How to contact your guests

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Quiterio
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How to contact your guests

Post by Quiterio »

Last week we received an interesting enquiry, that went something like this.

I'm0 interested1 in2 renting3 your9 property8 please4 phone3 me1 using7 the3 digits here.

So, at least some of our customers are beginning to get wise, after all!

I'm now thinking it shouldn't be too difficult to come up with a reply that encodes our email address!

(By the way, the above number isn't real)
Mr Cellophane
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Post by Mr Cellophane »

That shows initiative, but even better would be if more people knew about the StaySavr app. I am an owner and only just heard about it (on this forum of course.)
Sadly it's the potential clients that need to know about it, and use it.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Wow! That's seriously impressive!

Mousie
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AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

Mouse wrote:Wow! That's seriously impressive!
Mousie
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+1
Guests are wising up. :wink:
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Of course a % of their clients must also be holiday home owners. ....as an owner I will always try and contact other owners directly first, no matter where I saw their property.

Mousie
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rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

Mr Cellophane wrote:That shows initiative, but even better would be if more people knew about the StaySavr app. I am an owner and only just heard about it (on this forum of course.)
Sadly it's the potential clients that need to know about it, and use it.
I was just taking a look at this and thought of adding it as an extension. A window comes up though and says the extension can "read and change all your data an websites that you visit"

Is it is sinister as it sounds?
Here we go again........
KathyG
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Post by KathyG »

Can't say I've seen that, but check it out with Igor - developer of Staysavr. You can PM him from any of his posts but here's a link to a Staysavr thread that he's posted on.
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e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

rammy100 wrote:A window comes up though and says the extension can "read and change all your data an websites that you visit".
Is it is sinister as it sounds?
Well, in a way, yes it is. :wink:

Staysavr will actually change what you/the guest see at OD. Thats the idea.
Instead of seeing a Book Now button, Staysavr will attempt to display your phone number/email address.
Its certainly not what the website authors intended you to see.

But, having said all that, the warning is there to protect you against malicious attacks. Staysavr is not malicious
(Unless you're a shareholder in Expedia)
** Richard
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rammy100
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Post by rammy100 »

e-richard wrote:
rammy100 wrote:A window comes up though and says the extension can "read and change all your data an websites that you visit".
Is it is sinister as it sounds?
Well, in a way, yes it is. :wink:

Staysavr will actually change what you/the guest see at OD. Thats the idea.
Instead of seeing a Book Now button, Staysavr will attempt to display your phone number/email address.
Its certainly not what the website authors intended you to see.

But, having said all that, the warning is there to protect you against malicious attacks. Staysavr is not malicious
(Unless you're a shareholder in Expedia)
Thank you e-richard, that explains things.

I misunderstood the message it and read it to mean that it would somehow change MY data. Wondering now if I had been on the wine when I read it.....

Thanks again.
Here we go again........
Igor
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Post by Igor »

+1 Richard.

When building an extension, the permissions that it needs have to be stated in a file. These permissions are then shown to the person installing for approval. It's just like an Android app in that respect.

Staysavr has 3 permissions: access to http pages, access to https pages and storage. For some reason, interacting with its own server doesn't need a permission.

To some extent, you have to trust Igor! When installing extensions from the browser's official store, the warnings appear a bit less scary than when installing from another source. StaySavr is in the Chrome webstore but not yet in any other official browser channels. For inclusion in the Chrome webstore, the author just has to tick a box to say that it complies with guidelines and they rely on user reports to weed out anything malicious. The stores for the other browsers actually do test the extension and/or inspect the code before accepting. We use encrypted code for obvious reasons and that precludes inclusion in those other stores for now.

If Igor was malevolent, this access could potentially do some quite nasty things. I'm not certain how nasty because I've never tried. That's why Igor is very keen on use of Trustpilot for reassuance of new users. Perhaps we ought to get reviews on ConsumerAffairs.com and SiteJabber.com too.

For those of you who have a moment, please get reviewing!
Igor lives in Fort StaySavr, a secret location high in the mountains
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

Igor wrote:
If Igor was malevolent, this access could potentially do some quite nasty things.
I wouldn't dream of installing this. Igor may not have any malicious intention, but what happens if his code/site is hacked or has a bug?
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