If your property is dog-friendly, it’s worth spending some time re-evaluating your offering every year. Trends shift and needs change. Above all, dog owners love taking their furry friends wherever they go. Interestingly, stats suggest that demand for dog-friendly holidays has doubled in 2021, with 5.8 million Brits looking to take their four-legged friends on a staycation. Speaking as a dog owner, dog-friendly properties are certainly a thing of convenience and ease. Moreover, I love not having to worry about costly kennels. I especially love the joy of taking them on an adventure!
Where to market your dog-friendly property
As you already know, marketing spans a multitude of online and offline disciplines. Communicating your dog-friendly policies is important. Here is a few examples of where and how to market.
Website
Use this simple flowchart to determine whether you are communicating your offering in the correct way.
As long as you market in a friendly way, and you’re achieving the results you’re looking for – you’re doing well! A common error is where website copywriting comes across as overly strict or preachy. Owners want to feel like their dogs are welcomed, rather than tolerated.
Social media
Ensuring that you communicate your dog-friendly offering well on social media is pertinent to securing more bookings. This is a fantastic storefront where you can showcase the many perks of staying in one of your properties. If this is a swimming pool, you’d surely mention it. Likewise, if you have a hot tub or spa that would definitely feature. Don’t forget about the pooches. This is likely a key booking factor for your guests. Make it easy for potential guests to obtain this information. It could be the deciding factor in booking with you vs. a competitor.
On the other hand, you don’t want to only talk about dogs. Make sure it’s natural. At ACT Studios we always recommend creating a social media schedule. From here you can plot 1 or 2 dog-based posts per month, organically included amidst your other posts.
Channel listings
All of the advice above applies to your channel listings too. Since many listing sites discourage links back to your website, it’s important that you clearly state your policies here too. Like with your website, you don’t want to appear un-welcoming. We recognise that you have less space on an Airbnb listing than you do on an entire website. Try an condense your policy into 2 or 3 sentences. Make sure you include the policy, the price, and the expectations. Keep the tone light and breezy and your potential guests will love it!
Dog-friendly photography
As with anything you’re trying to communicate, visual marketing is so important. Our top tip is to speak to your photographer about incorporating a dog into your next photoshoot. If it’s your own dog, grand! That’s easy to coordinate. If you don’t have a dog, you could always ask a friend to borrow their furry friend.
Perfect dog-friendly case study
A recent reinvigorate client of ours, Howscales is an ultra dog-friendly property. When we were reinvigorating their website we were sure to keep the strong core of the business present – dogs. Check out their website and their dog-friendly page for inspiration.
How can we help market your dog-friendly property?
ACT Studios can help you with your dog-friendly policies and much more! Our team of industry experts can evaluate your business and create a marketing plan to reinvigorate your marketing. Moreover, our industry-leading team of marketers, web developers, and photographers can carry out the work for you. All whilst you relax! Get in touch to hear more about how we can take your holiday rental business to the next level.