Chosing an agency

This is a question and answer blog taken by our marketing people at Dark Sea Web Design. In this article we look at suggestions as to how a cottage owner should chose a letting agency.

Question 1. What are the different types of letting agent?

Answer: It basically splits down to four main types:

1. National agencies. These sound great. You will be quoted very impressive visitor figures but it is really how many are interested in Northumberland which is important. In reality very few of these national agencies rank highly in the search engines for Northumberland or Northumberland locations. Where they can be good though is that they will have a large database of visitors and if you can persuade them to include you in an email then this can be a good way to generate quick leads.

2. Small local agencies. Great if you are in a honey pot location like the Lake District. But in reality you want to seen by people interested in Northumberland as a county and then hope that the presentation of your cottage will mean that people will look at it as opposed to other areas.

3.Specialist agencies. We see these for specific categories such as luxury cottages or dog friendly cottages. The only time we think that this might work well is if the specialist agency has a reputation for quality and a good following so that you can be placed before people who will trust the advice on the website.

4. County wide agencies. These provide the best opportunities. Basically they only promote to people interested in the county as a whole and there will be opportunities to sell a holiday in, say, Belford to someone who was looking for Bamburgh.

Question 2. What should an agency provide?

Answer:

1. They should be open about their website visitors and provide data to back up their claims.

2. They should be able to include you in a printed brochure and let you know the print run. Not everyone uses the internet and sometimes it is nice to sit down and flick through a quality brochure.

3. They should have a reasonable sized mailing list and email these contacts on a regular basis.

4. Any quality agency should be able to show specific selling points on your cottage. A lot of agencies are little more than directories. You should check their website to see how they display images, what size are the pictures and how can they personalise the description so it is much more than just a listing.

Question 3. Money! How to make sure that you have the best deal.

Answer: Avoid any agency which requires exclusivity or who look to charge you for weeks used by the owner.It is your cottage and you should be able to book weeks for you and your friends without having to pay a commission. Some cottage owners like to promote their cottage through two agencies. This is not ideal in every situation but your agency should be open to sharing the exclusivity.

Commission rates should be under 20%. Booking fees are now pretty much accepted and common to a lot of agencies. Be careful to check that the fees are not excessive, say above £20 in the current market.

In our next interview we will talk about marketing isolated and remote cottages.