7 ways to market your accommodation cheaply

One of the most frequently asked questions by accommodation owners is how to market in the tourism industry. Of course, marketing apartments, guesthouses, hostels, or agritourism farms with a large budget is not a problem. However, low-budget marketing can cause sleepless nights. That is why today we will discuss seven ways to market an accommodation facility on a budget.

Google My Business listing

Customers search for accommodation and places to visit on the internet. As an accommodation owner, you can use services that offer to list your place in their catalog. Customers most often use Booking.com, Airbnb, Slowhop, or Travelplanet. When you decide to list your offer on an external OTA portal, in exchange for a commission and fees, you are in one place together with your competition. Customers also search for your property in other places, for example, to check your credibility or the authenticity of the photos or the surrounding area.

One way to market on a low budget is to create your business card on Google My Business. When a customer enters the name of your agritourism facility into Google, they will receive information about its location on the map and your contact details.

What you should know: You can createa business card for a hotel, motel, or agritourism facility, but not for a rental apartment. In the case of apartments, however, you can include the address of your office. You can check the current guidelines and restrictions here .

How to add your accommodation to Google My Business?

1. If you want to be on the map, log in to Google Maps
2. Add the address of your accommodation by typing it into the search bar. On the left, click “Add your business.”
3. Another way is to use Google Maps. Right-click anywhere on the map (it does not have to be the exact address of, for example, a guesthouse). Then click “Add your business.”

Account registration has several steps. Follow the instructions displayed on the screen. You will need an address, phone number, possibly a website address, or a link generated by the BedBooking program for customers to book accommodation directly on the website.

When a customer searches for your place by name or scrolls through the map looking for accommodation in a specific location, your business will already be there. Take advantage of this marketing opportunity and get ahead of the competition.

Ways to advertise cheaply – run Facebook and Instagram

Are you wondering how social media works for your potential guests? Today, Facebook and Instagram are not only entertainment in your free time, but above all a place to search for specific products and services.

We have written a dedicated article about social media and how to use it for the accommodation industry, so we invite you to read our specific tips.

We can definitely say that regular contact with your guests and posting your property, photos, and descriptions of attractions in the area is the best solution for you.

You can also use additional advertising through these portals, but to gain the trust of your guests, all you need to do is show them how fantastic your place is. Record a video, introduce yourself, and invite guests. The result will be natural marketing that does not require the involvement of an expensive film crew or advertising agency.

Focus on regular posting, e.g., once a week, and give your guests a tour of your apartment.

Do hashtags work – cheap marketing for agritourism

Hashtags are currently used to mark certain topics on social media. Internet search engines, such as Google, allow you to use keywords to find exactly what you are looking for. Facebook and Instagram do not have this capability, which is why hashtags were introduced. A post created on social media, if marked with a thematic hashtag, e.g., #holidayrent #vacation #agritourism, is a search engine in which these tags are found.

When posting on Instagram, remember to:

• include no more than 30 hashtags
• preferably describe exactly what is in the photo or graphic
• write # in your native language with the letters “ą” and “ę”
• you can use a maximum of 2 hashtags that are not related to your post but can reach more people, e.g. #monday or #spring or #photooftheday or #instaphoto

Make a list of 30 hashtags that you can use interchangeably. You don’t always have to use all of them and the same ones. The list can change as needed. Check what works for you in your #apartment #agritourism or #guesthouse

Is it worth creating a website for an apartment?

Let’s answer this question with another question 🙂 What would you do if OTA portals (Booking, Airbnb, Slowhop), social media (Instagram and Facebook), or OLX disappeared?

If you place your offer on external advertising portals, it is definitely worth considering your own website or a so-called landing page (one page with information about your accommodation facility).

Advantages of having your own website:

• independence from advertising portals
• searching on Google by keywords, e.g., guesthouse in the mountains, summer houses in Kashubia, weekend apartment in Poznań
• influence on promotion – possibility of additional advertising
• any amount of text and photos – independence
• collecting opinions from your customers and sharing them

A website is a one-time cost. The content on the website can of course be supplemented, but the assumption is that the content is permanent and no additional work is required. The situation with a website is different from the regularity of posting on social media.

If you create a website, pay attention to SEO from the very beginning. This is the visibility of your website in the browser, and you will see the effects of searching for a new website after about 3-4 months.

From the very beginning, you should take care of:

• the name of the website
• complete texts – what sets us apart, how to book accommodation, city and region of operation
• distinguishing features – e.g., cottages by the lake in Lubuskie, guesthouse in Podlasie, apartments in the center of Lublin
• good quality photos – captioned, e.g., “rooms for rent” or “agritourism in Świętokrzyskie”

Is a website better than social media in the property rental industry? The best solution would definitely be to base your marketing strategy for short-term rentals on diversification. Have a basic website (landing page) and social media.

Blog on the website – marketing in the tourism industry

If you have your own website or one-page site, it is worth considering expanding it with a BLOG tab. Why run a blog? It is nothing more than answering customer questions that appear on Google:

• accommodation for a workation
• summer cottages in the mountains
• interesting facts about the annual festival that takes place in your city
• recipes for bread that you offer your guests

All questions entered into the search engine are a great idea for blog articles.

If you make sure that such an article appears on your website once a month, for example, it will definitely pay off in the next season. Why do you have to wait so long for your blog to be indexed? Google needs time to mark your website in its registers. These are long-term activities, but they definitely bring results.

Not sure how to write good SEO content yourself? You can use the services of a copywriter, i.e., someone who writes on commission. One article costs around PLN 200 and contains the necessary elements to appear in search engines.

Write articles about:

• sights in … (enter the name of your town)
• weekend in … (enter the name of your town)
• accommodation in … (enter the name of your town)

Do emails work – sending messages to customers

An email or text message database will allow you to send a message thanking your guests for their stay. If you keep in touch with your guests throughout the year, there is a good chance that they will come back to you. You will not have to worry about attracting new guests, but you will be able to take care of your regular customers.

It is worth considering sending New Year’s greetings or writing about what has changed at your facility. Guests who observe the changes will be more likely to come back. If, for example, you have changed something that was suggested by them in their reviews, you will gain their trust and they will be more likely to return to your place.

Ready-made message topics:

• birthday wishes
• holiday greetings
• New Year’s greetings
• message with a first-minute offer for special guests
• changes to the facility
• latest photos from the area
• list of new attractions around the accommodation facility
• news from you

Recommendations and reviews

Recommendations and reviews are one of the free tools for gaining the trust of new customers while also increasing brand awareness and reach. It is worth analyzing how this works for you.

• Have you ever bought a product after someone you know told you about their positive opinion of it?
• Do your guests come to you on the recommendation of someone close to them?
• If you saw a bad review and were convinced to buy household appliances, for example, did you decide not to buy them?

In the case of reviews and recommendations, social proof works. If many people before you have used a service or purchased a product, you know it will be good.

How to obtain and where to save reviews from your guests?

• You can go back to point one, and if you have created a Google My Business account, reviews from guests will also be posted there.
• When they leave, ask them to post a review.
• You can print small cards with information on where to post a review and hand them out along with, for example, fruit or candy for the road, thanking them for their stay.

This small gesture will ensure that reviews appear on your Google account.

These 7 ways to market your accommodation cheaply are just a sample of what you can do as the owner or manager of an accommodation facility. These activities obviously require time and effort on your part, but the results are definitely different from those of paid advertising. However, it is worth considering running both paid and free marketing activities at the same time.