Ready for auction: how to get onto an Internet auction site
Even online guides and directories, as useful as they are, do the same thing. The hotel sits there waiting for a potential guest to dig his way past thousands of rivals to uncover this hidden gem.
As the Internet is, at best, disorganised and, at worst, utterly random, a good business that wants to get noticed needs to be signposted in as many places as possible. Think of it like having signs giving directions to the hotel at hundreds of junctions on scores of roads. The more signs, the more traffic will come to your door.
An increasingly effective way of selling on the Internet is through an auction. To anyone unfamiliar with the Web, an auction will be an event at which second-hand cars or expensive works of art are sold, not a couple of nights in a hotel. But the beauty of online auctions is that anything is for sale - you just need to find a suitable category on the auction site through which to sell it.
The other huge benefit is that a seller can place an item (be it an antique or a weekend hotel break) in any auction in any country. So even if the business is a small B&B in the Scottish Highlands, it could still attract bidders from all over the world.
A quick search will reveal that there are dozens of auction sites. However, the biggest to look out for is www.ebay.co.uk (or its US equivalent, www.ebay.com ). There are many other significant ones, such as www.qxl.com . They all work pretty much in the same way, as far as the seller is concerned.
What you need to do
If you want to offer something for auction, there are a few simple guidelines:
Decide exactly what you are going to offer - short breaks are the norm for independent hotels.
Then write a short, snappy description. The more details you give, the more information a buyer has and the more likely they are to make a bid. For instance: "Two nights offered in Scottish hotel" may not excite a potential buyer. But "Romantic Valentine's break for two in secluded Highland getaway" probably would.
Pictures are almost essential for a successful sale. Auctions are based on trust, and as buyers can grade sellers and register their opinions on the auction Web site, it pays to be honest. You will need a picture created in (or converted to) a digital format. If your hotel has a Web site, you should already have some.
Then you need to make a decision on price. The seller can specify a minimum bid - anything under that and the item goes unsold. Without this, a hotel could find itself giving away a weekend break for a few pounds if there haven't been many bidders. On the other hand, a minimum bid can give the impression to bidders that they aren't really getting a bargain. One way around this is to include the rack rate in the description of the offer. For example: "Romantic Valentine's break for two in secluded Highland getaway - usually £300, minimum bid £100."
Think of putting an offer up for auction in the same way as a special offer. Use it as a way to encourage new business, not a way to make more money. It hardly costs anything, either. On ebay.co.uk, for example, a basic listing with photographs costs about £10. Then, when your item sells, ebay takes a small cut (about 2.5%) of the highest bid.
As with guidebook entries, don't expect miracles - there are so many items for sale that finding the right offer is tricky, and there may not be any bids at all. However, a bidding war between two buyers can send a price rocketing, and there's a very good chance that the losing bidder will book the same break anyway at normal rates.
Tips:
Putting a break up for auction is simple and costs hardly anything - you have nothing to lose.
Make the description of the offer and hotel as much of a sales pitch as you can - always include pictures.
If you're specifying a minimum bid, keep it as low as possible and stress what the normal rack rate is.
Check your e-mails as often as possible - answer any questions a bidder may have quickly and honestly.
Auctions can be quite good fun, believe it or not, especially if a bidding war starts. Sit back and enjoy it.
