Tax For Furnished Holiday Lets | Expert Advice from PFK Francis Clark
If you are looking for important information about holiday homes and tax, we’ve teamed up with Steve York, Tax...
by Justine King / Owner
New to holiday letting, or looking to better your marketing strategy and maximise your holiday cottage bookings? Read our top tips to answer your questions about advertising your holiday home.
To help you secure all-important bookings we highlight the key areas to consider when marketing your holiday home, including great photography, inspiring property descriptions and the best websites to advertise your holiday home.
Use the quick links below to jump to a specific section or read on for our tips on holiday let advertising:
In order to advertise your holiday let effectively, you need to start with the basics. Consider who will be staying in your property. Do you have a family-friendly property with 2 or more bedrooms? Do you have a cosy bolthole that’s ideal for couples looking for a romantic break?
Ensure your property’s features and facilities match your intended target audience. Walkers and dog owners would require a boot room or cloakroom to kick off muddy boots and dry muddy dogs after a long day of hiking. Properties near Cornwall’s beaches might benefit from an outdoor shower and beach toys.
Although it’s important to cater for your target audience, we also recommend making sure your holiday home appeals to as many people as possible to maximise bookings all year round. Peak school holidays may be popular with families, but advertising towards couples, walkers, and dog owners will extend your bookings into the shoulder months.
At Cornish Cottage Holidays, our wealth of experience and our access to national and regional marketing help us advertise your holiday home more effectively. According to our research, staycation bookings in the UK are made up of around 40% couples, 31% families, 27% adult groups, and 2% solo travellers. Consider this when choosing and promoting features within your property.
Pictures are worth a thousand words. At Cornish Cottage Holidays, we believe that good, professional photos are crucial when it comes to advertising your holiday home. They help to sell the experience to your target audience.
Most customers need to visualise their holiday experience, so you’ll want to showcase your holiday home at its full potential. If your property has an impressive outside space, an enviable view, or desirable features such as a hot tub, make sure they are included in the photos.
At Cornish Cottage Holidays, our trained New Property Consultants will take high-quality photos of your property with top-of-the-range equipment, which are then edited by our professional Digital Media Team. Our market-leading website then uses algorithms to determine the best order for property images to be displayed, based on the images that customers engage with.
Photography is included as part of our service to owners, although some owners also like to organise professional photography themselves.
To make your property stand out from the crowd, a well-written and creative property description is key. Always keep your target audience at the forefront of your mind and write creatively in an informal tone to attract potential holidaymakers to book your property.
Remember to list your property’s features and facilities and add information about the local area and attractions. This all helps to explain why your property and location are so special.
Not sure you want to write the description on your own? Our experienced holiday letting agency will take care of your property description for you. We use a tried and tested structure to ensure it appears in relevant Google searches. Using a combination of descriptive text and an informative summary, your guests will be able to picture themselves moving around your property during their next staycation.
Marketing your own holiday property can be costly, time-consuming, and hard work. That’s where using a holiday letting agency like Cornish Cottage Holidays can take a lot of the hassle and costs away from you.
At Cornish Cottage Holidays, we have a £35 million annual marketing budget and a team of industry experts to help advertise your holiday home. We are also proud to be part of the national Sykes Cottages brand. This allows us to offer owners the ‘best of both worlds’, in that we give hands-on support from here in Cornwall, combined with the huge national marketing reach of Sykes.
All properties that join Cornish Cottage Holidays are listed on both our website and Sykes’, and we actually generate around 65% of our bookings through the Sykes brand.
Google remains the number one way that customers find their holidays. Our aim is to be number one for all common search terms, and we already dominate Google search results against our 4 largest competitors in the industry.
Part of the strategy for Cornish Cottage Holidays is that this regional brand gives us a second chance to appear in search results, and we rank highly for more specific local area terms. For example, for terms like ‘holiday cottages in Cornwall’, both Cornish Cottage Holidays and Sykes appear in the top 3 results.
Another important aspect of marketing your holiday let is using industry partnerships to your full advantage.
Alongside the market-leading Cornish Cottage Holidays and Sykes websites, we also give our owners the chance to include their property on the partner sites we work with. This network of over 700 specially selected partners includes well-known brands like Booking.com, Airbnb, and Snaptrip!, which help maximise bookings for our owners.
On a local level, we work with a wide range of smaller affiliate sites and tourist board websites, such as Visit Cornwall, to ensure that our brand is visible across the region.
Being social online is fast becoming critical for a brand’s reputation. Studies show that online sociability generates brand awareness, and establishes brand loyalty. In turn, brand loyalty generates bookings and inspires recommendations to family and friends.
Facebook is generally the preferred platform used by older social media users, while users aged 16-24 are less likely to have a Facebook profile. As a result, it’s important to consider other social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and Twitter.
Many customers require reassurance before making a purchase or booking. A consumer survey shows that 9 in 10 people buy from brands they follow on social media, so having a presence on these platforms will assist massively with marketing your holiday home.
By being on social media, not only are your potential customers able to follow your brand, you’re also able to build and maintain existing relationships which is important for brand loyalty. Here are some tips to follow when posting on social media:
People buy from people. The more authentic and genuine you are, the more likely people are to trust you. It also humanises your brand.
Be sure to add information to your guest’s welcome folder about how to find your social media accounts. Encourage them to share their experiences on social media as well as write a positive review in your guest book.
For owners who let their property through Cornish Cottage Holidays, we are constantly optimising our social media pages to increase engagement from potential holidaymakers. We’re always active, meaning that if your guests have a question, they can message us directly.
Print is still a highly effective way to market and advertise your holiday home. It has longevity in a digital society and is trusted by customers when making that all-important booking.
At Cornish Cottage Holidays, we recommend a combination of offline and online marketing to maximise your holiday cottage bookings and revenue.
In order to work out where to place your print ads, consider the types of publications your guests may be looking at – things like tourist Information brochures, local guides or maps. Cornish Cottage Holidays’ press marketing strategy means we advertise in plenty of relevant publications, from large titles like Cornwall Living, The Western Morning News and Coast Magazine, to small regional ones such as Discover Helston and local estate agents’ magazines.
If your property is of a high standard or has interesting features, gain exposure by entering your property for awards, such as the Cornwall Tourism awards, eco-friendly awards, or certificates of excellence by Visit England.
Good adverts directly invite the reader to make an action, whether it’s scanning a QR code, connecting on social media, or making a booking.
An experienced holiday letting agency, like Cornish Cottage Holidays, will take care of advertising and marketing its entire property portfolio using tried and testing techniques. Our role as a letting agent is to attract as many customers as possible to our brand websites, which then filter down to make bookings at our owners properties.
Your previous guests are your biggest asset. They know your property. They know your location. They know what to expect. Repeat guests cost you far less than new guests so you want to make their stay at your holiday cottage as memorable as possible.
Be sure to respond to customer feedback, take note of any recommendations, and make necessary improvements. Simple changes show that you’re an attentive owner who values your guests and will benefit your business long term.
To encourage guests to return, make sure your holiday home has all the information guests need to fully enjoy their stay. Things like a welcome gift will go a long way, along with a fully stocked information folder, with details about your property and the local area. For advice on setting this up, read our blog on how to put together a guest information folder for your holiday home.
Another great way to encourage repeat bookings is to send a ‘come back soon’ offer in the form of a discount on their next stay or a small gift. Personalised emails or mailing make a person feel special and doing so is likely to maximise your revenue.
Pricing your property correctly can be difficult. You need to ensure you’re covering your costs and making a profit, whilst also making sure you are not putting people off with a price that’s too high.
If choosing your pricing yourself, we recommend doing thorough research on similar properties in your area. Features such as hot tubs and sea views will sell for a premium, and if you accept pets at your property consider adding an additional charge.
When considering your pricing, prices can be higher in line with demand. School holidays are extremely popular, whereas the winter months are much quieter so should have lower pricing. Consider offering affordable short breaks, especially in winter, to help attract more bookings.
When using Cornish Cottage Holidays, our clever tools allow us to compare prices for all our current properties. It takes into consideration their features and booking performance to ensure we are setting realistic and achievable prices.
In 2023, those that took our advice on where their base price should sit earned on average 13 more bookings and 34% more revenue than owners who set their own pricing.
Our dynamic pricing tools proactively adjust prices in line with demand. This means that when there is high demand in a particular area or on a specific date, prices will increase to maximise your income. In periods of low demand, prices decrease to secure bookings. Fear not though – prices will never go below a base rate which is agreed with you in advance.
We found that in 2023, owners who used our dynamic pricing tools achieved 5 additional bookings and 20% more revenue compared to those who did not.
For new owners considering letting with us, we can provide a free income proposal that outlines the high and low season rates, plus the overall income we would expect to achieve across the year.
For a more in-depth walkthrough of how much to charge guests, read our blog on how to price your holiday let.
Don’t have the time, budget or industry expertise to market and advertise your holiday home? Let us do it for you.
Cornish Cottage Holidays has a team of industry experts who specialise in the self-catering holiday market. We have dedicated individuals in property management, reservations, marketing, finance, and administration. We pride ourselves on offering a personal service to our customers and owners.
Based in Cornwall, with a local office in Redruth, as well as a wider team at our national Sykes office, we offer a winning combination of local and national marketing. Our brand can be seen everywhere from local tourist information centres where our properties are located, to the most important Google searches potential guests make.
To start your journey with Cornish Cottage Holidays, get in touch today. Request your FREE owner’s pack or give us a call on 01326 331399 today!
Statistics sourced from the Cornish Cottage Holidays 2024 Market Insights Report
Discover how a local brand with national reach can work for you. With over 50 years of letting experience, we pride ourselves on delivering the bookings you deserve.
Find out how we can work together. With over 25 years’ experience, our local expertise will give you peace of mind and bring you the bookings you deserve.
by Justine King / Owner
Hi, I'm Justine. Holidays and travelling have always been a favourite of mine from a young age. Having recently decided to travel...
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