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Below, we are sharing a feature article published by the portal Istarski.hr (https://istarski.hr/node/101091-u-romanticnoj-kuci-za-dvoje-u-ruralnoj-istri-popunjenost-preko-300-dana).
A house for two in the rural part of eastern Istria that is booked for more than 300 days a year, thanks to direct bookings, without any agency. Sounds like a utopia, doesn’t it?
But this is the story of Lučana Mohorović and her very popular Villa Romantica, which over time has become a brand in its own right, with available dates often being sought even a year in advance. How did she achieve this? We decided to find out firsthand and spoke with Lučana, who shared her experience with us.
As we drove toward Villa Romantica, located in the small village of Županići in the Labin area, we wondered how tourists even find this place, which is still quite far from urban centers, the sea, and everything we usually consider to be the main reasons guests come. But already at the first contact with Lučana, it became clear that this place radiates a special energy, just like its owner.
With a sincere smile and cheerful spirit, Lučana opened the doors of her house to us, a property marketed as “adults only” accommodation that welcomes only couples, and explained why her story is different.
From idea to a recognizable brand
“First of all, thank you for inviting me to present what I do and how I do it. The place where we are now began living its tourism story in 2018, when we started renting out this house for two. The beginnings were not easy, and when I decided that on this plot of land I inherited I wanted to build a house for tourists, and one that would be completely different from everything usually offered, I was met with resistance and suspicion.
I used to draw sketches of how I wanted the house to look and hide them from the household, but I had that vision and desire and I knew I would succeed. We built this small house of just around 50 square meters, and every part of it reflects me, because I myself am exactly the kind of person I want this house to represent and brand.
I am a romantic at heart, I love cleanliness, the color white, soft pink tones, and I like everything to be neat and pleasant. That is why the house is like this too, it radiates whiteness and romantic tones. There are no black-gray combinations here, that simply isn’t me, and I don’t feel comfortable in those colors.
I take care of every detail, so when guests enter, they are surprised by the pleasant scents throughout the house, the welcome gifts where we give them our branded chocolates and various other souvenirs and interesting gifts, as well as the rich additional offer we provide, such as breakfast, massages…”
The key to success lies in good websites and constant engagement in promotion
Unlike most hosts who leave the sales side of the business to agencies or booking platforms, Lučana decided to take that job into her own hands and became fully involved in promoting her house, which turned out to be a very good decision.
Villa Romantica (https://villaromantica.com.hr/) is promoted on social media – Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube – while the foundation for bookings and accommodation sales is a website created in Apartmanica. Thanks to these channels, Lučana’s house sells extremely well, and its occupancy давно stopped depending only on the summer months.
Results that come through consistency
“We are fully booked for more than 300 days a year, and if I wanted to, I could easily have bookings for the entire year. Still, sometimes you need to stop and take a little time for yourself. I truly love what I do, and I think that is why success came.”
I truly enjoy every segment of this job, I adore tourism, talking with my guests fulfills me, and I love creating posts for social media… That is why I constantly continue learning, and I am currently attending a five-month school of internet marketing and branding, which I consider very important in this business.
From the start, I have invested in promotion, created giveaways, package deals, hosted journalists and influencers… A great help here was my dear friend and associate Luka Škabić, who is a true brand ambassador of Villa Romantica. With Luka, countless shoots have been done here, he brought participants from beauty and tourism pageants to the villa, and as the current holder of the title of second runner-up of Mister Tourism Croatia, he has truly raised the reputation of the villa and of the whole area.
All of this has paid off, so today this house has over 30,000 followers on Facebook, videos on TikTok reach incredible numbers of up to 240,000 views, and we have collected more than 350 reviews… I have always invested a lot in good photography, which sells the most, so I decided to invest in good photography equipment, and now I photograph everything myself that might be interesting to guests.
Every post I publish on any social network directs the interested customer to my website. There they can find absolutely all the information in a very clear and organized way, and reservations are also made through the site. My website is synchronized with social media, and I can say that I now receive bookings exclusively through my own pages.
I do not need any agency. We are also present on Booking, but all reservations are direct. I emphasize to guests that with direct bookings they get the best price, and that way they save money while I achieve better earnings. Apartmanica pages play a key role in that.
With your own website, a host achieves the highest earnings
Although from the beginning of her business she had her own Apartmanica website, for some time she paused it, thinking she could function just as well without it. But she admits that this was a mistake, which she decided to correct when she was no longer satisfied with the results.
Returning to Apartmanica brought her bookings for almost the entire year within 24 hours. Along with great engagement on social media, she sees the website as the foundation of good business, because this tool gives the host constant availability to guests, control over the content published about the accommodation, direct communication, control over reservations, brand strengthening, and most importantly, the highest possible earnings, since there are no agency commissions.
Why she returned to Apartmanica
“From the very first year, I had Apartmanica websites and I was satisfied. The pages were excellent and I received bookings through them, although at that time I really didn’t deal with them much, but people around me somehow convinced me to try building my own pages through WordPress, and that’s what I did.
That was a mistake, because I could never really manage those pages, everything looked so complicated, the interface was confusing to use, and the effect was nonexistent. After a few years, I decided to return to Apartmanica. And it was the best decision ever, because new reservations started arriving immediately after returning to Apartmanica, and in huge numbers.
Now I myself have taken the website work more seriously, and that is why the results are here. If you follow the advice of the Apartmanica team, the results certainly will not be missing. Now I have excellent photos, which I often change and add to, and my text is optimized and I do not touch it because it is adjusted to achieve the best possible success on search engines.
We managed to achieve that when searching for keywords such as “house for two”, my page appears first on search engines. I am truly grateful to the whole Apartmanica team for everything they have done for me.
The process of creating the site is extremely fast and simple, and I got my page in less than 7 days. They transformed all my ideas and requirements into an aesthetically attractive, intuitive, and functional design, paying attention to every detail, from colors and fonts to the layout of elements, resulting in a website that highlights my brand and gives users a pleasant experience.
For every question I have, they have a ready answer. They are very up to date, informed, and fast, and it is clear that they are outstanding experts in marketing, sales, and website creation tailored precisely to what guests are looking for. And truly anyone can use their pages because everything is set up very simply. Realistically, it is the best possible investment for a host because you recover the website cost already with the first or second booking, while the results are lasting and guaranteed.”
With a quality offer, tourism 365 days a year is absolutely possible
The key, says Lučana, lies in the combination of good websites and constant investment in social media content and marketing. Then, she says, bookings are guaranteed at any time of the year.
Given that the house is not located on the coast and that in Istria even large hoteliers struggle to find guests in the winter months, we asked her how she achieved this and who comes to Villa Romantica. Lučana readily concludes that it is important to have as rich an offer as possible and to stand out in something.
A rich offer for guests throughout the year
“We constantly invest in something new and in marketing, and it is important to us that the guest feels truly happy and fulfilled. First, wanting to enrich the offer, we bought a large outdoor jacuzzi for 5 people.
But I did not want the guest who comes in the winter months to have an unpleasant experience if, for example, it is raining outside. So we invested in a mobile wellness space where we placed the jacuzzi, as well as a Finnish sauna and a massage table. We also have a heated pool, and that truly attracts guests throughout the whole year.
Guests are also delighted by our surprise basket called “romantic morning” and by the breakfast, which is really abundant. We like to tell guests that while they slowly open their eyes and absorb the first rays of sun, their breakfast is arriving at the door. After all, the day is known by its morning, and we want our guests to always be satisfied.
That is also why we have so many reviews, and guests often write us a review even before they leave the property, because they are so positively surprised. In fact, we are already fully booked now for New Year’s Eve, and we have reservations for the spring of next year as well, when one couple will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary here.
Since we brand ourselves as a romantic oasis, we have had many engagements, Valentine’s Day celebrations, honeymoons, and similar occasions here. During winter our guests are Croatians and Slovenians, and in the summer months guests come from Germany.
What turned out to be a smart move is that we also offer the possibility of day rental, because we realized that many guests could not fit in a three-day stay, which used to be our minimum. So now we also have a day rental option without overnight stay, and I can say that we have an incredible number of such inquiries.
We manage to stand out from strong competition because we are constantly offering something new and creating different packages. For example, we have standard packages with overnight stay, then packages upgraded with breakfast, massages, dinner in a nearby restaurant, and so on.
The key lies in the host’s hospitality, good communication, the authenticity of the experience, and sincere hospitality. And when you have all that, add good websites, and the story becomes complete.”
In the end, we had planned to ask Lučana what her future plans were, but after she showed us and told us everything she offers, that question no longer made sense. A guest at Villa Romantica truly can get everything they desire, and imagining yourself here even in the winter months, for example in the heated pool or jacuzzi in a relaxing atmosphere filled with pleasant aromas of luxury essential oils while rain drizzles outside, and nearby the fire crackles in the outdoor fireplace waiting to prepare the barbecue, is no longer difficult for us at all.
Authenticity, hospitality, sincerity, a smile, and good marketing are the magical words for success in tourism.
Request an offer for your website
If you also want a website that helps achieve direct bookings and strengthen your own brand, you can request more information and an offer via www.apartmanica.com/zatrazi-ponudu.
