Owners Direct have deactivated my listing

[Nemo]

Sadly still with OD and had renewed in advance for one property until next year. It does bring in bookings still so I can't leave just yet.

They have just deactivated my listing. I have had my advert wording the same since I listed, but of course along the way they have changed their terms. I point out that you don't pay a booking fee if you book with me and I don't have online bookings or payments. Here's their email:

We recently became aware that your listing contains messaging that indicates you are directing travelers to book and/or pay offline to avoid the traveler service fee.

Taking payments outside our reservation system means that travelers will no longer receive the benefit of the Book with Confidence Guarantee™.

Encouraging and/or advising travelers to avoid the service fee goes against our terms and conditions. Since your listing has messaging encouraging and/or advising travelers to avoid the service fee, we have deactivated your listing until the messaging in the listing has been removed.

Additionally, we are also requesting that you immediately cease directing travelers, via the inquiry system, to book or pay using another method outside of our reservation system to avoid the service fee. When a listing (including the listing inquiry system) is used to encourage and or advise travelers to avoid the service fee, it can result in the deactivation of the listing. Please review the terms and conditions so you can ensure you are familiar with them.

So I get that they want me to remove the wording that says you can avoid the booking fee, even though it's the truth but the second part? I don't have to use their payment system and indeed I won't. My guests can pay me via all methods of payment including credit card so why can't I tell them that? I'm very confused by this big brother behaviour as to what I can and can't do on the basis that I will not and do not have to sign up for online booking or payments etc despite what they say. Indeed I know an owner has just renewed and was not forced to accept online booking or payments.

[KathyG]

Outrageous Debbie! I've just renewed with HA which gives me OD too and I insisted that I didn't have the service fee added to either of the adverts. Is that possible to do retrospectively?

[FelicityA]

Did you recently contact them about something, Nemo? This generally happens when they have had cause to look at the listing, as far as I can tell.

You have me worried (again!) now that they won't like my wording on VRBO, although not quite so explicit. However, every time I go to edit the description it says the page is unavailable although I can edit every other page.

[newtimber]

This is the standard automated message. They don't have different ones for whether you have online booking or not. You just have to remove all mention of service charges and directing people to your website and then phone them to reactivate your listing.

If you have things in your listing that will be flagged by their automated systems, your listing is going to be deactivated again. I'm afraid it's not a human and you cannot argue with it. Sorry!

[Nemo]

Did you recently contact them about something, Nemo? This generally happens when they have had cause to look at the listing, as far as I can tell.

No I didn't. I assume now newtimber has said it that it was just picked up automatically.

I didn't direct people to my website, I don't need to as they contact me via the system and then once I have the email I can contact them direct, as my sub entitles me to do.

What's worrying is that they can pull your listing from reading within the enquiry system, but as I never mention the service fee there, I'll ignore that warning.

I'm pleased to say I am back online. They asked me to reply to the email which I did and amazingly within a few hours, I'm back up again. Oh well, it serves as warning to all of you to not mention the service fee. Of course they're not paranoid about it.

[Nemo]

Outrageous Debbie! I've just renewed with HA which gives me OD too and I insisted that I didn't have the service fee added to either of the adverts. Is that possible to do retrospectively?

I don't have online booking or payments activated, so currently, there is no way they can force the guests enquiring via my listing to pay the fee. I will be holding out as long as possible. I was merely telling the truth to guests looking at my advert that as things stand, they don't pay the service fee if they book with me. The truth hurts clearly.

[ManxRed1]

You see, a few months ago, I'd have been shocked by this sort of behaviour.

And now, I'm not.

[AndrewH]

You see, a few months ago, I'd have been shocked by this sort of behaviour.

And now, I'm not.

Well it is still shocking, but I am not surprised. Owners Direct, in its present form, sees owners not as customers but as the potential enemy. Their ethos is so vile.

[Annew]

Horrendous bully boys!

[Sam V]

I have booking set up. I make no mention of the traveller fees, but as I'm also on subscription and intend to remain on subs as long as possible so I can receive the guest email and send them a quote direct , which obviously works out at a lower price without any added fees.

One of my guests recently sent me this email after I explained the fees to her:

'The sole reason I used Owners Direct was because you could liaise directly with the owner and have the personal experience; that was the strong selling point of the brand along with the fact that you did not incur these additional ‘service’ costs. Owners Direct was always my preferred choice for holidays after 1 successful trip and then a second and third. I am so pleased you have mentioned this as I would not be keen to use them again if I was unable to have that direct contact with the owner.
Thanks'

The guest should have the option to either pay direct to OD or the owner, especially if the owner is on subscription. This is just the start of the step towards OD not actually being a listing site but a booking agent.

[Oldhacker]

One of my guests recently sent me this email after I explained the fees to her:

'The sole reason I used Owners Direct was because you could liaise directly with the owner and have the personal experience; that was the strong selling point of the brand along with the fact that you did not incur these additional ‘service’ costs. Owners Direct was always my preferred choice for holidays after 1 successful trip and then a second and third. I am so pleased you have mentioned this as I would not be keen to use them again if I was unable to have that direct contact with the owner.
Thanks'

The guest should have the option to either pay direct to OD or the owner, especially if the owner is on subscription. This is just the start of the step towards OD not actually being a listing site but a booking agent.

Sam V - you have hit the nail on the head there. Essentially OD should be giving travellers the choice to book online and pay their service fee or book direct with the owner without their service fee.

Looking at the uproar on Trustpilot (which is getting quite entertaining as OD are getting reviews removed and sounding increasingly frustrated in their replies to reviews) the line coming from OD is -

'We are sorry that you are not entirely satisfied with the recent changes. The online booking system is encouraged because this is what the travellers want: to be able to book securely through a trusted third party in order to avoid issues. Online booking encourages travellers to book the accomodation you have listed because of the trust the brand has built with them. '

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.ownersdirect.co.uk

Of course the truth is OD / HA needs to force their service fee on travellers in order to reap the huge boost in profits they think it will generate for their shareholders -

'Expedia's December 2015 acquisition, HomeAway-the world's largest vacation rental marketplace-might be one of the biggest growth drivers for the company in the future due to the introduction of its booking fee in 2016.

In Expedia's Q4 2015 call, the management stated that HomeAway is expected to generate around $350 million in EBITDA in 2018. According to industry analysts, this might be a conservative estimate and the figure could go up to anywhere between $450 million to $600 million. In fact, the analysts also claim that the booking fee revenue may reach around $985 million by 2018, from zero booking fee in 2015.'

It is in black and white on the Nasdaq (the stock exchange where Expedia's shares are listed) website - http://www.nasdaq.com/article/heres-why ... a-cm683375

[AndrewH]

Sam V - you have hit the nail on the head there. Essentially OD should be giving travellers the choice to book online and pay their service fee or book direct with the owner without their service fee.

If OD were to give travellers a genuine choice whether or not to pay this service fee, a lot of the dreadful publicity they are getting would cease. But of course in pursuing their present policy of profiteering above all else, they would not dream of doing that.

The uproar on Trustpilot is certainly becoming entertaining and the torrent of bad reviews is obviously getting home to Owners Direct. They have only themselves (and Expedia) to blame.

[Mouse]

I'm aghast at the way they have treated you nemo,....but not surprised. I too would have thought that being on subscription would give you the leeway to discuss the fees with your enquirers.
In my mind if they want to pay them, fine, but I just feel uneasy if they don't know about them or understand them (they do not go to owners).

Interestingly I have taken 10 weekly bookings so far for 2017. 8 of which are new (the others are repeat guests). All have come via my website bar one. I doubt it's because they found me on Google. I suspect they find me on OD and come direct. 1 has already told me that and another enquired 1st through OD and I replied through the dashboard. A few weeks later she came back to book but via my own website.

I think people are getting wiser.

Mouse
x

[Jenster]

I have had the same experience, of the 8 bookings so far for 2017, six are direct through my website. Two I redirected from OD, one was a repeat, one found me on OD/HA and clicked through to my website and amazingly one found me on Google maps. The other one was last night so still waiting to hear where he found me but yes it does look like guests are getting savvy.

[Oldhacker]

The uproar on Trustpilot is certainly becoming entertaining and the torrent of bad reviews is obviously getting home to Owners Direct. They have only themselves (and Expedia) to blame.

The Trustpilot uproar is clearly a major issue for Owners Direct even if they are prepared to lose the unknown proportion of owners who cannot or will not accept the changes which have been enforced on them. The 2 main reasons being -

1. The Trustpilot OD reviews page is now appearing very high in the organic Google search results for 'Owners Direct'. Last time I looked it was in position 3 above OD's own Facebook page. So a lot of travellers looking for the Owners Direct website will be stumbling across it. Ouch !

2. It has been picked up by mainstream journalists. Both the DM and Sun articles at the weekend quoted heavily from the Trustpilot reviews. There is a lot of great quick copy for busy journalists to use so the reviews have the potential to become a PR disaster for Owners Direct. There are also huge numbers of comments on the articles which will persuade editors that they are onto something of interest which they should revisit. To compound the problem for OD the mainstream newspaper coverage generated will also appear high up in the organic Google search results.