Sorry...can I just confirm; my changeover day is saturday...so all saturdays in the season I operate are green (still looks confusing).
Are you saying that a quote will quote them 8 days not 7??? (bizarre)
Are you also saying that if I tweak it so that any day can be an arrival day then every day will show green?
Apologies for being thick!
Mousie
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More OD woes
If I want to book 8 days with you, I can do so long as my holiday starts on a Saturday. The quote for the 8 days will be a week plus a nightly rate of 1/7 of the weekly rate for the extra day. You then cannot let the rest of that week as your changeover day is a Saturday...Mouse wrote:Sorry...can I just confirm; my changeover day is saturday...so all saturdays in the season I operate are green (still looks confusing).
Are you saying that a quote will quote them 8 days not 7??? (bizarre)
Are you also saying that if I tweak it so that any day can be an arrival day then every day will show green?
Apologies for being thick!
Mousie
x
Apparently you can change your changeover day for each season that you have set and the chosen day will show as green. If someone does a search for a property that starts in a different date to your change-over day then your property won't show in the results. I am not sure if OD will still quote for an 8 day stay if you have set say a Sat change-over.
I have set my change-over day for Saturday in high season but I am still not happy. There may be holidaymakers who want to travel on a different day but when they to see my wonderful property (
) they might change their plans and come on a Saturday ... but if OD never shows it to them they will never make that change to their plans and I could lose a potential booking.
I have set my change-over day for Saturday in high season but I am still not happy. There may be holidaymakers who want to travel on a different day but when they to see my wonderful property (
) they might change their plans and come on a Saturday ... but if OD never shows it to them they will never make that change to their plans and I could lose a potential booking.I've just read this and agree so I have changed all my dates back to any change over day and stays possible form 1 night in the hope I will appear in more searches and can then start that all important dialogue with potential guests.newtimber wrote:Your property looks lovely and you need to appear in the search results. If I were you, I would specify flexible changeovers and put in the notes that your usual changeover day is a Saturday. We have often had enquiries for dates that aren't on our usual changeover days but guests are sometimes prepared to change their plans by a day to stay in a special property ...Sammy wrote: I could put a note in the advert blurb, but if someone is searching purely by dates then my property will not appear anyway...because according to OD I only accept Saturday arrivals
If you don't appear in their date search, they won't ever know about you so you won't even be able to start the conversation.
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SandyBeaches
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
- Location: Norfolk Coast
I've always had my changeover day set to none as I have at least two changeover days all year anyway, plus flexible booking in the winter. I have three night and four night minimums which worked to provide quotes on my set changeover days but is wrong for anything else.
So until, and in the forlorn hope they will change the calendar, would I be better to remove my minimum stays? I'm just not sure it's worth all this effort when I have so many other more productive things to do, as I'm sure we all do!
So until, and in the forlorn hope they will change the calendar, would I be better to remove my minimum stays? I'm just not sure it's worth all this effort when I have so many other more productive things to do, as I'm sure we all do!
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SandyBeaches
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
- Location: Norfolk Coast
I'm keeping my minimum stays as otherwise I get a lot of enquiries for two night break when it's one week minimum. I get enough of those anyway.Nemo wrote:So until, and in the forlorn hope they will change the calendar, would I be better to remove my minimum stays? I'm just not sure it's worth all this effort when I have so many other more productive things to do, as I'm sure we all do!
OD is just making it such hard work!
I posted on a few of their house adverts on their page that I couldn't make out availability. Some bright spark at OD has replied telling me to use the date/quote facility....so that's their game.
I have replied saying that my dates are flexible and I don't want to keep inputting dates, I just want to see what the total availability is.
This reminded me of the conversation I had with Frank. Remember him? He insisted that marketing showed them that people favoured using the date process to find availiability. I said that was rubbish as many had flexible dates as I knew from a fact having working in the online accommodation business for over 4 years. For example people book accommodation first, then flights (in the main).
He insisted I was wrong and that holidaymakers had set dates according to their research. I asked him to tell me the demographics of the research and he said he couldn't as he was only given the headlines.
If they used anyone, I would imagine it was americans and maybe they book differently.
He also didn't seem to get that through discussion an owner could often get a booking by the enquirer changing their holiday dates, so the quote system didn't allow for that.....that kinda blew his mind.
Mouse
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I have replied saying that my dates are flexible and I don't want to keep inputting dates, I just want to see what the total availability is.
This reminded me of the conversation I had with Frank. Remember him? He insisted that marketing showed them that people favoured using the date process to find availiability. I said that was rubbish as many had flexible dates as I knew from a fact having working in the online accommodation business for over 4 years. For example people book accommodation first, then flights (in the main).
He insisted I was wrong and that holidaymakers had set dates according to their research. I asked him to tell me the demographics of the research and he said he couldn't as he was only given the headlines.
If they used anyone, I would imagine it was americans and maybe they book differently.
He also didn't seem to get that through discussion an owner could often get a booking by the enquirer changing their holiday dates, so the quote system didn't allow for that.....that kinda blew his mind.
Mouse
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
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SandyBeaches
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
- Location: Norfolk Coast
Oh for goodness sake. What planet are they on?
Just yesterday I had an enquiry from someone for booked dates. I replied that it was unavailable and she came straight back to me asking if there was any other availability later in the summer. I didn't even offer her alternative dates - it was her that asked me!
So the OD strategy is to completely ignore those people who have flexible dates. Yeah, that's really helpful. Let's exclude these potential customers.
Just yesterday I had an enquiry from someone for booked dates. I replied that it was unavailable and she came straight back to me asking if there was any other availability later in the summer. I didn't even offer her alternative dates - it was her that asked me!
So the OD strategy is to completely ignore those people who have flexible dates. Yeah, that's really helpful. Let's exclude these potential customers.
I have just emailed them because I am showing (although they are difficult to see) odd available days in Winter. Yet when I go in to my dashboard I am completely blocked on dates all through from October to May.
I can't see how I can change this. So whatever is being shown on line now is not representative of what has been actioned on the dashboard.
I feel a headache coming on.
Mouse
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I can't see how I can change this. So whatever is being shown on line now is not representative of what has been actioned on the dashboard.
I feel a headache coming on.
Mouse
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
Newtimber...where do you alter it to 'flexible' please?newtimber wrote:Your property looks lovely and you need to appear in the search results. If I were you, I would specify flexible changeovers and put in the notes that your usual changeover day is a Saturday. We have often had enquiries for dates that aren't on our usual changeover days but guests are sometimes prepared to change their plans by a day to stay in a special property ...Sammy wrote: I could put a note in the advert blurb, but if someone is searching purely by dates then my property will not appear anyway...because according to OD I only accept Saturday arrivals
If you don't appear in their date search, they won't ever know about you so you won't even be able to start the conversation.
Mousie
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
Thanks newtimber....done that. I know that it looks as if I now accept arrivals other than a Saturday but I can manage that at enquiry stage. It looks better, at a glance, to have all dates showing green. Otherwise it looks confusing.
I have just come off the phone after a frustrating conversation. My issues were;
I had spurious green arrival dates showing throughout winter even though I had them blocked off in my dashboard calendar.
Answer....as I did it month by month then the system automatically assigns an arrival day on your first selected day (even though there are no available days after it
)
I had some dates showing as available on the advert but not on the dashboard.
Answer....after assigning the arrival day (even though you are blocking off a section) it also assigns a check out day, but this isn't green. That is why the 1st Nov showed as an arrival (green) and the 2nd showed as clear, no strike through.
The other dates were all number 4's. The number 4's don't show the strike through
When I was playing with the dates I tried to make a week available in the middle of my blocked off winter period. It would allow me to do that as it didn't give me an 'available' option.
Answer...if you set up a blocked out period (in my case winter) you can't just go in mid way and create availability. You have to cancel the whole blocked period. Create your new available period. Then block either side of it.
Finally....if you search for properties and bring up a list. Then you click on the availability icon of a property that interests you. You see the green 'available for check in' dates but there is no explanation as to what these are. You only see Available and unavailable.
You have to click in to the advert to see the full description.
She admitted that that was rubbish and said she'd feed back that it was.
I asked why they had done this, and she said to make it easier for people to see when they could check in.
Mousie (losing the will to live)
x
I have just come off the phone after a frustrating conversation. My issues were;
I had spurious green arrival dates showing throughout winter even though I had them blocked off in my dashboard calendar.
Answer....as I did it month by month then the system automatically assigns an arrival day on your first selected day (even though there are no available days after it
)I had some dates showing as available on the advert but not on the dashboard.
Answer....after assigning the arrival day (even though you are blocking off a section) it also assigns a check out day, but this isn't green. That is why the 1st Nov showed as an arrival (green) and the 2nd showed as clear, no strike through.
The other dates were all number 4's. The number 4's don't show the strike through
When I was playing with the dates I tried to make a week available in the middle of my blocked off winter period. It would allow me to do that as it didn't give me an 'available' option.
Answer...if you set up a blocked out period (in my case winter) you can't just go in mid way and create availability. You have to cancel the whole blocked period. Create your new available period. Then block either side of it.
Finally....if you search for properties and bring up a list. Then you click on the availability icon of a property that interests you. You see the green 'available for check in' dates but there is no explanation as to what these are. You only see Available and unavailable.
You have to click in to the advert to see the full description.
She admitted that that was rubbish and said she'd feed back that it was.
I asked why they had done this, and she said to make it easier for people to see when they could check in.
Mousie (losing the will to live)
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
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SandyBeaches
- Posts: 1071
- Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
- Location: Norfolk Coast
Well done for ringing them Mousie. Can't believe they think those answers are justifiable!
I had the same issue with wanting to make a week free in the middle of a blocked off period. I didn't bother in the end and left it booked on the calendar as I couldn't be pfaffed to amend, create, delete - or whatever was required. So anyone looking on OD would have seen it as booked when in fact it was available. Booked it from my own website in the end.
I had the same issue with wanting to make a week free in the middle of a blocked off period. I didn't bother in the end and left it booked on the calendar as I couldn't be pfaffed to amend, create, delete - or whatever was required. So anyone looking on OD would have seen it as booked when in fact it was available. Booked it from my own website in the end.