No bookings or enquiries

Get some feedback on your site or ad from other rental owners and techies. Also a library of online resources so you can make DIY improvements to your web presence.
Pelly
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No bookings or enquiries

Post by Pelly »

This is our second year with the gite; but we have had only a couple of bookings from enquiries; and a couple from friends: The only thing I can think of ; is we dont have a garden or a pool; but the prices reflect this: Another problem could be; people dont know our area; Once people have seen this area and our gite; all we get is good comeback; but how do we get them here in the first place:

http://www.labastidette.iowners.net: :? :? :?
Last edited by Pelly on Wed Aug 06, 2008 6:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
I used to have money now I have horses; cats;dogs & chickens; not forgetting 2 daughters!
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

Sorry neither of your links to you site work.................and now one does..........sorry about that!
Last edited by Paul Carmel on Mon Aug 04, 2008 4:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Cheers
PC
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

The one in the text Does for me PC :wink:
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Hi Pelly,

Welcome to Lay My Hat! :)

I've fixed the link so that it should work, at least the one written in your post.

Would you mind giving us more details on how and where you advertise? That's naturally a crucial part of the bookings picture.

Would you also like me to move this to the website reviews section so that people can comment on how you might modify your website to bring in more bookings from it?
Brooke
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

AAH now I understand thanks Brooke :) crossed posts :wink:
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

Bugger your quick Brooke.............
Cheers
PC
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Chianti
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Post by Chianti »

Pelly

Welcome to the forum. I think the problem is your photos and maybe you should let others help you with your website. The basics are good and it's a stunning area, but I fear unless you improve your photos things may not change.

We worked very hard on ours and I certainly know that the new ones brought in bookings.

I'm sure we can help you.
Chianti

Tecno twit, but I can tie my shoes !
Pelly
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Location: South west France
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Post by Pelly »

Any suggestions would be welcome, its the first website I've ever done and I know it could do with some help: please move it where you think the best:
We are with ChezNous at the moment; plus rent Property direct and some other free ones: were thinking of trying Click4holiday; I think cheznous is not for us:its expensive and we've had not interest at all:
I used to have money now I have horses; cats;dogs & chickens; not forgetting 2 daughters!
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Hi Pelly,
I'm really sorry that you haven't had much luck with enquiries and bookings. I know that for families a garden and pool can be important - and looking at your your outside photo it also looks as if the house is on quite a busy main road, which could also put people with young children off. Maybe you would be better off targetting adults - you seem to be on the doorstep of some beautiful countryside with walks minutes away - if I didn't have young kids a walking holiday it is the sort of holiday I'd like to take. Also say that you are within walking distance of Monesties - another plus point for attracting adults who don't always want to drive to restaurants and like to be able to walk to the boulangerie in the morning.
I do agree with Chianti - your photos are not showing the house to it's potential. The exterior shots look drab - there are no flowers - even though there is no garden, you could show window boxes and pots. And on the interior shots, some are blurred, one shot has some flowers, which is better, and the second bedroom looks very cramped with the 2 beds nearly next to each other. Sorry to be so critical, but photos are so very important in selling a place and I'm afraid that yours don't at the moment. The ioners site isn't the most user friendly either, but don't worry about that, I think the first thing is to decide on your market and target that, take some new photos and ditch Chez Nous, try a site like ownersdirect.co.uk and ANother which you will get for the same price as Chez Nous and hopefully better results. Good luck.
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Chianti
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Post by Chianti »

Pelly

Photos sell properties and you have some that are, shall we say terrible.

Why on earth do you have a photo of a plane?

You have several pixelated photos, they need to come off

The exterior photo of your property is bleak, you need masses of flowers and take it perhaps from a different angle

You have a photo with horses in it, but it's taken in the winter and again bleak

Your photos of sunflowers has been taken just before they die and they look horrible

I'm sorry to put it so bluntly, but you need to take some good photos ASAP. Compare yours with some that the other forum owners have taken and you will see a huge difference.

You must make your property appealing, it doesn't matter whether it's budget accomodation or not, it has to look inviting. Folks have only a few weeks a year to spend on holiday and everything must look attractive to put them in the mood and make them want to stay at your property. You do have a few lovely photos of bridges but you need to tell them the name of them.

If you see a bowl of apples do you pick up the wrinkly one with bruises or the lovely, fresh shiney one?

Where are the photos of the sitting room and kitchen?

There's no magic in it, just hard work. If you aren't great at taking pics, find a friend who can help.

I do hope this will help you,
Chianti

Tecno twit, but I can tie my shoes !
A-two
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Post by A-two »

Chianti is right, (albeit a bit brutal!), you need to try harder......plus......
  • Your descriptions are not adequate, bare minimum information is not enough. If you call the "Old something....", you could expand on the history and people will be attracted by that.

    Your photo of kitchen/dining table for 6, shows 5 chairs and guests would have to get involved in furniture moving to add a 6th chair, which it doesn't look as if there is space to do, or a chair available (although I am sure there is).

    Lose the Google Ads off all pages. These are driving visitors to other sites where the properties are a lot more attractive than the one you're showing.
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cottageguru
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Post by cottageguru »

I'll go along with what has been said so far about photos. My initial reaction was that it didn't look very inviting from the outside. France means brightly coloured shutters and flowers to me, and even without a garden, amazing things can be done with some colour on the exterior.

It looks like the scenery in your area is fantastic but many of the photos are blurred and taken in poor weather and with no leaves on the trees. If you got out and took some new pictures now, I'm sure you could improve that aspect immediately.

Choose the best part of the property and make that a real feature. Oh, and remove the date and time stamp from your photos too.

I gave up on iowners because I didn't like the structure of the listing. You could try a blog platform - you'd get more control over how your photos are shown.
Heather

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Garri
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Post by Garri »

Is it me or do Iowners websites look spammy? Google ads - tacky! Inappropriate social bookmarks, are people really going to Digg your website?

Cardinal sin: car in the main photo! Photoshop it out or choose a better photo. Donkey on the right! Why?

I've yet to see an Iowner template make a property look enticing. Maybe it's just me, it's probably just me.
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

Sorry to wade in with more criticism but your text needs a lot of basic work - there are quite a lot of errors in the English - your copious use of semi-colons is a little bizarre and definitely distracting. Also, you don't explain where you are - I don't know the 1st few places you mention and, not being a Francophile, I am not too sure exactly where Toulouse is either. Your first sentence is a bit of a turn off - I would expect a gite to be fully furnished and linen supplied is not the 1st thing I want to know.
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Jimbo
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Post by Jimbo »

... how do we get them here in the first place ...
Pelly, if you don't have an experienced friend to help and are unwilling or unable to engage the services of a pro-photographer, you'll just have to teach yourself the basic principles of shooting competent publicity pictures and weaving them into your text.

A good crash course is to closely study the photos/text on the websites of regular LMH posters (and successful renters) and see how these experts do it. Buy or borrow a half-decent digital camera (not so expensive), decide what 'theme' you want your gite property to have and shoot loads of pictures of each subject from every angle. Look at them closely and be utterly ruthless in your selection. If you get stuck, you'll find that there's lots of help on this forum. Good luck.

Jim
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