2014 Review

[Guest]

[Naomi]

Thank you, 7 Aspire, for such a quick response.

[Cas & Irene]

Dear all LMH’s

Hope you all had a great year behind you and or have a good start now.

I had since the begin of April last year, no time to write something, give any reply or share any ideas.
Sometimes (in the middle of the night when the guests are down) a quick view on the forum and was always surprised that many of you are could make some time to help others with good advice and excellent tips!!


2014 (our 2nd year) was a very busy year.
We got in total 732 enquiries (!) for B&B and Self-Catering.
The top 5 was;
- BedandBreakfast.com 251
- Our website/direct 134
- HA/OD 65
- HL 43
- Booking.com 46
The remaining came from SR, SH, QuirkyAccom, Sawdays etc.

Number of booking we made out of the above enquiries was a total 161.
The top 5 was;
- Our website/direct 64
- Booking.com 44
- BedandBreakfast.com 11
- HL 10
- HA/OD 5
The remaining came from SR, SH, QuirkyAccom, Sawdays etc.

I have to remark that the results of HA was over a period of 6 months.
We had 2 cancellations with Booking.com
Enquiries from BedandBreakfast.com are 90% last-minutes, that is the main reason of the low conversion.

Roughly (had no time to check this) top 6 of nationalities:
- UK
- Scandinavia
- Germany – Swiss
- Netherlands-Belgium
- USA-Canada-Australia
- France
(We had only 2 bookings from Spanish guests)

Last year we stopped our subscription with;
- several free sites (no responds and takes too much time to update),
- IHA because of a very bad communication, irritating spamming, low quality of enquiries and a lack of bookings.
- Spain Holiday, since they changed their subscription, there was a drop of 90% in the enquiries. After our complains the first advice was to update the ad, (bla bla bla) and after that they advise us to take the new (expensive) subscription. We saw that as a kind of blackmail and after many emails we decided to stop with them. Was a pity because before their ¨change¨ it was a very good sites for us.

We started a new subscription with:
- HA (combination with OD) doing well but also generates loads of (stupid) scam!!!
- Sawdays, looked very promising but is so far a bit disappointing

Google Analytics 2014 (average):
- 14.000 sessions from 119 countries
- 80% new
- 49% bounce
- 2.23 min. session duration
- 3800 direct
- 3900 organic
(21% UK, 16% Spain, 13% NL, 9% BE, 6% DE and 5% USA,)

If we can help with some additional information, please let us know!

[FelicityA]

That's great to hear you are doing so well, Cas and irene! Although it clearly is a lot of work for you. And you get a lot of bookings through your own website, which is the best way to go!

I had a look at your website which I think has changed since I last saw it and it is very attractive. Just one small point (I think English is not your first language) - you say, "we only accept priory bookings". That means you only accept bookings from establishments for monks and nuns! I think what you mean to say that only bookings made prior to the stay are acceptable or "we only accept bookings made in advance". Best of luck in 2015!

[Cas & Irene]

That means you only accept bookings from establishments for monks and nuns!

mmmm... sometimes??

But thanks very much!!

Indeed, our native language is Dutch.
I made loads of mistakes. Once in a meeting I changes the word ¨handy¨ for ¨handsome¨, when I was telling something about myself.

Lucky me, there were only English people in the meeting so everybody keep their face perfect in line.
Don´t try this with the Dutch!

[Casscat]

Once in a meeting I changes the word ¨handy¨ for ¨handsome¨, when I was telling something about myself.

Hey, there's nothing wrong with being proud of your talents, whether they be practical or ornamental!

[Robin S]

Hi All

First post. What a wonderful forum... i've learnt a lot already

We bought our house at the end of January last year and only started letting it out from September as my wife wanted us to recoup some of our outgoings with our first child due shortly.

Primary channels were HolidayLettings (pay as you go), Airbnb and our own website.

We were really pleasantly surprised how we got on. 7 bookings in total.

AB - 3
HL - 2
Direct - 2

5 short stays, 2 full weeks or longer.

The challenge is now how to spread our wings advertising wise this year. I'm tempted by a dedicated HL ad to negate the extra cost they add to the person booking. We've had a very high number of inquiries through HL but conversion is low, and i'm wondering to what extent this is down to this extra cost?

We had one screw up over Christmas. As AB doesn't let you specify minimum stay length variation by month a lucky family got to stay with us very cheaply over Christmas. Lesson learnt!

I think next on the advertising sites list will be OD whilst we boost our re-marketing to existing guests via email (a job for me to fix when i head off on paternity leave any day now).

We've in a busy / competitive space in the Cotswold Water Park so we've priced keenly. The lodge also needs some work and we're planning to invest quite heavily in in this year (bathrooms / log burner and new windows / kitchen depending on how the day job goes) so will be hoping to increase our prices for 2016.

R

[newtimber]

Hi All


The challenge is now how to spread our wings advertising wise this year. I'm tempted by a dedicated HL ad to negate the extra cost they add to the person booking. We've had a very high number of inquiries through HL but conversion is low, and i'm wondering to what extent this is down to this extra cost?

Unfortunately, HL encourages people to send enquiries to lots of properties with one click of a button, so the conversion rate is likely not to be so good. They also give greater exposure to commission listings - and the subscription price is very expensive compared with say OD.

[Casscat]

Welcome to the forum Robin I swear by OD which has been my only source of bookings since I became a holiday home owner this last summer. However I do think that there are a lot of variances between overseas lettings and UK lettings leading me to believe that OD may not be the best place to advertise UK property. I may be completely wrong about this and other UK owners will be along with their more relevant views.

[Bunny]

However I do think that there are a lot of variances between overseas lettings and UK lettings leading me to believe that OD may not be the best place to advertise UK property. I may be completely wrong about this and other UK owners will be along with their more relevant views.

On the contrary Casscat OD does very well for me too in the UK and I'm on the Cotswold border.

[Casscat]

That's great to hear Susie, because I'm quite an OD fan When others have posted their bookings stats OD doesn't seem to work well across the board though.

[Bunny]

That's great to hear Susie, because I'm quite an OD fan When others have posted their bookings stats OD doesn't seem to work well across the board though.

Yes agreed but my perception is that it probably performs best in the UK?

[pambon]

OD is also my main provider. Fingers crossed it doesn't go the way of HL & HA with commission/credit card only/One Click To Book etc....then I'm off.

[Robin S]

Thanks all. I feel all my eggs are in too few baskets so I think it's OD next on the list