Karen Spencer

How can I when I’m busy running The Business of Holiday Rental and working with other lovely holiday home owners and helping them to grow their businesses? This hour needs to be spent 100% on business building activities. Are any new restaurants/business opening that I need to follow on social media, dine in, make connections with or blog about? If you’re stuck for time and you need to ramp up your business then I recommend these activities come first.

That’s because, amongst holiday home owners who want to break free of the big listing sites and get direct bookings, there’s a misconception. A belief and worry that to go it alone you need to put aside £100s a month towards your own marketing budget

Here are 5 things relevant and specific to you as a holiday home owner; that need to form part of your social media strategy: People come on holiday to enjoy time in your property as it’s exactly what they’re looking for When creating promotional posts, use your past guests to market your holiday home for you. But when next they can leave the kids and granny at home, you’re exactly what they’re looking for. It’s relevant and it’s specific to holiday home owners.

Your holiday home business plan needs to include 4 key areas – Mindset, Money, Makeover and Marketing. Brainstorm, write down, narrow down, journal monitor and track your plans. For your plan: Write down your thoughts, how you want to serve your guests, what you want them to say about you if asked, what type of business owner you plan to be, where you see your business in 5 years, what will make you a successful holiday home owner? For your plan: what extra touches can you add, what will they cost you, how can you add wow to each space, what needs revamping/replacing to add wow factor? For your plan: who will your ideal guest be, which social media accounts will you start off with, brainstorm some blog titles, set up an account with a third party e-newsletter provider such as Mad Mimi or Mailchimp, what will your website be called?