Travel Rental Network

[Bellywobble]

Has anyone come accross this company?

travelrentalnetwork.com

If so, I would welcome your thoughts please?

[Casa Montana]

Hi Bellywobble,

I had a missed call from them today. I've just called them back now and got the usual crap sales pitch "we're not like the other listing sites, we work with travel agents all over the world. We're offering a special deal with only a few slots left"

He told me they have 36 spanish properties. I said to George that you're wanting me to part with £180 of my marketing budget for a company that have only 36 properties on their website.

He has emailed this evening with the marketing spiel.

I probably won't go for his not so tempting offer of a special deal at $299 with an extra 4 months free. Woppeee dooo!!!

What do you think?

Cheers

Carl
Casa Montana

[Bellywobble]

I didn't even find 36 Spanish properties!

I felt I was being flanelled with the "Few slots" and "internet campaign coming up" bit, especially as he couldn't tell me how many "slots" they were hoping to fill or give a date for the "campaign".

I think they just take the money and send an email to the travel companies and that's that.

However, I did like the idea of it being marketed through travel companies and they do seem to be linked to IATA so I am considering it.

It may be a bad move but if it pulls in one shoulder or winter booking it would be worthwhile for us.

I haven't decided yet.

[pepsipuss]

I just started another thread on this because I am useless at searching and didn't find this one first.

I was contacted by them today. I just don't get the IATA link. IATA is a regulatory body - what on earth can it have to do with them? In the follow-up email from them, they say

we are an official supplier to IATA meaning that we advertise to over 150 000 travel agents around North America and worldwide in addition to targeted marketing campaigns to our large database of Canadian travelers.

This is what IATA says about itself on its own website

IATA is an international trade body, created over 60 years ago by a group of airlines. Today, IATA represents some 230 airlines comprising 93% of scheduled international air traffic. The organization also represents, leads and serves the airline industry in general.

I reckon they might be quite interested to know that a vacation rental site is using their name to endorse their activities.

[andilubio]

Hi everybody I have been called also a couple times by an agent. Been told the same thing you´ve all been told...

Exclusive villas blah blah...

I really dont know what to do, its quite an amount of money...and seeing nobody is giving good feedback(or bad) I think i´m going to pass on the IATAN canadian suppliers!

[KathyG]

Had them on the phone today, damn fine salesman I must say! Gorgeous sexy voice ......He kept me on the phone for longer than any other HR salesman has ever done but yes same old spiel about getting an extra 4 months free, Canadians want shoulder periods blah blah blah, and oh yes we don't actually have Brittany as one of our locations yet, is that near Lower Normandy? But don't let that put you off.......

[Travel Rental Network]

Hello all,

Joe here, from Travel Rental Network. I’m the Manager of Product Development and I thought I would jump in here to introduce myself and answer some of the questions that have been raised about Travel Rental Network, our position in the industry, how we work with travel agents, and our connection to IATA.

IATA is the largest governing body for the airline industry, and travel agents use their IATA numbers to identify themselves as travel agents, so all of the biggest travel agents around the world are part of IATA. Through our relationship with IATA, we market vacation rentals to their network of 100,000+ travel agents and suppliers.

Working with travel agents is one of the ways that we’ve tried to differentiate ourselves from other sites out there, knowing that Travel Agents will bring owners customers that they would never get through traditional listing sites (travelers who are not internet savvy, first time renters who are not comfortable booking direct, 5 star clients…). All of the homeowners on our network are comfortable working with travel agents, meaning they understand that travel agents charge a commission (generally 10%), and have no objections to this. This is why travel agents love using our site.

I hope this clarifies some of the confusion regarding our company. Feel free to message me or post if you have any other questions. We hope to become an active member of the community here.

Thanks.

Joe

[Janee]

IATA is the largest governing body for the airline industry, and travel agents use their IATA numbers to identify themselves as travel agents, so all of the biggest travel agents around the world are part of IATA. Through our relationship with IATA, we market vacation rentals to their network of 100,000+ travel agents and suppliers.

Joe, I am not clear what your relationship with IATA is. Based on what you wrote, I can only infer that you are establishing relationships with travel agents who have IATA ID's [?].
Do you have an agency agreement with IATA?

[Travel Rental Network]

That's correct Janee. We have a relationship that permits us to market to IATA and IATAN members (travel agencies and suppliers). We are not a travel agency ourselves, but we supply vacation rental properties to travel agents through our site and network.

We also work with home-based travel agents who are not members of IATA.

Hope that clears it up!

Joe

[Janee]

Hi Joe,
Quick to respond as I am about in your time zone?!

Sorry, you had not answered my question.
Let me rephrase (and I really think you are building on a great idea... though vagueness and ambiguity raise flags with me, and, as above, with the hard-working property owners not just willing to throw their hard-earned money away for advertising, to a company that MAY BE suspect to misleading advertising):

Are you, in fact, the "official" contractor WITH IATA?

Please, if you could kindly define the "official," as you understand it.

[paolo]

Doesn't official just mean authorised in this context? They are allowed to market to IATA travel agents, perhaps by email, intranet, newsletter...?

[Travel Rental Network]

Paolo is correct. IATA has named us an official supplier which means that we are authorized to market to IATA/IATAN accredited travel agencies.

And so there is no ambiguity, we have a direct relationship with IATA/IATAN and they provide us access to their entire opt-in database of members. We have permission to use their logo on our site and reference our relationship when we deal with agents.

"Official" does not mean "exclusive," but I don't know of any other vacation rental sites with the same status as us. As travel agents are being drawn to the vacation rental market following the demand from their clients for better value, more privacy, luxury, comfort, etc., we are providing them with a service that has been lacking in our industry. Since we make sure that the owners of the properties listed on the Travel Rental Network website are willing to work with travel agents, we are an excellent resource for them.

Joe

[greenbarn]

We had a contact from them today; had a look at their website and they have just over 70 properties listed for the entire UK, all in either the South West or Wales, and from a random sample all of them seem to be with the same agency. Probably wouldn't be a wise spend for us then.

[Travel Rental Network]

Hi Greenbarn,

We’ve just started building up this region and we’re continuing to add new properties in the UK (hence the reason for the call) so check back again soon. We’ll be happy to list your home if you change your mind. Of course, having fewer competition in your region has its advantages too!

All the best,

Joe.

[kendalcottages]

I got cold-called by them today.

I immediately suspected it was an advertising call, and so asked whether the caller was interested in knowing when the property was available. He said he was calling on behalf of someone else and was interested whether I had any availability between January and April... errr, yes, of course I did. "What dates?" I asked, and then I started to get this spiel about IATA, etc. which immediately rang alarm bells as I'd seen this thread before.

I did what I do with all telesales calls. I said that the telephone line was only intended for people interested in staying in the property, and not for sales calls. If they wanted to put anything to me, it would have to be by email (that way, I can delete it quickly )

Anyway, I've now get the email which starts "You certainly greeted me with a preconceived notion..." etc. Well... yes, I did... as I do with all cold callers.

And starting their email by giving me a "ticking off" is hardly condusive to me wanting to do business with them.