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Looking for advice on how to get more guests for a new property

Hello everybody, my name is Anna and i am working for a new open strutture in Desenzano (Italy). I do reception and i am resposabile per guest increase. We have been opend for 1.5 month only and we did quei well in August during summer stagione. We are planning to be open whole year and we are fully aware that the concuration is very strong. I have to add that at the moment we havent a lot of reservation. We do rent 13 apartments, located in a nice and quiet residencial zone. The appartmets are new, beautiful, decorated in a very unique style. Could you advise mi what to do to have a more guests. What is your experience like? Any ideas?


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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Dear Anna,

First of all, you need local insight into how many guests you have that would book with you and do not. Also you need local insight into guest travel periods and usual trends.

These you can get the hard way, by waiting a year to pass and know what to expect next year.

However, if you have bookings, you are doing amazingly well for the beginning.

When I opened, I haven't gotten a single reservation for 1 month, then the second month I had 1 booking for a night, that's all. Second month was better with 4 bookings and it kept growing.

You need to give it time so the market gets to know you and that you get better positioning.

Best of luck,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Villa Junona Croatia 5 years ago

Hello, may be what I will say is not new for you, but you can not just sit and wait... You have to make the market to learn about you. The sooner the better.

You cat print a big sign "Apartments for rent" and put in outside your house, It seems a bit funny. but here, in Croatia it really works. Why not in Italy?

You can use all social networks possibilities.

Facebook or Instagram YouTube or Google+ never mind. Use all of them or just any

Create business page for your property or a group, share news, arrange giveaways, competitions, discussions, etc, All is good if it serves to increase public awareness of your business.

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Bandara Hotels… 5 years ago

anna For booking.com, you could do visibility booster to increase page view/visitor for specific market that you want.

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Anna Villa Col… 5 years ago

visibilility booster, pleae explain what do you mean by doing it?

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

We were still doing renovation, when I started to receive confirmed bookings. And all of this because of analysis and strategy (that describes my personality as well). At that point of time we had Airbnb and Booking only, no social networks, no maps.

First of all, think of the best Title of your listing. Do not think of brands. Think of keywords that are very clear to describe your property. Quiet Residential Apartments? Interior Design Apartments? Luxury Apartments? Close to city center? Brand new apartments?

Wherever you can advertise "Brand new". It gives strong impact on people (as for me, I would love to stay in brand new place, and pay higher for this). If you need better description, you can write special request with small corrections to Booking.

Good pictures are the must. Not only of the property, but nearby places also, so people can get familiar with the area. Professional photography is a good idea and its not so expensive, they use special focus to present your property much better than any smart phone. Choose among those, who specialize or have good portfolio particularly on real estate photography.

Run many promotions on Booking. Monitor them or create them every hour, if needed, forget about rest when your property is new and no clients. Booster works too.

Ask clients to leave comments. Do it in every possible, but respectful way. For chocolate :) As for us, I write powerful thank you letter to every client after they leave.

Accept payments by Booking (credit cards).

Create better pricing strategy. Like different prices for different occupancy (2? 3? 5 people)?

Write description in your Profile. There you can really make a point, that your place is brand new, unique, etc

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Villa Junona Croatia 5 years ago

Katerinka12 I agree with the though about importance of clients´ comments, but still have a question - what does "powerful thank you letter" exactly mean?

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

It means it's long and personal.

For example,

Dear Sir X,

Thank you for booking with us and we sincerely hope you enjoyed your stay.

If there is anything we can improve? We are relatively new on Booking and your honest review will help us to improve our services.

Please, feel free to stay with us once you are in Chroatia.

Name
Position

---

Of course, if someone welcomes you back, it's hard to complain about him :)

Do not copy! Make your own! Be creative :)

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Katerinka12 you’ve said everything. Work work work and guests will come !!!!!!

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Davespiceuk 5 years ago

I thought I would share my post stay 'follow up' message to guests as it really works for me - my property has a 10 out of 10 rating after 10 reviews. I have it set up as a Booking.com template so very easy to send it a couple of days after departure. Feel free to copy it, or make it your own.

Dear [FIRST_NAME]

Thank you for choosing to stay at Queens Park Lodge. We know that you had many options and are honoured that you choose ours.

I hope that you had a wonderful, relaxing stay here, and feel able to leave a short review as these are super important to small independent establishments such as ours.

If you feel we have earned a 10 Star Review and we went the extra mile for you we'd be thrilled for your support, and if there is any reason that would make you leave a review of less than 10 stars or anything needs improving, we'd really appreciate your private feedback, so we can improve what we offer going forward.

I hope to welcome you back to Queens Park Lodge when your ready for another stress free break.

Very best wishes for your onwards travels.

Dave
Proprietor
Queens Park Lodge

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Thomas (Austria) 5 years ago

Ciao! Only one fast idea: We are located at passo di brennero. 250km from you. The majority of my overnighters go to lago di garda or tuscany. The ones going to your region like biking. So you might contact some german bike tourguides like Andreas Albrecht from Germany. His site is www. transalp. Info. He suggested our hotel in his books and linklists and this was working very well.
Bye, Thomas

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Weigelt 5 years ago

Give guests who are checking out your business card with 10%, transferable discount written on the back. Ask them to pass it on.

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Villa-Junona-Croatia I always think pink..... If you do all the things Katerinka12 mentioned above 10 hrs ago I am absolutely sure that guests will come very soon.

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Villa Junona Croatia 5 years ago

M Adamopoulou It was not me who asked for advice. I have nothing to claim about. From June to August I do not have enough time to sleep because of guests.


I had completely different question when wrote "What if they will not?"

I think that "Work work work and guests will come" just does not work. As well as "all the things Katerinka12 mentioned above" are not enough.

Why? Read them once more.
All that things are connected with BDC only. But we have to look wider

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Razi823 5 years ago

Hi name is Razi, just joined this forum. I have a one condo in Pattaya Thailand which has been giving not so good bookings. So far I had 5 bookings only since last three months.

I find this forum is useful to review and share ideas and opinions from all of you so we call can be more successful.

Razi

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Izquierdoanaluisa 5 years ago

Hi¡ Anna,

Do discounts and special offers to attract more people. Offer free bottle of wine for a certain number of days booked, and so....

And also play with the prices over the week (up and down).

Good Luck!!!

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Razi823 5 years ago

Thank you Anna! will try.

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Razi823 5 years ago

Hello All,

I have an idea, since we all own properties in different parts of the world, how does it sounds if we can offer each other free stays in our places to share the experience of visiting different countries?

I can offer anyone of you on the forum free stay at my property in Pattaya, Thailand.

Let me know if anyone interested.

Razi

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Thuild - Your … 5 years ago

Dear Razi,

That's a great idea and I'll take you up on the offer when I will be visiting Thailand again.

Regarding the low number of bookings, you need to take into consideration many factors. Pattaya for instance is full of accommodations: Pattaya: 2,599 properties found.

So, there are a few things that you can do:

- dumping prices (cheapest you can go to increase bookings and get as many reviews and property vies as possible) for a limited time (ie. 3-4 months)

- make sure your content is top quality and that you cater services that the majority of travelers need

- you must invest in the quality of the unit and service (I don't know how yours looks, but I hope you have invested enough to make it appealing)

These would be some of the suggestions.

Cheers,

Zsolt - www.thuild.com

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Razi823 5 years ago

Thank you so much Zsolt..... awesome advise!!

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Villa Junona Croatia I am sorry for the misunderstanding but although Iam new I have followed Katerinka12 suggestions in general and my reservations have gone pretty well.

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Thank you to all!

"If you feel we have earned a 10 Star Review"... That's really powerful. I am sure... If you need something... Just say it. Sincerely like a child. Say "I need an apple", and apple will be given to you. Say I need "orange", and orange wilk be given to you.

Of course, many things are written by me are for Booking simply because we are on Booking forum. I am Airbnb superhost and Booking staff is ok if I publish my experience with Airbnb, though they are competitor.

All advices here are very general. There might be things much deeper. What if you have luxury place in a country where tourists do not go to and locals can't afford? What if interior looks not inviting? (not ugly, but really not cozy enough) What, if the location is bad? What if your country recently had earthquake and people scared of going there? What if your country had political issues (Egypt is a good example). Language barrier? What if... There are so many "ifs"

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Villa Junona Croatia

I just checked your listing. And here are some thoughts:

1) Beatuful view

I don't see any picture with that Breathtaking view to die for! All pictures have problem with the view. The view is covered by curtains or chairs.

Spend some money on good photography. That small investment will bring you clients.

2) Crowded beach

The beach looks crowded. That's not good. People spending money do not like crowded places and especially crowded beach.

3) Orange color

Though it's one of my favorite colours (optimistic and very positive), it makes the place look cheap. Many adults do not like orange color. It looks childish to them. Why not to change bed covers to Golden? Brown? And royal blue is classic choice for properties near the sea.

4) Villa and Building

Correct me if I am wrong, but villa means separate house for two or luxury place. All I see is residential building. Ans it's interior is far from villa. Misleading.

5) Food

Bad pictures of food. And the food and containers look cheap. Why not to arrange the food on plates and make better photos? If you have waitors or staff, it will be nice to have pictures of them. Its social factor

Personally I think such place should have bathtub, not just shower room. Ut will be great to put some pictures (cheap ones) above the beds instead of that disturbing lights. And where is the beach? Staff? The breathtaking view? Please, help me to spend my money :)

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Amelia Wise 4 years ago

Exactly! I've noted that properties with deluxe bathtub usually attract better new visitors and couples, which helps to generate the whole income.

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Villa Junona Croatia 5 years ago

Katerinka12

Have you read my comments at all?

I DO NOT have any problem with clients. We were full from June to September.

I do not want my property looks "Expensive" It must be comfortable, it stays two steps from the sea, My guests love it and I already have a lot of reservations for the next season.

So I do not think that my strategy is wrong, May be we just attract very different people.

Can we take a look at your listing?

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Yes, I read your comments. To quote one: "What if they will not?"

It's not a philosophical forum. It's a forum, where help of partners is appreciated, and not met aggressively.

That's why it's called Partner Help.

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Villa Junona Croatia 5 years ago

By the way, what about your listing? I believe all partners from the forum would like to have a look at it, supposing it is perfect and has a lot to learn.

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Of course, its not perfect!
(and also do not forget, that my opinions are subjective, there are no strict rules in our industry)

Search for Unit 1T, Palm Tree Villas 2, Pasay, Philippines

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xavier 5 years ago

hi anna.,

we also started a new service apartment in India tamilnadu a month ago but now we have good booking for our rooms many ways are there

1.give a attractive advisement in local news paper with pamlet

2.give discount sale online

3.add you apartment with online like booking.com,agoda.com on there extranet

do type like this booking.com/extranet

then fill the form they will convert your business online throw out the world

many success for your business call me if you need any help regarding your apartment bookings in future or mail me at covainalanhotel1@gmail.com

xavier

front office manager

hotel nalan group

coimbatore,tamilnadu,south india,india

+916384889127

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Renie Carroll 5 years ago

Competitor referrals! Go visit similar apartments in your area, take a small gift and information on your property. Offer them a free tour or stay and ask for them to please refer guests to you when they are sold out. When you get a referral, personally contact the other apt and thank them and promise to return the favor when you can. Also, go by local hotels and do the same. Many hotels get inquiries from guests who need a multiple room units which they may not have so this is another referral opportunity.

Network with local restaurants and ask for menus to have in your apt for guests and ask them to also please refer any overnight inquiries from their customers to your apt.

Go by travel agency offices and introduce your self and drop off apt information.

Web exposure: search on google for apts in your area and see what websites come up. Many sites have free listing options or will include your website link for a small fee. Pick a few websites and get your apt listed. Be sure and claim your google listing and maximize your description.

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M Adamopoulou 5 years ago

Renie Carroll very good ideas you have proposed. Everything helps and of course you should let your friends know about your property and their friends theirs and from mouth to mouth you get famous in no time.

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Amelia Wise 4 years ago

Just post your property for rent on moar services (like Airbnb), but make sure that they work in your region. Wider audience allows you to get a precise or better price.

A mortgage broker will be able to give you better and more personalized advice (and it won't cost you anything), but assuming that the bank's happy that you can service the amount, anything under 80% shouldn't be a worry for a suburban Melbourne property (it can be a different story with unusual or remote properties) - sounds like you've got quite a margin built in there!

Basically, your income (servicing ability) will determine how much the lender will lend you in theory, the valuation will determine how much the bank will lend you for that specific property. The lower of those two will determine how much you can actually borrow, but it tends to be a yes/no kind of thing - once you meet both criteria, you're in, and that's all they care about most of the time.

Some lenders might provide you an extra discount off the headline rate (on top of what you'd get anyway) for a lower LVR, but I don't imagine it'd be much in the grand scheme of things.

Also, I hope this article should be helpful: https://optimizemybnb.com/how-to-get-airbnb-bookings/