Home Based Business

Do I need an exclusive website for my
holiay home business?

Having some sort of internet presence
for your holiday home rental is a
no-brainer! Even by the UK tourist
boards conservative figures, over 60%PRCTG% of
people use the internet when booking a
holiday. In reality, it is probably far
more. The real question, therefore, is
whether to create your own website or
use a well known portal to drive the
internet side of your holiday home
business.

There are compelling arguments for both.
Certainly, you are never going to get as
much traffic on your own property
website as the big property listing
sites. Finding a suitable holiday home
and booking online is huge business and
the big players attract tens of
thousands of daily users to their sites.
However, therein lies the downside. The
big property listing sites are just
that, big! And your holiday home is
hidden amongst the rest, just one
property in the midst of an excess of
others returned in the search results.

Conversely, if someone is browsing for a
holiday rental has found your website,
with just your property on then there is
no competition. Providing you be easily
contacted, or better still, the user can
book your property online and pay a
deposit instantly then you are ten steps
ahead of the crowd!

Of course, the difficult part is
attracting the surfing public to your
holiday home site (and then keeping them
interested). All too often, I have
clients for whom we build a great
property website and they instantly
think it is going to start appearing in
the search engines. We all know this is
unrealistic, unless you'e one of only a
handful holiday home website in your
location (very unlikely these days
unless you rent out your own island -
not unheard of). To get anywhere near
the top of the searches takes focus (on
certain keywords), time and a lot of
hard work.

The best strategy, in our opinion, is to
use make intelligent use of the listing
sites to drive custom to your own
website and property booking system.
This way you are getting the exposure of
the big sites, you have your very own
property showcase and online booking
system, and you are not losing out on
the booking commission that a listing
site would take if you booked using
them. We have a few guidelines on how
you can effectively combine listings
with your own site:

Choose - choose the listing sites you
apply for very carefully. Investigate
how many properties they have listed. If
they boast 50,000+ properties then do
not list. If they will not give you a
link back to your site, again, don't
list. If they demand booking exclusivity
of your property or if they charge an
exorbitant commission, once again, do
not list. Ask for website traffic
statistics - you want sites that
generate a lot of traffic but have
manageable number of properties listed.

Location - Try and get listed on sites
that serve your area. You are far more
likely to get quality referrals on
popular sites for your location than on
general holiday home booking sites.
Alternatively, target your property
type; you could be an exclusive villa?

Track - install tracking code like
Google Analytics and monitor closely the
referrals and bookings you get from the
property listing sites. If the sites are
not generating bookings, do not renew
your subscription.

Link - make sure you get a link from any
sites you list with. Not only will this
directly funnel visitors to your
property booking site, it will improve
your own position in the search engines.

Pay - do not be put off if you have to
pay for a listing. A one year
subscription is more than likely only a
fraction of a week's holiday home
rental. But remember to follow the above
guidelines: don't go for a big listing
site, try to specialise either by area
or property type, or both.

Bookings - it is all about bookings!
Make sure you invest in quality reliable
booking software and that it is fully
integrated into your site. Having your
own booking system with availability
calendar is invaluable, the benefits are
too numerous to mention.

Having some sort of internet presence for your holiday home
rental is a no-brainer! Even by the UK tourist board’s
conservative figures, over 60%PRCTG% of people use the internet
when booking a holiday. In reality, it is probably far more.
The real question, therefore, is whether to create your own
website or use a well known portal to drive the internet
side of your holiday home business.

Technorati Tags : property holiday sites booking

Originally posted 2009-05-16 12:05:31. Republished by Blog Post Promoter