Selling weeks, not nights

The unit of sale shapes the guest

Platforms sort by price per night because it makes everything comparable. For a villa with a cook, a garden and a view, that is the least flattering way to be seen. It also attracts the guest who shops on price and will leave for a cheaper listing next year.

Most villas are lived in by the week, Saturday to Saturday. Selling them that way is not only a booking rule. It changes what the guest is comparing.

A host brand, and houses with names

The first decision was structural. Each villa keeps its name and story; CASALBE becomes the host that stands behind all fourteen. Guests learn to trust the host and then choose a house, the way they might choose a room in a hotel they already know.

• A page per house. Its story, its plan, its staff, and which room has the morning sun.
• Weeks, not nights. Enquiries run Saturday to Saturday, as the houses do.
• Before arrival. A guide by email covers shopping, transfers and the questions the cook will ask.
• In the house. House books, hamper tags, key rings and pool towels carry the host brand quietly through the stay.

Write like a host

The voice is warm and practical: where the bakery is, when the pool is warm enough, how far the beach is on foot. This is what a guest would otherwise ask the owner, and it is the best evidence that someone cares how the week goes.

When guests compare you on price per night, change what they are comparing.

Villa collections, chalets and private estates can test this simply. Write the page for one house as if you were describing a whole week there, then see whether the nightly price is still the first thing a reader looks for. CASALBE's site went live fourteen weeks after the project began, in time for the season's first enquiries in January.

See the full case: CASALBE, host brand and website for fourteen villas.