HomeAway - Reservation Manager

[Essar]

Though I'd have a change from HL's on-going saga and have a look at HA's Reservation Manager instead; invariably I have to compare it to HL's Booking Manager.

I've been with HA on and off for about two years; the results from .co.uk are poor, but the enquiries and converted bookings from the international sites is very good and I don't even have the "International Upgrade" - just the bog standard subscription.

Today I signed up for Express Payments using the RM through my subscription - this is not the commission based system.

What struck me straight away was the use of a third-party to manage all the payments from holiday-makers using a company called HolidayRentPayments (.com) This company is not owned by HA but a VC in the USA, it is contracted by HA to collect payments for nearly all HA's subsidiaries, including, VacationRentals, VRBO, HA USA, HA UK, HA Italy and the German & French subsidiaries.

As an owner you agree to HRP's terms and conditions which are reasonable.

The set-up of the RM through the dashboard is different to the normal non-payments system. Your tariff rates are calculated differently so a new set of rates have to be entered for the property, although, they are much better than HA's standard equivalent they do not cover every eventuality that us owners would demand, but there is enough there to get the calculations working to almost exactly fit my particular way of charging. There is even a test button for you to run your tariff through to test quotes to the guests. You can have extras, VAT, local taxes and security deposits. You can also charge a deposit (% or lumpsum) with a balance payable before arrival. The balance has a maximum of 30-days prior to arrival, although, I prefer 6-weeks (42-days) I can live with 30-days for now. Those of you who like to get your balance at 8-weeks will be disappointed.

Now the good bits; you get paid immediately after the guest has paid by credit/debit card through HRP which is transparent to the guests (well they state within 48-hours for the transfer to take place). They don't yet support PayPal, however, the rate is the same as the HL PP rate 1.4% with the usual up-ages for non-uk, non-eu owners/guests. So it compares very favourably from that point of view. Next, you have to provide a pdf version of your terms and conditions that will apply to the contract between you and the guests. Now the really good bit, cancellation terms; you can choose one of 3 of the HA provisions or USE THOSE INCLUDED IN YOUR TERMS AND CONDITIONS - hurrah!.

So, I've set it up for one property and left the other as standard. I'm not expecting too many enquiries to test it with as most of my peak 2013 dates are taken.

The templates for your communications are unaltered and the rest of the RM performs as standard. You continue to receive emails containing the enquirers email address so you can communicate directly if you want to.

I've gone for the Express Payments rather than Standard Payments because it gives the holiday-maker the option to immediately go to payment and book the holiday. You can still include the 48-hour confirmation period (or not if you keep your calendar up-to-date). You can then set up auto reminders for the balance to be paid.

Refunds are handled by HRP under owner's instruction.

This is all included in the subscription, there are no additional HA charges just the processing fees from HRP that are taken off prior to the balance being transferred to the owner.

Looks promising we'll see how it goes.

[harcourtv57]

Thanks Essar thats all very interesting and useful.

I have been doing exactly the same today, looking into this option having been asked by a guest who phoned last night whether we accept online payments through HR. Which we don't. Seems their bank wanted to charge them £30 for a bank transfer (!)

However, I have worked out that doing it this way would cost us a whole weeks rental over an 8 week summer season. Although I do appreciate that some guests like the convenience and security of booking through a site. I would be very interested to see how you get on with it. . .

[Hells Bells]

I've just set it up too, a bit concerned about the 30 day balance thing, so I've asked for a larger reservation deposit than I normally would. I'm not intending it to replace PIMS,but thought it worth setting up.

[harcourtv57]

I'm wondering why they decided on 30 days? Since the industry norm is 6 - 8 weeks and sometimes 10 weeks before for the balance. It doesn't give much time to re-book dates due to cancellations.

[Tizfata]

I'm wondering why they decided on 30 days? Since the industry norm is 6 - 8 weeks and sometimes 10 weeks before for the balance. It doesn't give much time to re-book dates due to cancellations.

I am not 100% sure they understand our business is NOT like hotels

[Hells Bells]

If they thought we were like hotels, we wouldn't be getting paid in advance at all.

[Essar]

Harcourtv57

How have you calculated that it will cost you a whole weeks rental over an 8-week period? I tried to look at your rates to see what you charge; the link for the 3 properties to HL doesn't work. Very nice website.
HA are only charging 1.4% for processing the card payments, I'm puzzled!


HelenB

Funny you should up your deposit to compensate for the 30-day balance payment, I did exactly the same thing.
30-days makes no sense at all; a calendar month? 28-days would make more sense. My balance due time is 6-weeks and that's in my terms and conditions, so I'll just stick to that anyway regardless of HA's setting - I'll mark it as paid early in the cases that occur.
I also will stick to my usual way of working, but as you say it gives me "another string in my arsenal of eggs in the basket".

[Hells Bells]

Like you I am getting most of my enquiries through the HA international sites rather than HAUK and I don't pay for upgrades on there either. Worth a punt I think. I've almost got the prices tweaked, it's a bit awkward to match them up with other rate cards.

[harcourtv57]

Sorry Essar don't know what I did my calculations weren't right

It would be less than half a weeks rental. Thanks for your comments on the website. We no longer advertise with HL due to all the issues with them so that's why the link doesn't work. My son did the website but the downside to that is we can't amend it ourselves and he has been too busy with his other work!

Are you saying that you can ask guests to pay 6 weeks before rather than the HA 30 day setting?

[Essar]

Harcourtv57

Don't forget that HA are using the owners Ts&Cs so it's those that will be the contract terms; if you want the balance at 10-weeks then that is what takes precedent.

It looks to me that the 30-day rule is the time when HA will ask the holiday-maker for the balance automatically, so if you want it earlier you bill the customer earlier and mark the payment has been done on HA to stop them asking for it again at 30-days to go. I've not had a booking this way so I'm not certain of how you would go about it, although, the FAQs state that you can show payments made elsewhere.

[MoonFish]

The booking system also allows the option "pay 100% now" which is what I've opted for, since a 30-day warning on a cancellation is pointless for me as we are on an island in the Caribbean with somewhat limited flights!

the rates they charge depend on where your bank account is and where your guest is paying from, the 1.4% is the minimum, this goes up as high as 2.7 % if both the guest and your own bank account are outside both the UK and EuroZone (ie both are in US/Canada/Caribbean) but I still felt it was a good deal compared to PayPal's exorbitant fees so I'm giving it a trial now...

They are quite strict about verifying the owner, so I feel they are running a relatively tight ship - they've requested different documentation to prove the property is mine & so on, difficult as I am in a third-world country!

I did find the rate set up on the online payment to be incredibly frustrating, since I am listed on the .co.uk site but charge in USD$ but they only let you set the online payment rates in GBP Pounds Sterling, so every rate band has a quite awkward figure!

Be interesting to see if there is actually an increase in enquiries and bookings, will report and look forward to seeing everyone's results!

[Hells Bells]

I still haven't heard back about this, despite sending a copy of my utility bill last week.

[Essar]

Added second property and finally got to grips with how the rates card works.

The rate card set-up does not entirely fit my requirements; I have a minimum stay of 3-nights during off-peak, 7 during peak, higher rates for Fri, Sat & Sun. Peak Sat to Sat only, flexible rest of the year.

For min 7-nights it's easy; just enter the nightly rates for 7-nights at exactly the weekly rate divided by 7, to the penny (e.g. £730 div 7 = £104.29 per night).

For min 3-nights; nightly rate at £95 per night. 7-nights as above £600 div 7 = £85.71, weekend at £105 per night, tick the box for not applicable to 7-nights. For a 6-night stay Sat to Fri is calculated at 2 x £105 (Sat & Sun) + 4 x £85.71 (Mon, Tue, Wed & Thu). For a 7-night stay the £85.71 nightly rate applies regardless of day of the week.

I have specials for Fri to Mon and Mon to Fri but gave up trying to include them.

This way of working is actually much better than the old standard system and much much better than the HL way of doing things.

[Moira]

Thought I would give this a try. Got as far as putting in my info. They require a County/Region. Last time I looked Scotland, Wales and N Ireland were part of the UK but from what I can see only English counties listed. I wonder if they've got all of them? While many people abroad may not be great at Geography a company like this should know better.
As I can't go any further I just hope it will save and I don't need to start again. Perhaps I'll just say Glasgow is in Tyne & Wear. Only a few 100mls south

[croatian_villa]

I've set this up but still state that I prefer to be paid by bank transfer. This is just in case there is a guest who for whatever reason would feel safer paying by credit card. It opens the door to a wider selection of guests.

I selected the payment service that requires me to send the payment to the guest if they are interested. I don't want to allow bookings without verifying the guest first.