Property in France - holiday lets
The self-catering holiday market in France has exploded in the last decade, as people have more leisure time and set off regularly to explore the different areas of this beautiful, varied country. But this doesn’t mean guaranteed business for the owners of rental property in France. In order to succeed in marketing your property, you’ll need to plan ahead, get a clear strategy and funding in place and follow through conscientiously.
Your strategy starts with decisions on who you want to attract. Is your property best for families, groups, couples or adults only? Will you welcome pets and do you have facilities for disabled people? Are you offering specialist activities or classes that appeal to a certain market sector? Do you offer internet access, which may be essential for some? Are you living on site and will you offer any meals? Will you open all year round – and does that mean a different market in winter? If you are clear about all this, your presentation will be more positive and effective.
The next decision is pricing. Do some thorough research on prices in your area – and be sure to compare like with like in terms of space, facilities on offer and standard of accommodation. Try to step back and take an honest, independent view – or get an objective second opinion – rather than settle for an optimistic figure that turns out to be too high.
Also on the financial front, don’t forget to budget for your marketing. Set a realistic figure that includes any photography costs, hosting of your listing or advertisement over the long term, the cost of phone calls to customers, welcoming extras on site and contingencies for special offers and extra advertising.
Detailed information
The next big decision is where to advertise your property. These days, the internet is where prospective holiday-makers search for holiday rentals. They like to peruse listings and have direct contact with property owners for bookings, enquiries and detailed information. Do plenty of research into what site will be best for your listing. Consider whether it is established and will last, how many visitors it attracts, whether it ranks well in the search engines and has an active online marketing programme. Is it international or does it specialise in France – and which do you prefer? What is the feedback from property owners?
Also consider other content on the site. We’ve learned that holiday-maker site users want a holistic approach, with the chance to make ferry bookings, follow blogs, read more about the regions of France and different types of holiday. This magazine approach delivers a total package and a reason for visitors to return often to the site and to recommend it. Site search mechanisms are also very important. Visitors should be able to search not only by region but by a whole range of advanced criteria to quickly pinpoint their needs.
Another point to consider is the level of personal attention and support for you, as a property owner. Will staff help create your presentation to make it most effective? Can you contact them easily? How quickly and effectively are helpline calls or emails answered? If your budget allows, you may choose more than one listing website to start – and realistically allow a year to test performance.
Should you build your own website for your property? If you can do this yourself or easily afford to have a really good quality one built, then go ahead. But do not settle for a bad site as it can actually be a disincentive to bookings. Expect to use it as a support tool rather than your main marketing strategy as you’re unlikely to attract sufficient traffic independently. You could use the site as a click-through support from your host website listing and a source of news and information for previous and return customers – but it’s not essential to start with, especially if your budget is limited.
Marketing vehicle
Having chosen your marketing vehicle, it’s time to create your listing, which will likely include a heading and description of your property, photographs and perhaps a video, a booking calendar with prices, local information, travel details and map, activities and attractions. Sounds like a lot – but this is the crucial part to get right. Websites have a template for you to work within, along with help sections in the site and possibly a helpline as support. Work on your presentation in advance and then take your time and get as much help as you need to make it really good.
Of course, you have a duty to be honest throughout – but it’s good business to catch the eye with lyrical phrases and buzz words for your headings. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective customer and tell them and show them what a holiday at your place will offer. List the local towns and places to visit, give detailed information about any classes and activities. Your good quality digital photographs and video should aim to include shots of the house exterior, garden with outdoor living and swimming pool if appropriate, interiors especially living room, kitchen and bedrooms, activities, the local area and colourful events. Use them to show your property’s character and unique selling points.
When you think you’ve finished, get objective feedback from someone who knows the property and someone who has never seen it. They are more detached than you and might just spot important omissions or missed opportunities.
When your listing has gone live, then do remember to monitor enquiries. Sounds obvious? It’s surprising how many property owners miss out because they fail to do this. Holiday-makers can justifiably expect a reply to email enquiries within 24 hours, as they want to make a decision. If you’re in any doubt about adequately answering their query in writing, then pick up the phone and call them to discuss. That personal contact and service could be the crucial move that persuades them to book. If you’re away from your email, you should be able to get text alerts or log into the host site’s owners’ area to pick up enquiries. It’s a good idea to do this regularly anyway, in case any emails sent direct get caught in a spam filter.
Repeat bookings
How many bookings can you expect? When we first started French Connections in 1996, owners were happy with bookings for 9-10 weeks of summer. Now, understandably, they want to be busy from May to September and also do business in the ‘shoulder’ months of March-April and October-November or even to have guests all year round. If your presentation is good quality, your market is clear, your price is right and you conscientiously monitor and reply to enquiries, you can do really well in your first year. Then you can work to roll on those visitors into repeat bookings and recommendations to others. The bottom line is that you have to be in this for the long haul – and there will be annual variations. Sometimes we see properties where presentation, product and price are great, yet the owners inexplicably have a bad year and someone else does well. The next year, the situation is reversed.
If you want to try and give bookings a boost, you could draw on that contingency budget to introduce a special offer, which will get you a listing in that section of your host website and flag up your property. You might also use magazine advertising or press promotion to back up your marketing. Your host website may have a PR department looking for stories to catch the attention of the media. Send them a brief story about your property, highlighting unique or unusual features or offers, and be prepared to supply high resolution photographs for publication.
Finally, remember that marketing follows right through into the level of welcome and service that your guests receive. Arrange welcome wine, food or flowers and leave an information pack in the house – not the one about water, heating and spare keys but the extra, fun things. Arrange a discount for your guests at a good local restaurant, a voucher to tour a vineyard and taste wine or some similar, very French activity. This is not hard to do and it goes a tremendous way in goodwill. Repeat bookings and guests who come on personal recommendation are not only satisfying socially and financially – they are living witness to successful marketing by property owners.
Fact File
Glynis Shaw is joint MD of French Connections holiday rentals and property sales online.
www.frenchconnections.co.uk
All properties shown are available to let through the website