Can You Be Found Beyond Accommodation Booking Sites?

Although I encourage owner/managers of holiday rental accommodation to consider marketing on sites such as Stayz, Home Away, Air BnB, Flipkey etc, I do think it's worthwhile independently marketing your holiday rental. Here are some ideas;- Have you created and do you manage social media profiles? Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, You Tube...they can all be effective. The only real cost is time. It helps to have the site developed and maintained by someone who is relatively social media savvy.- Website. Buying a domain (the actual website address or URL) is relatively inexpensive. The actual infrastructure you build on the site or the Content Management System (CMS) is what will cost a little or a lot depending how fancy you want your site to look and perform. For the purpose of a holiday home or corporate short stay you really need a basic CMS that is easily managed yourself. $1 - $2k is a ball park cost. If you want to automate bookings direct from your site this will cost extra. Online bookings with a booking widget is probably more for the advanced. Feel free to make contact with me to discuss further.- Brand. Develop a name and personality for your property. Maybe a logo and choose 10 good quality images to use to market your property. The same images and logos, font, colours,size etc should be applied to all marketing and communications platforms and materials.- Promotional Material. I suggest a basic business card, information flyer and maybe one type of branded merchandise to gift to your guests when they stay. Remember we are in a digital era though and most print advertising or promotional material is obsolete.The above will ensure you can be found direct by repeat customers, word of mouth customers or Google search. You want to think about your sustainability.If you have enjoyed this article maybe you'd like to subscribe (free) to the Welcome In e-news. I try to publish these every few months to a community of holiday rental managers in Australia. I encourage you to make contact with me if you have any queries about any aspect of your holiday rental management journey. If I cannot assist you I can certainly point you in the right direction. I am well connected with niche industry holiday rental stakeholders in Australia.