Holiday apartments, B&B´s and guest houses form the more personal and intimate part of the hospitality industry; often the owners are also the managers having to deal with the entire back office (accounting, marketing, bookings, availability, picture and content management etc) at the same time as overseeing of the front office; taking care of guests as well as the staff. An important area such as online marketing is absolutely essential for creating and optimizing revenue, however this area often is not managed wisely as too many other things simply get in the way for the owner / manager. Making sure to have enough time to research the internet for booking sites; determining which are the right sites for your guest house, what fees / commission rates are applicable and whether the agencies offer self uploads & updates or not is not easy, especially as many of the sites are not as informative as could be desired.

When wanting to start up or boost your guest house on booking sites, you must carefully look at all your options before making a decision. There are hundreds if not thousands of sites to choose from; International sites, national as well as local sites all reaching each their designated target market and all with their own set of marketing strategies. Reaching a broad field within your area is always better – the saying, “the more the merrier” goes very well in this context. To place personalized holiday apartment listings on a selection, or better as many as possible of each of the mentioned type of agencies will help you reach a broader group of travelers and thus increase your occupancy and revenues.

Further one must also distinguish between the Booking Sites and the Directory Sites. First mentioned is exactly what the name indicates – a site on which the consumer can go to search, browse for accommodation, compare rates and book a room immediately. On Directory Sites your guest house is listed with your own contact details for the consumer to direct his inquiry straight to your establishment. Both type of sites serves a general purpose of marketing your guest house which is why having a profile on a selection of each can only improve your presence and help reach more potential guests.

In light of all of this one must have a system to organise & administer the huge number of guest house profiles which you eventually inevitably will end up having. As you go along the marketing route, you will discover new & important sites to have a listing on and very quickly your presence as a guest house on the internet gets out of hand if you don’t keep track of where and what your profile looks like. Some of the very first sites you registered to may have old images representing your guest house and the description might not be up-to-date. Somewhere in the process, you had new and better photographs taken, they were uploaded to some of the sites but you can’t be sure which ones.

As the internet plays the biggest role in both marketing and sales of most businesses today, it is essential for your accommodation to maintain your online profiles on the various Booking & Directory sites with the right images and information available to potential guests.