How far do you go with initial enquiries?

[Mountain Goat]

After we've filtered out the dodgy barristers and bishops, and we're left with a reasonably legit enquiry - how far can one go with the follow-up?

Obviously confirming rates and availability, but we've started to e-mail Word attachments on:

(a) directions (i.e. they really can see how good air/road/rail is for us) to our village

(b) 7 pages of informal notes on our village and local area, restaurants, things-to-do etc.

(c) links to our various listing sites (i.e. master site with availability and rates, another site with links to local area)

All this stuff will be going on our website, but in the meantime we're using listing sites.

If that gets a positive response we find out why they're coming (snow sports, mountain sports, hiking, chill out) and ask if they need brochures, maps, walking guides etc.

We can't face phoning them - I hate it when it happens to us, but I know this is strongly advised.

Are we going too far? Or not enough? Is a £10 hiking guide worth sending to hook a £1k rental? (I think so, but could get expensive).

It seems to work for us, but it's time consuming and ups our overheads. There's also the day job.

When we've got the ultimate website with all info. maybe this sort of promotion will seem over-the-top, and of course with repeat bookings, minimal further hassle.

Do you all lie back and the bookings come rolling in?

Just curious.

Goat

[Ju]

Most of the details you send are things I would send after they have booked. Specific directions are not sent until after all monies have been paid.

I always respond to specific questions and offer any help possible.

Ju

[Normandy Cow]

Goat, (I had to stop myself from calling you Billy then, after seeing Sue's suggestion )

I certainly wouldn't send out directions until I have received their final payment, but then again, we are fairly isolated so don't want to publicise exactly where we are to all and sundry. I think in your case, your location within the resort is very important, so I can understand why you should do this. Just goes to prove that isn't always a right and wrong way to do things.

We don't send out all the information that you mention, because most of it is on our website (and now on our blog!!!), so I just sign off with that. I always end my emails with "If you need any further information please do not hesitate to email or call me on 01435 XXXXXX".

I think that once your website is up and running, you should be able to include all your info.

Quick question - what is holding up the development of your website? If you already have all this information in word documents, you could set up a blog and cut and paste all the text in and have it up and running by this evening. See www.Wordpress.com for details.

[Mountain Goat]

Thanks, Ju and CatherineS

That's a good point about directions. I will edit those down for initial enquiries, to give them a feel for where the village is, and how far we are from mountain lifts, rail station etc. without pinning us down exactly.

CatherineS re the website, I had two approaches - one was to enrol in a Dreamweaver/Fireworks course, which I now realise is a bit unrealistic - but will come in useful, and the other was to research blog and CMS-type software. I tried to concentrate on features which I needed, inc. good performance for Google, good image handling, none-reliance on their hosting, reasonable customisation, CSS etc. Editing out of spam postings on the blog section was also a consideration.

I've tried the web-site-in-24hrs-approach as well, but got the thumbsdown from Mrs G.

For a comparison between the 'Big 3' I found:

http://www.sitepoint.com/article/blog-s ... n-review/2

useful, and as a general guide:

http://www.ojr.org/ojr/images/blog_soft ... arison.cfm

was good.

I look forward to LMH feedback when it's finally up and running.

Goat

[Fraise]

Coo, Goat, I don't don't any of the stuff that you do. I reply courteously and promptly but don't go further. I don't give out the address even if they ring although I do of course tell them all about the area on the phone, just not the actual address ( after all, I could be talking to Madame Burglar !!). If the week is free ( this has been a rarity as people have asked for the peek weeks, long since booked) then I will follow up with a phone call if it seems appropriate, sometimes a 2nd e-mail. That's about it .Having the summer already booked by the autumn before has been odd as I've not had many enquiries out of the May- September season so I've not really been able to chat to many people I had one cancellation that I ended up having to discount to re-let the week, so I got into quite a few e-mails and phone calls with the people who booked but they booked within 30 mins of me discounting !! They seem lovely and really excited about their unexpected week !! Ahhh


www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Mountain Goat]

Fraise
I guess the difference is that you've got a good website, packed with interesting stuff and we haven't (yet) and I can't rely on enquirers to have all the info. they need to tempt them into a booking.

The security aspect is something I have to rethink quick. There was an armed holdup in our bank a year or two ago, but they (couple of smart Brazilians) hadn't counted on anyone else knowing there was only one road in and one road out, so the fuzz had plenty of time to pick them up at the bottom of the mountain. Otherwise, hooves crossed, crime doesn't seem to happen here, and everyone still leaves their front doors open. Maybe it's the thought of a Swiss jail and a 15 year stretch of fondue ahead which puts them off.

However much I put into our listings on the commercial sites, it's just a string of mostly boring facts (although on slowtrav.com we can spice things up with links).

Goat

[Fraise]

Goat, you are right, a decent website makes a huge difference ! Your place looks beautiful and very photogenic, it's screaming out for it's own site

[Nightowl]

I didn't have a website for a long time (because I found it very difficult to get my head around how to do one) but I realised that guests sometimes need a bit more info to persuade them that your house is THE ONE!

I think the most effective way of selling a holiday home seems to be photos of the house, the location and places of interest. I discovered Kodak easy share gallery, an online photo album, which you can upload photos to and put captions on them - something like a picture of your patio for example with a caption saying 'relax on a sunlounger on our lovely sunny patio with a nice glass of wine and a good book from our selection' etc. I uploaded about 30 different photos and they run through on a slideshow in about 2 minutes, nice big photos and the captions can give whatever information that you want your guests to have, a lovely view might have a caption about the lovely walks that people can take from your house for example.

When people enquire about the house, I send them a link to the photo album, saying that if they want to see more photos of the house to just play the slideshow. I have had a very good response to this and I really do think it helped me to get bookings I might not have had otherwise. Sometimes people don' t want to wade through a website of info at first look but a slideshow just scrolls through very quickly.

It's very easy, much easier than doing a website (which I have done now and I though it was REALLY difficult) and I'm not going to put it up for inspection here because it's really still a bit CR*P!

And it's also Free!!! And no domain needed or anything like that. the other thing is that the system keeps a directory of all the people that you have sent invitations to view the photos to and it also keeps a list of who has viewed it. So if people don't book (because the dates they want aren't available or something) you still have their email address on the Kodak server, nice and safe (if your computer goes down like Kaylee's - see another thread) then you can contact them next year.

Google Kodak Easyshare and you choose the appropriate site for the country you are in.

and that's all I do, everything else like sending directions etc I do once people have decided to book.

[Bellywobble]

I'll be taking a look at this. It sounds good.

[la vache!]

Hi MG,
I managed to teach myself enough on Dreamweaver to modify my own site and have redone it quite often now - I'm also doing a site for my father's business, quite basic, but OK! My webhost does a good tutorial if you have the DW package - I found it more helpful than the DW tutorials.
http://ukwebsolutionsdirect.co.uk/tutorials/index.php

[Mountain Goat]

Susan, sorry, I did see this, and had a thorough look. Apologies for not acknowledging...and it's good.
Goat

[Giddy Goat]

Knightowl - your Kodak slideshow sounds a brilliant idea! You're a true genius!

[Nightowl]

Why, thankyou GG (she says modestly) you have made me blush....

[gh]

I think the most effective way of selling a holiday home seems to be photos of the house, the location and places of interest. I discovered Kodak easy share gallery,

You are so right Knightowl, and thank you for bringing this to my attention. I have do one now and when we get enquiries we refer them to our web site and add a link to our gallery, which lists many more pic's. Today took a booking as they said the additional pic's made their minds up.

Thanks for sharing your ideas on the forum, what a great place it is, always learning something new and helping out other owners.

[Guest3]

Johnel said

when we get enquiries we refer them to our web site

If we get an enquiry through a listing site, then we always refer them to our website link for more information, pictures of the villa and the local beaches. This more than anything 'sells' our villa for us.