Promoting your self-catering holiday home

– our
final factor of the marketing principles we apply to the marketing of the self-catering properties we
manage the bookings and enquiries for. 

Promotion is the one part of the mix that has changed the most in recent years
and also continues to change. The arrival and growth of the internet has
changed everything for the holiday market. Brochures are rapidly becoming a
thing of the past as more people now search for their next holiday or break
away via the internet on their PC, tablet and even mobile phone.

Therefore, to make sure your property is promoted at a national level to reach
out to the largest target audience of people who are currently looking for self-catering
accommodation in a given area, you have two options.
The first option is to
sign up to one of the many holiday letting agencies who can offer national advertising
reach. With this option, it is worth noting that your property will only have access to the specific
audience of your chosen holiday letting agency and will only have one property profile which will have to compete and stand out against
the rest of their portfolio.

The second option is try and market your property yourself using large online
directory sites such as HomeAway, Owners Direct and of course our own directory
site –
.
As these sites use algorithms to make sure you are advertising your property on
their site correctly, it can very time-consuming ensuring your listing and
pricing complies with their rules and standards. If you get it wrong, you'll struggle to get your property
featured in their searches to get those bookings!

At My Favourite Cottages, we are finding that more and more
bookings are made online (over 70%), there are a lot less phone calls and most
enquiries tend to come though on email. Therefore, our local team here based in
Barnstaple in Devon strongly believe that as holiday letting is an online business - all holiday cottage owners should
have a website that showcases their property.

This website should be professionally designed and supported
by a booking system that provides availability calendars and facilitates online
bookings. There should be good photography and well-written copy about the
property and its location, that also manages guest expectations. Then a bespoke
marketing plan using online media should promote the property by driving traffic
to the website, generate enquiries and deliver those bookings.

– Would you like to understand more about these four basic marketing
principles can be applied to help maximise the bookings for your holiday
letting?

Simply,