Cottage Scotland video of Fine Chisel Theatre at the Fringe August
Sunday, 26 August 2012
Fine Chisel Theatre at the Fringe August
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
Fine Chisel Theatre at the Fringe August
Thursday, 23 August 2012
Pocket Fluff at the Edinburgh Fringe
Pocket Fluff at the Edinburgh Fringe
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
Pocket Fluff at the Edinburgh Fringe
Mc Xander at the Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August 2012
Mc Xander at the Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
McXander at the Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Thomas Ward Guitarist Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Thomas Ward Guitarist Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
Thomas Ward Guitarist Edinburgh Fringe
Kinematics Acrobatic Act Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Kinematics Acrobatic Act Edinburgh Fringe 22nd August
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
Kinematics Acrobatic Act Edinburgh Fringe
Thursday, 9 August 2012
How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage Part 2
How to set up and run a
successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage Part 2
Attracting guests, setting
up a new web site
Having bought a holiday
cottage in Lower Largo Fife we realised that with busy working lives, our time
was very limited to stay at the cottage. The solution? Rent it out and make
some money.
What would we call the
cottage? The family were duly consulted. The name Castaway Cottage was decided.
This was derived from the location in Lower Largo Fife being associated with
the author Daniel Defoe, creator of Robinson Crusoe. There is even a famous
Crusoe statue in the village. Castaway Cottage where every day feels like a
Friday..hmmm a bit cheesy… perhaps?
As we lived an hour away in
Perth we arranged for a housekeeper to clean the cottage and do the laundry for
the changeover, usually on a Saturday.
How do you market and
advertise a cottage staring from scratch?
This was the early days of
the internet, 10 years ago. No social media, blogs , twitter or Facebook. We simply did a search for holiday cottage
Fife and took note of the top listings on the net. I employed a website
designer on the same basis and inserted the cottage in some the directories at
the top of the search pile. I also entered the website in as many free listings
as possible. We were off and running!
The next step was to try
Visit Scotland.
The cottage was assessed and
given a star rating, a disappointing 3 star. Entry into the Visit Scotland
brochure and website were arranged for an extra fee. It all felt like they were
doing us a big favour but always at a cost. Disappointing from an organisation
that receives massive public funding. The 3 star rating would do little to
attract visitors. It was clear most guests were looking for 4 star or higher.
Less than 4 star attracted little attention or enquiries.
As it turned out most
enquiries were coming from our own website by email.
Our main attraction and
strength was the location of the cottage right on the beach in Lower Largo. The
village also had a decent restaurant, local shop and pub within staggering
distance. St Andrews, the main visitor attraction in Fife was only 15 minutes
away by car. Within our first year we had over 30 bookings.
But
our website began to slip out of sight on the search. How do you keep your web
site on page one of google? My next post will answer that question.
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage
Saturday, 4 August 2012
Scone Palace Perth Interior video august 2012
Scone Palace Perth Interior video august 2012
Near to our self catering apartments Scone Palace makes a great day out with a lot to see in the interiors and fantastic gardens.
Check the Scone palace website for details
Near to our self catering apartments Scone Palace makes a great day out with a lot to see in the interiors and fantastic gardens.
Check the Scone palace website for details
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
Scone Palace Perth Interior video august 2012
Wednesday, 1 August 2012
How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage Part 1
How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday
Cottage Part 1
The Purchase
I have been asked on many occasions how to set up and run a
successful Self Catering Cottage. I thought it was time to write a blog post on
that subject.
We run 8 successful Self Catering properties in
the Fife, Perth and Angus areas of Scotland and have done so for over 10 years.
They are a mixture of cottages and apartments. How did we start?.
It was by accident that we stumbled into the business. Close
friends were needing some funds to finish the building project of their new
house in Fife near St Andrews. Funds were running rather low and they were
adding a swimming pool. So the holiday cottage had to go!.
My wife was shopping in Tesco of all places in our home town
of Perth. She met our friend who said the cottage in Largo near St Andrews was
about to go on the market. We will buy it, don’t advertise it! The deal was
done.
What did you get at Tesco today I innocently asked…. A self
catering cottage was the answer. Oh yes, what aisle was that in I replied?
So that was the start. It had all the furniture, hand
painted stuff, beds, dining table and chairs, sofas, all a bit tired but it was
perfect for our needs. We could walk right into it and use it right away and
bought at a bargain price thanks to our friends. We had a 200 year old 2
bedroom cottage on Main Street Lower largo in Fife which was right on the beach.
But questions needed answered. We had bought a cottage I had
not even seen.
What would we call the new cottage? Would we use it much?
Where is Lower Largo? Are we mad?
In my next post I will discuss how we decided on a name, set
up a website and started marketing our self catering holiday cottage by renting it out.
Read part 2 of How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage
Read part 2 of How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage
Labels: Holiday Cottage Rental Scotland
How to set up and run a successful Self Catering Holiday Cottage
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