Our Inns

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Once they’ve got the advertising for their holiday property up and running most people don’t put a great deal of effort into looking for new places where they can advertise their property. After all, if you’re getting good returns from your existing advertising, why would you bother looking any further?

Whilst in days gone by that might have been a viable strategy, the changing nature of the market means that it’s not nearly so reliable as it once was. For example, last year the combined effects of the rise in the euro and massive price hikes by the discount airlines meant that the nationality mix for our own property in the south of France changed from being a largely British/French split to one that was mainly German/French and that in turn meant that the sources of bookings that we received changed too ie the previously very popular sites produced very few guests for us.

Similarly this year, the sources providing the most guests is changing again. We’ve seen a quite pleasant rise in the number of bookings both via our own property site and indeed via OurInns. Why that should be so is too early to say but it does show that it’s worthwhile maintaining the mix of advertising that we do rather than relying on those places that worked well in the past.

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Most places around the world change quite markedly as the seasons change, but many holiday accommodation owners concentrate exclusively on the benefits for their guests should they come in just one season which may well be losing a lot of customers.

The difference is, of course, much clearer for some destinations than it is for others. For example, most ski resorts will typically have two distinct seasons: in winter they obviously target the skiers but in summer they can target hikers just as effectively. However, whilst the distinct marketing groups are evident in the case of the likes of ski resorts many other holiday destinations are, or could be, virtually year-round destinations albeit with different attractions as the seasons change.

In that relatively few people put a lot of effort into seasonal marketing, you could find it quite profitable to establish separate sections on your site describing the changing attractions of your place as the seasons change. Don’t try to second guess when guests will book their holidays though and instead maintain the seasonal attractions on your site throughout the year. Finally, don’t forget that although most listings sites are summer-oriented, there are a sizeable number that are winter-oriented.

What about Autumn/Spring? In most cases they are basically just extensions of your main holiday season(s) but lots of regions have festivals in both and it’s worth looking into the possibility of targeting them.

Before you start down this route, check that your place is suitable for bookings well out of season. Not only are some summer properties extremely expensive to heat in the summer, but some winter properties are just too hot to use in the summer. Both these can obviously be corrected for, but it’s best to do that in advance rather than when the guests have booked in

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Let’s face it, the typical vacation rental or B&B just isn’t going to have the marketing budget of Renaissance Hotels and therefore you’re likely to have to tone down your proposal to the advertising executive looking after your account. Of course, chances are, you are the advertising executive and it’s your own place that you’re marketing.

Now, you might think that this means you’ll not be able to produce something quite so classy as the Renaissance campaign and, on the whole, that’s probably true. However, that doesn’t mean that you can’t produce something similarly effective and memorable for your own place, albeit on a much smaller scale than the Renaissance campaign.

This image is one composed with a great deal of care with each element of it representing some aspect of Renaissance Hotels in general or of a specific Renaissance Hotel. Thus, we have the two hotel staff on the left representing the high level of service on offer in the hotels and carrying appropriately exotic looking dishes for the guest. Then there’s the individual attention from the pool guy offering the towel on the right. The pool is from their hotel at Seaworld and from the Hamburg hotel we have the arched building in the background. Right in the middle, of course, we have the most important aspect of the composition which is the representative hotel guest. The overall message is that you can expect elegant surroundings with personal service when you stay at a Renaissance hotel.

Obviously all that is specific to their hotel chain and clearly a lot of work went into creating the composition (this is only one of a number of images which they used in the campaign). Whilst you’re probably not going to produce something quite so sophisticated you can follow their principle of reflecting your message throughout your own marketing. They’ve emphasized elegance and service, what are you going to emphasize?

For example, say you have a luxurious chateau then make sure that in every image you use there’s a hint of that luxury. Perhaps by something as simple as a Louis XIV chair in the photo of the pool, or the Mercedes parked in front of the entrance. The idea is that you follow through on your core message of “a hint of luxury”. Or perhaps, your message is that yours is the place for outdoor persuits. In that case, each image should contain something hinting at one of those. The racing bike resting against the wall, the hikers heading off down the path, etc.

Doing this isn’t always as difficult as it might first appear. However, the key thing is to be clear on what message you want to get across. Once that’s clear in your mind you’ll be able to make the small changes in the images that you take which are required to get a consistent message across to potential guests.

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