Guide to advertising with Bonnes Vacances

The advertisements on Bonnes Vacances Direct have been designed to allow advertisers to provide visitors with as much information as they require to assist in their decision to book accommodation in France. To view a sample advertisement click here. Each advertisement has been divided into three sections to complete; the main advertisement, the photographs and the property listings. Below is a guide to construction the various components of your advertisement. Main Advertisement Photographs Property Listing An advertisement on the Bonnes Vacances Direct site has been designed to advertise one property; this allows you to include all the information below unique to that property. If you own a complex of more that one property may decide to include an advertisement or property listing for each of these. For more information on this option please see the Property Complex section. Please note: it is not possible to include more than one property listing for properties located in separate areas. These must be included on separate advertisements. Main Advertisement Contents Photographs Property Description Location Description Getting There Local Activities and Services Contact Details Photographs Each advertisement contains up to twelve photographs. The most important one of these is the primary photograph as this one will feature in the search results and will appear at the top of your advertisement. As the Internet is primarily a visual media it is important to select your images carefully to show your property and ultimately sell it to the visitor. All the images included on the advertisements are included in a landscape format (wider than they are taller) at a dimension of 315 pixels wide and 236 pixels tall. In order to optimise your photographs it is recommended to submit images at this specification. Portrait and panoramic images can be included but they will be resized to appear 236 pixels tall or 315 pixels wide respectively. For more information on the required specification see the photograph submission section. Please note: as the photographs are associated with the advertisement it is not possible to include a primary photograph for each property listing. If you require alternative images for another property listing it is necessary to include it as an advertisement rather than a property listing.  Top Property Description Recommended length 300 words The property description is the main text content on your advertisement and will be the first section a visitor reads. It should be written to include a brief overview at the start with more details as the visitor reads further into the description. The description can include information about the type of property, its layout, the facilities available to visitors and don't forget the points that originally sold it to you - this will help selling it to potential visitors! You can provide as much or as little information as you like but remember a visitor will like to get all the information before making a choice on which property is for them.  Top Location Description Recommended length 200 words This section provides the opportunity to inform your visitors of the area in which your property is located. You can start with a description of the local area, where to get that fresh bread in the morning and which restaurants you recommend. Visitors will also be interested in what there is to do, where is good to go to and what things are to see. Bullet details on this information can be included in the Local Information section but it is always a good idea to provide a little more information...  Top Getting There Recommended length 70 words + bullet information Getting there is always important to the visitor. This section acts as a guide to the various ways in which they can get to your property. The main text content provides the description on recommended journey times, routes and methods. In addition to this description you can include details of the nearest town, airport, ferry port, train station and coastal town so visitors can plan their journey more efficiently. This information is used in some of the search options to allow visitors to search by town, airport, ferry port and train station.  Top Local Activities and Services This section provides you with the ability to include up to five local activities and up to five local services. Primarily it will be accessible on your advertisement so the visitor can see at a glance what there is to do in the area and how far they will have to travel to local services such as supermarkets, restaurants and bars. It is not necessary to include information in this section but it is advisable for use in the various search options. Visitors are able to search for accommodation by activity and by nearest town so if you have golf, horse riding or some good sightseeing in the area it should be included. Likewise it is important to include the location of the activity or service along with a distance from your property so visitors can search by town and in either case see how far they are from where they could be staying.  Top Contact Details Visitors to your advertisement may require additional information have more questions about the property or wish to make a booking so it is important to include your contact information in your advertisement. As many details as possible is advisable to ensure they are able to contact you but the most important one will be your email address. Visitors will prefer to send an email as they are already online so it is important that this is correct. As email is immediate so do not forget to include an auto response onto your account if you are away or temporally unable to access your email, visitors who are looking for accommodation will hope you are able to reply as soon as possible...  Top Photographs Contents Photograph Submission Photograph Description Photograph Submission As explained in the main advertisement section each advertisement contains up to twelve photographs. The photographs should meet with the following specifications: Landscape, 315 pixels wide by 236 pixels tall, 72 dpi, JPG Format, RGB colour, maximum 100 KB file size Images that meet with these criteria can be accepted by our servers through the online submission form. For images that do not it will either be necessary to resize them which can be done using a variety of available image editing software packages, which allows you to check them prior to submission, or if they do not exceed 100 KB this can be completed automatically via the online submission form. Please note: it is advisable to copy the images you wish to include to a separate directory, perhaps on your desktop to avoid any possibility of overwriting the originals. Unfortunately it is not possible to explain exactly where to locate the following steps as all software is slightly different but once opened look for Image > Properties, Image > Size, Image > Resize or something similar. Once located you will be able to see the dimensions of the image. Find the width in pixels and change it to 315. Before applying the change check that the height changes to 236. If it does not exactly change to this make sure it remains higher that the required 236, if it is lower change the current height dimension to 236 so the new width exceeds 315. If the dimensions of your image are now 315 by 236 then the image is ready to be sent, please see saving the file below. If the image is not exactly 315 by 236 then the image will have to be cropped. Select Image > Crop, Edit > Crop or something similar where you will be able to drag your mouse around the required area while checking the selected areas dimensions. Once you have an area of 315 by 236 crop the image and save it as per the instructions below. Saving the file: Select File > Save As. This is so you are able to save the image in an alternative location to the original and do not over write it. Making sure you save the image as a JPG file click save where you will be prompted for a compression rate. Enter this as the middle of the range and click OK. The image will now be saved on your hard drive and once you have completed the steps with all of your images visit our website and log in to your submission to load and continue. If you are unable to prepare your photographs by the above methods it is possible to submit your photographs by email to general@bvdirect.co.uk or by post to: Bonnes Vacances Direct, The Old Brewery, Vincent Lane, Dorking, Surrey RH4 3HQ Please note: photographs submitted by an alternative method to the online submission form will incur administration charges. Please see the price guide for details. If you wish photographs sent by post to be returned please include a stamped addressed envelope.  Top Photograph Description With each photograph it is possible to include a description for each. The description will appear under the photograph when it is selected in the advertisement and should be no more than 10 words long.  Top Property Listing Contents Property Search Criteria Property Facilities Price Guide Property Search Criteria The property search criteria are the primary criteria used for visitors to locate your property. The options include the services that are available (self catering, bed and breakfast, half board and full board) along with the main considerations when choosing accommodation including disabled access, the status on pets and swimming pool etc. Please note: this information will be used by most of the search tools and omission may result in your property not displayed in any of the search results.  Top Property Facilities In addition to the primary search criteria it is also possible to include a more detailed facility list in this section. The section starts with the total number of bedrooms and total bathroom/shower rooms at your property. This information is then expanded by including the number of double rooms, twin rooms, single rooms, multirooms (a room with more two beds). It is also possible to split the bathrooms and shower rooms allowing visitors to see exactly what is available. The advertisement also allows you to include a more comprehensive list of facilities at your property. This list will be used in our search tools so it is recommended it be included to ensure your property is listed. These include dishwasher, fridge, air conditioning, internet connection television etc. For a more details list see our sample advertisement. If you provide a facility that is not listed it is possible to include it in the additional section although these will not be used to search upon.  Top Price Guide The price guide allows visitors to see how much your property is. First it is necessary to include the duration of the rates (ie per week, per night etc), the change over day and the currency in which you wish your prices to be displayed. Once you have made these choices you are able to include up to ten seasons and their prices. The seasons can entered in a way that suits you for example: Low, Mid, High, Peak or January/February/March, April/May, June, July/August/September etc or Jan 16th to Mar 25th, Mar 26th to May 1st, May 2nd to Jun 15th etc With each season you must enter a price but it is not possible to include from/to prices (ie from £100 to £200), they must be entered as integers. If your prices are entered in Sterling all prices entered will automatically be converted to Euros and US Dollars to provide visitors with a better idea if Sterling is not their own currency. If you do not wish to include this information it is possible to remove it by selecting the appropriate option. Once you have constructed your prices guide you can include additional information. This should include information about what is included or excluded in the price and any deposits you require so the visitor can work out how much the property will cost and when they have to pay.  Top Property Complex In the case that you have a number of properties on one location you may decide to include them all on the Bonnes Vacances Direct website. It possible to do this in one of two ways: Individual advertisements for each property One advertisement with multiple property listings Individual advertisements for each property This option will include a whole advertisement with information about each individual property. Each advertisement consists of three sections; the main advertisement, the photographs and the property listing and all will be unique to each property. By taking this option it will allow for an individual photograph of each property to appear in the search results so your cottage does not appear with a photograph of your chateau! In addition you can write up each property on its own advertisement so visitors do not have to browse all the text just to find the property they are interested in. For further information on each of these sections please use the links below. Main Advertisement Photographs Property Listing  Top One advertisement with multiple property listings An alternative to placing individual advertisements for each is to place one advertisement but to include additional listings for each property. This option allows unique property listing data to be included but the main advertisement and the photographs will remain the same and in the same order for all your listings. Although this option is cheaper it may not provide visitors with just the information on the property they are interested in. This does not mean this option should not be used it is just necessary to think a little more about the content of the advertisement and the way in which it is presented to the visitors. Remember: because the main advertisement content remains the same for all the listings on one advertisement it will be necessary to include text about all of them along with appropriate photographs. As the primary photograph is used in the search results it is recommended that you include a general photograph in this position so the search results do not show a listing for a cottage but a photograph of a chateau! Please note: because by choosing this option you are placing one advertisement you will be provided with one advertisement reference number and visitors using this to access it will be shown all the properties featured. Once they have chosen the property they are interested in they will be able to focus this property and therefore removing the others from the display. For further information on each of these sections please use the links below. Main Advertisement Photographs Property Listing  Top Additional entry for property complex In either case you may decide to place an additional advertisement or listing to advertise the complex as a whole. So for example if you own a complex of three properties sleeping 3, 4 and 6 you can include and advert/listing for each and an additional one for 13 so you entry will be found for clients looking for larger accommodation. If you place an additional advertisement for your complex this should be entered as a complex in the property type, the text should be written about the complex as a whole and the photographs to be more general rather than concentrate on one property. By placing an additional property listing you can include the search criteria and change the property type to property complex but it is not possible to include generalised text and photographs.  Top