How to get more bookings for my holiday home?
Here are our top 5 things you can do as an owner to increase your presence online. If you plan to do any of the tasks below, let us know; we can equip you with some of our high-quality images to use where needed.
1. Create a ‘Google My Business’ Listing;
With a Google My Business Account, you get more than a business listing. Your free Business Profile lets you easily connect with customers across Google Search and Maps. This can help guests who are trying to get to your property using Google Maps. It also means you’ll come up in searches made through maps.
You’ll need a Google account and about half an hour to get a basic listing up and running. The most important thing to include here is a link to your listing on the Lakeland Retreats website in the ‘website’ field, that way you’ll get people straight to where they can find out about your property in more detail, and (most importantly) make a booking.
The business category should be set to ‘Self-catering accommodation’.
Feel free to set the phone number as the Lakeland Retreats office number: 015394 34011
Google Will Need to Confirm the Business.
This is usually done by them sending a postcard with an authentication code to the premises itself. If you are at this stage, please let us know so we can have the cleaning team keep an eye out for its arrival. Once we have the code we’ll pass it on to you to finalise authentication.
Start creating your Google listing now | Get help
Why Doesn’t Lakeland Retreats Do This for Me?
Google business listing for self-catered accommodation seems to be a bit of a grey area for Google. On the surface, Google states that holiday homes are ineligible but, more realistically, it seems they don’t want letting agents like ourselves adding loads of places to their map but, they don’t seem to mind individual business owners adding a listing themselves. It can be a bit hit and miss if the listing gets accepted, so let us know if your struggling, we’ll do what we can to help.
Also, there is a reason to do this yourself; it’s your property! Think of it as a business asset. If you have a Google/Bing listing with a bunch of glowing reviews, it can actually add value to your letting property as proof of its sucess. Control of the listing can be passed over should you ever come to sell.
2. Get a ‘bing Place’ Listing
In much the same way as a Google listing, a bing business listing is another helpful way of getting found through map searches and to be made more prominent in normal search pages. As with Google, you’ll need a Microsoft account for this one.
Having links from these location listings pointing to the property on the Lakeland Retreats website stand a good chance of rising in the search results as well, meaning your property will get in front of more people through organic searches.
Handy tip: If you already have your Google Business listing you can have Bing copy its details across in a single click, just look for the option when creating a new listing. If you want to save time, wait until your Google listing is live, then simply have Bing copy that for you.
3. Send Us a Video of Yourself
There’s a couple of video types that would be really helpful for us when promoting your property:
- Review your Lakeland Retreats listing experience, we’ll feature you on our blog and provide your property with some additional coverage on the site. An important note here: be honest, we don’t want anything that sounds staged or prompted. We want you to tell the real story of why you chose us, what we’ve done well, how we’ve dealt with any problems that have occurred, that kind of thing. Think of what you’d say to a friend that was looking to list with us.
- Send us a personal video message for your guests – Send tips about the property itself, the surrounding area, annual events to look out for etc. We can include this in the video on your property’s page on the website, and on the video channels we use to promote you. This kind of personal message goes a long way to making our guests feel welcome.
Handy tip: Don’t worry too much about video quality, any modern smartphone will have good enough resolution. Plus, it’s not a bad thing if it looks ‘homemade’ as it gives a human touch to your message. Our only tip would be to film in a shady area on a sunny day, preferably with a nice background, it gives flattering light and the shade stops you from squinting! – Final check; if it’s something you’d be happy to share with your friends, it’s perfect, we’re all getting very used to video messaging these days!
Need help sending us a video?
- If you’re using an Android phone, this might help.
- If you’re on an iPhone, try this.
- Still stuck, get in touch and we’ll do what we can to help from here.
4. Get Featured in Our Social Media
We have a huge passion for sharing our home in the Lakes! If you have any favourite images or videos you have from your times in the Lake District, please send them over with a little description of what you love about the memory. We’ll feature the image, mention you (let us know your username if you wish. If not, we can keep it anonymous), and we’ll tag your property so people can find it on the site.
5. Last Tip! – Airbnb Wish Lists
To help increase your chances of getting found through Airbnb, try to get wish-listed.
Though not really under our control, if you and your friends and family add your property to their wish lists there’s a chance you can become featured more prominently on Airbnb itself.
To add a property to a wish list, just click the ‘♥’ once you’re viewing it on the Airbnb website.
If you’d like to know more about letting your property, check out the owner FAQ’s
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Whether you’re looking for your dream Lake District cottage, unhappy with your current letting agency, or you’re looking for holiday investment properties in the Lake District we can help.
If there’s anything you’d like to know that we haven’t covered below, please let us know.
