Social Media Really Doesn't Work

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, TikTok, etc.
Stewart
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:32 pm
Location: Fife, Scotland

Social Media Really Doesn't Work

Post by Stewart »

Prove me wrong.
Joanna
Posts: 1091
Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2007 3:12 pm
Location: Chester, North West England & Sidmouth, East Devon
Contact:

Post by Joanna »

It's hard to know for sure. We have 2 cottages. I've put 1 on social media but not the other. They're in different markets so they're not directly comparable. One is in Chester so mostly shorter city breaks and easier to let year round. The other is in a seaside town in Devon so more traditional holidays and very seasonal. That's the one I put on social media to try & extend the booking season.

I gave up asking guests where they found us a long time ago - so many just said 'the web' or even gave us the name of sites we don't list on. I think people look at so many sites it all becomes a blur and they're often don't really know how they arrived at ours.

We've only had 1 booking that I can definitely attribute to Facebook. But, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest are the biggest referrers to our website at the moment.

We get around 40% of new bookings through our own site which accounts for around 50% of our income. It's hard to know how many of those came to us via social media. Another 40% are repeat bookings and the rest are ABB & TA.

In previous years we've had 25% or less bookings from our own site so I think that social media has played a part in bringing that number up.

I'm thinking about setting up the Chester cottage on Facebook, etc. too to see if it makes any difference. It can be a lot of work and I don't post constantly like some owners do. Is it worth the effort? At the moment I'd say it probably is.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
Jenster
Posts: 454
Joined: Tue Mar 08, 2016 8:24 am
Location: Cornwall
Contact:

Post by Jenster »

Most of my bookings come from Facebook these days. However I am lucky that there is a very active facebook group for rentals in my area (Cornwall), with a very proactive admin team who are constantly driving membership up. I don't think I'd be anywhere near as successful with social media without this group.
ianh100
Posts: 598
Joined: Thu Jan 10, 2013 4:37 pm
Location: Sherborne Dorset

Post by ianh100 »

We are also getting an increasing number of bookings from Facebook but it is hard work. For us it has filled the gap where we used to get TA and OD bookings.
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