How do I increase mid week bookings?

[Alexis]

Hello everyone!

I have 3 apartments in the centre of Edinburgh that are available for rent 365 days a year.

My problem is this:
All 3 flats are usually booked up at the weekends but week days are mostly empty. Obviously the location means they're perfect for weekend city breaks but that on it's own will not pay the bills!

How do I increase my week day bookings?
I already offer discounts for week days and full week bookings.

Thanks for your time,
Alexis

[kg1]

Hi Alexis. I couldn't see a tariff anywhere on your website - do you ask all guests to apply for prices? I would find that a nuisance personally. Unless I missed something??

Maybe if you published your mid-week rates you would have more success?

[Alexis]

Thanks for your comments.

Up until a few days ago my website was much more limited, just a place for potential guests to see the flats.

I have always relied on listing sites for actually taking bookings because I figured they would get much more traffic than I ever could but I confess within a few hours of putting the availability calendars and enquiry forms on my site yesterday I had had 3 enquiries so perhaps you are right, prices should be on there. If i'm honest I didn't really think many people would go to the site!

Do you take bookings directly through your website? or just show prices?

Thanks again

[kg1]

Both. I list with a few listing sites and most have a link to my web site. Quite often having reached the website they will book there rather than back track to the listing site. Prices are crucial. Most guests will not bother to wait for a reply but will move on.

[Cas & Irene]

We make special packages for the mid week" gapes", with walking tours, flamingo show with dinner, free tickets for musea, free bottls Cava upon arrival etc.

For the B&B we orginaze a Spanish 3 course dinner on board, tapas and sangria upon arrival.
This in combination with 4=3 or 3=2 stay and pay.

Irene put that on Facebook with a limited budget. Not spectaculiar but generate a lot of traffic and we had some direct bookings.

Maybe you can offer a "gift cheque" for a midweek package?

[Hells Bells]

I love the apartments, but again, I would just move on if there were no prices.

[Alexis]

Ok.. i'm feeling rather silly now... the saying "couldn't see the wood for the trees" springs to mind!

[mi casa]

We now only list with OD having dropped HA earlier this year. We also have a link to our own web site and we often get bookings from our site but mainly OD. Price list is a must. I think Cass & Irene have some good ideas. Maybe you could organise walking tours or offer tickets for hop on hop off buses. A trip to the Castle. A special offer for retired folk. Agree your apartments are really lovely.

[Bunny]

I agree that easy to read clear pricing is crucial. I would think that you need to attract business users too if you wish to offer short breaks in a central location. Without prices guests will not see what a good option it is compared to the cost of a hotel. I also notice that you have short weekend break bookings in July and August. I wouldn't even consider a short break during this period unless I had availability at short notice. By accepting a short break booking so far in advance you immediately eliminate the potential for a full week's booking.

[FelicityA]

Agree with the others. Prices being displayed are a must. People just can't be bothered to email for that. They move on.

I get a lot of bookings through my own site. I don't think they find it on a general search. I think they google the name having found it on a listing site and prefer to deal direct with me, the owner. I am using the listing sites as my SEO. Don't underestimate the value of your own site but make sure you have some distinctive words/names of your properties in your listings that will get people googling and finding you.

I only do mid-week breaks in the winter but I often advertise 3 nights for the price of 4, or just pay for 3 and the 4th night is half price (leaving the basic nightly price the same as weekends).

[Alexis]

More great ideas, thank you.

Tours are a great one in Edinburgh... there are literally hundreds of them! Our flats are in the Old Town so ghost tours are very popular as are the hop on bus tours.

FYI, this is a list of sites the flats are currently on and how I have found them to perform:

Holiday Lettings/Trip Advisor: Def the best for enquiries and bookings
Home Away: Disappointingly few enquiries even when I boost listings
Airbnb: I resisted this one for ages but has turned out to be really great so far
Wimdu: Very few bookings but usually nice long ones
Roomorama: Complete waste of time, not one enquiry in a year!

[Alexis]

I notice most of you use Promote My Place for your websites. I had a look at that the other day and it looked pretty good.

I use Kigo (the Channel Management Software) so not sure if they can integrate. Anyone else use this?

[FelicityA]

I don't use this on my PMP website but it would be worth you asking them?

If you go to their homepage, www.promotemyplace.com I think they have their contact email on there (I can't look as even if I log out, it recognises me when I put the site up so I only get the internal contact form).

They are extremely helpful and will reply quickly although this is late on a Saturday and you may not hear until Monday. But sometimes they surprise me out of hours and at weekends! If you do decide to build a website with them, I can give you a discount code which gives you a little money off (£10) and the same for me on my renewal.

[Alexis]

Thanks Felicity, I'll get in touch with them now.

[kevsboredagain]

I notice most of you use Promote My Place for your websites.

Ermm no we don't

I'm at a loss to know why you name one of your places quirky apartment. Surely that puts people off?

Edinburgh has a lot going for it (I used to live there) and your website needs to contain some of that information to stand a chance of being found. That and prices of course.

How well do other apartments do there for holiday rentals? If better, what are they doing differently?