Dissent within the ranks - Owners Direct

[AndrewH]

...Owners Direct are losing clients right left and centre and my ex colleagues are leaving in droves.

This company is immoral, I simply could not face the work any longer it was the greatest day of my life when I left.

They are a dreadful company to work for and are no more than sharks.

This is the closing part of a post from a brave ex-employee of OD which today has appeared on TrustPilot. She wrote under a pseudonym for obvious reasons.

It's an interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes and a real chink in their armour for Owners Direct.

[chipiechoo]

Not just within their ranks...
Copy herewith of the email we received last week:
I hope you’re well.

I just wanted to get in touch with you to let you know that your property listing – has just come to the end of its time on our website.

If you have sold the property or are no longer renting it, please let me know so that we can update our records.

If you would like to continue advertising the property with us then please call me on the number below or provide me with a number to call you on.


Looking forward to hearing from you soon.

Our reply:

We are aware our advert with your company has expired.
No we have not sold our property and Yes we are still renting it out.
We are pleased our advertising with HA/OD is over, as we are not at all happy with the changes your company has made. We are not prepared to relinquish the control we have to you a third party, therefore online booking is unacceptable to both us and the guests we attract.
Numerous other issues have arisen since the takeover of OD by HA and your company just hasn't listened or doesn't care, so it is with great joy we part company and advertise elsewhere, the name OwnersDirect is no longer applicable and totally misleading.



Having said all that and meaning it, not at all sure what we do next

[COYS]

...Owners Direct are losing clients right left and centre and my ex colleagues are leaving in droves.

This company is immoral, I simply could not face the work any longer it was the greatest day of my life when I left.

They are a dreadful company to work for and are no more than sharks.

This is the closing part of a post from a brave ex-employee of OD which today has appeared on TrustPilot. She wrote under a pseudonym for obvious reasons.

It's an interesting insight into what goes on behind the scenes and a real chink in their armour for Owners Direct.

On the surface it would seem so AndrewH. Unless that is, they treat their employees as disposable assets just like their customers.
I take my hat off to her all the same.

[Mouse]

Wow....that is telling. Well done that employee for speaking out.

Interestingly enough I noticed last week that OD had finally dropped their stupid 4+ bedroom search category and moved it back to 4 bedrooms.
Normally in our category there were about 110 villas, now there are 72. So around 40 have gone.

So at those numbers it really doesn't matter what the rankings are, I still get shown on page 1 or 2.

On HA there are 199.....but there were always more on there, as there were more German owners using that and not OD.

Mousie
x

[e-richard]

Sitting in the pub the other night, I did some paper napkin budgets:

Expedia paid $3.2bn in cash for the HomeAway group.
I believe that at that time, HomeAway had something around 1.2m subscribers/unique properties.

That works out at around $2,600 per property.

Assuming each subscriber was paying of the order of $400 per annum, and assuming that staff costs, advertising, offices etc etc take up say 25% (random optimistic number) of the revenue, then it will take Expedia over EIGHT YEARS to recoup their investment.

So, obviously Expedia need to find ways to get much more money PER PROPERTY and that is why we have Traveller Fees.


Now it seems that they are trying to recoup their investment from a smaller number of properties, so guess what comes next?

[AndrewH]

Now it seems that they are trying to recoup their investment from a smaller number of properties, so guess what comes next?

It needs someone smarter than I am to answer that. But in order to increase the revenues from the companies they purchased Expedia would need to increase the service fee for guests and the annual subscription for those owners on subscription (or otherwise the owners' percentage commission for those on pay per booking).

However, the down side for Expedia will be a further reduction in listed properties, because more owners will not renew at the higher price or otherwise not be tempted to list in the first place. Add to that bookings will fall off, because guests will be further put off by the hike in the service fee as well as becoming more educated in finding their chosen property cheaper elsewhere, plus a reduced number of rentals to choose from.

This is all hypothesis. But perhaps it will always be a zero-sum result and Expedia will discover that they would have done better to have left things as they were originally, without service fees and the Yapstone 3% charge.

[Nigel Goodwin]

Expedia have to realize they have a cash cow, and use the cash to generate a new cash cow. It is called the S curve of innovation/technology.

https://medium.com/swlh/why-you-should- ... 25fa422711

[Sam V]

Reading this post I found myself with the voice of Mrs Doyle of tv's Father Ted in my head saying "They're all just..."exclaiming expletives beginning with 'B' and 'F'. It was quite satisfying actually.

[jase1971]

Found reviews from employees about HomeAway on Glassdoor, seem's to be lots of gripes about management, what a surprise!

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Hom ... E42523.htm

[AndrewH]

Found reviews from employees about HomeAway on Glassdoor, seem's to be lots of gripes about management, what a surprise!

https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Hom ... E42523.htm

I think these comments come from employees in the head office in the United States and does not show the opinions of those working at Homeaway(UK) or Owners Direct. There could be a big difference.

[e-richard]

..I think these comments come from employees in the head office in the United States and does not show the opinions of those working at Homeaway(UK) or Owners Direct. There could be a big difference.

Yes, there could be a big difference. When I clicked that link, the first page of reviews were mostly positive and all from UK employees.

Are we looking at the same thing ?

[AndrewH]

Yes, you are right Richard. On a second look at the details they are mostly London based. I was looking at the picture of their head office (presumably), which is in the States. It's not the London HQ, which is a building in which I once worked.

[gardenboy]

My badge of honour is 3 bans from ha...anyone beat IT? All for doing private deals. Thank God I m scaling back my letting business before I m pushed.