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Get your holiday let website in great shape for the New Year

Website update. Stethoscope on laptop keyboardTop tips to get your holiday let website in great shape for the New Year

With the busiest months now behind us are you ready for a January rush of bookings? Here’re some helpful tips to make sure that your website is doing your holiday home and destination justice.

Is all of your website content up to date?

Now is an opportune time to review your holiday let website. Make sure it’s up to date and saying everything you need it to.

  • Do you have all of your unique selling points covered?
  • Have any new additions to your holiday home been mentioned and promoted?
  • Are you using bullet points to quickly highlight what your visitors will be getting?

Learn from what’s working well

If you have Google Analytics, consider looking at which are your most popular pages.

  • Why are they the most popular?
  • Do they give you an insight into what people are looking for when visiting your website and property?
  • Do they give you ideas for building upon the current information with even more?

Promoting your destination

Remember that up to date content doesn’t stop with your holiday home. Your visitors are likely to spend a good deal of their time away from your cottage.

  • Do you have up to date information on where they could be spending their time?
  • Have you spoken with local attractions to gain a link as a local accommodation provider?
  • Have you got information on season opening times?
  • Is there information on how long it takes to get there and how easy it is to find?
  • The more information you have on the local area the more likely a visitor will be attracted to stay.

Make a content plan and consider scheduling your activity

Whilst fresh, relevant content is becoming increasingly important to Google, the problem for most holiday homeowners is finding time to create it.

During the summer months, when every minute is precious and often fraught with activity, time is not often available to be penning regular blog posts.

Take the time you have in the winter to put a plan in place and to create some great content for your website visitors.

Most content management systems such as WordPress will allow you to schedule when this goes onto your website, leaving you with fresh content all year round, without having to spend all year writing and publishing it.

Update your photography and make sure it does you justice

If a picture speaks a thousand words, are the photos on your website telling the right story about your holiday cottage?

Remember that when someone is visiting your holiday home they want to have the best possible impression of where it is they’re staying. Out of date, old or poor photography can leave your marketing in tatters so ensure that the latest and best available to you are on display.

Use the visitor book to your advantage

Many holiday homes will have a guest book where visitors can leave comments. Increasingly owners encourage those staying to leave reviews on popular websites such as Tripadvisor and Google.

Do your guests shout about how great your holiday home is? Then ensure these testimonials are prominently displayed across your website. Ensure that they are also up to date!

Is your holiday let website up to speed with current technology?

The average life cycle of a business website is said to be three to four years and you can see why; fourteen years ago, the world hadn’t heard of an iPad! 65% of adults in the UK now own a tablet and 98% have a smart phone.

It’s essential that your website not only keeps up to date with technology but also with other holiday homes. If others are taking advantage of the 74% of UK internet traffic that now comes from smart phones, should you be too?

Update your holiday let website Copyright

With the dawn of 2024 will come a new copyright number to be displayed on your website. Often forgotten, this small number at the bottom of most sites will need to be updated from 2023 to 2024. This sends a small signal to the search engines like Google that your site kept up to date.

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to owners across the UK. For information on how specialist insurance can help protect your holiday home, call us on 01237 429444.

 

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Wales Coast Path

Making the most of the Wales Coast Path as a marketing tool

If you’ve got a holiday home in Wales then you’ll undoubtedly have plenty to shout about to your prospective guests; rugged coastline, heritage, beautiful blue seas and sandy beaches make up just some of the many reasons tourists flock to the 870 mile coastal path that flanks the country each and every year.

St Davids Head

Here are a few things you might not know about the Welsh coastline…

  1. Over 43 million visits are made to the Wales Coast Path every year.
  2. Walkers along the Coast Path are estimated to spend nearly £550 million a year.
  3. 47 beaches in Wales were awarded Blue Flag status in 2018 – more than anywhere else in the UK.
  4. It would take about two & a half weeks to walk the 186 miles of Pembrokeshire coastline

With all of this on your doorstep, how do you make sure that those browsing for their next holiday know everything the local area and coastline has to offer?

The Wales Coast Path has put together a free online resource which gives coastal businesses in the country wide access to a range of resources aimed at promoting the welsh coast as a destination.

You can find a copy of their toolkit on this link:

We’ve had a good read and it’s incredibly thorough – here are just a few of the things you could and should be taking advantage of as a coastal business in Wales…

Make use of their library of images

If you’ve got an incredible coastline, one thing you’ll definitely want is for your potential guests to see it! The toolkit includes a large gallery of professional images that can be used to promote the local area and coast path, so be sure to make the most of them in your social media and newsletters, as well as on your website.

You can find access to their gallery on page 9 of the toolkit.

Take advantage of technology

The coastline isn’t just about breath-taking views and scenery; buried beneath the sand and stone is centuries of Welsh heritage and history.  Your guests won’t miss a thing with the new Wales Coast Path App, designed to keep children and families entertained and informed as they make their way along the coast.  Here’s a taster of how the App can get your guests inspired by the stories and secrets of the coastline…

Attracting the dog-friendly market

There are 12 million dog owners in the UK and there’s nothing our furry friends love more than to hit the great outdoors with the excitement and vigour only a dog knows how to! The good news is that the coast path is open to a man’s best friend as long as they’re kept on a lead, so the dog friendly market is certainly one you need to be tapping into. 

The Coast Path Toolkit highlights a number of ways you’ll be able to attract dog owners to the area, including badges you can place on your website showing you openly welcome dogs. To download a copy of the Toolkit please visit the Wales Coast Path website here:

Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to owners across the UK. Need an insurance quote for your holiday let? Give us a call on 01237 429444.

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