How to attract guests to book your holiday home for Christmas

Last Updated on November 10, 2014 by admin

Whilst traditionally a time spent with family in the confides of our own home, more and more of us are now packing our bags and heading for a holiday cottage to celebrate Christmas.

How to attract guests to book your holiday home for Christmas

Here’s our advice on how to attract guests to book your holiday home for Christmas, including how you can prepare your holiday home for festive visitors and make sure they have a very merry Christmas.

When do people book holiday accommodation for Christmas?

No matter what time of year, the first port of call for many holiday home bookings is Google.

During the spring months, as you can imagine, those searching for holiday home accommodation for Christmas is at its lowest level.

However, search volumes for key phrases associated with this topic begin to increase as early as July, with exponential growth seen right through to November, when search is at it’s highest of around 1,250 people looking to book a stay in a holiday cottage.

*Average monthly searches made for Christmas holiday home accommodation.

How can you increase your chances of appearing in front of these people?

If you’re looking to attract visitors for Christmas you’ll want to be appearing in front of them during the months of August right through to December.

There are two potential ways in which you can do this; the first is by ranking naturally in search engines, with the second by advertising on a Pay Per Click Basis (PPC).

If you want to rank naturally, you will need to have content on your website that supports this.  If you’ve not already got a page devoted to your Christmas offering then you should add one.  The sooner you add this the sooner you’ll be ranking.

Also consider other content you can provide visitors with; where can they go for Christmas lunch? Are there festive events happening? Which local attractions are open or are there added attractions such as ice rinks in place for a yuletide skate?

When placed into well-written blog posts this will have the dual benefit of giving your visitors a festive feast of information and increasing the number of key phrases you can potentially rank for.

If you find competition too fierce then you can also advertise using Pay Per Click.

The key here will be doing your research and working out what search terms people are using to locate properties such as yours, and then driving them to a page that tells them everything they need to know about Christmas in your holiday cottage to increase conversion.

Always keep an eye on the amount you are spending on advertising against the bookings you are gaining in order to ensure your profitability.

Welcoming guests to your holiday cottage

So you’ve got those potential visitors to your website and dazzled them with relevant content, what next?

There are plenty of things that you can do to make your guests feel at home.

If you have a welcome pack have you considered doing something a little different for Christmas?  Including a few minced pies for example?

Have you thought about how you will communicate all of the Christmas information that’s on your website? What they can do, when they can go and where they can eat great local produce and food?

Perhaps even arranged a Christmas lunch discount for your guests with a local eatery?

Will you be decorating your holiday home with a tree or some other decorations?

Remember that your taste will not always be the same as your visitors so ensure any decorations are kept tasteful and minimal.

A final myth buster – Christmas lights

If you erect a Christmas tree in your holiday home many will believe that the Christmas lights will need to go through the expense of having a portable appliance test PAT once a year.

This isn’t necessary; the HSE indicate that they’ll be fine to sparkle long into the night as long as the user has checked for any obvious signs of damage or defect.

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to owners across the UK. For more information on how a specialist insurer can help and support your holiday home business, please give us a call on 01237 429444.