Are you ready to create a website for your holiday let and market it online?<\/p>\n
Honestly?<\/em><\/p>\n Before you sit down in front of a computer to start the website creation process, take some time to think about each of these points:<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve covered each one, great! You\u2019re all set.<\/p>\n If not, you\u2019re potentially making life much more difficult for yourself.<\/p>\n Of course you could<\/em> rush in without thinking about any of these points, but it may result in a less than ideal website, a lack of targeted marketing, difficulty appearing in search results and overall frustration with the process and the business.<\/p>\n There is one slight caveat which we\u2019ll get to at the end, but for now, let\u2019s take a look at each of these points in greater detail.<\/p>\n 1. Is your property guest-ready?<\/strong><\/p>\n First thing\u2019s first, how does your accommodation look?<\/p>\n Try to be objective and go to the property as if you were a paying guest.<\/p>\n For example, is it easy to find, or are the lanes a little tricky to navigate?<\/p>\n Remember to provide ample instructions for arrival making it as easy and stress-free as possible. You may know the roads like the back of your hand but your guests don\u2019t.<\/p>\n How does the property look as you approach? Is it inviting? Is it adequately lit?<\/p>\n Make it clear where the parking is. Ensure there\u2019s an obvious pathway or entrance. And always remember to think about those who may arrive after-dark \u2013 sensored lights are perfect for this.<\/p>\n On entering the accommodation, is it clean? Would it appeal to all tastes? Are there instructions for the wood burner, air conditioning, etc.? Can your guests last a night without heading off to the local store?<\/p>\n First impressions count<\/a>.<\/p>\n What can be an average welcome, could so easily be a superb welcome if each of these things are considered.<\/p>\n 2. Do you have high quality photos of your rental and the local area?<\/strong><\/p>\n Don\u2019t make the mistake of uploading poor quality images of your holiday let. They\u2019re not appealing and certainly will reduce the amount of enquiries you\u2019ll get.<\/p>\n Again, first impressions count.<\/p>\n For potential guests, their first impression will be via your website. Displaying less than satisfactory photos or too few photos, will do yourself and your business a disservice.<\/p>\n Take staged pictures<\/a> with a good quality camera or hire a professional<\/a> to do it for you.<\/p>\n Make sure you\u2019ve covered everything:<\/p>\n 3. Do you know your target market?<\/strong><\/p>\n Think about your holiday let.<\/p>\n What size is it? Where is it? Is it geared towards families with young children<\/a>? Is it pet friendly<\/a>? Is it in the heart of a city nightlife district?<\/p>\n Where and what your property is, will determine who it is primarily aimed at.<\/p>\n For example, an 8th floor apartment with no lift is not necessarily suitable for the elderly or very young. Similarly, a 4 bedroom country house isn\u2019t necessarily best suited to a young couple looking for an intimate weekend break.<\/p>\n Of course this doesn\u2019t mean that your accommodation won\u2019t attract guests outside of your target audience, it will simply help you focus on who you should cater to<\/a>, how you should promote it, and where your best marketing opportunities lie.<\/p>\n 4. Have you written the content?<\/strong><\/p>\n Once you\u2019ve determined the target audience it\u2019s so much easier to sit down and write the content.<\/p>\n Doing this away from the website itself allows you complete freedom to write what you like, disregarding any webpage parameters or restrictions.<\/p>\n Create a draft of your homepage, accommodation details page, local area page, getting there page and any other specific pages you want i.e. a corporate page, large group page, activity page, etc.<\/p>\n Then walk away.<\/p>\n Leave it a while before coming back to it.<\/p>\n Again, you should try to be objective.<\/p>\n Imagine you\u2019re searching for a holiday let.<\/p>\n Now read your homepage copy. Does it grab your attention<\/a>? Does it sound appealing<\/a>? Does it give enough information? Does it make you want to book?<\/p>\n Make tweaks where needed to ensure it does<\/em> grab attention, it does<\/em> sound appealing, it does<\/em> give enough information and it does<\/em> make you want to book.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re happy with it, send it to a family member or friend. Preferably one who will offer constructive criticism.<\/p>\n Listen to what they have to say.<\/p>\n Then finally, make more tweaks.<\/p>\n Now what you\u2019re left with, is great website content that will do your rental proud.<\/p>\n 5. Have you set your rental rates?<\/strong><\/p>\n Have a clear plan in place for your rental rates<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a good idea to check out the competition before deciding on your rates. What you may want and what you can get could be two entirely different things.<\/p>\n Other factors to take into account are:<\/p>\n And remember, when you first start out you want to get as many bookings as possible. So consider \u2018new to market\u2019 discounts \u2013 physiologically this makes people think they\u2019ve found a great bargain and<\/em> it helps you see money coming in straight away.<\/p>\n 6. Have you purchased a domain name?<\/strong><\/p>\n Purchasing a domain name for your website is recommended for three reasons:<\/p>\n To choose the perfect domain name for your website<\/a>, it\u2019s a good idea to think about your property\u2019s keywords (you may even want to carry out an initial investigation using Google\u2019s Keyword Planner<\/a> as it could help determine the domain name you should purchase).<\/p>\n a) Think about what<\/em> your accommodation is \u2013 cottage, villa, chalet, apartment \u2026<\/p>\n b) Think about where<\/em> your accommodation is \u2013 beach, mountains, city, countryside \u2026<\/p>\n c) Think about who<\/em> your target market is \u2013 families, couples, walkers, cyclists \u2026<\/p>\n For example, let\u2019s say you own a stylish villa near the beach on the Greek Island of Santorini, it could be beneficial to try and purchase a domain name that refers to these keywords i.e. BeachfrontVillaSantorini.com<\/strong><\/p>\n Of course that domain name may already be taken. But taking the time upfront to think of your keywords, could make the difference between choosing an average domain name and choosing the perfect domain name for your holiday rental website.<\/p>\n 7. Do you know what website platform is best for you and your skill level?<\/strong><\/p>\n What works for one holiday let owner, may not work for you. So when choosing your website platform, don\u2019t jump straight in without understanding the level of technical know-how you\u2019ll need to setup, create and manage your website.<\/p>\n Platforms like WordPress offer huge flexibility, but they require quite a bit of technical knowledge to maintain. They also require separate hosting and you will need to take regular backups and make frequent updates when new versions come out. WordPress may not be the best solution<\/a> if you are looking for a hassle free option.<\/p>\n A specific holiday let website builder<\/a> may offer a better solution if you\u2019re not so tech savvy, or if you want the security of technical support when needed.<\/p>\n So – if your property is guest-ready; you\u2019ve taken high quality photos; you know your target market; you\u2019ve written the content; you\u2019ve set your rental rates; you\u2019ve purchased a domain name and you\u2019ve decided the best website platform – you\u2019re all set to start building your new holiday rental website.<\/p>\n Oh and the one small caveat we mentioned at the beginning \u2013 if you\u2019ve purchased a holiday rental that requires work before it\u2019s guest-ready, you can (and should) still get a skeleton website online.<\/p>\n Why?<\/p>\n Websites take time to be indexed by search engines. The sooner yours is online, the sooner it will start appearing in search results. And with the exception of being guest-ready and taking some great pics, you can still tick-off each of the points above to make sure your website brings in the enquiries when it\u2019s up and running.<\/p>\n Good luck and most of all, enjoy the process!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Are you ready to create a website for your holiday let and market it online? Honestly? Before you sit down in front of a computer to start the website creation process, take some time to think about each of these points: Is your property guest-ready? Do you have professional or high quality photos? Do you [Continue reading …]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.promotemyplace.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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