Free ad sites

[jimadept]

Hi folks,

I'm a regular on the WWHH forum, but I just popped in here to mention the following: I have been building a list of free advertising sites for holiday rental properties, and recently published the list online. It currently features over 200 sites, enough to keep you clicking away for months, and if you're lucky you might even get some bookings!

The list is split into UK/US/ international sites, Spanish sites and Dutch & Belgian sites. Please have a look at:
http://svb-photos.spain.com/free_ads.htm
and feel free to link to it if you wish. I'm also open to suggestions for additions.

thanks, regards, Jim

[vrooje]

Thank you for putting this together!

I wonder how many of these allow links to an owner's website. It's probably well worth the time if they do!

[reddevil]

Hey Jim,
That is a cool list you have put together - it certainly saves us a lot of work - or actually, it will make us do a lot of work

Cheers.

[jimadept]

Thanks, what would be really good would be to include user reviews and rankings, like Amazon and IMDB do, but I'm afraid that would make everything far too complicated for the limited amount of time I have available to invest. Hopefully people will post their good and bad experiences in the guestbook though, which will go some way towards it.

cheers, Jim

[Vitraux]

Thanks Jim,

What a brilliant idea, I have been searching the web for free sites for months, and only came up with about 10, I will give them a try and let you know how I get on, as this is my first summer season and we have spent most of our capital on renovating, free ads are the only way to go for us at the moment, so investing time is no probelm, I will try and review them in a month or so and let you know any pitfalls or highlights.

Best wishes.

Ann

www.bed-and-breakfast-in-the-dordogne.com

www.stainedglassinfrance.net

[jimadept]

Hi Ann,

This is also my first summer, but my experience so far indicates that sticking only to free ads could a false economy. It's 6 weeks since I started advertising, and in that time I've taken 6 1-week bookings, 5 through my 2 paid ad sites and 1 through friends.

The paid ad sites are Homelidays (following the 1 month free trial) (€75 resulting in 3 bookings worth €1450) and Spain-Holidays (€125 resulting in 2 bookings worth €1000). And there's still 10 months left to run on each of these ads.

Some of the free ads get good rankings in Google, particularly perfectplaces and rent-holiday-homes, but so far no bookings.

There are also sites that work on a commission basis, and therefore make an extra effort to get the business in for you, such as Accommodix and Costablanca-holiday. The other advantage is that you don't have to any up-front layout without any guarantee of return, the downside is of course that the total cost could end up being a lot higher.

cheers, Jim

[roxytoo]

thanks list looks great! On this site I cannot see where its free to advertise??

villas-spain-rentals.com/

[Linda Freese]

On this site I cannot see where its free to advertise

I think you´re right - this site only allows free adverts to businesses!

[jimadept]

Thanks, I've deleted villas-spain-rentals

Jim

[Vitraux]

Hi Ann,

This is also my first summer, but my experience so far indicates that sticking only to free ads could a false economy. It's 6 weeks since I started advertising, and in that time I've taken 6 1-week bookings, 5 through my 2 paid ad sites and 1 through friends.

Thanks for the tips Jim, I am also on a few paid sites which I did before the money ran out namely visitfrance.c.o.uk. and chambredhotes.fr, all of my bookings so far have been from these two sites, I am also registered with the local tourist office which cost an arm and a leg I can tel you, but they only publish the brochure on the 1st April so I donlt know how that will be yet. I have had two enquiries from perfect places but no bookings yet.

I have looked at most of the sites on your list and around 75% are for gites or villas and not relevent to me but the other 25% that were free I have used, also the dutch site residencerental say 3 months free but ask you to pay first which I didn't think was a good idea as they might be rubbish.

Anyway thanks again for the tips and advice, it is so nice to be on a forum where people are willing to help and share their experiences instead of fighting each other over bookings.

Regards,

Ann

www.bed-and-breakfast-in-the-dordogne.com

[jimadept]

Hi Ann,

Interesting that the tourist office should charge for registration, I assumed that would be free. Silly naive me, huh.

I am planning to blitz a bunch of the free rental and classified sites next week with Autumn Break style ads (our flat is booked up to 13 August at the mo), and am hoping to get a few more bookings. Watch this space.

I hadn't realised ResidenceRentals wanted money upfront. I was sure I'd listed with them for free as well, I'll have to go and have another look.

cheers, Jim

[Alan Knighting]

Ann,

I am registered with my local tourist and information office. That includes an entry on their Website with a link to a personal Website. I was asked to pay a voluntary contribution of 20€ (which I did) but basically there is no fee.

Alan

[willemijn]

Hello,

think you might have forgotten to mention click4holidayhomes.com or am I just overlooking it? I have one booking through them after a short time.

[jimadept]

Hi Willemijn,

I can't see anywhere that says it offers free advertising or a free trial period. Please correct me if I'm wrong! (and post the URL for the free ad/trial please).

kind regards / groetjes, Jim

[Vitraux]

Ann,

I am registered with my local tourist and information office. That includes an entry on their Website with a link to a personal Website. I was asked to pay a voluntary contribution of 20€ (which I did) but basically there is no fee.

Alan

Hi Alan,

My registration is for a listing in the Hotel-Campsite-bed & Breakfast guide 2005 - Pays de Bergerac
- it is 39 euros for each bedroom you have so it cost me 156 euros and it doesn't include entry on to their website you have to pay extra for that so I didn;t bother.

The thing is they have spelt my name wrong and my e mail adress is also spelt wrong I have told them but I think they have already published lots of guides, so we will have to wait and see. if people don't have the correct e mail then I could be waiting a long time.

regards

Ann

www.bed-and-breakfast-in-the-dordogne.com