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Latest Coastal Tourism Trends

We believe that keeping an eye on national tourism trends allows us to better understand the holiday letting industry and as a consequence we’re able to develop our holiday home insurance offering to match changing needs. Whilst we speak to holiday homeowners and letting agents every day, taking a look at the statistics means we can see the bigger picture.

This month, we’re focusing on the latest coastal tourism trends for you to consider what opportunities they may offer the holiday cottage industry.

The National Coastal Tourism Academy has recently released its 2016 report on the challenges and opportunities for growth in the coastal tourism industry. We’ve read the report cover to cover and picked out the most important bits for you.

Short trips

Short trips are becoming increasingly popular as coastal tourism continues to battle with city breaks. Accommodation is becoming more flexible with start days and the length of stays allowing seaside towns and villages to find their place in the growing short break market. This flexibility appears to be a vital factor in obtaining short stay visitors.

52% of seaside breaks were just 1-3 nights long, 42% were 4-7 nights, and a mere 6% were 8+ nights. It’s clear to see that short stays are the popular thing to do amongst holiday makers.

Families

Not surprisingly, the market is dominated by families. 41% of all seaside visitors are aged between 16-54 and have children. As the trend for inter generational holidays grows, more and more families are finding coastal breaks appealing.

As less families are visiting during term time due to government restrictions on absence from school, the National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA) recommend promoting visits in the autumn and winter school holiday breaks. Currently, 74% of breaks are taken between May and October, with only 4% being taken in February.

As summer holidays are expected to get busier, there is a big opportunity to draw families in during other school breaks.

Under 35s

Only 11% of visitors are aged under 35, despite 84% of the age group being classed as potential visitors. Research by NCTA shows that 53% of under 35s declare a lack of knowledge of what is available for them on the English coast.

Thankfully, awareness can be changed.

NCTA recommends short breaks, activity holidays, and romantic trips to draw the younger guests in.

The report shows the perceptions of the coast held by under 35s. This age group believes that the coast is good for fun activities, nostalgia, and an escape from everyday life.

Awareness

One large issue addressed by the NCTA is awareness. 56% of people interviewed believe that “UK resorts are past their prime”. Potential visitors are often unaware of the product available on the coast, believing that once the summer season is over, the seaside closes for winter.

A large portion of those interviewed consider the coast as a national treasure, however it does not feature highly on their priority list of destinations due to this lack of awareness.

Often potential visitors are unsure how to get to coastal areas or they have general, negative perceptions.

One suggestion for drawing visitors in the off season is health and wellness. This growing industry is particularly popular amongst under 35s and has potential to bring in a new type of visitor.

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.

June 30, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

How the new changes to Twitter could benefit holiday letting owners

Holiday Home Marketing

Twitter is a vital tool for holiday homeowners and agents to get closer to, and effectively engage with those wanting to stay in their holiday cottages. The key word in there is ‘engage’; as many will have found over the years, Twitter is far more effective as a marketing tool when interacting with other accounts, rather than a repeated broadcasting of a sales message.

With this in mind Twitter have made some changes that could help you interact even more with those potential holiday letting guests. Here we explain what changes are being made and how you can use them to your advantage…

Longer conversations – @usernames will no longer take up characters

To have a conversation with another Twitter user you need to mention them in your tweet. By including their @username you’ll currently be using vital characters (remember you only have 140 to spare each time). Mention two or three other accounts and that’s half of your allocated limit!

Moving forward these mentions will not be included in your character count.

What does that really mean for holiday homeowners and agents? More space means more conversation and more potential bookings; remember that less than half of the tweets you send should be about yourself, your property and your location. You want to be engaging with others, so if the balance isn’t currently there with your own tweets make sure you take advantage of this development and get chatting – you will see the benefit in bookings!

Media attachments no longer included either!

The news gets better; attachments (currently included in the character count) will also no longer for a part of those magical 140 characters. Why’s this such good news? As a holiday homeowner or agent the one thing you should be doing is making your social media presence visual; lots of photos of the local area, sunsets, that garden you’ve worked tirelessly on and anything that might entice those bookings.

Using imagery on Twitter significantly increases click through rates and your visibility to anyone scrolling through that heavily populated news feed.

If you’re wondering what constitutes an attachment on Twitter it can be any of the following:

Images
GIFs
Videos
Polls

On average these currently use up 24 characters; make sure you make the most of that extra 17% of space in your tweet by sharing as many photos and videos as you can, and include a link to get them back to your website to book.

Some other neat changes to Twitter…

You’ll now be able to re-tweet and quote yourself. Why’s this good? It’ll save you a significant amount of time not having to re-write a tweet you want people to see again (for example if you have some last minute availability or have won another award you’ll be able to quickly re-tweet it rather than re-writing it).

This is particularly helpful as the popular tweeting platform Hootsuite has stopped sending tweets that are repeatedly the same or extremely similar in nature.

The end of the .@ rule

This won’t be known by all Twitter users, but if your tweet starts with a ‘@username’ your tweet will go directly to that user. If you add ‘.@’ to the mix it can be seen by everyone.

This will no longer be the case in coming months, meaning that all of the tweets will be seen, allowing you even greater reach.

So more conversation, more images and more reach; there mightn’t be a better time to get your holiday cottage bookings through Twitter.

When will the changes be made

Twitter have indicated they’ll be making these changes over the coming months, so get ready to take full advantage once they hit your account!

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.

June 14, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

Managing Holiday Letting Guest Expectations

Holiday Home Marketing

The build up to a holiday can be an exciting one for your guests. In anticipation they’ll have created a number of expectations in their mind about the quality of the accommodation, the local area and the experience they feel they’re likely to enjoy.

How are these expectations formed, and what can you do in order to effectively shape and manage your holiday letting guest expectations?

With visitor expectations rising year on year this is becoming an increasingly important part of owning a holiday cottage and ensuring that your guests go home happy that each of their expectations have been readily met or even exceeded.

We discuss a few areas you can use to make sure that your customers know exactly what they’re getting…

Website copy

This can be an area that is often neglected so when was the last time you wrote, reviewed or updated yours?

When someone visits your website they’ll be doing so with a list of things you’ll need to fulfill in order to gain their booking; some of these will be conscious and others, sub-conscious.

They’ll have things that they’ll need from their accommodation (for example a certain number of rooms), they’ll have things that might be desirable and add something extra (for example a hot tub), and finally fears or worries (for example being somewhere too remote and without local shops).

By working out what your visitors need, want and fear, you can then effectively answer these through each of the pages of your website.

In doing so you’ll be answering all of their questions, and creating a clear picture of what they can expect. You’ll be managing their expectations by increasing their knowledge of your cottage. For more information on improving the copy on your holiday home website listing see our previous post:

Achieve more holiday home bookings with improved copy

Website photography

Whilst words will tell them everything they need to know, photos will give them a real feel of what to expect.

You’ll probably already know that photographing the interiors of a holiday home is a tricky business; lighting and making the rooms seem as large as real life are just a couple of the common barriers holiday homeowners will have faced when trying to get the perfect shot.

Consider investing in a professional photographer to ensure your rooms, and other areas are done justice and give a realistic expectation as to what someone can expect.

Also, make sure you have a wide range of photography; both inside and outside, to ensure that nothing is left to the imagination (which is where expectation and reality begin to part).

For more information on eye catching photography for your holiday home website listing see our previous post:

Top tips for photographing your holiday home

Communication with guests

Whilst expectations can be built and shaped through your website communication, they will continue to evolve during the run up to their visit.

This could be as the result of previous experiences both good and bad, so it’s important you continue to communicate with them and let them know exactly what to expect.

This can include information about their welcome pack, when they can check in, what they’ll need to bring with them and what’s already provided.

The more information you’re able to give them, the better you’ll be able to manage their expectations.

Welcome information folders are an important tool when for communicating useful information to your guests. For more information on welcome folder content ideas and why it’s important to keep them fresh see our previous posts:

It’s the little things

Whilst you can manage the expectations in the run up to a guest’s visit it’s still the little things that count. Think of elements you can add to their stay that may now exceed their expectations; have you considered adding something special or seasonal to the welcome pack? Perhaps hooking up with another local tourist business to offer them a special discount? Or even a pre-decoration service if they’re coming for a special occasion?

Adding and exceeding guest expectations could mean more repeat bookings, so once you’ve shaped them, make sure they have the stay they expect and so much more!

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.

June 7, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

How to develop online relationships with local tourism businesses in order to increase your reach

Holiday Home Marketing

When we discuss the tourism industry it can be easy to just think of the fantastic self-catering holiday home accommodation we have to provide our visitors. But as you’ll know, your guests will spend the majority of their time away from your holiday home enjoying the local sights and sounds.

People travel to a location in order to enjoy the destination; that rich tapestry that makes up their experience and forms their memories. Whether it’s a family attraction, a great selection of food and drink producers or local walks and beaches, your holiday home provides them with a hub from which they can take it all in.

So if all of these tourism trades are inextricably linked, how can you engage with others in the local area in order to boost your own online reach and presence?

We have some simple suggestions….

You need to engage!

From restaurants to theme parks, it’s realistic to believe that by now most tourism businesses will have a Twitter or Facebook account. So, are you following them on Twitter and have you liked their Facebook pages as your own business page?

If the answer is no then this should be your first port of call.

Social media works on engagement; if you’re not following and liking you won’t be having any.

Share your tourism partners content and promotions

We’ve already said that your visitors will spend their time enjoying what the local area has to offer, but what does this mean from a social media perspective?

Content makes the online world go round; we’re all creating it and we’re all sharing it. Those restaurants, family attractions and other tourism businesses in your locality are all creating content that is going to be relevant to your potential visitors; this could be offers, open hours, booking information or their latest menu, but no matter what it is it’s highly likely that your potential guest is interested in it.

So what do you need to do?

Share it with your own followers and on your own page. It’s going to add value to your own social media accounts as it’s interesting to followers, and it’s also going to promote these local businesses and the area in which your holiday home is situated.

You share theirs and they share yours

The beauty of doing the above is that more often than not, if you start sharing and re-tweeting their information, they’ll start doing the same as yours. This quickly builds your own presence, allowing your tweets and Facebook posts to travel further to potential guests.

By promoting each other you’re both leveraging the online reach you’re able to gain.

Encouraging them to follow back on Twitter

Most people on Twitter will simply follow someone and have no other engagement. Statistics show that on average when adopting this approach, only 2 – 4 people out of ten will follow you back.

This provides a problem. In step one we said you needed to follow all of those businesses in your local area that may be of interest to your potential guests. If only 2 – 4 follow you back only 20 – 40% of the businesses will actually end up seeing your tweets, meaning you’re not going to be extending your own reach.

When you follow a local business, be sure to engage with them. Hit that follow button, but also introduce yourselves as a local accommodation provider, like some of their tweets and share their great content.

You’ll increase the likelihood of other tourism businesses following back to 60 – 80%, increasing your own reach in the process!

Create Twitter lists to make sure you don’t miss a thing

An issue you might run in to when you start following all of these new accounts is there’s simply too much information going onto Twitter and if you’re not glued to the computer screen you’re going to miss something of interest.

Create Twitter lists and include all of the local businesses within specific lists. This will mean that the next time you login you’ll be able to see just their tweets by viewing a list; you’ll never miss anything important again!

Get re-tweeting!

(More information on Twitter lists is available here: article on twitter lists)

If you found this article on developing online relationships with local tourism businesses of interest, you may also enjoy these:

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting 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.

April 26, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

How to promote your Holiday Let as a destination

Holiday Home Marketing

Destinations are the places we all fall in love with; the home to our holidays and the areas we all want to visit and experience. The word ‘experience’ is the key here; it’s not just about a holiday home, it’s a long weekend, a school holiday or a week-long retreat packed full of experiences, some large, some small, but all incredibly important in building the overall destination experience.

So how should you promote your holiday let as a destination?

Given that your guests will spend the majority of their time away from your holiday home, we take a look at a few of the areas you should be promoting in order to get them to your door…

Access

The first thing any would-be guest is going to need to do is get there, meaning accessibility is going to play an important role in the holiday booking process, particularly if they’re going away with young children.

So how easy is it? Have you got the facility on your website to give them directions or an inkling as to how long the journey would take?

If you have good travel links then highlight these.

Also consider where the majority of your visitors come from; is there additional information you could provide for those travelling from the midlands as an example?

Attractions

We’ve already said that your guests will spend the majority of their time outside of your holiday cottage, and even more so in the summer months.

What is it they’ll be doing when they’re out there?

Know your market and highlight the attractions that are going to tick the boxes; if you’re appealing to the young family market they’re going to want to know of local family days out. Based near the sea, on a moor or in an area of outstanding natural beauty? You’ll want them to know of all the best beaches, hiking routes and killer views!

A common mistake can be to highlight attractions too far from your holiday home. If there are some large attractions that are more than 30 minutes from your cottage ensure you make it clear how far they are in order to manage your guest’s expectations.

Eateries

Great food, fine wine, a relaxing atmosphere; these are things that many visitors will be looking to enjoy in local pubs and restaurants during their stay.

So, are you utilising local eateries to the fullest advantage when looking to secure bookings and add value for your visitors?

Many holiday home websites will provide plenty of information about places to visit, but sometimes neglect the great local food and drink. If this is a thriving asset to the local area be sure to do it justice. If you’re looking for more ideas on on how you can promote your holiday let by embracing culinary tourism, we have some tips here:

How embracing culinary tourism can boost bookings

Places to shop

Don’t just think clothes and shoes! They’re going to be staying in your holiday cottage, so if they can’t be tempted by some of the great local pubs and restaurants, where are they able to buy the necessities? Are you near a town or a local village shop that gives them everything you need?

Having said the comment about clothes and shoes, if you’re near a great shopping district, perhaps an area steeped in history and local art then make sure they know everything there is to know.

Events

Events will often bring mass numbers of people to a specific location; think Glastonbury, Run To The Sun or any number of events held throughout the year.

They don’t always need to be large in order for people to travel; if you have an event near to your holiday letting property ensure it’s promoted. Here are some helpful tips on how you can do just that!

Ten event tourism tips to increase Holiday Home bookings

Where could you promote your holiday let?

Content makes the online world go round; be sure to regularly update your blog with latest news and information on the local area, as well as having a dedicated area on your website. Share and team up with local businesses in order to increase the reach you can all gain; your customers are theirs too.

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting 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.

March 29, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

Holiday Home WiFi – are you making it pay?

Holiday Home Marketing

Ofcom has reported that the time we spend on the Internet has doubled in a decade; the average adult will now spend in excess of 20 hours a week browsing billions of web pages whether for business, entertainment or information.

Our thirst for access is also no longer tied to our desktops; the number of worldwide users logging in from a tablet now exceeds a billion for the first time, and mobile traffic eclipses laptops. These devices have led to a change in which visitors access information, and the expectation they have of its availability.

Not convinced? 10 million British adults (that’s 22% of the entire population) login to public Wi-Fi each week. Access to the Internet has and is moving from an added extra in holiday homes towards an expectation.

So how do you offer free holiday home WiFi to your guests and make it pay?

Are you currently offering Wi-Fi?

Whilst not everybody will be blessed with fantastic mobile reception or superfast broadband (and this may well be an attraction to some guests looking to get away from it all), if you’re in an area with any broadband connection then it’s worth offering this to your guests.

Remember that the expectation of any guest browsing your website could now be that you have Wi-Fi, so if you do ensure it’s clearly highlighted; you want to be ticking their boxes as they go through your site.

Have 3G or 4G mobile access? Consider highlighting this as a sales point too!

How can you capitalise on Wi-Fi users?

If your holiday cottage doesn’t already have an Internet connection or router (which you’ll need in order to enable visitors to access the internet) there will be an added cost to your monthly bills. So aside from meeting guest expectations and keeping them connected to the outside world, what’s in it for you as a holiday homeowner?

The answer is potentially a lot. Several companies now offer a service that allows you to get a little back from your Wi-Fi access.

Picture your visitor logging in for the first time. They find the Wi-Fi Access code and go to their Internet browser (whether it’s their smart phone, tablet or laptop). They can be met with a branded login page, asking them to either provide their email address or sign in from one of their social media accounts.

For just a 10 second delay to their visitor experience you could potentially gain some very valuable information:

The visitor email address; great for marketing and creating a long-term relationship once they’ve finished their holiday and returned home.
Facebook likes for your holiday cottage page; another great way to build engagement and potential return bookings from visitors.
They can also be asked to check-in on Facebook, meaning all of their friends will be able to see where they’re staying and giving your holiday home a great marketing boost.

The user is typically only asked to login to the holiday home wifi and provide information once, allowing them to continue to enjoy their stay, and you the opportunity to engage and market to them long after they’ve gone.

Considerations when offering Wi-Fi

One thing you may need to consider if offering Wi-Fi to guests is internet security and specifically the pages guests are allowed to access during their stay (particularly if your holiday cottage is regularly used by young families). Parental settings and web restrictions are advisable to avoid inappropriate material being accessed, and to keeping your guests safe online.

Understand the law

If you’re handling your guests email addresses then you’ll want to do so in a legal way. For more information on data protection legislation and your responsibilities when using electronic communications for marketing please read the guidance from the Information Commissioners Office here.

Here are a couple of companies who offer Wi-Fi solutions to accommodation providers:

We bring this article on holiday home wifi for information only, we have not used the services of Hive WiFi or Club Wifi so please do your own research ensure their offering matches your needs.

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting 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.

February 12, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

Top ten tips for Holiday Let email marketing success

Holiday Home Marketing

With so much time and attention now spent on social media it can be easy to forget how effective email marketing can be for your holiday let business, or even have space for it on your ever-growing to-do list. To give you a helping hand here are our top ten tips for Holiday Let email marketing success.

The problem if you’re not using email is that it can deliver results; research shows that £23 of sales is generated for every £1 spent on email marketing in the UK.

Interested in how you can harness the power of email to gain bookings?

We give our top ten holiday let email marketing tips…

Know your audience

You should use your emails to build an effective long-term relationship and as a reason for guests to return to your holiday home. In order to do this it’s vital that you understand what your recipient is going to want to receive in their inbox. Think of content that will be of interest; latest availability and deals, new attractions or events, discounts you’ve organised with local restaurants etc.

Build on content that works for you

Some articles will be clicked on more than others. This is an indication that this content is more interesting to your recipient than those left unclicked. Monitor your emails over time; is a certain type of article or topic gaining more clicks than others? If so, create more of what works and jettison those articles that don’t!

Don’t just send discounts

It can often be tempting to bombard people with sales offers and discounted rates in order to generate interest. Avoid just sending sales information; if you send too much it can be both off-putting and also mean that people are always waiting for a deal before booking.

Keep your contact constant

A core principle of your email marketing should be keeping in touch with people on a regular basis. Ensure you’re mailing your list on a constant basis, for example once a month. Do so at the same time and day each month, which leads us onto our next point.

Send at a time that works for your database

Email marketing and research will tell you that the best results are achieved by sending at around 2pm on a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Remember that your email database will be unique to you; ensure you’ve tried sending on different days and at different times in order to find the one that gives you the highest open rate.

Learn from your subject lines

Before people even read your email they’re going to read the subject line. This is make or break time for whether or not they’ll open it; 33% of people will open an email based only on its subject! For this reason it’s always good to include the name of your holiday home in the subject line to give familiarity, but just as you do with your sending times and days, test to see what gives the best result.

Incorporate email into your booking and leaving processes

Use email to add value – send automated emails to upcoming visitors before they arrive suggesting things to do and other useful information. Also consider sending a thank you or survey once they arrive safely home.

Understand your statistics

You can gain better results from your holiday let email email marketing by understanding how you’re performing.

Open rates should be between 25 – 35%.

Your click through rates should be in the region of 15 – 30%.

Not hitting these figures? Consider why this may be happening and rectify any potential issues.

Make sure you ask for emails

All of the above is obsolete unless you ask for visitor emails! Ensure this becomes a central cog in your booking wheel; whether that be when they’re making their initial enquiry or during their stay.

Understand the law

If you’re handling emails then you’ll want to do so in a legal way. For more information on data protection legislation and your responsibilities when using electronic communications for marketing please read the guidance from the Information Commissioners Office here.

Find it all a little too confusing or time consuming? Why not appoint a holiday home letting agent to take care of the marketing for your your holiday letting business.

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting 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.

February 10, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

Love Cottages – A brand new holiday cottage letting website

Holiday Home Marketing

Love Cottages is the ‘new kid’ in holiday cottage rentals.

As Holiday Home Insurance specialists we have long held the belief that for the majority of holiday cottage owners, the benefits of using a local holiday letting agent for letting their property has many benefits. The fact that many of these agents have now come together to support a brand new holiday cottage letting website (launched January 2016) is testament to that. Love Cottages mantra is; “With us, what you see is what you get: cottage holidays you can trust from search to stay”.

Their ambition is to ensure that those booking their next cottage holiday can do so safe in the knowledge that the property exists, has been visited and photographed by one of their agency partners, and the cottage is likely to have been rated according to self-catering industry standards.

Love Cottages may be the newbie, but behind the scenes they’ve got decades of holiday letting experience brought together under one virtual roof. Love Cottages is owned and run by holiday rental experts from some of the UK’s most respected self-catering agencies. Collectively they bring together the largest collection of inspected holiday homes in the UK.

“We only deal in great cottage holiday experiences”

All of their properties have been personally inspected by the managing agent, so they know they exist. Most of those properties also have a Visit England or Visit Wales rating. And in Scotland and Northern Ireland, they’re working with the agencies setting the industry standards. So guests can book quickly and easily, confident of quality.

If you’re a holiday home owner and want to see if your holiday lettings agency is listing with Love Cottages click here.

If you’re an independent holiday lettings agency and your holiday cottages meet the grade, you can find out more about listing your properties here.

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.

February 1, 2016/0 Comments/by admin

Facebook advertising – three ways to target more bookings

Holiday Home Marketing

18^th May 2012 may have been just another day for most, but for Facebook it was another significant step in the astronomical rise of the world’s largest social network. Their Initial Public Offering (IPO) not only set the value of the company at a whopping $104 billion but also set the course of the company for the years to come.

An increase emphasis on Facebook advertising

With a public company comes pressure to provide a return for shareholders, meaning Facebook now has an increased emphasis on revenue and the best way to create it. What does that mean for holiday homeowners using Facebook to reach potential guests? It means your page posts don’t travel quite as far as they once did (the average page post now only reaches between 10 – 20% of all page likes).

And where do you turn when your reach is restricted? You invariably turn to advertising.

We take a look at three Facebook advertising options you may not be familiar with and could help you fill nights at your holiday home.

Targeting the right connections to increase bookings

In order to advertise on Facebook you’ll need to visit their advert manager. If you haven’t before then this needn’t be a daunting prospect; Facebook have made this as simple as possible. After all, it’s in their best interest for you to use it and to gain bookings from it.

We’re going to focus on the option toward the bottom of the screen, which is called “Connections”.

Advertising to your page likes

We’ve already said that your posts only reach 10 – 20% of your page likes. What about the other 80% of people who have already shown an interest in your holiday home? The first port of call for your advertising should always be with your Page likes. You know they’re already engaged with your property, so you want to ensure they know of availability and promotions as and when you want to highlight them.

In order to do this, click on the ‘Connections’ option, and set it to ‘Facebook Pages’ and ‘People that like your Page’. You’ll not need to alter any other settings or demographics; Facebook will ensure your post gets to all of your Page likes.

Advertising to their friends

Social groups are bound together by people with common characteristics or interests; whether it’s the local football team, people who grew up together (and are therefore of the same age) or parents on the school run, it’s what makes friends socialise with each other, and it’s what makes Facebook tick. With that in mind, if advertising to your page likes hasn’t got the booking, then the next logical step should be advertising to the friends of your Facebook page likes.

They’re likely to be interested in your property (based on having similar interests to their friends) and Facebook will also highlight that their friend already like your page, giving your post even more credibility and chance of success.

In order to do this, click on the ‘Connections’ option, and set it to ‘Facebook Pages’ and ‘Friends of People that like your Page’.

Traditional Advertising

The success of any advertising, including trying to gain bookings for a holiday cottage, is linked to reaching the right people; the ones that are most likely to stay with you. Facebook advertising is extremely powerful in this respect, allowing you to target all aspects of a profile and reach those potential guests.

Build a picture in your mind of the average visitor to your cottage and fill out all of the demographic information you can in the Facebook advert manager; you want to make it as specific as possible, whilst also having enough people to advertise to! Think of where they may live, how old they may be and other factors, such as whether or not they’re parents.

Once completed you need to set the ‘Connections’ setting to ‘Exclude people who like your page’ as you will have already advertised to them in our first option.

You will then have taken three steps to maximise the chances of getting that booking!

Find it all a little too confusing? Why not appoint a holiday home letting agent to take care of the marketing for your your holiday letting business.

If you have found this blog post on Facebook Advertising of interest do check out our other holiday home marketing posts by following the link – Holiday Home Marketing.

When holiday letting your second home to paying guests it’s essential to take advice on suitable insurance. Boshers offer specialist holiday home insurance to holiday letting 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.

December 31, 2015/0 Comments/by admin

Holiday Cottages Mousehole Cornwall tourism Trends

Tourism trends – What do VisitEngland’s latest figures show?

Holiday Home Marketing

We speak with holiday homeowners and their holiday home letting agents each and every day. This constant contact gives us an understanding of the issues you’re facing on a daily basis, but we also strive to understand the bigger picture; what’s making the industry tick, tourism trends and the opportunities these developments potentially provide you with.

In October we looked at the Great British Tourism Survey in our post Industry trends – What do they mean for holiday home bookings? and what it could mean for you as a holiday homeowner. This month we bring you an analysis from Visit England’s latest tourism trends dashboard along with the latest tourism trends and statistics.

Tourism trends – Occupancy rates are on the up

The great news is that occupancy rates across the country continue to rise. They’re up again year on year by another 2.3%, making that a five-year rise of 7.4%. This rise is evenly spread throughout the UK with Yorkshire, the North West, South West and East of England all enjoying five percentage point increases in recent years.

Tourism trends – The continuing emergence of the ‘Millennials’

What exactly is a Millenial? It’s the term given to those born between the 1980s and the turn of the century and they represent 15 million UK residents (31% of the adult population).

In terms of tourism they currently account for 28% of total overnight trips made in the UK, spending in the region of £4.4 billion on their way.

Perhaps the most interesting point for holiday homeowners is that their predominant reason for travel is to visit friends and family. This is increasing the number of short breaks and stays under three nights and may be linked to the continued rise in occupancy rates outside of the traditional peak months.

Tourism trends – Staycation vs Overseas Visits

Whilst much publicity is often given to the ‘staycation’ and figures related to those holidaying within the UK, the good news is that we continue to be a popular option for international travellers.

Latest figures show a total of 27 million visits were made from overseas visitors between January and September this year, a 3% increase on the same period in 2014.

The number of people visiting towards the end of summer is also on the up, with more than 3 million visits made in September alone.

Tourism trends – Visitors have more disposable income

Figures show that spending is on the increase with an extra 9% in tourist spend splurged during holidays in England between January and August.

This takes the total spent to a staggering £82 billion with the South West, South East and North West all accounting for visitor spending in excess of £9 billion each.

General feedback from across the industry is that visitor expectations are becoming more and more exacting; the good news for holiday homeowners is that they’re likely to be willing to pay for the quality that meets those expectations.

Positive outlook for next year

The majority are feeling more positive about their finances following the turbulent economic conditions of recent years and will now be looking at, if not, already booking trips and accommodation for next year.

Latest figures show people are cutting back less on holidays than they were in March 2014 and although the predicted number of short trips taken next year are down, VisitEngland expects a stable market for longer holidays in England.

If you are in the business of holiday letting you’ll want to ensure that your holiday home properties are adequately insured. For further information on UK holiday home insurance visit the website page most relevant to you:

For more information on how our specialist holiday home insurance could help cover your property please give our friendly team a call on 01237 429444.

December 11, 2015/by admin