How social networking is the future for holiday rentals

With the growing reach and influence of the internet, there seems to be more and more ways one can market their holiday rental property.  Apart from advertising on listing sites, you could potentially reap benefits from utilising social media.  The good news is that most social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter are free to join and use.  The challenge is deciding which ones to use and how much time you should spend on such sites.

All social networking sites share one common objective – build new connections and maintain existing ones.  From a holiday home owner’s point of view, these sites allow you to promote your holiday let to new and potential guests.  It also makes it easy to keep in touch with previous guests, send them special offers and encourage repeat bookings.  One useful and vital feature of social networking sites is the ability for other people to “share” your news, offers, photos, etc, with their friends and followers.  This is a fantastic way to spread the words about what you have to offer, which makes social media unique.

Out of all social networking websites, Facebook is the most widely used and allows you to create a “Page” for your holiday let business.  A page is basically a mini-website where you can upload photos and post news, updates, links and special offers to.  People who have “Liked” your page will receive notifications whenever you post updates.  As a holiday let business, a Facebook page offers the most potentials and visitors are able to browse on your page a wealth of information about your holiday home and services you offer.  For an example of how an owner of a French holiday home uses Facebook as a marketing tool visit www.facebook.com/WhiteShuttersGiteinFrance

Twitter is widely regarded the second most popular social networking site.  It is primarily based on short text updates called “Tweets” which users send via the website or by using a mobile phone installed with the Twitter app.  Twitter is great for instant and frequent updates.  The more you tweet the more exposure and benefits you are likely to receive from the site.  For another example visit twitter.com/whiteshutters

Despite the potential positive impact social media can have on your holiday let, don’t forget it could take some time for you to build up your network of followers.  The crux is keeping your updates regular and interesting.  Managing these campaigns could easily swallow up your time, it is therefore important to plan and decide how much time you are going to spend.  Enjoy engaging with your followers, and with dedication and well thought out input, you will surely see rewards in time.