advertising to dutch and belgium visitors

[holliebabes]

hi everybody,

does anybody have some good websites that advertise to our dutch and belgium visitors?

i think only advertising to our fellow brits is not making the best of the rental market.

any ideas welcomed and if anybody uses any already that would be great if you can pass on the details.

thanks in advance[:D]

[cooperlola]

[quote user="holliebabes"]

hi everybody,

does anybody have some good websites that advertise to our dutch and belgium visitors?

i think only advertising to our fellow brits is not making the best of the rental market.

any ideas welcomed and if anybody uses any already that would be great if you can pass on the details.

thanks in advance[:D]

[/quote]I have a few Dutch friends.  I will ask them.

[holliebabes]

thanks for that all suggestions welcome.i just think that there is a bigger market for rental than just advertising with english visitors.

and as the name of the game is to stay in france i am looking at as many marketing avenues as possible.

merry christmas as well to you all.heres to a good 2007!![:D]

[Blanche Neige]

holliebabes

 

[:)]Good luck with your advertising but do take care with the wording,

Belgium is the name of the country

and

the people are Belgians 

[Dick Smith]

Or, more accurately, Belgiums. Like the buns. Or so my mother always insisted.

I don't think anyone is that pedantic any more, though.

[Quillan]

Although we are a B&B and not a Gite we do get Belgium visitors (quite a few of them). Our website is in French and English and we are members of three organisations here in France two of which publish books not just in France but other countries as well. From our guest database I can tell you that Belgium visitors tend to come via French language websites because even the Flemmish speaking Belgiums speak French (and many also speak English rather well).

For websites I would do a search in google.be for Gites in the area in which your gite is located and see what companies come up and then approach them.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Quillan"]

....because even the Flemmish speaking Belgiums speak French (and many also speak English rather well).

[/quote]

True. Though increasingly a lot refuse to speak French due to

continuing Vlaams / Walloon tensions. All very silly, but there you

are.

The Dutch and Belgians still seem to be strongly inclined toward

camping in France, rather than taking a house, so do not be deceived

into thinking that the market is larger than it is due to the large

number of cars visiting each summer from those fine nations.

It is commonly held that all Dutch speakers can also speak

English to a high degree of fluency. This is, of course, not true. To

tap into these markets to a significant extent, get at least some of

your publicity translated into Dutch, even if you yourself speak not a

single word (make that clear in the ad). Do not be tempted to use an

online translation tool for this. There are a number of Dutch language

sites that one can advertise on and some of these offer translation

help.

Try searching using: "vakantie" "huis" "vakantiehuis" "frankrijk" and

your location to

see what arrives. I would avoid google for this unless you want to wade

through the six feet of pornography and sponsored links that this

entails. Yahoo and MSN Live Search seem to avoid a lot of this. You

will discover, I think, that this sector is already well exploited by

native Dutch speakers.[8-)]

[nimportequoi]

abritel  and homelidays have both provided me with Belgian (French and Walloon) & Dutch guests - the sites have the basics at least translated into 6 different languages. However, like the French market, Belgian and Dutch guests are not generally prepared to pay as much for gite holidays as UK guests, so you need to get your pricing right to attract this market.

[Coco]

I'm surprised at the negative thoughts about Belgian visitors on this thread.  We have had probably as many Belgians over the last 4 years as French.  The language split probably being about 50/50 on Flemish and French.  Most have arrived in extremely expensive cars and would not even consider a camping holiday.  There have not been as many Dutch as I initially expected and whilst 100% of those under 50 speak fluent English (or American!) I have been surprised to discover that some of the older ones really struggle to speak English, although they struggle even more to speak French, so being an English B&B is clearly an advantage.  I have just signed up with homelidays, so look forward to the potential market, and shall now go and have a look at the oter site.

[nimportequoi]

I didn't mean to be negative, it is just in my experience I've never had any Belgians, French or Dutch book in Peak, so assume my prices are too high in this season to attract this market! All the Belgian guests I've had have been very pleasant and left the gites immaculate.

[Quillan]

We have had quite a few Begiums stay, both French and Flemish, and I must admit that I have not noticed that they are 'tight' as it were (I suppose the PC phrase is "careful with their money"). Having said that I guess you will never know how many have looked at your prices and thought too expensive and go somewhere else. I think it may be one of those urban myths.

[Patmobile]

We wanted to diversify our marketing effort a bit, so as an experiment, I put one of our properties on a Dutch advertising website this autumn, and got enough response to fill a couple of difficult weeks.

It's http://www.gites.nl/

It seems a well-run outfit, and they translate your text into Dutch for you.  There is an English language version of the site as well.  The cost is reasonable and they publish your advert before sending you an invoice, with the result, in our case, that we had an order through them before we had even paid for the ad.  The enquiries have mostly been in English.  When they write in Dutch I can usually figure out what they want and I reply in German and English, hoping they'll use the same sort of deductive process.

I think it's true that most Dutch families expect to pay a fairly low rate, but are prepared to put up with rather basic accommodation in return.  We are not cheap by local standards, and our accommodation is far from basic.  I think the Dutch/Flemish market is rather price sensitive, so we may just use this ad to make special offers for difficult weeks which would otherwise go unfilled.

Patrick