Can I get your feedback?

[scottaj74]

I'm in the midst of launching a new website aimed at creating listing for vacation rentals. There are already a lot of them out there in internet land and honestly, now that it's been built it's a little daunting thinking about the marketing aspect and trying to push the site out there.

I'm going after the Mountain Town communities (think Whistler, Mammoth, Vail, Banff, Canmore) - communities that are based in the mountains and offer mountain sports/communities. The name of the site is Mountain Town Vacation Rental: Mountain Town Vacation Rental. I would like to target the more adventurous traveller that would be into skiing, mountain biking, kayaking, climbing, etc....

I'm offering free basic listings (3 photos, a Google map, a description of the rental and listings of features and amenities). The listings can then be upgraded to offer more photos, videos, written reviews from travellers that have stayed at the said vacation rental. There is also the ability to be a featured listing for your given area. I'm a little lost with pricing on this. The big guns charged several hundred dollars for a basic listing. They have been around a long time and are very established with a very loyal following. I'm trying to figure out tactic or sales pitch that would compel owners to come over to check out my new listing site. I'm starting to doubt myself and wondering why they would want to even check it out. I was also thinking about offering free listings for the next 6 months just to get traffic and listings on the site. Would this be a dumb move or ????

I also created advertising space of the side of the listing for local business to advertise their products and services. The advertising can be set up so they can advertise to all website users or to target it to specific geographic locations. Again, I was thinking that I might open this up for free for the next 6 months so that businesses can start to use the service.

I've been to a few websites with only a few listings or products and I pretty much left the site feeling like it wasn't really maintained or wasn't doing so hot.

My advertising budget is meagre, so it will be hitting up forums and a few bucks spent on an Adwords campaign.

I'm trying to be positive with this and I was psyched when I started, but now I'm starting to wonder what I've gotten myself into and what I spent my $$$ on.

Any ideas of feedback on the site would be appreciated. I'm still working out a few bugs and the landing page still needs a little work.

I currently own 2 rental units and have been in tourism industry for over 15 years.

Thanks everyone!

 

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[huy]

Your landing page looks really professional and the search is great. I've launched a prototype of my travel start up but after seeing all these new travel startups pop up and receiving some feedback, I'm hitting the drawing board again. Keep in mind that competition means that there's money to be made!

Get your product out there to people who will actually use it and start getting feedback

Good luck and great job.

 

[Btbuzz]

what are the keywords you are putting in your content and in your tags? I would centralize the keywords and use the town in them
Try for low comps first , you'd have to research them , I'm just assuming you haven't done that yet. I didn't see a about page , maybe i missed it
your top header should be lowered a tad to read the words, I just skipped thru it , adding some great content with a sprinkle of keywords would help.

 

[PatrickP]

You asked what you spent your money for???

Well I will tell you.

You spent your money on a site, which if it was in a cage match against Vibro would pull a rear naked choke in the first round and WIN!!!!!!!!!

Vbro would still be down and not get up!

Ok, not sure why I posted it like that lol

But the point is to me your sight is a thousand times better than VBRO, now that is IF the listings when you get them will look as good as the rest of the website.

Seriously I really like what you have. When you get it done I would be HAPPY to post it on FB and tell my friends and relatives who know can't stand vbro but still use it.

 

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[scottaj74]

Thanks for the feedback! The site is "done" - I say "done" because I already have HUGE ideas for what I would like it to expand into. It needs to pull in some profits first in order to that, but I have some dreams in place. I see this as a work in process and never really finished.

I used Google Website Optimizer and went over the pages (yes, there is still some work to do with keywords, metatags, etc...). I'm still fairly new to website optimization so I learning new things constantly and trying to figure it all out. I'd love to hire someone to help out with it, but my finances don't really allow for it right now. That, and I actually enjoy figuring these things out. I hate feeling naive and ignorant about certain parts of the business.

PatrickP - thanks for enthusiasm. VRBO has pretty BIG guns.....I need to figure out how to be the Trojan Horse in the vacation rental business. If you'd post it on FB and tell others I'd be HUGELY stoked and appreciative.

What do you guys and gals think about offering FREE listing for the first 6 months? This would allow new clients to check things out with no financial risk.

Thanks again for the valuable feedback and ideas!

 

[PatrickP]

How about if you make an etsy like site but for vacation rentals.

property owners would list on your site including cost.

renters would pay on your site and you get a % of the rental cost.

Just a quick thought, maybe there are other places already doing it like that.

 

[scottaj74]

Thanks. I tried that in a different business venture, but it was a lot of work keeping track of sales and taking a % off. In the end I decided it would be easier if I just let the VR owner and prospective client figure it out themselves. PayPal has a business service that will take off a % of a sale and send the appropriate amount to the sellers.

I have many ideas, but for now I need to run with what I have and then when I generate some $$$ I can start to play around with some of the other features I would like to implement.

Cheers,

Scott

 

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