I suddenly own hundreds of properties!!

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
harcourtv57
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I suddenly own hundreds of properties!!

Post by harcourtv57 »

Had an enquiry a few days ago (through HLN) from someone who was looking for three weeks in August. Now I know our bookings are not brilliant this year but we certainly don't have three weeks in August in any of our properties (which he would have known had he looked at the calendar). Anyhoo replied with what vacancies we do have in each of them to see if any of them would assist. He came back the next day - well do you have availability in this property or this one? None of which were ours, but belong to different owners on that site :? At which point I think my normal tactful good humour deserted me and I responded 'I don't know, why don't you ask the owner' :roll:
uzsree
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Post by uzsree »

Business as usual....

We recently had a very strange booking too: guests arrived at our place just to realise that .... they have booked and paid somewhere else! I have spoken with them on the phone before and they confirmed they have made the payment and they will arrive for sure.

Stupid people that cannot separate two emails from each other...
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Don Ciccio
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Joined: Thu Dec 24, 2009 11:39 pm
Location: Trapani, Sicily

Re: I suddenly own hundreds of properties!!

Post by Don Ciccio »

harcourtv57 wrote:Had an enquiry a few days ago (through HLN) from someone who was looking for three weeks in August. Now I know our bookings are not brilliant this year but we certainly don't have three weeks in August in any of our properties (which he would have known had he looked at the calendar). Anyhoo replied with what vacancies we do have in each of them to see if any of them would assist. He came back the next day - well do you have availability in this property or this one? None of which were ours, but belong to different owners on that site :? At which point I think my normal tactful good humour deserted me and I responded 'I don't know, why don't you ask the owner' :roll:

It is a wonder how some people get through the day...


We once had a man email us asking what level our apartment was on and how far it was from the pool.
The website makes it quite clear that
A) its a villa,
B) there is no pool

Arrrrrggghhh!

Thankfully such absurd enquiries have diminished as the years have gone on.
A-two
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Location: USA

Post by A-two »

A lot of owners refer people they can't help to other owners in the same area, under a formal or informal arrangement. As well, agents who use listing sites may have multiple properties available, but only advertise one here and there. The fact that they would think you represent every other property on the listing site is odd, otherwise this sort of question is common in our experience. A simple reply to say that you only have the properties they have already seen and can't help them with anything else is all they are looking for in this situation.
Waves from America
goosie
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Location: Cotswolds

Post by goosie »

I once had a call from a family saying they were on their way and could I remind them which junction to come off at - when I said I had no record of their booking, they vowed they had booked with us - then the phone reception went. Spent an hour panicking triple checking the bookings, trying to call them back, then brain wave that a friend owns a similar property in the area with a similar name - bingo, they'd booked with her! der
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Don Ciccio
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Post by Don Ciccio »

goosie wrote:then brain wave that a friend owns a similar property in the area with a similar name - bingo, they'd booked with her! der
Reminds me of the church scene in Waynes World 2* where they rush in to stop a wedding only to discover its the wrong church, and are then told its the exact mirror image one on the other side of the road that they want... www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZbW3GgZvf0


* itself a parody of the church scene in The Graduate, and later parodied itself by Vic Reeves and Bob Mortimer in the final 'Nicole'/'Papa' renault Clio advert) www.youtube.com/watch?v=DwqEpwO-5PE .

DC
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