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How do you market your accommodation? Where do you advertise?

Hello guys,

I'm coming with another interesting topic to spin some ideas off.

How do you guys advertise your property? 

Which channels do you use? Which works better and why?

What was your best and worse experience with advertising?

Please share so we can get more collective info for everyone reading this forum.

 

Warm regards,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com


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Veronika Group 5 years ago

We let B.com at this point to advertise for us. We also use Facebook organic reach.
We experimented with AdWords, but B.com lobby is too high for us to pop up high in the search. So far, regarding paid marketing, Facebook Ads worked the best. We usually combine Fb Ads with some kind of discount for booking directly.

How do you advertise? We were thinking of the next step to be video showcase on Youtube or Facebook so that potential guests get a better grasp of the property and the destination.

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Veronika Group,

Facebook organic reach? Does it work for you if you use paid ads from them? Or is it just coming through the paid ads and you have retention on it?

We have tried with Facebook, however it's not worth it, at least not for small budgets.

We have a video tour of the Villa, which we use on all platforms possible, you can see it on our website as well as on our Facebook page: www.fb.com/thuild

The only advertising that we do is posting an ad on the most popular classifieds site, which brought us quite some interesting bookings, mainly for the whole place. This has worked the best comparing cost/effectiveness.

What's also great is to use Waze ads, if Waze is widely used in your area, it's worth a try.

Google, not worth it, as you've mentioned before. however doing a great SEO on your website does the trick, especially if your property is unique in some way.

Best regards,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Veronika Group 5 years ago

Yes, organic reach -- by posting to our Facebook page we are able to reach some of the people that liked our page.

I will definitely look into Waze ads -- I did not know they existed.

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Also, do not forget to use the Google Search Console to track certain activity of users. It comes in handy.

What about other hoteliers? Please share your experiences.

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hi Zsolt!

Good topic, very insightful thanks for posting.

So social media etc has been covered. Have you thought of or do you have Expos?

We find renting a stall at All of the Holiday/Outdoor/Nature/Travel expos are earning us a large client base. Our stand is well designed and has photos of all the resorts we have to offer. We then run a competition, or more a Lucky Draw, where a lucky Expo-goer can win a Full week for free at one of our properties! This gets them to the stand. They obviously need to fill in a sign up type form, so we get their details so we can send marketing material to them while our team tells them about our resorts.

The Expos we go to normally falls over the weekend, so you have 3 days to get as many people's information as possible! With a team of 3 people who tend to the stall every day, we bring in about 300 - 600 clients per day for three days and it does show return with about quarter of them coming back and making a booking within that year.

Does anyone else have any other Physical Advertising ideas that work?

Keep well!

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Leandri,

Just one thing regarding you taking their contact details: GDPR :)

Regarding physical advertising, we as a luxury Villa usually can go to wedding expos, to offer accommodation or honeymoon packages to guests.

However because I'm alone doing everything, I've never gotten around to actually go to an expo, only made a roll-up with all business info on it, which I hope to use at various events.

Also business networking events can be great, because we get 50% leisure 50% business, we can be very flexible with our advertising.

One thing that might be interesting is to do partnerships with festivals. We have one and on those days we are 100% full guaranteed.

Best regards,

Zsolt

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hi Zsolt!

Thanks for the response! I actually had to google GDPR just now. In S.A We have POPI act which basically says we can only use the personal information if the person giving it says we can, and we must stop any correspondence if the person asks. So the forms we give out has a tick box that says they agree that we may use their details. I also like playing the "that's not my department" card, which is a very popular card to play in South-Africa. I come up with ideas to market, and the legal department can ensure that we comply with all the laws etc. hehe. But thanks though! Sometimes one forgets.

That's a good one yes, market where relevant! Our resorts will feel a bit out at a wedding expo.

Festivals! Yes! We actually started now arranging Events at the resorts. Trail running to be specific and we have a partner in that who basically gets us the Adventurers, then we do the bookings. It's an operational nightmare, but we did one last year and this year we have two at different resorts. So it's growing!

Keep well

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Hello Leandri,

Exactly, organizing things can be a huge plus. However for me it's not viable as I can only host 8 adults maximum in double rooms, so no group activities or events.

But if you have more space, then yeah, go for it.

I am curious to see what everybody else has to say about this topic, the general one.

Best regards,

Zsolt

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Robert Daniel 5 years ago

TripAdvisor is still an important area to gain feedback in, and of course in any booking engines you are in, but three years ago we had a Google Guy stay with us who made it very clear the area we needed to improve and keep up to date.

Our Google profile, he said, is our biggest asset. He told us to concentrate on getting Google reviews and ratings, pointing out that when we do that Google will automatically boost our page rating, our profile and the more people comment and rate, the better our page performance will be and the more organic traffic and booking we'll get.

We implemented that strategy straight away and immediately saw big results. Make sure ALL the details are correct on Google, from map position, to directions, phone number and address. Ask people to rate you on Google and watch what happens in just a few weeks.

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Veronika Group 5 years ago

Robert,

Very interesting. I did not know that, but as reviews on Google are not verified and you only need an account to post them, I suppose it will be very easy to get a lot of reviews (just ask friends to give you 5 stars and leave a short comment). Still, very interesting and worth a try. Thanks for sharing!

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Better yet, you should get around 20 reviews on OTA's like Expedia, HRS, TravelRepublic, etc so that aggregator websites collect your data and increase your listing positions.

I find this one to be particularly hard as a small property. However I'll get there somehow.

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Ginascott57 5 years ago

We are listed on most of the popular OTAs and their subsidiaries and have a chanel manager which make this work efficiently. We have a facebook presence, and list on home away and airbnb, and recently paid for Google adwords promotion which was a dismal failure. We tried this to see if we could attract more direct bookings, it didn't work. The power of the OTAs is overwhelming, but we do get a lot of repeat customers, especially those playing golf at Barnbougle Dunes.

Regards

Gina

www.platypuspark.com.au

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Milan Delijannis 5 years ago

Thanks for this topics.

I`m also surprised by the fact, that FB ads can do the work, as I tried locations, not near by the property, but from locations, that having one night stand in our accommodation can make sense.

Also combining with direct booking discount code, but there were 0 bookings. Not sure, if it could have been changed, if I`ll put much more on FB advertising, but so far Booking is having best ratio for sold nights / money spent on advertising.

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Robert Daniel 5 years ago

Joey: most potential guests will do their due diligence by checking the booking engine reviews, TripAdvisor, Goigle and social media. Not necessarily in that order.

People will look for your business on social media to get a real time feel for the place. For our business, most guests are international, so in our Facebook advertising we target specific countries and age groups.

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Shikwari Game … 5 years ago

We use a marketing company, they have really upped our game but one has to really look into what they offer we change from one that only worked in one city and didn't send out mailers to tour operator and the marketing list we receive was not our focus; so one has to be careful. The people we are with now are great and really care about our lodge. We also exhibit with them at Indaba Tourism Show and have in the past also done speed networking with other companies set this sort of thing up. It is expensive but we do see more operators and Indaba was the best this year. We have also done WTM -Africa. We mostly have FIT's and Foreign Groups. Our own website, Booking.com and other booking site bring in our other revenue but Tour Operators are our bread and butter.

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hey Guys,

Joey and Robert, we did the Facebook add thing. Where you buy an add and they let your property pop up for a month or two. Our enquiries went crazy! I don't have the exact stats of it, but the turnover was as great as I thought it would be.

Spoke to a lovely old lady the other day, who was a first time Booking.com user, who said she always goes to our place. Every year. She is just finding new ways to go to the same place. Which made me think, do you all aim for the regulars or for New guests?

I would really like to attract international guests, to spread the word you know? But it's difficult.

Keep well!

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Robert Daniel 5 years ago

Joey: I usually narrow it down using the different preferences. Pages they’ve liked, their location etc
Eg if I’m targeting the Taiwanese I’ll got 19-37, in Western Australia but NOT from here, travelling at the moment, likes one of these - travel, hostels, backpacking, Australia, beaches.

I might also translate something simple and personal into Mandarin too.

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Robert Daniel 5 years ago

Leandri: We often get return guests, but we don't target them. We have people from all ages, backgrounds, cultures and countries, even though our core market is international backpackers. We are very family friendly too and not a part place, which attracts a much bigger market and one we are more interested in than the part animals, who would just be a problem.

So we target travellers, and once they have gone only a small percentage come back, although that is a part of our market for sure.

I would identify which countries are currently top of the international visitors who arrive in South Africa and target the top three. Look at the average age of your guests and target that age group plus and minus ten years. Pick the annual salary average too, relevant to your prices, and pick things in their likes such as wildlife, Africa, resorts etc.

I think your place should be getting more overseas guests than South African actually!

A puppeteer, that's awesome! I have done some of this too, and it was so much fun. And those skills are never wasted :)

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hey Robert Daniel ,

Valuable advise! Thanks so much. My account manager phoned me the other day and said he wants us to target three countries with some promotion type thing. He advised I won't be able to see it on the promotions tab but he would add that, I actually need to follow up on that considering there has been a spike in bookings but they're all from my own people. I want new people! Far away people hehe.

Thanks, see I agree with you. I think one or two of the properties we have listed will be great for international guests. Had a couple from Amsterdam who visited and they left such an amazing review. It's very much aimed at the regular international traveller, they pointed out attractions in the area etc so if I could emphasize that review it would already help.

:-D Awesome! A fellow 'teer! I can't remember what was better, doing the shows or answering the question of "What do you do for a living?" with "I'm a puppeteer.". Both great fun! Yes, you can't make up those skills ... well okay technically that's what acting is but you get what I mean :-P

Thanks again! Looking forward to more good advise.

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Vannatoo2 5 years ago

Sorry guys but did not understand much about what I read. Like BDC, OTA, could someone explain please....

Very useful info from all of you.

What is your experience with Airbnb? I hardly get bookings from them not even inquiries.

Thank you for your time and excuse my ignorance.

Vanna

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Dear Vanna,

BDC = Booking.com

OTA = Online Travel Agency

CM = Channel Manager

CC = Credit Card

VC = Virtual Card

etc.

Aitbnb was good last year for me, had some (4-5) bookings from them. However this year, it is total 0, no requests, nothing.

Cheers,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Vannatoo2 5 years ago

Thanks a lot. How do you explain that with Airbnb. Other listings in my city only get bookings from them. I figured the site has cheaper listings than other sites, plus every time I look for my listing as a guest I cannot find it. Do you?

Cheers tô you too.

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hi Zsolt,

You wrote: "Aitbnb was good last year for me, had some (4-5) bookings from them. However this year, it is total 0, no requests, nothing"

4-5 Bookings a week? a Month? a Year?

I'm thinking of taking over our Airbnb hosting admin but I first need to verify if it's worth it. I took a look at my stats on Booking.com per property and every month so far we are getting more bookings than the previous month. Which is excellent.

Keep well!

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Thank was per year, so yeah... not so used in my area I guess.

Here everyone knows Booking.com, nothing else.

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Vannatoo2 5 years ago

I only get bookings from booking but the commission is really high comparing to other sites.

I occasionally get booking from homeaway which is used a lot by North America.

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Cassid,

I got your request. But didn't know what it was about as no message came with it :)

Usually the best is to Like the FB pages and follow Instagram accounts, that should be enough to contact and keep up with what other partners are doing.

Cheers,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

The link is working fine. Just tested it. You might need to clear your browsing data to try again.

Thank you for the compliment. A bunch of work went into this place and still it's an ongoing project.

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Donna Luxford 5 years ago

Hi @Cassid. I have just followed you on Instagram. I am kohatu_riverside_studio_airbnb Also the same on facebook but without the underscores. :-)

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cassid 5 years ago

I just did the brower this evening, heavens you don't release how much time you spend on computers til you have to clean up !!

j
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Jack Alty 5 years ago

Who says you have to pay Facebook? Just creat posts.

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Hiraguesthouse 5 years ago

Thanks for the ideas, i didn't know about waze but i will definitely try that. But I am not sure about facebook though.

Thanks

Dina

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Eugenia Ruabur… 5 years ago

What a Great idea. I never advertised my property apart from Booking.Com . Waze? , where else, I need your assistance please . I have 7 self catering accommodation to look for guests.

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Leandri Klopper 5 years ago

Hi Hiraguesthouse ,

You said "But I am not sure about facebook though".

Can I ask why?

I'm a big fan of using social media to market events at the property so I'm very keen to hear why you don't share the same opinion.

Keep well!