It’s always a thrill for us PR nerds to land great coverage in the perfect publication, but is PR for holiday cottage owners worth it?

For us, it’s a moment of triumph against the odds, the satisfaction of beating all the rest to those precious column inches (and more importantly, followed links). It brings our cottage owners something rather more tangible: cold, hard bookings.

PR for holiday cottage owners

We recently managed to get a new cottage client, Bethany, featured in The Sunday Times article, ‘25 Best Cottages in the UK’. We put this success down not only to the fab interiors and picture perfect location, but also to our persuasive writing skills, a great relationship with a time-pressured national journalist and a heavy dollop of persistence.

For the owners of this new-to-market cottage, it led to:

• 968 page views on the website in 24 hours, from 240 unique users

• Bookings valued at £2,600 in the fortnight since publication

• 3-5 clicks per week, 14 days after publication

• The longevity of a followed link from a high domain authority site (a big thumbs up to Google that Bethany's an authoritative website).

Tangible benefits of PR

Our larger clients also feel the benefits of PR. In the same month, a feature on family friendly holiday home, Egret View, appeared in House Beautiful and drove 75 people to the Niche Retreats website. Meanwhile a review of eco paradise Birdsong Barn in The Guardian lead to 211 sessions on Original Cottage’s website.

It’s a time consuming labour of love, but when we see results like these, we know it’s been worth it.

PR isn’t ‘free advertising’ but it is an effective marketing activity. Who would you believe - a national newspaper’s independent appraisal of a cottage, or a paid for advertisement?

Could your holiday cottage bookings do with a boost?

If you’d like targeted PR nerds like us to raise your profile in national print and online media and glossy magazines, let’s chat.