Creating a successful advertisement

The effectiveness of your holiday home ad is determined by the clarity, accuracy, and charm of the elements that characterize your classified.

Here, we have listed for you, the 7 key points for successful communication when creating your ad:

1. An accurate description of the property which enhances its strengths

• Delineate the size of the property, specifying whether it is entirely distributed on one or more storeys.
• Break the text down, describing the interior first and the exterior afterwards.
• When describing the interior, specify the number of bedrooms and bathrooms. How many of these are meant to be shared and whether they are equipped of shower and / or bathtub. Don’t forget to mention the common area features such as kitchen, living room, dining room...
• When describing the exterior define the benefits of these, trying to have an impact on the reader (e.g. “large garden with BBQ, ‘infinity’ pool, sea view terrace...”)
• Emphasize all services available to the customer (e.g. change of linen and/or daily cleaning, Jacuzzi, game room, gym...)
• Specify which categories of tenants your property is more suitable for (e.g. families with children, people with disabilities, newly weds, pets...)

2. A description of the area where the property is located

• Specify the distance from the airports of Palermo, Catania, and Trapani, and the most convenient way to reach the property (e.g. car, bus, train).
• Specify the distance from the sea and the town centre, pointing out the presence of restaurants and supermarkets.
• Emphasize the main nearby points of interest such as little legendary villages, natural beauty spots, and archaeological sites.

3. A picture speaks better than a thousand words!

What a difficult statement to give credit for! But  unquestionably true and essential. Undoubtedly, your holiday house pictures are the most effective commercial means when creating an ad; therefore, you should take special care of the photo portfolio to appeal to your potential clients’ interest. Hence keep in mind the following tips:

• Take your photos during a sunny day, in order to guarantee their brightness.
• Use a camera that has at least 5/8 megapixels. This will guarantee an excellent photo quality.
• Take care of and get ready, as professionally as you can, for your photographic service, making sure that the environment you want to take photos of, is clear of people, parked cars, and hung clothes drying up. Furthermore, remember to tidy tables and chairs up.
• Break the photographic service down: indoor and outdoor areas.
• Always try to contextualize, to the extent of what this is possible, the picture subject (e.g. portray the bed by showing the view from the window, and/or the en-suite bathroom, and/or precious curtains).
• Relate, to the extent of what this is possible, the rooms among them (e.g. the pool and/or the garden with the house, the barbecue area with the swimming pool...). This will help the client understanding your property planning.
• Take recent shots and make sure date and time are NOT displayed on the photos.
• Insert a descriptive and impressive caption for each picture so as to offer your customers additional information about your holiday home.
• Post no more than 4 photos of the places of interest adjacent to your property (e.g. the beach, the archaeological site, the historic centre architectural style).
• Post the photos in your ad in a logical way, starting from the exterior, the interior afterwards, and conclude with the points of interest.
• Post, as the first photo, a click of the outside of the house and/or of the pool (if any).

Request and realize your professional photographic portfolio with Wish Sicily. For further info about our photo shooting service please click here

4. Updating the availability calendar

The availability calendar is one of the tools used by the client when searching for a holiday home, since a large percentage of this type of market travels with a specific date in mind, motivated by personal needs (e.g. planned holidays, cultural and gastronomic events in Sicily).

Wish Sicily has developed an automated system which will guarantee the first page in the portfolio every single time you’ll update your availability calendar.

Note: The system also guarantees that the position climbing shall take place no more than once in a week-time. This prevents and keeps the user from updating the calendar on a daily basis in order to climb position within the portfolio.

5. Competitive rates

The price is definitely one of the 4 marketing "levers" (besides product, promotion, and distribution) which is the easiest to stress in order to increase sales. However, applying any price change to the sojourn during the span of the current season, is not quite recommended. This may not be well interpreted by the client who might have already visited your property webpage on Wish Sicily, few days before. However, you will be given the opportunity to update the rate chart with certain period promotions (e.g. "Last Minute", "Book now").

Before inserting your rate chart you might want to relate the operating costs of your holiday home to the rate charts of other properties, similar to yours, as far as features and location. This will guarantee the competitiveness of your price Vs your "competitors".

6. Positive reviews

Online marketing studies have shown how previous clients’ reviews can determine the success or failure of your holiday home rental business in Sicily.
Internet users make increasingly use of travel social networks to compare each other and "investigate" the trustworthiness of a rental property for holiday usage.
You can post your tenants’ feedbacks on Wish Sicily in order to strengthen your marketing towards future potential customers.

Make sure then, to send a feedback request to your tenants, via e-mail, at the end of the sojourn and keep a "guest book" for your upcoming customers, well displayed in your holiday home. Here you can download a standard feedback request pro-forma to be sent via email to your departing customers. Upon their return home, they’ll find a friendly "see you soon" e-mail, in their inbox, along with a review request concerning their sojourn in your holiday home in Sicily.

7. Your contacts

Enter your name, main phone number and an optional one, your email address, and your “business” hours, being careful not to make any mistakes.
Make sure you answer all reservation requests, even in case of unavailability, within 6/8 hours from their receipt.