Big fish in a small pond, or vice-versa?

[Normandy Cow]

I have been thinking about why we are no longer getting such a good response from French Connections, and have come up with a theory...

Our house is in the Seine Maritime region of Normandy. Anyone who has visited the region will know that it is just as pretty as Calvados or Manche; that there is just as much for the visitor to do or see; and many French (esp. Parisian), Dutch, Belgian etc people have holiday homes there.

However, on French Connections there are only 12 properties in Seine Maritime, compared with 44 in Calvados and 98 in Manche.

I am pretty sure that this is because more British people seem to own homes in the other departments, despite the fact that Seine Maritime is just as pretty, and easier/cheaper to get to via Dover-Calais.

But if I was a visitor looking for somewhere to stay and I knew nothing about Normandy, my reaction would be that maybe Seine Maritime has less to offer the visitor than the other 2 departments...
Also, now that FC has changed the way they organise searches, Seine Maritime is at the bottom of the list of 5 departments, and we are consistently on the second page, so our house is on the 20th (the very last!) page that a visitor will get to if they are just looking for accommodation "anywhere in Normandy".

SO...

My question is, "Is it better to be one of many properties, giving the impression that the area has more to offer the visitor, but therefore having to fight hard to get noticed amongst all the other properties competing for the viewer's attention; or to be one of a small handful of properties, making it easier to be found, but only if the viewer knows the area and narrows their search to that area?"

I'd be interested to hear other people's opinions!

[vrooje]

Hi Catherine,

I'm still formulating a theory on that...

...but as far as FC goes, there are 49 properties in Burgundy and we're listed 32nd in the default ranking. Of those, there are 26 properties in the Cote d'Or and we're the 19th listed. Since FC by default puts 10 properties on a page, we're on the 3rd of 5 and 2nd of 3 pages, respectively.

I'd say that we're getting about 1/3 the inquiries that we used to. And on the old FC website, it's not like we were listed first, but we weren't so many clicks away...

[paolo]

Catherine,

But if I was a visitor looking for somewhere to stay and I knew nothing about Normandy, my reaction would be that maybe Seine Maritime has less to offer the visitor than the other 2 departments

I think that is absolutely right. I am not familiar with Normandy and if I were looking for somewhere to rent I would look first in the region with the most properties, and last at the one with the least.

Obviously if you are stuck in a region with 93 other properties your chances of being seen or chosen are reduced. But at least the traffic is heading in that general direction.

One option would be to place yourself in a neighbouring region and see if you get more enquiries, although that's a bit cheeky!