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How to Mitigate the Impact of Coronavirus on Self-Catering Holidays

For holiday homeowners and their guests, the spread of the coronavirus is naturally going to have an impact on bookings for 2020 – whether through actual infection or the fear of it.

We’ve looked at some of the trends and lessons arising from the SARS epidemic, which caused similar, though not quite so widespread, trends and share them with you. They should help you mitigate the virus's impact on your holiday lettings business.

 

Last-Minute Bookings

The most significant downfall in bookings are last-minute bookings for dates within the next 30 days. This is the average time people assume the virus will be at its maximum. By late spring, the weather will be warming up, and Covid 19 does not like warmth. So, by all means, post last-minute discounts, but do consider putting greater emphasis on attracting bookings for the summer and autumn.

 

Thank God for the Countryside!

Old Post Office Cottage lies in a  quiet rural location on the Dorset Coast near Bridport.

People, subconsciously or otherwise, feel safest if they can be somewhere where they can choose to be alone if they wish to do so. The hardest-hit accommodation businesses are in urban areas with high population densities. Countryside walking and deserted beach holidays are likely to be the most popular. If you’re in a remote or rural location, reflect that within your marketing – holidays in splendid isolation, anybody? 

NB: Luckily, My Favourite Holiday Cottages has Page One rankings for holiday cottages in Rural and Remote locations.

 

Drive-To Beats Fly-To

Environmental trends aside, drive-to destinations are considered to be a safer bet than fly-to locations. Many people feel the highest risk of contact with Coronavirus carriers is during travel. So, holidays that avoid airports and sitting in crowded planes fall in popularity.

Holidays, where people can travel in relative isolation from door-to-door to live in accommodation away from the company of strangers, hold a greater appeal. Again, something else to emphasise in your marketing.

By the way, you can encourage people not to fly by inviting people to sign the ‘No-fly in 2020’ pledge, which should lead to more people booking a UK holiday. Click here for further information.

 

Don’t Cut Back on Your Advertising!

When bookings are down, looking for options to reduce expenditure is natural, and variable costs such as marketing look like easy targets. Evidence from the SARS epidemic suggests that the biggest losers in terms of bookings after, as well as during the outbreak, were those who cut back their advertising budget. By reducing your advertising, you will only get fewer bookings offsetting any savings you may have made.

Moreover, businesses that had cut back marketing could not take advantage of the upsurge in holidays booked once the epidemic was declining. This is because people were approaching properties they had previously discovered while the epidemic raged and saved for future reference.

Many people will continue to look for holiday cottages during the outbreak and save them on a shortlist so that they are ready to send out an enquiry when it feels safer to travel. Ensure you are advertising on sites like My Favourite Holiday Cottages, allowing potential bookers to select and save a shortlist of their favourite properties.

If you’ve cut back on advertising for ‘the duration’, you could lose out on this valuable source of bookings in the medium term.

 

Spread the Word: Let Your Recent Guests Do the Talking

A Recent Guest Testimonial from a North Devon holiday cottage in Braunton

One other marketing activity you should do is to be more proactive in getting reviews from recent customers and posting them on your website and adverts as soon as possible. Seeing a recent guest testimonial in an advert will give others greater confidence that your property is a safe place to visit.

By the way, be aware that reviews posted on sites like Homeaway and Tripadvisor cannot be uploaded elsewhere as these companies own the copyright to those reviews. Invite people to send you feedback or to suggest other sites on which you advertise to post a review. Include a link to the correct page on the site to make it easy for them to do so. If you have a visitors’ book, ask your cleaner to take a photo of the latest reviews on their mobile and email them to you.

 

Advertise on Sites with  A Web Link

Visit the Website, Check Availability and Book the Cottage buttons for a Cornish Holiday Cottage in Fowey.

Look for sites to advertise your cottage that contains a web link to your site. Draw attention to those if you have what would otherwise be known as rainy-day facilities, from board games to games rooms. Then, ensure you display information about some of the measures you have put in place to reassure potential bookers that your property will be a safe place to holiday. Emphasise the lengths you are going to ensure your property is properly cleaned and sanitised and the activities they can enjoy away from the crowds.

 

Take Advantage of Gaps in Your Calendar

If you end up with gaps in your calendar, use this opportunity to do some practical extra maintenance work – deep cleaning carpets, touching up some paintwork or even a proper photoshoot to replace images taken 4-5 years ago. 

If you’d like some very handy tips on preparing a property for a photo shoot, then we have a free-photo guide that we’d be happy to send you. It’s packed with ideas for preparing and presenting rooms that tick all the guest appeal boxes.  

To request your free photoshoot guide, email Rick.

Finally, if all else fails, why not decide you need a little self-isolation and book a holiday in your cottage in one of your gap weeks?

Holiday in it: Kill three birds with one stone: staying in your cottage will give you a chance to see it from a guest’s perspective: you’ll be surprised at how many things you find you want to mend, improve upon, change etc. Allow time to work on implementing the changes you feel are required to enhance its appeal to guests. Improving the experience will increase the number of repeat bookings you enjoy.

 

Invite the Media: In addition to having a lovely holiday cottage - come up with other newsworthy angles that make it a desirable place to stay: relating to its facilities or location. The issue invites journalists to come and stay for a short break on the basis that they write about it. NB: Ensure it is in excellent and clean condition!!!

 

Other reading: How to Sanitise Your Holiday Home

 

If you would like to advertise your holiday cottage with My Favourite Holiday Cottages, The standard rate is £99.88 (May 2020) with discounts from 5-50% if for multiple cottages or £30 if you include a link back to our website. Click here to read more about the benefits of advertising a holiday cottage with us.