You’re probably familiar with the practice of staging a property in order to sell it. The good news is you can do exactly the same thing when promoting a holiday let.
The idea is that instead of presenting your holiday rental just as it would look normally, you can stage it to look even more appealing. A good example is to spend an extra few minutes making the beds. Of course the beds should always be made, but you can straighten out the covers and plump up the pillows to add a touch of luxury. Add a couple of scatter cushions and a luxurious blanket folded across the end of the bed and you’ll be surprised what a difference it can make.
Room by room
Focus on one room at a time and stage it before you attempt some pictures. Often at times you can create a much better effect simply by changing a few things. For example, polish that wooden table so it shines. Change those scatter cushions so they congregate off-centre on the sofa instead of cowering at both ends. Set the dining table for lunch, add fresh flowers to the coffee table, pop some wine glasses and bottle of wine out on the terrace table. Help people to visualise themselves at your accommodation.
Think space. If you’re renting out a cosy cottage, perhaps adjust the angle of the sofa (or another item of furniture) before taking the pictures to create an illusion of more space, and to make things look more interesting.
Take more pictures than you need
The downside of a digital camera is you can look at the picture you’ve just taken and think it’s suitable. While this is good in one way it can mean you end up having to settle for the one picture you took of a room in your holiday rental, when actually it’s not as good as you thought it was when you look at in on your computer.
So experiment a bit – take some different shots and use different angles to get different effects. Take note of where the lighting is as this can make all the difference in staging your holiday rental to look light and airy as opposed to dark and poky. Don’t be afraid to turn on lights regardless of the time of day, additional lighting always helps to brighten even the lightest of properties.
What do your guests want?
Think about what your guests want from your type of property. Most people are looking for a touch of luxury away from home, so make this evident in your pictures. Add some luxurious touches here and there, such as a gorgeous fluffy throw on the sofa, fluffy towels in the bathroom along with a range of complimentary luxury bath oils or lotions.
De-clutter
This should go without saying, but it might help to take some photos of your holiday rental and then scrutinise them to see what’s standing out that shouldn’t be. The artistic array of magazines on the table may actually look untidy. If your holiday let is child-friendly, don’t think that by having all the toys scattered around will be appealing to your potential guests. You can explain what you have to keep children occupied in your accommodation description instead. Take a look around the kitchen, put everything in cupboards that doesn’t need to be out before taking the picture. If you have a swimming pool, don’t have lilos and balls floating around, clear them all away and then take the shot. By looking at your first set of pictures you can spot things like this and make sure you resolve them before adding them to your website.
As you can see, staging your holiday let before taking pictures is a good idea and something that’s well worth doing. It can make all the difference between getting a reasonable number of guests booked in and having your property fully booked as often as possible. Which would you prefer?
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