Lay My Hat Forum

[sarahparker]

I wouldn't find myself very pleased if I keep getting reminders from owners who I have not responded too. That actually gives me the idea you are chasing me and your rental doesn't get booked. So it seriously tarnishes both your image as well as your rentals.

At the max I would find it fine if you send just one reminder mail not more than that. A better option is to send an email later on stating your new deals and enquiring them about their last trip and what they expect in their rental and what they missed the last time around.
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enjoy vacations enjoy life

[Kathleen]

MAURMAC wrote
HL stats shows you what properties they were looking at before enquiring, which is useful.

Where can one find this info on HL

Thank you
Kathleen
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USA

[kyreniagirl]

Yes I wondered that too! Didn't like to show my ignorance

[e-richard]

To find the hits on HL from your Home Management page:

Click Booking Manager, then close the big splash screen.
Select a property from the drop down "Properties" on the top left.
Then you'll see a link "source of hits" in the top right under statistics. Click that and you'll see all your hits.

The hits information is not easy to read or understand, so try this free HolidayLettings hits analysis tool
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** Richard
Is your glass half full or half empty ?
I don't care - either way there is room for another half glass of wine.

PIMS: Holiday Rental Management made easy

[kyreniagirl]

Thank you

[Kathleen]

Thanks e-Richard

I saw the inquiries but wondering if folks who have more than one rental can separate the inquiries for analysis on your tool.

When I click all properties in the pull down it shows me all of the inquiries but when I click on each property it tells me......

We're sorry, there aren't any enquiries on our system. It could be because you haven't had any enquiries yet, or there aren't any for the time period you specified, or you may have made a mistake when selecting the dates. We only store enquiries sent after August 2009.

but still shows that I have 267 hits and 133 inquiries. So just checking to see if this is the norm
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USA

[e-richard]

My tool analyses HITS not enquiries.

Once you have selected a property, you need to click on the link in the top right that says "Source of Hits", and this will show HITS for the specified property.

Then you can scrape all that gubbins into my tool.
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** Richard
Is your glass half full or half empty ?
I don't care - either way there is room for another half glass of wine.

PIMS: Holiday Rental Management made easy

[Kathleen]

DUH!!!
Thanks e-Richard

Nice little feature - just curious each property number appears on the other properties hit analysis - does than mean that they came from that link
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USA

[e-richard]

[Sam V]

[Wendy@NarrowsCottage]

I do a follow up email about 4-7 days after an initial inquiry, many people do so many inquiries that they forget the who/what/where of the VR's that they've asked about. On top of that I hear that many VR owners don't even bother to respond, so hopefully a polite and short follow up doesn't bother the potential guest.... I have received bookings from follow ups and actually many people have thanked me for quickly responding and then with the follow up have needed me to let them know "which one am I with?"... I too have read Christine K's book and follow most of it, so follow up if possible with a phone call, usually just leave a message and it doesn't seem to put people off. I certainly don't call again or email any more if I don't get a response from a follow up email or call.

Emails do go to the spam folder occationaly and a bit of follow up can also help with differentiating you from your competition (hopefully in a good way )

Wendy
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www.NarrowsCottage-TwinLakesIdaho.com

[Alvaro]

I did a follow up of a few enquiries and nothing came out BUT two of them answered back and asked for details (they didn´t even remember who I was) and then one came back to me again and asked all sort of things and booking details and so on but never booked.
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http://www.homeaway.co.uk/p973358a

[Kathleen]

I follow up on some inquiries but not all
I do not have a rule of thumb but instead it depends on how busy I am, if the inquiry was for a multi-week stay or if it was for a slower off season period. I tend to follow up on the latter two more frequently.

I have had some bookings as a result of a follow-up. It is hard to tell if they were considering the rental anyway or that now my rental is in the forefront of their mind.

Also, I word their email so as not to offend and ask if they have any additional questions and that I am also resending (sort of as a courtesy) as some end up in spam. I have been told a few time that they never received my initial response. Again maybe they inquired about so many homes that they did not realize

All in all, I find it a good practice to follow up ...as they say ....all they can say is NO !!
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USA

[Montana]

I do follow up, a day or two after my reply to an initial enquiry. This morning, it's just paid off as the client told me my original response over the weekend, had gone into his Spam folder, and he was glad I'd got in touch as, now he'd seen it, he wanted to book! Has now done so

Another BIG enquiry for two chalets next Christmas went quiet after lots of emails and positivity, so when, last weekend, I received another enquiry for one of the chalets for the same dates, I explained that it was under consideration together with another property, and so I needed to check, but would come back quickly if it was available. I then emailed the original enquirer, asking if we could help further as I had a new enquiry. He came back yesterday, full of apologies as he'd been away at the weekend but his 20+ group DID want to book and he hoped it wasn't too late

I would say that about 25% of my chase-up contacts yield fruit - emails sometimes don't arrive, or as above, go into Spam. Sometimes in the case of groups, some of the party are slow to get back to the organiser, and this gives them the opportunity to gee them along.

However, I'd only send one follow-up and then, only if there had seemed genuine interest.
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Acid corrodes the vessel.........

[Kathleen]

RE: SPAM

If we are all finding more responses in guests SPAM folders what do you think the cause might be.

Is it filters/parameters that the guest has set....or maybe when we respond directly using the the adverts email especially now with sites like HL using their servers to send/receive our guests emails ........ maybe attachments....I have noticed that it appears that emails with attachments seem to get lost in my spam or appear to "llok" like spam

I just upgraded to Outlook 2007 as I could not use my 2003 version of MS Office in my Win8 computer. Using Outlook 2007 I have found more and more emails getting sent to my Junk email and I am not in the habit of checking the folder.

Maybe those more knowledgeable about this might chime in
Also should I have put this in a new post??
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USA