VillaVilla

How We Helped a Luxury Holiday Home Provider to Grow

In 2022, after many years of collaborating with Comunica, VillaVilla decided to rebrand and launch an English-language website. The idea was not necessarily to target travellers in the UK or the US, but to increase their reach across Europe through a common language and break beyond the usual market. Here’s how we helped them achieve their goals.

VillaVilla is a Danish company founded in 2003, specialising in the rental of luxury holiday homes – particularly those featuring indoor swimming pools and whirlpools. Their properties are big, spacious and located in some of the most scenic and desirable resort areas in Denmark. Not to mention, they also have some properties in Sweden and Germany.

Traditionally, VillaVilla’s customers come mostly from within Denmark and its neighbouring customers – especially Germany, Sweden and Norway. But as Kathrine, Digital Business Developer at VillaVilla, notes:

“We have long seen a growing interest in Danish holiday-home rentals, especially among Dutch and Polish visitors, but also from elsewhere. We could see that our competitors were picking up a significant share of those visitors, and so we decided to create an English-language version of the website to catch those visitors who were not being served by the existing language variants.”

English – The Strategic Choice

Although research shows that most web users have a tendency to search in their own language – and indeed, that localised content tends to inspire greater levels of consumer confidence – budget constraints and practical considerations can pose a challenge to this. Often it is necessary to choose strategically, or to start with one or two languages and build out from there.

In VillaVilla’s case, volume was also a compounding factor. Their website consists not just of practical information and essential booking functions, but also extensive listings for each of their properties. These descriptions serve two purposes – they market a vision of the house, and they provide full details of its location, amenities and booking terms. They can’t exactly be shortened or combined, and so budget was always going to be a primary concern for a project like this.

The decision was therefore taken to focus on English – a language that most consumers in the target markets can read well, and which is often used as an intermediary when booking holidays. The company then implemented this text in a so-called channel manager, allowing them to advertise their homes via the most popular platforms in their target markets.

A Tailored Approach with an AI Boost

Costs were further controlled by the use of AI. Rather than translating all text from scratch, we analysed the company’s web content and divided it into different categories. Primary texts that play a key role in driving conversions were translated by a human linguist. Property listings, on the other hand, were pretranslated by a machine-translation tool and then checked, edited and verified by a human reviewer. 

This gave us the ultimate combination of human persuasion and AI efficiency for a result that was as functional as it was affordable. As Kathrine puts it:

“We really appreciate Comunica’s  ability to deliver translations at different levels. For example, a post-edited translation may be fine for a social-media text, while a legal document should preferably be translated by someone who has a complete mastery of the language.”

Bringing Holiday Hygge to the World

In terms of the actual translation work, one of the challenges of this project was creating an attractive yet universal vision of the quintessential Danish holiday experience. After all, holidaying in Denmark means different things to different people, and the further away the target market is, the less likely they are to have a clear and shared idea about what this means.

According to Michael, the translator who worked on the English texts: “The trick was to avoid thinking too much like a British or an American tourist. I strove to keep the texts as general as possible, but always without watering down those things that make Denmark special to the world. For example, we decided to keep in words like hygge, because they’re not only familiar and comprehensible beyond Denmark’s borders, but they’re a USP that draws people to the country.

“On the other hand, certain things needed to be explained or adapted. The sheer mention of certain seaside towns – like Skagen or Hvide Sande – is enough to conjure up specific images and feelings of nostalgia in native Danes. Often it was necessary to try and paint a picture for readers from further afield, to help them understand why these places are special and well worth choosing for a holiday.”

By taking a freer and more creative approach in strategic parts of the text, we were able to position VillaVilla’s USPs – namely their luxury properties in beautiful locations – and really sell what makes them special in a way that chimes with readers from across Europe. The idea is that it shouldn’t matter whether you’re already familiar with Denmark’s resort towns or attractions or not. Each listing is appealing enough to sell the prospect on its own merit.

A Danish Summer Dream

Through our expert localisation services, we:

• Developed a strategic solution tailored to the client’s budget
• Helped the client increase bookings in Poland, the Netherlands and beyond
• Found creative and targeted ways to communicate their USP

If you would like to learn more about the specifics of this case or find out how we can help your company to achieve similar results, take a closer look at our services page or book a consultation. You can also read more about our work within the tourism sector here, or check out our other areas of expertise on this page.