Foreign Perspectives

Patrick and Collette were both city lawyers so they’re clearly not stupid. Yet, so far, we’ve seen all of two actual attempts at marketing their property, neither of which seems more than vaguely appropriate.

Baby Goes 2 (Baby Goes 2 from the first series had a truly dreadful website back then (much improved since) which simply wasn’t up to the job ie not exactly the kind of place that you’d ordinarily have bothered to attempt to list a holiday property with. Sawdays from the second series is much more established but in the guidebook market which has been declining rapidly in recent years as the internet bookings increase; a last attempt to retain a grip on the listings market perhaps? Both of them seemed to me to be much more interested in promoting themselves than in promoting Chateau Ribagnac.

Not that it really matters in the case of Chateau Ribagnac. With the effort that Patrick and Collette put into keeping their castle in the public view through TV and magazine articles, it scarcely matters whether or not they do any marketing of the type that the rest of us need to do for our places.

But there are other non-TV backed chateaux and castles out there. Consider Le Castel in Normandy, Chateau de Gurat and Chateau les Peaux. All three have prices under half of those of Chateau Ribagnac. How come? Are they naff castles or something? No, just that they don’t have the benefit of the enormous publicity that Patrick and Collette generate.

Publicity and marketing are what it’s all about of course. The more you have, the higher the prices you can get because the majority of people don’t shop around that much. Chateau Ribagnac has the added advantage that it’s been on TV which a number of people out there are quite prepared to pay extra for: just think for EUR 200 or so you get to talk to Patrick all night and have a nice meal thrown in too. OK, not everyone can pick up the “TV premium” but you can probably add at least a few euro to your prices with that little bit more marketing.

So if you want a few more euro next year, now is the time to get started on ramping up your marketing for the new year. Why not make a start with Our Inns?