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Why WWW.ANTIQUANATURA.COM?

Welcome! If you own a rural house and want to get reservations through the web, this is the best Internet site for you.

Maybe you already know about us, and want to sign up directly. In that case, you can register by any of the following means:

By email: info@antiquanatura.com

By telephone: + 34 91 576 8873

By fax: + 34 91 576 8873

Filling in our online form

If you still don't know about us, let us tell you why from 10 years on, Antiqua Natura is the best choice to advertise your rural lodging and get reservations. Since we are owners, too, we are conscious of the time and money you invested in keeping your business going on. Please take your time to read carefully the following information, which you will find very useful.

TRAJECTORY. Created in 1997, Antiqua Natura was the first on-line directory devoted to rural houses. Since then, things have considerably changed: in those early times, there weren't many rural houses, neither Internet users, and there was no competition at all. Today, more than 15.000 lodgings struggle to have a share in the tourist business; over 20 million people in Spain use Internet to find a rural lodging, and hundreds of websites claim to be the best place to advertise your rural house. In this growing scenario, we are constantly working in being the most effective, fastest, easiest and attractive way to connect owners with users. 

VISITS. These days, Antiqua Natura is visited by 7000 persons each day to find a rural house. That is equivalent to a large travel agency, with two million prospective clients each ear coming in to look for a rural lodging. This fact, plus over 800 lodgings advertising in AN, make our site the most effective one in Internet. Our visits/lodging ratio is equal to 9 visitors/day per lodging.

HIGH-QUALITY INFORMATION. We have always tried to make our information be as complete as possible. All the information is provided by owners and updated each time something new comes up.

FAST AND SIMPLE. Our layout is constantly updated to create a fast and simple environment for our users: hardly anyone offers as much written and visual information from the very first click as www.antiquanatura.com. Our reliable engine is the fastest way to find, compare and get complete information about the lodgings. This is not the outcome of a random process, but the result of years of permanent testing (and we keep getting better.) Our directory may not be the main source of visits to your own website, since we try to show your place as much as possible. Visitors will only click your web's link once their decision is practically taken.

We strongly believe the most useful information is the one that comes from the owner. Keeping that in mind, we created simple tools that allow owners to make comments, update information, manage the photo gallery and update availability (whether there are vacancies or not for a given date).

INTERNATIONALIZATION.  Beyond these tools, we translate to English all the information, in order to reach a growing market that seeks a different kind of tourism. And, of course, we provide statistics so that you can check the effectiveness of your advert. We will also help you to improve it in case it's not the appropriate one.

POSITIONING IN SEARCH ENGINES. Antiqua Natura is the best positioned directory on rural tourism: not only are we placed in the first positions for generic search terms (see examples in the two main search engines: rural tourism - rural house in Spanish), but we also work in what we call "multiple positioning" -that is, our lodgings are in specialized searches (see "turismo rural Almadén". By the way, the web "Mis Pueblos" web that appears on the results is also ours and has a straight link to www.antiquanatura.com . That is, the top four placements are ours.  The same thing happens in English, with top placements for generic searchs such as "Rural Hotels Spain" or "Agrotourism Spain". We also offer excellent results for thousands of search strings such as "Agrotourism in Cáceres", or the very specific "rural hotels in Cortegana".

SINERGY FROM OTHER WEBS. As well, the profuse information and great interest of our other websites (such as www.mispueblos.es - with plenty of information on every Spanish city, or ww.spanatura.com, a directory of spas in Spain, Portugal and Andorra) generate a fluent and specific traffic of users that look for the perfect rural house in www.antiquatura.com.

Another advantage is the random placement that presents lodgings on an egalitarian basis. 

In short, over these ten years of hard work, we have made www.antiquanatura.com a fast, simple, attractive, useful and worthwhile directory of rural tourism.

 

OUR RATES

 

Our affordable rates are paid on an annual basis:

ANNUAL RATES

 

- Rates in Spain and the Baleares include 16% VAT
* The Canaries and  Portugal are exempt of VAT

 

FAVOURITES. This category doesn't pretend by any means to make a difference between "good" and "bad" lodgings. On the contrary, it distinguishes in an immediate way those high-level places that stand out because of its quality standards, design, landscape, architecture or services and whose rates are normally higher than the rest. These lodgings held a particular prominence in any traveller's experience.

This differentiation allows finding quickly of the most suitable lodging and reflects a duality that exists in Spain. That is, there are two kinds of demand, one of them seeking the lodging as a foremost part of the trip, and another that sees accommodation merely as a "base camp" to explore the natural surroundings.

FRONT PAGE. If you want to advertise a special offer, this is the ideal choice. A space in front page can be booked for two weeks or a month. Rates are 60 and 120 ? respectively. Visits to your file will be increased five times.

 

COMPARE OUR SITE WITH OTHER WEBS

 

There are thousands of webs devoted to rural lodgings. Here we provide a brief review of the ones that operate on a national level and are currently placed on the first positions in search engines. These reviews are of course subjective and you should always contrast our opinions visiting the sites. Although each one has strong and weak points, the overall scenario, exception made of three websites, isn't very appealing.

TOPRURAL.COM: The unquestionable number one, regarding number of visits and lodgings. Nevertheless, as we said before, this fact can be deceitful, since visits should be measured in relation to advertising lodgings. At this point, the web is in a weaker situation than us. Anyway, it is no doubt the most complete one in terms of information and it has a really professional administration, which is not typically the case in the other directories. The owners' forum is actually good. Another drawback is the fact that lodgings are not randomly listed, which benefits some in spite of others. Other controversial point is the user's comments that can turn out to be really harmful for advertisers.

Its dominant position and deep impact in owners is object of an article in our rural tourism blog.

Together with us and MICASARURAL, it's the only web that provides a significant number of bookings.

Annual rates range from 124 and 900 ?, depending on the position owners want to held in the gigantic search results.

TURISMORURAL.COM: This site started life simply as a good domain name with bad contents.  Lately, the site has been through a series of professional changes to readapt its positioning in search engines. It displays a complete description and contact information of the lodgings. Even so, the layout can be improved. Rates are reasonable (from 30 to 80 ? annually, according to the lodging's capacity)

Something we don't really like about this web is that to this day lodgings are not identified, and address or telephone number is not provided.

CLUBRURAL.COM. Contents are chaotically featured. We consider very difficult to browse a website with so much adverts, links, texts. If you manage to reach a specific file, you'll see that some don't provide much information. Others do, but they hide it behind the superior flaps. When you want to go back to the listing, the following message appears: "Warning: the page has expired". In their advertising page, they refer to their positioning, which is true. Nevertheless, they use "Alexa" as proof of their leadership, which is rather dumb for anyone who knows how these audience charts work. Positioning is not everything. Its self-promotion page is titled "Why with clubrural.com". I guess what they actually mean is "Why Clubrural?" It seems nonsense, but the professionalism we talked about before resides in these details. Rates go from 30 to 60 ?

TODOTURISMORURAL.COM: Somewhat mediocre look, but I won't stop to comment this page, since contact information is not provided. A web that blocks the contact with the owner is useless.

RURALIBERICA.COM: Tasteless layout and colours, in our opinion. It barely shows information about the lodging -there's just a link to their website. This system is tedious when it comes to comparing lodging options. It rather seems to be an excuse to show Google ads - probably the major income source. The proof is that signing up is free, therefore, recommendable.  There are many sites like this.

 

RURISMO.COM: A bad, shameless copy of Toprural, with all its drawbacks and none of its advantages. Rates go from 30 to 60 ?. We still haven't been able to trace who they are.

 

CASAS-TURISMO-RURAL.COM: Pretty awful page, oriented towards computer-related effectiveness. The layout was made by Banhacker, true cracks in the development business and really nice people, although the look-and-feel is terrible. The site derives from the super-visited www.pueblosdeespana.org .

As far as we know, membership is free, and the site is well placed in search engines, so we recommend it. Whether it's effective, it's a different thing.

TURISMORURALYAVENTURA.COM: If you already know where to click and are able to overcome a series of pages riddled with horizontal bars, you'll eventually reach the lodging section. There, hidden between the colourful bars, is featured the information. A true example of how design can hide the really important stuff. Rates start from 90 ? annually. There are lots of information about adventure tourism for those who can find it.

ECOTURISMORURAL.COM: This web belongs to ASETUR (Spanish Rural Tourism Association). If we deem a face as the reflection of the soul, we could say the webs are the mirror of the person in charge: institutional, unflattering, ineffective. That's just our opinion; in any case, it just takes a brief visit to the page to check it. We haven't been able to find out how to sign up, or whether it's free. We imagine it belongs to some regional association.

MAGIARURAL.COM: A good idea, poorly developed. Information isn't displayed in an attractive way. There is a free membership option and a paying option (60 ? per year). We haven't found the people in charge of this site, not even in the legal notice.

REVISTAIBERICA.COM:  A true on-line tourism magazine, with a section about lodgings. Visually, advertisements and Google ads are overshadowing.  As a site to get tourist information, it works. If your aim is to promote your lodging, it's useless. The site obviously belongs to an editorial group.

ALLRURAL.COM: The overall concept is good, and the page looks pretty, but it has a major drawback: users have to enter a given province to look for a rural house. Slow and difficult. Not to mention, for instance, if you are looking for a house with a swimming pool in a given area. In this kind of sites, any mistake can spoil the whole product. The price list is confusing, although there seems to be a free option, which is ok. You can also book a more complete file for 50 ? a year.

INDICERURAL.COM: Keeps the homemade, innocent style of its early days. It has though incorporated some other functions. Free features have barely any information, which results in poor-quality contents. It also mixes third party's ads with their own, which is confusing. In short, it's more personal than professional. There is a free and a 70 ? option.

GUIARURAL.COM: One of the eldest ones, but if you take a look, you'll see the site has remained outdated regarding layout and easiness. Rates go from 20 a los 210 ?.  The web can be aesthetically improved. Try it as an ordinary user and decide.

MICASARURAL.COM. Our friend Carlos started this web as a hobby and soon enough realized that as a professional he'd get a significant share in the field. And he really made it.  What started as a small application inspired in our web is today one of the best options to find a rural house. The only drawback is the little information featured about the lodgings, which forces users to enter to the house's websites.  I think Carlos consciously does this to produce more visits to the owners' webs and promote this (mistakenly) as an effectiveness indicator. Rates: 99 to 210 ? a year.

RURALGEST.NET: Concerning users, Ruralgest and its clones show a clean and efficient page. Concerning owners, it's a totally different thing. Ruralgest is in fact a software application to manage, for instance, occupation. The concept itself is good, since the software updates its data bases to show availability on real time and therefore clients can book online. The initial idea was that they would provide the software to a group of webs. This was supposed to be beneficial for all parts (they would be able to sell their software and we would add an extra service to our sites). What could go wrong? Ruralgest tried to shut the circle on their own and created a series of rural tourism websites using the databases of the clients that used their software. All those apparently different pages (casas.rurales.org.es, mipueblo.es, casarural.cc, lawebdelpropietariorural.com.) are in fact the same directory with different names. That policy has created confusion in the market and confronted them with the rest of webmasters.

As owners, you might not be interested in this fact, and you're right not to. What really matters is that, to be in their website, you have to pay 522 ? for the software, pay 10 to 30% of commissions to the agencies or operators and annual fees that range from 85 to 300 ?.

But the underlying question is "Does on-line booking actually work?" We think it's not easy for traditional housings, since owners like to get in touch with prospective visitors prior arrival.  Guests, too, prefer direct contact with the owner before booking.

Anyway, answering that question is maybe easier: just ask owners of rural houses how did the system work.

 

CASAS RURALES.INFO:  To show your basic contact information (telephone number, mail and web page), you have to send a SMS that costs 232 pesetas. There's nothing much to comment.

ADVICE FOR OWNERS

Our web is made by rural tourism owners. So our aim is not only to get bookings: we also feature a section where, in a laid-back and simple style, we provide some advice to manage and promote your lodging. This is the result of comparing different colleague's opinions, as well as our own experiences and mistakes through the last 10 years.

You can check them out at:

-         BLOG de TURISMO RURAL , and

-         CONSEJOS PARA PROPIETARIOS DE TURISMO RURAL

I hope you find them useful.