Hébergement à la ferme :Marketing, promoting your accommodation, enhancing it, making it exclusive

Technical articles - Pleinchamp - Diversification

Tourist reception Farm accommodation

View of an unusual tent (Un lit au pré)

The tourism accommodation market is a highly competitive market. There are more than 5,000,000 beds in France… Even in unusual accommodation, which by definition must remain rare, there are more than 10,000 accommodations (40,000 beds).

Making a difference, whatever the positioning, therefore requires making it known. In a world where everything is done via the internet, this essentially means being present in search engines.

It is important to know how your customers found you (via which site initially). Don’t forget to ask them and note it down to do the accounting at the end of the year. You may find that some sites bring you better customers.

Start by understanding how registration works

Your future customers will find you either via one of the booking platforms, or via Google Maps (for those looking directly near a location for a wedding, an outing, etc.). Everyone is used to certain platforms – beyond the big classics (Airbnb, Booking, Abritel) there are more specific platforms (Abracadaroom for unusual accommodation for example).

Moreover, if your target is foreign, there may be certain platforms that are more successful in their countries.

Generally, the booking process by a customer starts by comparing the different accommodations available in the region, filtering by price, and deciding based on the photos. The positioning of your accommodation must therefore reflect what you will say with your photos.

You will not be able to be present on all booking platforms, partly because of the cost, but also because it will be up to you to manage the synchronization of availability on each of them (unless you use a channel manager, see the article on tools). However, nothing prevents you from testing several platforms, especially if you are bothered by a bad review on one of them.

Reviews

Reviews are a crucial element of the booking experience – and they depend only on you. Reviews will reflect the experience visitors had – most visitors will not leave reviews unless they had a bad experience.

You can defuse this situation by being responsive when they express their dissatisfaction, even by making a small gesture (offering a bottle of rosé for example). That’s the game and don’t be stingy with these attentions as they can be critical.

Conversely, you can solicit positive reviews from your visitors – the best time is when your visitor is obliged to wait, at the end of their stay – the idea is to make them want to leave that famous review and make it easy for them (QR Code to the form, a small message explaining why it is important to you, etc.). You can kindly buy your review by offering a chocolate in exchange for a like… Be careful, don’t assume your visitors will leave a review once they have left – they generally won’t have the time or the idea – so do it while you still have them on hand.

Photographs of your accommodation

It is very important that you have a set of photos (and videos) that highlight your accommodation.

Unless you are a professional photographer, it is worth going through an expert, with good equipment and some common sense about staging.

Your goal is to make people dream, so your photos must correspond to what people dream of:

• Choose the right time and the right season (preferably in May at 5 p.m. rather than late summer at noon), to have the right light, lush vegetation, saturated skies…
• Work on the scenography: think about mowing the lawn the day before, don’t hesitate to put an animal in the background (a donkey, or a dog if you don’t have a donkey. You can borrow some chickens from your neighbor if you don’t do breeding yourself)
• Take photos with a spotless interior, folded and welcoming sheets, with fresh flowers in the pots, etc.
• Indoor photos should be taken with a wide-angle lens. Outdoor photos should use blur effects. Don’t hesitate to add photos taken by a drone, etc.

If your photographer doesn’t think about these kinds of details, go through someone else.

Below you will find some photos of Un Lit au Pré or Cocolodge for example, to give you an idea of what quality photos can be.

Create a website?

It is not necessarily essential to create your own website. You will already have a page on the different platforms, and you will never be as well referenced as Bienvenue à la ferme or Booking.com. An alternative can also be simply having a page on Facebook for example.

Create your website if you want to offer a price lower than the platforms and encourage direct bookings – but beware, in this case it can quickly become a headache managing bookings.

Be careful, it is better not to have a website than to have a non-functional, ugly, or simply outdated website. The cost of designing a website is around €5000. If you add a booking module, count an additional €1000. You can also use options like Squarespace or Wix (starting from their templates and adding your photos).

Once the website is online, it is up to you to ensure it is well referenced (i.e. present on Google and other search engines), because no one will type your site’s link directly.

Triple Performance

It is not a bad idea, however, to have a portrait of your farm on Triple Performance – so that your visitors can understand your profession beyond the prejudices they might have.

Take advantage of every opportunity you have to give a more accurate idea of the farming profession to your visitors.

Channel managers

A channel manager is a service that synchronizes your accommodation availability on different platforms for you. It is not necessary, but it is wise if you have several unusual accommodation units for example, so you don’t end up with 3 clients one evening for two tents…

Google Maps

The Google Business profile is essential for a farm, it allows internet users to find you quickly in the search bar but also on the Google Maps map. You must therefore create a profile, add photos and ask happy clients and travelers to leave a positive review.

Whether you have a website or not, you must be present on Google Maps (link: https://www.google.com/intl/fr_fr/business/). Availability dates are managed automatically by Google if you provide the URL of your page on Booking or other platforms. Be careful to manage reviews well.

Instagram and other social networks?

It is not very clear whether it is useful to be present on Instagram or other social networks – in any case, only do it if it’s already your thing.

The exception is if you organize events (concerts, conferences, etc.) on the farm – and thus use social networks to feed your community.

The codes on each platform are specific, and there is no point in creating an account if you do not regularly feed it with news, photos, etc.

The important thing is to use the social network your clientele will use – and it will be your former clients who will relay your posts (so they themselves must follow you after a quality stay):

• Clients come for a weekend
• At the end of the weekend, they appreciate the relationship and decide to follow you (because the link/QR Code to your Instagram profile is present at the moment of saying goodbye)
• You post beautiful photos or promotions that they decide to share
• Their friends decide to book

Our series of guides on tourist accommodation

• Les différentes formes d’hébergement touristique à la ferme
• La rentabilité d'un hébergement touristique à la ferme
• Hébergement à la ferme : la réglementation et l’urbanisme
• Les contraintes opérationnelles et la gestion du temps de l'hébergement à la ferme
• Hébergement à la ferme : les channel managers, les prestataires de service
• Hébergement à la ferme : le marketing, faire connaître son hébergement, le valoriser, le rendre exclusif
• Hébergement à la ferme : Les services associés

This page was written in partnership with Pleinchamp