Southern Africa Blog

How to make the most of your listing on the SleepSleep.co.za website and attract more customers…

Photos

Display WOW photos! A good photo can really sell your place - really show off your establishment’s strong points (although care must be taken to avoid misrepresentation).

Although the SleepSleep.co.za website only allows you to upload one image, we offer you the additional FREE service of merging 4 photos into one image and uploading that for you.

When selecting 4 photos to send to us please keep in mind the following:

• All photos must be clear and of a good quality
• You should include photos of both the inside and the outside of your establishment.
• People want to see what your bedrooms look like! A good bedroom photo can really sell your place.

Description

The description of your establishment is extremely important – remember first impressions count! Plus, the SleepSleep.co.za website has been designed such that the words you use in the first sentence of your description are part of the unique keywords (see below for further details) for your establishment’s listing.
Remember to keep your descriptions concise with good use of paragraphs. We recommend approximately 400 words.

Please DO NOT write your description in capitals.

Your description should cover the following aspects:

• What your establishment offers in terms of accommodation.
• What other services you offer.
• What facilities your establishment has.
• Your location.
• Tourism ratings you have been awarded (e.g. through the Tourism Grading Council).

Activities/Extras

The activities/extras section has been included to assist website users in searching for an establishment that meets all their requirements. We have only included the most searched for categories – obviously this list could be endless. Please be honest when completing this section of your listing – you will not achieve anything by marking a category that is not applicable.
The activities/extras section is an important part of your listing since it forms part of your establishment’s unique keywords (see below for further details), so please take the time to complete this section honestly and completely.

Rates

The rates section of the SleepSleep.co.za website is made up of 2 sections:

Rate Category:

This appears in the summarised results table and gives users an idea of the price range of your establishment (and whether this price includes breakfast, and/or lunch, and/or dinner). It is the approximate rate per person sharing. We understand sometimes places charge per unit and that there are different rates for different seasons/rooms, which is why in your detailed listing section (under Rates Description) you have the opportunity to provide users with all these details.

Rates Description:

This is where you provide all the details pertaining to your rates, for example:

• Your actual rates (please remember to note for which time period these rates are valid)
• Whether the rates quoted are per unit or per person (if per unit please remember to specify how many people the unit can sleep).
• In season/Out of season rates
• The cost of any additional services/activities you offer

Please remember to update your rates! You can either do this by logging in using the username and password you selected, or you can send us the information and we can update it for you. Please let us know if you would like us to send you a reminder at the time of the year when your rates change.
We encourage you to also make use of this section of your listing to notify people about your specials. Please ensure that it is clear for what period your specials are valid for, and once this period is over remove the special.

Communication

Communication is the key to good business. Respond to queries quickly and professionally – often users send out numerous enquiries so if you wait too long to reply then you may lose that business.

The internet can be very impersonal. We therefore encourage you to make sure the replies you write are warm, personal and friendly. The way you respond to a telephone call or e-mail enquiry can make or break your business in today’s world of ‘word-of-mouth’ marketing.

Unique Keywords

In order to assist in search engines finding your specific listing on our website, we have customised each individual establishment’s listing to have its own unique set of keywords (i.e. when people type these keywords into a search engine your listing on the SleepSleep.co.za website will appear near the top of the organic search results).

Your keywords are made up of the following:

• The name of your establishment
• Your physical address (i.e. you location)
• The first 2 lines of your description
• The activities/extras you offer at your establishment, or activities/extras which are located within10km’s of your establishment.

It is therefore essential that the information in these sections is complete and accurate!

Tags: keywords, Marketing, photos

This entry was posted on Monday, April 7th, 2008 at 7:18 am and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.