HOLIDAY HOMES IN A RECESSION
My fourth recession
In my proper job, running my business, I hated sacking people. But it meant survival for the rest. '75/'79/'89/'00. Each recession was different in shape. But the same solutions; cut everything back hard and fast, save cash, change the promotion to suit the mood, increase the marketing effort. Then you come out better than you go in, because most competitors took too long to take the action. They lost the market share you gained.
It will be the same in self-catering, don't you think? We have a little cottage in the Western Highlands of Scotland which we let out for forty weeks a year to holidaymakers. Next year might be tough, this is what we are planning to do to market it in the bad times to come.
SUMMARY OF MAIN IDEAS TO DEAL WITH THE RECESSION TO COME
Add some new pages to your website emphasising low prices, and special deals.
Revamp existing pages in your site with "special price" messages
In the Google listings alter your website page "Titles" to fit the public mood for special offers.
Do new blogs to get price conscious tourists in, and to add links to your inside pages
WEBSITE CHANGES
I've altered our website slightly, to focus more upon price messages. But gently, of course. I will make it stronger if necessary. People are booking later and later, so there is a need to make continuous late adjustments to offers, if any.For example,on the Index page and others we have put the phrase "We specialise in short breaks low season. That’s why we keep these rates the lowest in the area"
There has been a significant increase recently in people using keywords including "cheap holidays" "special prices" etc. so "low cost self caterin holidays" will do well if they can be used to promote individual pages such as the Availability page.
The peak holiday seasons are underpriced for most properties in my personal view, (we always sell out well in advance) and the low seasons are massively overpriced by self caterers. Our own summer prices are amongst the highest in the area. It has not meant a change in pricing for us, just changing the emphasis.
Check the "titles" and "descriptions" of inside pages to make sure they appeal to the current mood of price sensitivty. When people search they are often very very casual. Many of them start out to look for which films are on at the local cinema and by fiddling about they get on to our self catering site. They see probably ten websites on Google's first page. They don't look at all ten, they might look at the two that catch their eye. It is vital to catch their eye with the right title.
For example, one of our biggest entry pages on one site is "The Scottish Tourist Board - all information in one page" As a trading entity, the STB does not exist, it is now called VisitScotland but that does not stop people looking for it. Our phrase "all information in one page" is really attractive to them so we get picked out of the Google page very frequently. I would put "holiday offers, or special prices, or low rates, or bargain breaks" in each page title which is relevant.
SPECIALS
Price "specials" are acceptable if the weeks are not selling, but put them up only a couple of weeks beforehand. With these, try to think of including something for free, rather than reduce the actual price. If people want deals with us, all they need to do is to ask, and we may piossibly do it if we do not think we will sell the week. But in agreeing any deal we will get something back in exchange to make it less costly. For example, currently we give them a £15 allowance if they pay in full three months in advance. So if they want to negotiate a deal they might have to pay in full at this time and they will lose the price concession. They need to "win" something, but it does not have to be much.
LOW PRICES CAN BE MORE APPARENT THAN REAL
If you ever look at Computer sellers advertising, they have the right approach even if it is abhorrent to folks like us. They "Press down on Prices", while all the time keeping their prices high. I would not go so far as this, and neither would you, but there is nothing wrong with making the best of promoting our reduced prices off season.
NEW BLOGS
Introduce new blogs just for the recession. Our key district is Glencoe and we use this relentlessly in all our pages. But an important district where we are under-represented is Fort William.
Nearby Oban is a different kind of market, the local areas of Appin and Argyll are too small as search terms with few people selecting them. So we will optimise the new blogs for Fort William and Glencoe. I haven't thought it through yet, but we would include the key area words each time and add other themes such as Low price holiday Information ...(area) another for Self catering special offers .... another for Cheaper holiday accommodation and Bargain breaks..... (this would include links to hotels and b+bs but with our cottage being the only self catering offered)
With posting to these blogs, I'll try and put into the headlines mentions of the local places as much as possible, so that anyone searching for minor areas will find our blog, together with "special offers" etc.
On every blog add several links to your existing site and your inside pages. Everything should be done to help Lady Google and links to the sites inside pages are good. She can't do the work all on her own. Google competition is hotting up and the vacation directories are suffering from new website owners coming in who know what they are doing.
To get information for the blogs, just do 100/200 words, the shorter the better. Go for frequency. I get the news from guests, from things that happen, and from the local paper.
PRESS RELEASES
If we had a proper business to promote with several units then I would circulate Travel Writers, particularly in the Scottish papers and offer them a free week off season for their families to try us out, and I'd offer some extra special "free" weeks to special interest groups to form the basis of the press release. We might run a competition or two, whatever. Luckily we have the luxury of selling just a little cottage, so I don't have to bother with this nonsense any more.
LIST OF IMPORTANT KEYWORDS
Ideas for your new blogs can be based around the most important frequently used keywords shown below. This is to get them into Google pages and centred upon the area your are promoting. These are from Google - their most frequently used words in October.
KEYWORDS in order of usage, and number of times used in October
holidays 13000000
holiday 9140000
breaks 2740000
cheap holidays 823000
short breaks 450000
weekend breaks 368000
cottage holiday 201000
cheap holiday 201000
weekend break 90000
cheap breaks 195000
short break 90000
last minute breaks 27000
holiday breaks 27000
bargain breaks 18100
new year scotland 18000
christmas scotland 18000
Happy hunting. It will not be all that difficult, you just have to take the business away from the competition. Since the competition will generally not be doing any of this stuff they will not be so tuned in to the public mood as you are.
John
Here are links to some of our pages.
Tourist and visitor information, this is the biggest Glencoe information site, hotel and cottage accommodation
Events in Glencoe Appin Lochaber Oban and BallachulishLast minute, short breaks, in Scotland, owners sites direct
Find the best Scottish holiday cottages on the internet
Cut the costs of your holidays
Cheap travel in scotland
Scotlands weather misconceptions
Rain in scotlandSummer weather in ScotlandAutumn weather in ScotlandWinter weather in ScotlandSpring weather in ScotlandFacts about self catering holidaysAdvice on driving in Scotland
