Summary of my rental sites for 2005

[keithfenton]

There have been various references to this topic on other threads
So I thought I would give all my info on a new topic.
My property is in the South Dordogne sleeps 8/10
And is relatively expensive we have let 15 weeks which I am quite happy with as I think the Beg May and end September booking are v infrequent for our type of property
For next year I am dropping Bonnesvacances Francedirect and Frenchconnections
And adding Alisdair Sawday at a cost of £175 per year
My Ad Budget is 3.7% of Gross revenue



Note
We haven't advertised in Chez Nous for 2 years hence the Zero cost and one of the bookings was a repeat from the previous year
The dorgdogne homes site also includes a free listing in perfectplaces.com and one other site

Paolo tried to post a table from word but it didnt work don't know if this is very clear now ??

would be interested to see anyone elses statistics

keith

[paolo]

Keith,

I turned it into an image to make it clearer. Is that £0 for Chez Nous correct?

[Fraise]

Hi.Your posting made me look up my stats.I haven't worked them out yet but I paid around £360 on advertising this year.I too went with Visit France (the dearest one for me),I got some bookings but in the peak weeks- I'm not sure ,only 3 I think.I am also with holidaylets.net( my fave site ,a slow start but I've got a couple of Sept bookings from them).I paid £60 for holidayhavens.co.uk,haven't checked yet but I've had a couple- one for 2 weeks+ in October.My last one is Perfect places,with the exchange rate only around £60,I've only had one booking from that site.I've had a few bookings from other places not connected to booking sites at all ( eg works websites). I'm off to research the sites now and see if I can work out any definite figures but I thought my ramblings may be of some use to someone somewhere?

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Fraise]

Just been to look. Holiday Havens doesn't do any stats and is a very basic site but only costs £60 and I've had 3 weeks booked through them.Visit France is expensive £146- I've had 3 weeks with them too.Perfect Places is around $120 (only about £60 when I booked) but I've had just the one 2 week booking from them. Holiday Lets sent me 11 e-mails,the first few of which were spam however in the last few weeks I've had 3 one week bookings with them (and not peak season),I paid them £93.So:

Holiday Havens-cost per week booked to me-£20
Holiday Lets -" " " " " " -£31
Perfect Places- " " " " " " -£31
Visit France - " " " " " "-£49

Some bookings came from friends,work,word of mouth etc

So far the first 2 are shaping up well as they have provided bookings outside the peak periods which ,like everyone else , I could have filled many times over anyway. I was really surprised to read the Perfect Places stats-it said I got 1106 visitors to my listing but only 15 website visits and just 5 e-mail enquiries!! I haven't digested these yet and of course this is only the year so far.I hadn't realised that only 11 weeks actually came from listing sites! I suppose some could have come via these sites straight to my website,I've had 3 weeks booked that I didn't know where they came from. The rest are miscellaneous .

[paolo]

I was really surprised to read the Perfect Places stats-it said I got 1106 visitors to my listing but only 15 website visits and just 5 e-mail enquiries!!

A lot of 'visitors' to your page will be spiders and not people.

[Fraise]

ahha,that may expain it then!!!Good job I'm not arachnophobic!!!

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[vrooje]

Don't we also have a thread for this topic at viewtopic.php?t=682 ?

[Clexane]

That could also explain the great Google listings that perfectplaces gets your site!!!!

[rosselder]

There have been various references to this topic on other threads so I thought I would give all my info on a new topic. My property is in the South Dordogne sleeps 8/10 and is relatively expensive we have let 15 weeks which I am quite happy with as I think the Beg May and end September booking are v infrequent for our type of property. For next year I am dropping Bonnesvacances Francedirect and Frenchconnections and adding Alisdair Sawday at a cost of £175 per year.
My Ad Budget is 3.7% of Gross revenue



would be interested to see anyone elses statistics

http://www.jarrige.co.uk

keith

Hi Keith,

Your table makes for very interesting reading. My main recommendation to you would be to consider investing in a professional photographer. Your property looks amazing - especially the large pool and view of grounds from the patio but I think the visual impact of your photos could be increased significantly by getting the optimum angles, light and setting for each shot. This would be a once-only cost of about £100 and would improve the return on all of the sites that you advertise on. Unfortunately I don't know of any services local to your property but would recommend looking on google or the french yellow pages for someone suitable.

I only mention this as I note the amount you are spending across the listing sites that you are on and see that your average response in terms of booking enquiries from some of the established names on your table are not as high as I would expect (and know) them to be from these companies.

[alexia s.]

I echo Paolo's question: why is cheznous (which is known for being expensive) listed as costing zero????
Is Keith still with us?

[marcus]

One other thought on the above..I noticed that Dordognehomes seems to rate highly so went to have a look. Apart from the problem that the searches didn't work (temporary I assume) they are one of few rental sites to have google ads

It is possible with google adwords to specify either keywords, as we all know, or to specify sites on which you want your ad to appear...in which case you pay per 1000 clicks. Hence I can pay for an ad to appear in the google ads column of this site, for very cost. I have to pay for each time the ad is shown not per click.

Would this cunning strategy work, do you think?

[la vache!]

Alexia,
I haven't advertised in the Chez Nous brochure or paid to be on their website for the last 2 years. However, my property is still live on their website - I have a few bookings from them this year and am getting enquiries from them for next year. Should I be honest and tell them that I am still on their site or just continue to enjoy the free advertising???

[alexia s.]

Don't worry, Susan, I am sure that cheznous knows that you are there free - even if you asked to be taken off they might leave your property there.
I decided not to renew one of our ads with a commercial site & asked them to take us off, as the prices are out of date. We're still there.
Good-looking properties are a boon for the commercial sites: they encourage visitors to the site, thereby enhancing bookings for paying advertisers... who renew.

[Maisy]

I was really surprised to read the Perfect Places stats-it said I got 1106 visitors to my listing but only 15 website visits and just 5 e-mail enquiries!!

A lot of 'visitors' to your page will be spiders and not people.

Hi Paolo
Maybe I am being somewhat dim...but could you explain the difference between 'spiders' and 'people'??
- I check the stats page and I have had 71 visits this month - I thought that meant that was the number of visits my property had received
I am with PP for 12 months and have been very happy with the amount of enquiries and bookings for 2005

[paolo]

Maisy,

Spiders are much smaller than people and have eight legs.