Using Video to Sell Accommodation – Great Website Design Tool

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Mark

I’m always impressed by a good video and the fact that you can load them on YouTube and link them to your website for free is amazing. Video gives your website a good presentation. It speaks to the visitor and can communicate in ways that words and pictures can not.

YouTube is brilliant. If you tried to do the same thing hosting videos on your own web-server it wouldn’t be nearly as good because you’d have issues with download speeds, bandwidth and load balancing should you have the good fortune to have many people want to watch your video at the same instance.

Making a good video is an art form. Certainly, you can make simple videos with your phone or camera. If you’re lucky you can make it in one shot without needing to do any editing, but perhaps the sound or quality will be lacking. You can also use programs like Picasa to make a slide show with still photos. Picasa is program from Google and it links easily to YouTube. Slideshows are a poor mans solution, but certainly better than nothing if you’re on a budget.

Here’s an example of a well made video for a local B&B in Byron Bay called Burns at Byron. I didn’t make it and I don’t know how much it cost, but it sure seems to do the job of selling this B&B effectively.

You don’t have to use YouTube. There are other video services like Vimeo and DailyMotion. Vimeo only allows non-commercial content; so a video like the one for Burns at Byron in Byron Bay would not be allowed. DailyMotion allows commercial content, but they might play an advertisement, which is not a great look for a video embedded on your own website. Here’s a video hosted on Daily Motion called Crazy Dubbo Horses that I posted after a holiday.


Crazy Dubbo Horses by webres

Embedded Video Helps with Search Engine Optimization

For me, YouTube is still the best. It is easy, free and it can bring traffic from search. You can also GEO tag your video which could cause it to display in Google Earth and other websites based on location.

I wish I could give you better advice on how to make great videos. That is an art form and it involves having the right equipment. Obviously, a bad video is probably worse than no video, but the simple solution of using Picasa can be something anyone can do. Here’s an example of one done for Port Fairy Accommodation provider Central Motel.

About Mark

Founder of Web Reservation Systems, focused on helping businesses in the Australian Accommodation travel sector get more value from Internet Marketing. Originally, we opened up in 2001 as a supplier of Front Office Software linked to Online Booking facilities. That allowed motels and hotels to add booking buttons to their websites as well as sell through Global Distribution Systems. You could say this was an early 'Channel Manager' because it allowed the property manager to simply control price and availability for a diverse array of wholesale and retails websites. Next, we started building websites to profile our customers (Australian Holiday Guide). That lead to building websites for customers as a favour. Now do about 80 websites a year using BurgundySky and Joomla. For small businesses I recommend using BurgundySky as it is very easy to start and manage. Joomla is also great, but harder to install and maintain for a small business. For a large website, Joomla is great - here's what we did for Golden Chain Motels, Australia largest accommodation provider with over 335 locations. Our business is based in Byron Bay, NSW. Byron Bay is a great place to live and work. I have 2 kids (12 and 14) who are both born here and my wife, Shobhan Oliver)is a successful artist.
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