Brought to you by
HOME FROM HOME SCOTLAND
Independent holiday home specialists Home From Home Scotland are dedicated to serving the holiday park sector – and by registering with the firm, complimentary access to list your properties and lodges on s1homes is now part of the many benefits
FOR many people finding the ideal holiday home or caravan, in the holiday park that best suits their interests and circumstances, can involve a long, tedious trawl through the Internet.
There are literally dozens of holiday home companies in the UK and they all tend to have their own Facebook pages.
The problem with this, as Steven Smail, the founder of the website, Home From Home Scotland, explains, is that very often, when a member of the public contacts a company through one of these Facebook pages, and requests a brochure, they can find themselves hounded by salespeople for ages thereafter.
“I worked for years for a number of different holiday parks. These parks’ Facebook pages would generate a large number of enquiries. However, there was no one site that would give a customer a view across the industry and enable them to search instantly across multiple parks to find the holiday home that best suited their circumstances and their budgets,” Steven explains.
Home From Home Scotland founder Steven Smail
Instead, what customers found when they asked for a brochure from a particular site, is that they would get inundated for months and even years after that query, by sales teams inviting them out to visit this or that park, to look at whatever those parks had by way of holiday homes for sale.
The vast majority of these ‘invitations’ and sales calls would be completely irrelevant to the customer’s needs and would simply be a nuisance call.
Small decided to launch a website, called ‘Home From Home Scotland’ which would be the definitive park and property finder website for the leisure industry. As he notes, the firm’s mission is to bring parks and holiday home customers together.
“All our parks go through a thorough vetting process before we display them in front of people who are searching for the holiday home that is right for them and their particular circumstances.
“Our aim is to provide a range of filterable options that can search through the data we have on our site, and present the best park or property tailored to the customer’s needs and interests,” Steven says.
The site aims to benefit both consumers who are looking for a holiday home and park owners. It benefits the latter, Steven points out, by not inundating park owners with unserious queries.
“Very often, if a customer asks for a brochure on a holiday home Facebook page, they are simply browsing. They may be months or years away from actually wanting to buy and are merely looking out of curiosity. Our site presents the park owner with real potential buyers, and that is a huge plus for them,” he comments.
“When I started investigating lead generation for caravan parks it quickly became clear to me that most companies were merely creating a landing page for their business, and advertising it on Facebook. I found this odd because if I were searching for a holiday home or lodge, I would turn to Google, not Facebook.
Steven talked to an expert in lead generation who pointed out to him how important it was to find ways of targeting customers who are actively seeking a holiday home or lodge.
Creating a searchable site, with a range of filters, that featured a good percentage of holiday home companies was the obvious way to go. It enables the park owner to focus on leads from people genuinely interested in purchasing. This in turn can have a significant impact on holiday home sales for the park.
Thanks to a recent arrangement with S1 Homes, Scotland's biggest property site, with 11,225 homes for sale and to rent, Steven points out that park owners can now have all their sales stock listed on S1 Homes at no cost.
By registering their parks with Home From Home Scotland, clients gain complimentary access to the s1homes portal, allowing them to list all their holiday homes and lodges at no cost for one year. “Home from Home not only assists customers in finding their park but also aids in scheduling appointments with the park and provides support after their visit.
With over 20 years of experience, we prevent customers from making mistakes. If we suspect something is amiss, we will intervene right away on behalf of the customer,” Steven says.
In short, Home from Home is a marketplace for purchasing and selling park homes, lodges, and static caravans. It serves both private individuals and park operators, offering a platform to facilitate the sale or purchase of these properties.
The site offers a number of additional advantages to consumers, including a buyer's guide. “Navigating the intricacies of holiday home ownership can be challenging.
“There are a myriad factors which make it initially appear to be a difficult field to work your way through. Our buyer's guide aims to demystify the process, offering step-by-step assistance to ensure a seamless experience,” Small says.
“Rather than relying on automated replies, our seasoned team is committed to offering bespoke advice throughout your journey. We can meet at the park and present the homes to you if you prefer not to engage with a salesperson,” he concludes.
homefromhomescotland.com
www.s1homes.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here