Kalkan Turkey Forum - EnjoyKalkan.com
The Owners Lounge => General Discussion => Topic started by: alantj on January 06, 2009, 10:09:39 PM
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Subscription time has come around for our websites and with the increasing range and cost of sites, I would welcome any views or advice about which are the most effective sites to advertise on.
Last year we used Villarenters (because you only pay when you get a booking), Owners Direct and Altavista (very cheap but pretty useless) together they got us around 7 weeks of bookings.
I also would appreciate any info about how effective advertising on enjoykalkan is, and how to get the 4.99 subscription offer (I couldn''t see this option on the payment screen).
Regards
Alan
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We have tried several over the last three years, but the ones we use now are ownersdirect and holidaylettings. Last year we were advertising one apartment only, so we put it on both sites and got five bookings from each one; enquiries were virtually 50/50 between the sites and the conversion ratio is about 3:1 for each. Together with repeat bookings from existing clients and our own stays, that constituted a full season for us; the major problem being that we often got several enquiries for the same weeks, from both sites - we ended up passing on some bookings to other apartment owners - so in reality the conversion ratio could have been higher if we had had more apartments to let.
Which is why we now have two more! ;)
This year we are definitely using ownersdirect again, as they have a multiple-unit facility (ownersdirect seems to work out considerably cheaper for this than holidaylettings). Holidaylettings have also hiked their rates a lot for this year anyway, so we may dump them when renewal comes up in April. If so, we will be looking for another outlet (apart from all the free ones like Gumtree and AlwaysOnVacation (neither of which have furnished any serious enquiries anyway).
So far, however, it''s looking good for 2009 - enquiries & bookings are well up on the same stage in any of the last four years (each year has been an improvement on the one before) so we are fairly happy with the current advertising mix... having said that, each year brings more repeat bookings from previous customers so we may not need to persist with two sites much longer anyway. We are also having more success with our own "kalkansecrets" website; we have tried using Google Adwords and have had quite a few hits (at relatively low cost) but no enquiries so far using this, but it is early days, since the site has only been up and running since early December.
As for EK, I have tried placing an advert but have had no enquiries at all so far. That may be because it doesn''t seem to be uploading the photos properly. If we were desperate I might pursue it, but to be honest I just haven''t got round to it! :-[
Good luck anyway.
Cheers
Martyn
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Hi MartynE,
Can you drop me an email with your property details and I can look into the photo issue for you if you are having problems - Whilst you can upload unlimited photos to EK you can currently only have 10 active at any time so it may be worth checking you have made your uploaded photos active (Remember also to select the order of your photos with the hierarchy option if you wish a particular photo to be the master or indeed to appear in a certain order)
To follow up on a couple of other points (and Im not going to do a "hard sell" on EK advertising!) after the fantastic success of the £4.99 credit crunch promotion that ended last year I have just changed the pricing to keep EK not only competitive but very affordable in the current climate!
- £9.99 for 6 months single property
- £19.99 for 12 months single property with 10 photos
- £29.99 for 12 months, multi property (upto 5) with 80 photos (across the 5 accounts)
EK also has the usual features, such as availability calendar, send to a friend etc found on other websites. If there is something you would like to see on EK accommodation please let me know
Jon
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Thanks Jon
I have just gone back on to the accommodation ad and realised that you were right - I had not made the photos active...doh! I truly am an idiot. :-[
I should also mention that our friends who advertise their two-bed apartment on the EK accommodation section have just taken a booking as a result, so that''s a recommendation as far as I''m concerned!
Cheers
Martyn
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Cheers Martyn,
Glad to hear thats sorted and about your friends booking, I noticed EK accommodation had become busy :)
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Martyn,
Thank for a very informative response, looks like I will have to go for both ownersdirect and holidaylettings and will probably also give enjoykalkan a go.
If you are renewing with holidaylettings the promotion code 45659 (sent to me by Bridget from 2Blacklions) will give you 15 months for the price of 12.
Regards
Alan
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alantj agree totally with MartinE, definitely the best 2 sites. Villa fully booked for the past 3 years and all bookings from these 2 sites except for perhaps 1/2 weeks from another site. Thanks for the promo code for holidaylettings unfortunately I just renewed last month! Good luck with your bookings in 2009.
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used holiday-rentals last year with good sucess and have gone with them again this year and already have a 70% occupancy for the season.
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As someone who looks to rent villas and apartments from owners I would add that I''ve only ever actually booked through Holidaylettings and Owners Direct. There''s something about these two sites that makes them seem to stand out from the rest.
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I agree with Reygirl...as a serial renter as opposed to an owner we have only ever booked on holidaylettings or ownersdirect. There seems a greater choice on those sites and I always find the responses from the owners are far quicker - making me think the sites are on the ball.
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I''m with Holiday-Rentals and in total we got 5 enquiries (1 from the UK) and NIL bookings.
They keep sending me emails with advise to add more options, however every option costs money!
Is it my fault or is there something wrong with that site?
I''m certainly not renewing the contract that ends on 28/2/2009.
I''ve added my apartment to Enjoykalkan.com!
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Hi all,
We use EK, Owners Direct and Holiday Lettings. We have noticed more enquires on HL this year but we seem to get more firm bookings on OD. They must be doing more now on HL. Their site seems a bit quicker and they are separating the different districts to give a narrower choice, depending where you want to stay ie. Old Town, Kisla, Kalamar, above the PS, etc.
All the best Steve
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Hi,
I have added some tips for people on this thread
http://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php/topic,2762.msg23637/topicseen.html#msg23637
May be worth a read ;)
Anyone who used to previously advertise with EK accommodation but no longer does should have received a special offer email, if you have not please do let me know.
Jon
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There is a website that offers lot of tips and advice for people who rent out holiday property.
It is Lay My Hat, and might be worth browsing.