Owners Direct

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Sam V
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Location: Villa in Gale, Algarve, Portugal. At home in Fetcham, Surrey, UK
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Post by Sam V »

also, don't forget that payments for online booking are taken via Yapstne who in turn add on their fees to owners.
TA lurkers walk among us; the LMH Walking Dead

dont mess in the affairs of cats for they are subtle and will p on your computer.

www.algarvevillatrinity.co.uk
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COYS
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Location: Greek Islands

Post by COYS »

AndrewH wrote:
COYS wrote:...so it appears that OLB & OP have little or no positive effect on increased enquiries and bookings. Since the market changes, these have simply tanked in our region so it would appear a pointless waste of money.
Having been on OD's OLB & OP since early days, my experience is that these have no positive effect whatsoever. In fact it is probably the reverse. The watershed came on the day last June when the travellers' service fee for subscription customers came into force and, in consequence, enquiries through them have also tanked in our region.

I am still with Owners Direct, but get virtually nothing through them - just one and she regrets not booking direct. However my OD advert. is a useful billboard and guests have searched, found and booked my property in ways that hasn't cost them a penny extra in travellers' commissions.
I like your style AndrewH!
Agreed, around the same time frame & policy change seems to have been the catalyst for widespread disillusion but on the other hand, if you can continue to make it work for you it may well be worth being that annoying fly in the OD ointment.
This time next year Rodney, we'll be millionaires.
The Mighty Beaver
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Joined: Tue Aug 15, 2017 11:10 am
Location: charente

Post by The Mighty Beaver »

I have recently ditched OD, as I believe numerous others have as well, after being with them for a couple of years. They are one of the most unethical organisations I have ever had the misfortune to deal with! They are not remotely interested in what is fair or working with their owners for mutual benefit - they are only interested in driving up their own profits, regardless of how it affects either their advertisers or guests. In very much the same way as Holiday Lettings changed after they were swallowed by Trip Advisor, OD's decline started almost as soon as they got into bed with Home Away. The large US company ethos of 'one size fits all' is to the fore in both organisations and they really don't care about relationship-building, which I consider to be one of the cornerstones of my business. I want to establish a rapport with my potential guests, OD wants to limit or remove any personal contact between owner and renter until they have squeezed as much out of the potential guest as they can by convincing them that they can only book using their (ODs) system!
I am now in the process of moving to smaller, niche, sites which consider their job to be simply putting the two (owner and renter) in contact and leaving them to get on with it - NOT trying to interfere with, and control, every aspect of the process as OD/HA and TA/HL want to do. Hopefully, I will soon be in a position to also ditch Holiday Lettings as well!
My advice would be to give OD as wide a berth as possible.
As an aside, this year about one third of our business has been repeat business and I would strongly recommend cultivating this market. It's much more cost-effective and has the added advantage of 'better the devil you know' familiarity. Our repeat business has steadily increased over the past seven years and this is due, at least in part, to the amount of time I spend before, during and after the holiday, building up a positive relationship with my guests. In addition to the same guests returning year after year, we are now getting new guests via personal recommendations to them from previous guests!
You can build a thousand bridges, sh*g one sheep, you'll never be known as a bridge builder!
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

+1
Well said and welcome, Mighty Beaver. There are many on here who think the same!
The Mighty Beaver
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Location: charente

Post by The Mighty Beaver »

Thank you for your welcome, Andrew H!
I knew from personal contacts with a few other owners that the views I held regarding these large sites was not just me being paranoid, but it is reassuring to join a Forum such as this and have reinforcement that it is an even more commonly held view than I have imagined.
You can build a thousand bridges, sh*g one sheep, you'll never be known as a bridge builder!
petitbois
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Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:54 am

Post by petitbois »

+1 Mighty Beaver - also in Charente 14yrs & looking at quitting in 2019 - ditching OD, HL, HA et al Gites.EU & a few other waste of time sites. Let me know if you find any good new sites - for the moment sticking with HFD & CN for gites one more year - have brought all our new gite business over the last 2 yrs, like you lucky with high precentage of regulars - for us 60%, with bookings for 2018 already.
The Mighty Beaver
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Location: charente

Post by The Mighty Beaver »

Hi Petitbois - At the moment I'm with HFD (although a little miffed that they changed the £75 crossing to a £75 OFF the cost of a crossing - a bit naughty), BFB and Holiday Tots, as well as TA/HL (for now!). BFB and Holiday Tots are a bit specialised if you're not specifically kitted out for small children - we added an enclosed Playpark with swings, slide etc. a couple of years ago and a number of other kiddie friendly items. Neither produces great numbers of bookings although HT did bring in one booking (two gites for 3 weeks in peak season), which was a nice little earner!
I decided to give Gites.co.uk a try last week - it's a bit of a pain to produce the ads (three in my case) from scratch but a lot of it can be cut and paste from existing ads. Anyway, only been live for 5 days and had my first enquiry yesterday (two weeks for next summer peak). It probably won't turn into a booking as she wants to bring two dogs (and we don't accept pets) - but at least it shows there's some traffic to the site! They currently have a free 180 day offer running so really nothing to lose other than some time setting it up! They are obviously a small operation but are very helpful and quick to respond.
You can build a thousand bridges, sh*g one sheep, you'll never be known as a bridge builder!
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greenbarn
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Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

The Mighty Beaver wrote:I have recently ditched OD, as I believe numerous others have as well, after being with them for a couple of years. They are one of the most unethical organisations I have ever had the misfortune to deal with! They are not remotely interested in what is fair or working with their owners for mutual benefit - they are only interested in driving up their own profits, regardless of how it affects either their advertisers or guests. In very much the same way as Holiday Lettings changed after they were swallowed by Trip Advisor, OD's decline started almost as soon as they got into bed with Home Away. The large US company ethos of 'one size fits all' is to the fore in both organisations and they really don't care about relationship-building, which I consider to be one of the cornerstones of my business. I want to establish a rapport with my potential guests, OD wants to limit or remove any personal contact between owner and renter until they have squeezed as much out of the potential guest as they can by convincing them that they can only book using their (ODs) system!
I am now in the process of moving to smaller, niche, sites which consider their job to be simply putting the two (owner and renter) in contact and leaving them to get on with it - NOT trying to interfere with, and control, every aspect of the process as OD/HA and TA/HL want to do. Hopefully, I will soon be in a position to also ditch Holiday Lettings as well!
My advice would be to give OD as wide a berth as possible.
As an aside, this year about one third of our business has been repeat business and I would strongly recommend cultivating this market. It's much more cost-effective and has the added advantage of 'better the devil you know' familiarity. Our repeat business has steadily increased over the past seven years and this is due, at least in part, to the amount of time I spend before, during and after the holiday, building up a positive relationship with my guests. In addition to the same guests returning year after year, we are now getting new guests via personal recommendations to them from previous guests!
I could have written that! In fact, in various stages over a period of time, I quite probably have!
Welcome!
chipiechoo
Posts: 155
Joined: Sat Sep 28, 2013 7:07 pm
Location: SW France

Post by chipiechoo »

Welcome Mighty Beaver.
Appreciate reading your comments as we also ditched OD last month, for all the reasons you have eloquently stated. Have been renting out our gite for 11 years which caters for couples only.
We have now listed with CN fully subscribed, also with HFD on Quickbook who notified us last week that the cost is going up from 29 GBP to 34 GBP next week, have therefore had to put our prices up on their site. The other site we are with is Gitelink, they have produced a couple of bookings this year. But, 90% of our bookings this year have been direct, just hoping now our profile is lower that will continue, so far nothing booked for 2018 which is slightly unusual.
Thanks for the heads up regarding Gites.co.uk, shall look into placing an advert whilst that offer exists, nothing lost.
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