Promoting Your Holiday Home for Christmas.
Whilst traditionally Christmas was a time spent with the family in the confines of our own homes, more and more of us are now packing our bags and heading for a holiday home. At Cherished Holiday Homes, we’re a self-catering specialist, who wants to share our top tips on how to attract guests to book your holiday home for the Christmas vacation. What can we say; we’re passionate about providing people with the best Christmas holidays ever!
So, here’s our holiday home guide for the Christmas period, 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 guest searches are at their highest looking to book a stay in a festive holiday rental. Therefore, it’s essential to start advertising your holiday home for the holiday season as early as the summer.
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 August right through to December. There are two potential ways in which you can do this: ranking naturally in search engines and using Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising.
Organic SEO Content
If you want to rank naturally, you will need to have content on your advert 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 any festive events happening? Which local attractions are open? When placed into well-written blog posts, there are two benefits. Firstly, it gives your visitors a festive feast of information. Secondly, it increases the number of key phrases you can potentially rank for.
Remember that organic SEO marketing means using keyword research and backlinks. So, you must find ways to rank highly without the most searched user terms. An excellent option is to incorporate long-tail keywords into your content. Not only do they appear more organic, but the extra length of the post will provide more opportunities for links and backlinks.
PPC Campaigns
If you find competition too fierce, then you can also advertise using Pay Per Click. Although it involves paying for marketing holiday rentals and cottages, PPC does provide prime real estate on SERPs. Search Engine Results Pages are imperative as 2/3 of all clicks go to the top five listings. With Pay Per Click, you’re guaranteed to be at the top of the page.
The key here will be doing your research and working out what search terms people are using to locate properties such as yours. Whether it’s PPC or organic SEO, keyword research is crucial. However, the difference is that you want to drive them to a page that tells them everything they need to know about Christmas in your holiday cottage. Why? It’s because it will boost your conversion rate as you’ll offer them value and stand out from the competition. A tip to keep in mind: always keep an eye on the amount you are spending on advertising. If marketing costs more than the bookings you are gaining, then profitability will be a problem. Analytics software can help because it gives you a wide range of info.
Welcoming Guests to Your Holiday Home
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 mince pies, for example? Small gestures go a long way as they enhance the experience and make your guests feel welcome. Plus, let’s face it – people love freebies!
Also, have you thought about how you will communicate all of the Christmas information that’s on your website? People need to know what they can do, when they can go and where they can eat great local produce and food so that their Christmas doesn’t turn into a snooze fest. A fantastic way to go the extra mile and grab their attention is to arrange a partnership with a local eatery. Wouldn’t you love a Christmas lunch at a top-rated restaurant with your family, especially if there was a discount?
Decorating your holiday home with Christmas decorations is a necessity as nothing says Christmas more than a tree that sparkles. Remember that your taste will not always be the same as your visitors, so ensure any decorations are kept tasteful and minimal. Classical and traditional are always preferred to lavish and tacky. Oh, and don’t let myths get in the way of your decorations. Lots of people believe that Christmas lights will need to go through the expense of having a portable appliance test PAT once a year. This isn’t necessary because HSE says that they’ll be fine to sparkle long into the night as long as the user has checked for any signs of damage or defect. How do you do that? Well, look for cracks and flaws, or if you want to be sure, you can ask an electrician for their opinion.
And most of all, make your festive memories memorable, in a Cherished Holiday Home!