cottage is lovely also

Amazing if that's what can be created with PMP
:) :)
Last edited by Lindisfarne on Sat Nov 17, 2012 10:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
People in Stone Houses should not throw Glass

Website : lindisfarnecottages.co.uk
susanmary
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Post by susanmary »

Hi Guys.

thanks for your replies, Lorca I Know what your saying down to making the site as attractive as possible and easy to use. Sometimes I think we all forget how nice our places are until we go back there or somebody else points it out!! I think I am going to put it all on paper the old fashion way layout etc and then put all wordings into word docs and cut and paste the same, that way hopefully I will get it right. Need to go through my photographs, Its just a job that needs doing right from the start and I want to get it better this time round. I will put my listing here and you can see how it looks from my Spain Holiday site:

http://www.spain-holiday.com/rentals/ac ... Denia.html

Any observations greatly received, one of my dilemas is that I have a picture of the villa with the views before I had the garden done, arches etc and next door had their large satalliete dish put in at the side, so do I still use this photo as well as the other ones showing the arches etc., nobody has ever said anything or picked up on these pictures it's just that I know the difference, don't know if anyone has any observations on this subject.

FelicityA - I too was with HL and all my bookings were with them until they were took over by Rightmove and that's when I found my bookings took a tumble and then they started the price hikes, so couldn't justify paying their advertisement prices for no reward!!! Lindisfarne is right your site looks amazing with PMP, I think I will go with PMP and will use your code so that will save me a tenner and if I do the work myself that will save me 49 quid so fingers crossed I'll pull my finger out and get on with the job in hand, hoping to get on for the boxing day rush!!

:lol:
tavi
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Post by tavi »

Hi Susan,

I also have a PMP site.....so easy to set up - you really don't need to pay them to do it, unless perhaps you're very short of time. Their customer service is excellent if you have any queries. My site address is on my profile.

Mine is not as fabulous as Felicity's. Definitely need some better photos.
susanmary
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Post by susanmary »

Hi Tavi

Thanks for your response, looked at your PMP site as well your places are fabulous just the right size for me and other half, if we ever get to portugal :lol: Think its Spain for us for the foreseeable future!! The PMP site does look good so I think I will give it a shot as I did manage to put the villa details on the i-owners site, thanks everyone for input. Will post new site when up and running
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

Well I can see I am never going to have to go a letting site again to find a nice place to stay. Just a quick browse on LMH and I am spoilt for choice! You all have lovely places.

If you do go with PMP susanmary I thank you for the benefit to me! I find their customer service beyond perfect and they even tweaked something for me when I made a suggestion for a more manageable way of doing something.

Re your photos, susanmary. Just a few personal thoughts. Feel free to dismiss.
I would lose the date stamp as that makes it a bit amateur looking.
I think the view of the road is unnecessary unless you want to make it clear that it is very near!
Could you take a pool photo ( without falling off a cliff in the process) which includes some sun loungers or long cool drinks perhaps to sort of set the holiday atmosphere?
Otherwise I think your photos give a pretty good picture of what you are offering although a camera with a slightly wider angle might allow you to take more of a room as at the moment the bedrooms only show about half of the space I think?

Good luck with it all!
susanmary
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Post by susanmary »

Hi Felicity

Thanks for your response, I do agree about the date stamp on the photos, think it was put on by mistake when we took the last shots.

I have other photos which i took last time we were out waiting for me to tweak and input into some sort of fashion :roll:

The road I never thought about that being near the villa but we only get a couple of cars a day on it and normally just neighbours but can see your point on that as people may see it as noisy.

Pool and loungers with long drink will definitely look at doing a shot like that (have got a few with drunken revellors in it, but think that might not go down well) :lol

I have got an i-pad recently and have tried test photos of my own home (won't post here too :oops: ) and they seem to give an overall good picture so next time I am out will take that out with me and hopefully post them straightaway on my new web site and hopefully get the whole of the bedrooms in!!!
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

I am interested to see this discussion as I created a website for our beach apartment on the Mediterranean coast using Iowners.

However I am not clear how having one’s own website compares with owner rental sites like HL and Locasun for obtaining bookings.

People who look at owner rental sites have an enormous choice and presumably home in on the area where they are looking for a holiday and then make their selection using various criteria such as price, availability, number of guests, comfort etc.

Whereas for a personal website I imagine the number of hits, and hopefully, subsequent bookings depends on how easily the website comes up on search engines.

Where I see a personal website being useful is rather to give more detailed information, photos etc. than one sees in the advert on owner rental sites. I don’t see it as being the sole method of generating bookings.

If I am wrong, I would be most grateful for any comments.

Regarding our home in Gironde which we rent out just in the summer months, we manage to fill the weeks available about 50-50 through HL and Locasun so up to now I haven’t seen the need to create a website, but it would be nice to reduce advertising costs if all bookings could be guaranteed through a personal website.

http://www.locasun.fr/?a=16058
http://www.locasun.fr/?a=81832
http://www.holidaylettings.co.uk/rental ... ande/80285
http://ezinearticles.com/?Naturist-Holi ... id=7306175
dizza2560
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Time for a change

Post by dizza2560 »

I used PMP to do my website, mainly because I am particularly inept at computing. I was really impressed with the finished product, they had lots of suggestions for me and the customer service was excellent. It still needs some input from me but you can have a look.........www.yorkholidaycottagerental.com

Havn`t dared put it up for review until I do quite a bit of tweaking!
Wendy@NorthIdaho
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Post by Wendy@NorthIdaho »

Oasiscouple, I advertise on several paid sites and a few freebie sites, I also have my own website. Our website does get found on google, etc... but I don't really think we've had many bookings from it. I think it's mainly used to see more photos, our guest comments, amenities, etc.. it has more info than our vrbo, homeaway, etc.. listings can have. Also, it is the link from my email, and I can always direct people there.

But for us, our website not the place we get bookings from, we rely on the listing sites.

Hope that helps.
Wendy
New Vacation Rental called DayStar Lodge! (Sold Narrows Cottage now have a rental management company called A-List Rental Management)
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Lindisfarne
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Post by Lindisfarne »

Hi dizza

Couldn't help looking at your website - Fantastic

If you did that to such a high standard you should be very proud !
:D
People in Stone Houses should not throw Glass

Website : lindisfarnecottages.co.uk
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oasiscouple
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Post by oasiscouple »

Thanks Wendy.

We seem to have come to the same conclusion.

Dizza, my home town is York so I was most interested to see your excellent website so I will probably use PMP if I create a site for our Gironde house.

In the mean time, I forgot to mention our Iowners website for the apartment in case anyone has any comments: http://www.naturistholidays.fr

Cheers,

Simon
susanmary
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new site

Post by susanmary »

Hi Everyone

Decided to go with promote my place, have placed my link below any comments greatly received, good or bad!!
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