attracting italian and american customers

[wrighty]

Hello all,
We are now up and running to a degree and have a couple of bookings for the rest of this year, i am currently in the process of trying to set a website up, my question is whats the best way to tap into the US and Italian market as it would seem the area around Soverato i quite popular with american and northern Italians.

Cheers

[Musetta]

I think they are TOTALLY different customer bases - I get most American bookings from vrbo.com - I seriously doubt an Italian would look there...don't know where they would actually...the Italians I know tend to go to the local travel agency or tourist board to find accommodations.

[Titti]

Hi Wrighty
for Italians you could try newpapers ads. Each big city has a newspaper with free ads. In Rome it is called Porta Portese, in Perugia is Cerco e Trovo. You can generally publish your ads online and they will be published for two weeks.

You can also make a search for "annunci gratuiti" but I do not know if those would work.

You could try www.bbplanet.it, they are quite professional. I do get some reservations from them but I have a different market. Best is to ask how your neighbors advertise their beach houses. Make sure to get registered with the local tourist office.

[corepotente]

Titti gave you a great advice!
We are also on BBplanet and it seems to work pretty good.
Try also www.subito.it for 'annunci gratuiti'.

Good luck renting.
C.

[wrighty]

Thanks for advice, but one is all in Italian and the other isnt recognised.

[corepotente]

Yes, Subito is in Italian only! and your item/house to sell/buy/let must be in Italy (I guess your holiday rental is in Italy, isn't it?)

The correct link for bbplanet is www.bbplanet.it - it's like venere (they charge a commission on each rental you get throught the site - 10% if I remember well) but it includes also self-catering accomodations, B&Bs, agriturismo...

Hope this helps.

C.

[corepotente]

Yes, of course - your house is in Italy - Soverato!
I spent a holiday over there (looong time ago!)

C.

[corepotente]

Wrighty, if reading/writing Italian is an issue, please feel free to PM me or send me an e-mail with the text you would like to submit, and I will translate it for you.

C.

[wrighty]

Thanks for that, that would be great. I will write up the text and email it to you, whats your email address ?

Thanks once again that will be a great help

[corepotente]

just send me a PM or write to info at sanpotente . it

C.