So, I have been researching how and why and where and what, but there is a LOT of gobbldigook out there.
As a test, I used a spare (domain) email address of mine to make a direct online booking for a holiday rental at a private website (not a listing site). This ensured that the contact between guest and website was clean, fresh, virgin and untainted by prior contact.
The booking went through OK; the owner was informed by email OK, but the confirmation email back to the guest (my spare email address) was sent to Spam. In this case, the spam blocker also gave us a lot of interesting feedback about why it was rejecting the email, and I summarise it below.
Hopefully the text is reasonably self explanaory
A total score of 5 is the maximum for a genuine email, but the spam blocker scored this email with a 7.4 (Why don't you try adding up the scores )
From which I conclude:
- Keep your booking form as short as possible and avoid asking for too much personal information.
Do not mention the dirty word money
Do not ask for a booking deposit
Do not use a catchpa
Spam blockers are cr@p at arithmetic as well as everything else
Its probably better to send a paper form and ask the guest to return by post.
Did I really just say that ?
If there are any geeks/experts out there with anything more to add, please feel free to jump in