As a business owner in the accommodation industry, you’re probably always looking for new ways to market your accommodation to potential guests. Social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram offer a great opportunity to do just that whilst also strengthening your SEO efforts. However, you can streamline your efforts by linking your Facebook and Instagram…

Are you struggling to attract guests to your vacation (holiday) rental property? Whether you’re renting out a beachfront bungalow or a cozy mountain cabin, marketing is essential for driving bookings and growing your business. In this article, we’ll share 10 creative marketing ideas to help you stand out from the competition and attract more guests.…

A lot of of accommodation owners find social media hard work…and it’s understandable. After spending a long day sorting out your accommodation the last thing you want to do is spend ages on a computer or phone, trying to create an engaging, upbeat post. So here are some great resources that will help! Get your…

2020 has been a very bad year, and the pandemic has impacted everyone, with the hospitality industry being particularly hard hit. We’re hoping 2021 will be a better year for accommodation owners, and to that end, we have put together a checklist for accommodation providers so that they can feel more confident that they are…

A lot of our website owners often get so busy that they don’t get round to doing all the online jobs that they should be doing periodically to ensure that their online presence is being updated, and more likely to get noticed…below are some “jobs” that every successful accommodation owner should be doing each week……

The simple answer is, it depends! For site owners who are looking to ensure that their sites load quickly, then it’s imperative to have a crunched-down version of the full resolution image uploaded, with a max file size of about 250kb. (Have a read here on how to resize really large images). As a quick…

One of our customers recently asked for help; she couldn’t access her website at all, although others could. If other people can see and access a site and you can’t then the problem is localised to your device or wi-fi issue. Try the following to fix the issue: Try loading the site in a different…

We have heard from a lot of our website owner customers that they have received these scam emails, and thought it would be useful to create this article to allay fears that these emails could be genuine… The ransomware scam targets website contact forms. It sends an email to the site owner with the subject…

This hasn’t changed in all the years that search engine optimisation (SEO) has been a ‘thing’… It’s still as true today that Google takes into account how many links are in existence that point to your website. Over time, links are built naturally… eg from places where you may advertise (who allow a link to…

We add a special plugin that resizes all uploaded images onto our customer’s websites, as incorrectly sized images is a common issue. Our resizing plugin scrunches down images to a web-friendly 1920 px wide, however this sometimes isn’t enough. If the original image is huge (eg 5MB or over) then you will need to resize…

Online reviews can make or break an accommodation business. Whether you’re a self catering property, hotel, B&B or campsite reviews have a huge impact on occupancy, and the ability to drive new customers.  Over 90% of guests will read at least three reviews before deciding to book a stay. So what do your reviews say…

Google makes an SSL mandatory without actually making it mandatory.  Google now flags websites that do not have an SSL/TLS Certificate installed on their website. Without an SSL all the popular web browsers used around the world like Chrome & Mozilla will punish websites by giving a warning message. In effect, Google has made having…

“What pages should my accommodation website have?” This is a very common question among self-catering, bed & breakfast, hotel, and campsite owners when they are looking to develop their existing website or design a new one. Here we list the most important must-have pages or content your accommodation website should have. When it comes to…

We were asked recently by one of our Accommodation Owners how website owners could add a Coronavirus Advice Update to their website as attractively as possible…here are some suggestions… Some owners just want to show a small paragraph of text to quickly advise onsite visitors what their current status is with regards to taking on…

Use advanced setup to add a POP or IMAP email account in Outlook for Windows If you need to enter specific values for incoming and outgoing server names, port numbers, or SSL settings, you can use Outlook’s advanced setup option. You can use these instructions to add a POP or IMAP account to Outlook. Open Outlook…

We get many website owners asking us about social media and how they should be using it with their website. First and foremost, you want your website visitors to be able to easily achieve the following on your website: Be able to EASILY find your social media accounts links; i.e. a Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest…

It’s hard for accommodation owners to know what to post on their Facebook Business Page. For today’s challenge, you are going to create a post and publish it on your page. Here are some guidelines for creating content. If you’re new to Facebook you will want to start with an introduction/welcome post Introduction / Welcome…

Have you ever wondered how some people have created such wonderful social post images? We use Canva for so many things; from creating Logos, to making great social post images. We are using the Pro version, but the free version is pretty amazing. You will be able to spend hours of fun making great images…

Twitter might not be up there with Facebook and Instagram for promoting your accommodation business but with over 500 million users, you need to have a presence there. Luckily setting up a Twitter profile is incredibly easy especially if you follow our step by step guide below. 1. Go to Twitter.com and complete the sign up. Entering your…

Save time and effort by linking Instagram with Facebook. These two offer a level of integration you won’t find across any other social media platforms. Linking your accounts will allow you to post the pics and videos you take or edit using the Instagram directly to Facebook. Each image or video you share goes back…

Instagram launched in 2010 and has fast become an important platform for digital marketing. Sources suggest that there are now over 1 billion users worldwide making it an effective tool for growing your accommodation business. Step 1: Download the Instagram App Instagram does have a web version but it is primarily used on a smartphone.…

You already most likely have all the photos, text, and ideas you need to build your Facebook business page. You just need to sit down and work through a few simple steps to get your page up and running. 2.5 billion people use Facebook every month, and more than 140 million businesses already use Facebook to connect with…

  Facebook marketing is one of the most popular and profitable online marketing channels and because it’s one of the most widely used social networking sites, there are many users who are interested in learning how to create effective campaigns for their accommodation. As with any marketing channel, the key to success is educating yourself…

Introduction Not everyone visiting your website is ready to become a guest. Don’t lose the opportunity to convert them to a booking further down the line. In this section, you will learn how to encourage them to follow you on social media. Checklist Visable Social Media Icons Social media icons make it easier for people…

Introduction This seems like a no-brainer, but you’d be surprised at what you might be missing out on. For this article we are going to concentrate on Facebook, Instagram & Twitter. Create A Stunning Profile Header If you don’t already have an eye-catching profile header that cements and shouts your brand across the Facebook, Instagram…

Introduction In recent years, social media has gone from a new idea to an absolute must for all accommodation owners. Of all the media marketing platforms, social is the most interactive and if done correctly has the potential to dramatically increase direct bookings. “At Web Design For Accommodation, we focus strongly on direct bookings as…

The simple answer is yes. However, the process will need to be repeated with each calendar you would like to manage. You can sync calendars directly but you might prefer to choose a main calendar to act as a central point.  Options available could be an existing booking system such as the one offered by…

A domain name is the address of your website. It is what people type in the browser’s URL bar to visit your website. For example, the domain name of this website is accommodationcloud.com.

Web hosting is a fundamental necessity for any website. It is the place where all the files of your website are stored. A good analogy would be that if the domain name was the address of your house, then web hosting is the actual house that your address points to. Please note that not all…

Anyone with a Facebook account can create a Facebook Page. It free and quick to do. So if you haven’t already please check out our article on How do I create a Facebook Page? However, it’s one thing creating a Facebook Page but creating a great Facebook Page is a completely different thing. See below…

To create a Facebook page Go to facebook.com/pages/create. Click to choose a Page type. Fill out the required information. Click Continue and follow the on-screen instructions. Credit: The answer to this question was found at https://www.facebook.com/help/135275340210354/?helpref=hc_fnav We’ve created a more indepth set of instructions, please click here to view: http://www.accommodationcloud.com/challenge-1-create-facebook-business-page/

A booking engine is an application on your accommodation website that securely processes online reservations. The main purpose of a hotel booking engine is to allow reservations to be made and managed on your own website. Simple booking engines may only make a reservation. However, most will also allow you to securely take deposits and/or…

A channel manager is an online system that manages multiple booking engines such as AirBnB, Booking.com, Expedia and many more from one account. An effective channel management system can greatly reduce your workload and eliminate double bookings whilst helping you reach a wider audience.