Scotland

The new Western Isles/Outer Hebrides accommodation portal Enjoy Hebrides has silently opened it’s doors to accommodation providers on the Isle of Harris, Isle of Lewis and some of the other islands of the Hebrides of Scotland. Why have they done this so early as they had said that they were not launching officially until next season. I dedicided to ask a few questions and see exactly what has been going on for the last two or three weeks.

 Well it would appear that the main reason for Enjoy Hebrides accepting new members for a short period is that, to their great surprise, many of their sites have already started to appear on the first page of results on the main search engines for some of the accommodation in the Western Isles and Outer Hebrides related searches. After careful consideration the owners decided that it would be unfair to not start accepting new members at the earliest opportunity so that they can gain the maximum benefit. I took a look at the situation as it stands and was shocked to discover that for many searches 3 out of the ten sites listed on the first page were part of the Enjoy Hebrides Network of sites (roughly about a dozen are active with another 8 to be built in the next month). Furthermore we could see that their sites, and some of their “associated” sites appear on pages 2, 3, and beyond. So it looks as though all their sites are quickly gaining ground.

The strange thing is that the promotion of these sites has been at an absolute minimum so the general atmosphere is one of intense excitement. With Visit Scotland and Visit Hebrides changing their sites, at long last, is there any need for such a project? Well, the beauty of the network is that it is a not-for-profit organisation, which means every penny made is immediately reinvested into the network and promotion of the sites and the islands.

Another important benefit for accommodation providers is that they will only need to deal with one organisation to appear on over 30 separate web sites (all dedicated to Hebrides Accommodation). Not only this the price has been set at £200 for the first year, which is little more than the cost of appearing on one site and, with the lowest price for a listing being £50 a year being a member of Enjoy Hebrides will save folk a small fortune. Furthermore if you have more than one property you only pay the £200 fee for your first property and only £100 for any others you want listed – that’s half price!

Well Enjoy Hebrides haven’t yet contacted accommodation providers in the Western Isles/Outer Hebrides as they do not want to be flooded with enquiries as they still have many more sites to build and more associate sites to search out. However, if their sites continue to be as successful as their first batch it will not be long before everybody notices this bold venture and surely then they will open the doors permanently.

In the meantime, if you are an accommodation provider in the Outer Hebrides/Western Isles, especially on the Isles of Lewis and Harris, then I strongly advise that you jump in early to ensure a good placement in all of their listings.