Ever wondered how the professionals achieve such good results? Find out how to create photographs and videos of your holiday property, with advice from our experts. Video gives people confidence to book your property.
When taking either a series of photographs or footage for video, it’s a good idea to start with your ‘establishing’ shot – the main view of the property exterior. The sun should be illuminating the house but the light needs to be even, which means avoiding sharp light and shadows. Experiment with varying conditions and times of day; you may find early morning or evening best.
These days a Unique Selling Point – the feature that makes you different - is almost a marketing essential. What ‘extras’ and unique features does your holiday let offer guests?
It’s true that the holiday letting market in France is competitive, with more properties on offer than a few years ago. Also, more owners now run their property lettings as a professional business rather than just a source of pin money. But don’t let this overwhelm you. Check out the competition and then make use of that research to help focus on your own presentation and unique selling point.
Read more: Finding your French Holiday Letting’s Unique Selling Point
Purchasing and owning a gîte or holiday rental property in France can be fun and rewarding - but from the start it’s good to be clear about your plans. Location, location. The old cliché still holds good.
Do you have the time and resources for a renovation project or prefer to buy something ready to use? Even the latter will need furnishing and equipping and if you opt for renovation, you’ll need adequate funding and the capability and language skills for the project. Also consider timescale. You won’t earn rental income during renovation, so if you know you need an income stream in May and the property isn’t finished until September, then you could be in trouble.
Staying in a gîte has long been one of the most popular ways to take a holiday in France. Usually the owner lives in the main house and the gîtes are in a separate wing of the house or in converted outbuildings such as barns.
Gîte accommodation used to be perceived as fairly basic, but expectations are now much higher and gîte owners need to ensure that they can successfully cater for this more sophisticated market.
Read more: Running a Successful French Holiday Gite Business
Letting a holiday property in France needn’t be confined to the summer months. But how do you attract business and income for your holiday letting property during the other times of the year? Here's a guide on seasonal marketing.
The market for long winter lets has traditionally been those escaping the British winter in southern regions of France. Other people may want to get away for a sabbatical. But there is another market for long winter lets - families who want to emigrate and ‘try before they buy’. These families enroll their children into local French schools and really live the French life. They are also on the ground should that special property come up for sale.
To advertise a holiday rental property successfully online, it’s good to start with a clear strategy and adequate funding, then create an online advert that is informative and stands out from the crowd.
First, decide who is your market. Is your property best for families, groups, couples or adults only? This may depend not only on the accommodation but also on what type of holiday your location offers? Also, will you welcome pets and do you have facilities for disabled people?
If you are a French property owner, discover how to carry out the most effective marketing of your holiday let or gite, especially in a challenging market. Welcome to our new advice centre for French holiday property owners.
If you live in France and run a gite business or let a holiday home, our free guides and articles can help you to promote your property more successfully.
As one of the original French holiday property websites, we've got enormous experience of helping our advertisers get more bookings – and we want to share our knowledge with you.
Read on to discover our best tips on how to carry out the most effective marketing of your holiday let or gite, especially in a challenging market.
Special offers and promotions are a quick and easy way to get your holiday rental property noticed and sell extra weeks throughout the season. Discounts can be posted quickly and conveniently enabling immediate responses.
Among the promotions that owners offer are prices set in sterling, allowing visitors to book with knowledge of the ultimate cost, and fixed exchange rates, which also create certainty and confidence. Discounts of as much as 45% tend to be offered in return for early booking or for weeks outside peak holiday times – but some are straightforward discounts that include July and August. Incentives include free airport transfers combined with free bike hire or a case of champagne.
When marketing holiday property, the old cliché ‘A picture paints a thousand words’ still holds very true. Find out how good photography can result in bookings. Good quality images are essential to show off your assets.
If you own gîtes, a house or an apartment in France, you need to show your prospective guests exactly what they can expect to help them make the decision to book.
Our research at French Connections has led us to offer owners the option of displaying up to 30 photographs in their listing – some in large format.
The place to get your property noticed is, of course, the internet, but the presentation of your holiday home needs to have something that makes it stand out. Read on to find out more about how to advertise on the web.
Good quality images are essential, especially the main photograph that shows as a thumbnail in search results. This really needs to appeal to the browser instantly. In general, aim for clarity and pleasing composition to tell the story of your property in pictures. If all your guests exclaim, “This is really nice, your advert didn’t do the place justice,” then your presentation is failing, so you’ll need to act to make it better!