This blog has been sadly neglected recently – something I never intended happening – and I ‘m on a mission to get back to a better posting schedule.
What’s happened? Well, it’s a curious thing this year that we’ve had such a massive boost in traffic to our vacation rental management web site; booking enquiries and subsequent reservations that all else has been put into limbo while we cope with the influx of business.
For those of my readers who don’t know what I do for a day job, I’m President of one of Ontario’s top rental management agencies. We manage around 150 cottages (more every day) in southern Ontario which means creating great relationships with our owners and playing matchmaker to find the best rental clients for their properties.
There’s no complaints here; just an air of manic depravity that invades the office on occasions causing bouts of hysteria and maniacal laughter. Jokes that have been heard a hundred times have gained a new ability to reduce us to tears; and even the dogs have become wary of settling under a desk since foot stamping to the strains of Susan Boyle became the norm.
I mentioned the increase in business on Twitter yesterday and was asked what the secret was. I’m not telling all because this is a really competitive business, but here’s a few pointers to our success this year:
- We hired an SEO company to help us boost traffic to the web site. Result: 35% increase + we are on Page 1 of Google for our top 3 keywords, and climbing fast. This was a great investment.
- We’ve got a great looking web site that gets rave reviews, and is continuously tweaked to provide more information and better navigation.
- We only accept the best cottages onto our rental management programme. That means they have to meet (and maintain) our increasingly higher standards. Renters expectations are rising so we have to make sure quality is not compromised in any way.
I don’t often talk about the day job because the purpose of this blog is not to promote my company, but there are some things we are doing that could work just as effectively for rent-by-owner properties. I’ll be talking about these over the next few days.
There’s quite a few other things in the pipeline, plus a new newsletter I am preparing for my subscribers so stay tuned. I’m back on the ball.
And if you haven’t taken a peek yet, here we are at CottageLINK Rental Management.
{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s great to hear you are busy Heather! You’re also clearly following one of the golden rules of successful websites – you are continuously tweaking it. A site shouldn’t stay static and you have everything you need to make changes, measure the results and move on.
Dr Richard’s last blog post..The Return of Website Stress Test
Hi Heather!
I found you! What a wonderful blog. Your writing style is so fluid and you make the cottage rental business sound totally fascinating and fun-filled. You are doing a great job! Looking forward to hearing about your workshop here at home.
Wendy Love
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We are also working on our site in Gulf Shores, AL. Congrats on your success. I’m looking forward to reading your next entries.
very nice post. Well thought out and interesting read.
Hi Heather!
That is excellent news about your cottages being so busy! I have heard a lot of the opposite lately. There are cottages in Muskoka that have not booked any weeks at all yet this summer!
As far as The Edge is concerned, we are very surprised this year to still have 2 weeks available in early July. This is the first time in 5 years that we have not completely booked the summer.
We are working with someone on our website to get it in better shape. I think that is a great idea.
Thank you very much, Heather, for all your excellent information and support. I know that when I get tired of managing The Edge by myself, you are the first person I’m going to call.
Keep up the great work, and positive results! It is very inspiring!
Have a great summer! Hello to Phil and Mike!
Barb