I just received this concern from an owner. Basically saying, how do I find my accommodation on Agency.CapeHolidays.Info searching Google?
I just type Cape Holidays into my browser. Friends have done the same and have the same experience…i.e. they can’t find my house. I’m sure it is taking me to the old site then. But if so it is taking anyone entering Cape holidays there…this may affect the marketing of the house negatively.
My answer is not short but I’ll limit it as far as possible:
Thanks for your question or rather a concern.
Unfortunately, the way you search or friends search for a specific home, using Google, is no longer the way we try and market accommodation.
Let me also say that your inability to find your home as described has a very limited effect on your occupancy.
We operate like Pareto.
We had to learn to focus our attention on where it really matters. It does not help we focus 95% of our efforts on something, bringing in less than 5% return.
BTW. We are not in the business of leaving money on the table. As you know, there is no reason to plod along a route that is not profitable, difficult, or without unnecessary investment in a loss while trying to conquer Google SEO.
Today, our website is like a business card today. It’s a place where we share our listings but don’t expect any massive income or traffic from it.
The general competition by enormous powers like Google, Airbnb, Booking.com, TripAdvisor, and others is severe. And we have to decide which is the most effective and the less evil of the lot.
An accommodation-agency-website generates very little sales today. And those inquiries you get are not only not qualified they are poorly informed, and most tend to be cheapskates who are not familiar with Airbnb Booking.com and others. If today and you are not familiar with Airbnb then I am skeptical if you can afford to stay with us.
We do SEO but Google rather wants us to pay them dear money to get attention . If you look at a search within Google you’ll see about 50% of the page is taken by Google ads.
Trying to win the search engine optimisation game is like a keen school boy trying to play Springbok rugby. Google wants you to play rugby but the dice is loaded in favour of Google. You are competing against Google’s money making goals. The more successful you are with free SEO the less successful is Google. And they are there to squash the daily living light out of you.
When you pay Google Ads you get what you want and ask for. We can pay Google on your behalf. But we decided against it. Why?
Google demands money irrespective of success.
We have taken a conscious decision to let Airbnb and others pay Google. And they do advertise. And we benefit indirectly.
With Airbnb, we also pay but it’s controlled. You pay only for a successful reservation. The same for other listings sites.
We have focused our attention since Airbnb took over and Google started aggressively selling their adverts, on marketing via listings sites (Airbnb etc). And using our website as a business card.
Today we are professionals at it with a success record we can be proud of. Like being SuperHosts managing more than 50 Cape Town Airbnb properties an achieving between 20% and 50% higher occupancy than the norm.
Therefore searching for accommodation and finding Agency.CapeHolidays.Info is not really how we any longer try to market your home or any home for that matter. Any enquiry we get from our site is a bonus.
If you want to share your home with friends, it’s better to visit Agency.CapeHolidays.Info find your home and send your friends a link to your listing (Link here https://agency.capeholidays.info/listings/5-bedrooms-accommodation-simonstown/)
BTW if you search the following you’ll see your home in 11 position.
Have a look at all the Google ads and other stuff Google adds to make this more and more difficult to market via SEO – as you indirectly suggested.
Search via Google for Queens Villa Simonstown.
PS. With your home running at such high occupancy shows we are doing it right. And next year with all the additional reviews it will do even better. This house is and will be a mass success. But we cannot not focus too much (any) attention on completing with Google.
P.P.S. We prefer to focus on identifying 20% of any drivers bring us 80% income. Today Airbnb brings us over 90% of our reservations. Not only is the process simple and reliable, it also brings the best out in guests. Airbnb guests are a different breed than guests from agency websites. This is because of social profiles populated with reviews from hosts where they stayed.
This was a great and important question to ask, but any Accommodation Agency should be open to new ways and criticisms from owners. And we welcome it. ?
