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French Connections

Find Holiday accommodation in France

When it comes to renting our your gite, B&B, cottage, in fact any form of holiday home rental in France – you’ve got competition.

There are literally hundreds of thousands of holiday homes on the market in France all wanting the same thing - to fill as many weeks as possible with paying guests.

Stand out from the crowd

You need to work at it to make what you offer guests stand out from all the others. Making your holiday home look its best is just one aspect. Having a great presence on the internet, being proactive on social media… there’s so much you can do to help fill the weeks with paying customers.

One way you can really stand out, is to truly understand the needs and wants of your guests. If you don’t already, it really is worth spending some time on this topic. For instance, if you have a large gite with several bedrooms - your target audience is likely to include families. If that’s the case, do you offer what families need? Toys for the garden, a cot and high chair for toddlers and babies, protected access to the pool for safety, free Wi-Fi access for teens who can’t be separated from their mobiles and tablets.

What is your USP - your Unique Selling Point - for families? Are you near a fabulous theme park, beaches, historic towns, water parks, rivers with sports activities?

Does your property pass the test?

Guests want properties that are clean, comfortable and attractive. When it comes to families, they want to be sure that they’re going to have the sort of holiday where they can relax knowing that their kids will have plenty to do as well as being safe. For example, when it comes to pools, a fenced off pool with a gate will be more attractive than one without that level of security.

You need to look at what you’re offering through your customers eyes, inviting friends to test your property rarely works as they usually don’t want to upset you. You have to be tough, go through every room and the garden. Look at what your competition is offering and how they present the benefits.

Keep your information for customers updated and make sure you include even the smaller details. It might not seem important to you to have a fenced in garden, but it will be to most parents.

Families are of course just one niche, so consider other areas – if you’re near a lake, you might appeal to anglers. If you’re near a spa, you might appeal to groups of friends.

Once you start thinking about who your target audience might be, you can work out what your USP is, and how that differentiates you. From here you’ll find it easier to figure out how to appeal to the various types of holiday makers, understand what they need, as well as what they want and start filling the weeks with happy guests… and you’ll no longer be judged on price alone.