Name of your website?1stEuropeanHolidays.com - Self catering and B&B in France
Your name?
R Dengate
Your Location (city, etc)
Vendée
Please give us a short summary of your website?
Searchable Listings of French self catering and bed & breakfast holidya property throughout all regions of France
What inspired you to launch your own website?
I was dissatisfied with the many overpriced vacation rental promotion sites, that promise thousands of visitors, but deliver few! I decided to create a well featured, sensibly priced holiday property advertising site specialising in just one country - France (where I live) - and therefore concentrate on bringing property owners the site visitors they need - that is just people looking for French vacation properties.
When did you launch your first website, and what was it?
Around 1996 - it was a sort of online pictorial catalogue of view postcards, greetings cards and other travel souvenir products that I was involved in marketing.
How did you decide on a name for your website?
I wanted something Europe based, which would give me options to expand my market later, and also something easy to remember.
What makes your website different from other, similar offerings?
As I mentioned above, I am concentrating on offering French vacation property owners a well featured site for promoting their self catering or Bed & Breakfast holiday property, at a sensible price and aimed at people searching for just that type of holiday, rather than diluting the advertising with thousands of irrelevant worlwide properties, as so may similar sites do.
What is your eventual goal? (To sell it, keep it for income, secure a book or other mainstream media deal?)
Retire comfortably!
How does your investment of time and money balance against your success?
Early days yet, but looks promising so far
If you had an unlimited development budget for development, how would you change your site?
I'd just get someone else to do all the editing!
If your site got really big, really quickly, would you be able to keep up with the demand?
No, I'd need to ask my wife to help!
What unexpected costs and headaches have you had to deal with?
No unexpected costs - yet. Only a few minor headaches making sure that I make my business full legitimate here in France.
What has been your biggest challenge?
Finding the right script to run the holiday properties database.
What method has been most successful for promoting your website?
Targetted postings on relevant sites, and organic search results.
How has running your website differed from your expectations?
It hasn't yet.
How long have you run the site already, and how long will you continue to keep it up if you don't enjoy big gains in traffic, income or popularity?
About 4 months so far. I am not thinking about failure!
What would you like to say to potential new customers for your site.
Study the site, check out the pricing for advertising your French holiday property, and get in touch - I'm happy to discuss any queries you may have. Our goal is to successfully promote your French self catering or bed and breakfast holiday property in France!
What is your website address?
1stEuropeanHolidays.com - Self catering and B&B in France
