Marketing your apartment

[Mark]

I have emailed Fort Noks about the lack of atmosphere and entertainment and although I think at the very least the Irish Bar should be open. One thing they replied with was the first restaurant wasn’t getting enough customers, so why open another bar. Now although I think that is because of a number of reasons, the fact still remains that we have all bought apartments without being marketing gurus. So in turn the complex isn’t getting enough renters/holiday makers to fulfill its potential. To me the complex seems quiet and we have a catch 22 situation.

I am writing this because I probably like most of us am guilty of being lazy and not putting enough effort into renting out my apartment. However I have a little marketing experience so will try to give what little basic advice I know. Because it is in all our interests for the complex to be full and in turn enjoyable to stay there.

Fist of all you need to be getting your apartment advertised in as many different places as you can think of. This could be websites to leaflets or posters in your local shop or supermarket. Basically you want to reach as many people as possible. Think about where you are advertising it, how many people will see it there? Some people seem to be content with putting it on one of these letting websites and hoping that will be enough. Although this will help as part of your marketing it is no were near enough on its own.

You need to be very proactive, always reviewing what you are doing. Try to think regularly of new ways to get your apartment advertised and noticed. Keep a note of where every booking you make comes from. If someone phones you, ask them how they heard of it. This way you know what is working and what is not. Then you can stop what is not. Cost is also a factor you don’t want to be paying a fortune for marketing and not covering your bills. This is why for this first year am trying to get it everywhere I can think of and at the end of the year going to review my marketing strategy. If I am paying for something that doesn’t get any response I will discontinue it next year.

Also it is worth when thinking where to advertise, who is your target audience? For example if you want families in your apartment, put a poster in your local playgroup or school etc.

When describing your apartment to someone or in text for advertising. Do not put things down or be modest, be a sales person, describe the positives and sell it to them. Think about what they may want from a holiday.

If taking pictures you wish to use for promotional purposes do not take them on a cloudy day wait for the sun, they will look a lot better. Also think of what the content is, if for example it is of the wave pool wait until there are people are in it with the waves until you take a picture.

Hope this will be of help to some people.

[panorama]

Hi Mark,
I agree with some of your points because they are valid. I honestly think though that we as owners/holiday makers should not have to consider when is the best time to take a photo of the wave machine pool and best place to advertise our apts ie playgroups etc to enable us to have a good night in our bar/restaurant!! What happens to the people who don't want to let their aparments? Surely it is in the interest of the proprietor of the bar/restaurant to provide a place of welcome, warmth, good food and a nice atmosphere. None of the mentioned were in place last year and this is the reason the place was empty. The lady that had the place last year never made any effort whatsoever to make you want to go back there again. She never smiled, she never welcomed you and she never ever thanked you for your custom. I have to say the two young waitresses were great, always smiling and pleased to greet you, God knows what the atmosphere would have been like without them. If the owner can't make the effort people will vote with their feet and go elsewhere and thats why the place was empty. Many times of an evening we would watch people leave the complex to eat elsewhere ( so the numbers were there a lot of the time but they chose to go elsewhere in search of atmosphere). To run a popular restaurant/bar you need somebody with charisma and unfortunately that wasn't present in our bar last year. Without being rude to the man look at Paco's bar ( its basically a shack, but at least you are in for a good night there) and a lot of people leave our complexes to go their because it has life and Paco has charisma. Cheers.

[Mark]

I totally agree with everything you have said and have more or less covered what you said in emails to Fort Noks.

Their reply seemed to be centered around there are enough facilities on the complex eg pools and day facilities to keep us happy and if we wanted loud bars they have put on a bus to sunny beach. I have tried to explain that people need the option of a hotel bar to socialize and relax of a night, rather than being forced of the complex because there is nothing else to do. I am just hoping that with Marina being open this year the owners of the bar will think it financially safe to open it, and as you say make the effort to turn it into a good bar with good staff.

[leigh & andrea]

Marketing the apartments is a tricky business, especially when there are so many apartments wanting rentals.

One thing that concerns myself and a few others that I have spoken to, is that owners start under cutting each other in a battle to gain the few rentals that are out there. If this happens we will all find we are virtually giving the apartments away and barely covering costs.

I believe that owners should work closely together to keep prices around the same level. It can only be in our own interests.

[Mark]

Yes you are right about the prices. I was surprised to work out how little return we get. I ended up basing my prices on others owners prices and see how I go after the first year. But am hoping when Bulgaria becomes more established and the budget airlines start flying there we can get some decent returns.

I read that Bourgas and Varna airports are getting 100s of millions of euros over the next 10 or so years to be expanded, with a large chunck up front to start the expansion soon. Hope this is true, I think this would be a massive boost to us owners for rental purposes and our own cheap hols.

[yorkie]

Although not a Panarama owner (we do have 3 apartments at Messambria), your comments and observations will be echoed at all complexes. We have tried to market our apartments in a variety of ways over the past 2 years.

We truly are in a catch 22 situation which no end of marketting will solve at the moment. Firstly, we desperately need a significant increase in the number of flights into Bourgas. Simple mathematics, taking account of the number of apartments owned by Brits in the Sunny Beach area, hundreds of extra flights could be needed each week at an affordable price of say £150. I have had many enquiries for our apartments but due to the scarcity of flights, particularly from Regional airports, and the inevitable high prices, we always seem to lose out to package holidays.

With the lack of affordale flights, it is inevitable that the complexes will stay relatively quiet for the forseeable future and resulting in no one wanting to open the much needed additional facilities.

Unless Fort Noks are prepared to subidise the promised facilities for each of the complexes, I fear that we will have a long wait.