Holidaylets.net free trial?

[Guest3]

Jine..check out the Café...found some Strine words...also wondered how come you're a goat..thought Strine Sheilas were Ewes???

[Big Sis..]

Ive only just joined Lay my hat so bear with me
Ive been reading the comments about free trial and I agree with most of what has been said in varying degrees
I paid upfront for about 4 websites 3 did allright Rentinspain[phils great] Portside Owners direct. Just go [rubbish]
So then I tried some free trials Holidaylets Holiday havens etc. Some did nothing but both of these done well, so i continued with them but i wouldnt have tried them without the free trial as id already spent quite a lot already.
Ross was very helpful with the initial website & didnt seem to mind that i was a bit inadequate.
Holiday lets is the one that Im getting most enq from at the moment so Im pleased
Surely if by offering free trials you then increase your customers you then have more revenue to spend on advertising etc which will benefit all the existing paying customers[or something like that]
Regards Ros

[Hells Bells]

I've just had an email from them this afternoon, asking me to reactivate my ad. No free offers or anything though. How have they done for you over the past year.

[Fraise]

Just checked. I've been with them 18 months.
25 e-mails
8 weeks booked ( 6 different bookings)
2 enquiries still open for next year.


Is the info useful?

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Hells Bells]

Thanks, obviously reasonably successful then. It;'s a lottery anyway. I think I'll put the choices in a hat, and pick one out.

[la vache!]

I was definitely going to drop them this year - until I got a nice off season booking in the big house! Not so sure now... I certainly don't get much from them, but they are very cheap for advertising 3 properties and they always give me a discount when I ask for one!

[Giddy Goat]

3 inquiries and one one-week booking in 6 months. I recently decided to see if adding (and paying) for a link to my own website would make a difference.

It hasn't as yet, but it's early days.

It's a great looking site, and the people there are lovely, so I'm hoping that a full year's subscription with a web-link will put HL on a more level playing field with its competitors.

[Fraise]

This is odd as I would think that we have a similar market?

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Fraise]

Oh Jine ! Until you mentioned it I thought that I DID have a link to my own website I'm almost certain I had last year and didn't know this was any different.Weirdly, I wouldn't consider a site where I didn't have the website link! Ooops,still...despite the lack of the link it is performing ,albeit modestly, for me

www.thepetitmanoir.com

[Giddy Goat]

It's performed very well for you Frise despite the lack of web-link, and yes, our market is similar I'd have thought. Mind you, I don't know about your bookings for this summer, but there was very little left when my ad went live with them, so we'll see how the rest of my subscription with HL pans out. I have a soft spot for them so it would be a shame to have to sever the ties. I discovered Ross used to live in a village close to ours so we've had quite animated chats/emails over the months.

To be fair, that 'other site' which is enjoying huge exposure on LMH at the moment has done no better in the same time frame. So folks, definitely take up a free trial with HL and report here in a few months. Please!

[Hells Bells]

I don't think there is a free trial anymore. I got an invite to relist, but no free or reduced price offer. I got one booking from them during my free trial last year, but that was the only booking or enquiry I received.

[Giddy Goat]

Oops, that's a point - you can't sign up for a free trial unless there is one!

Helen, was your trial running at a time when you had much availability? Mine wasn't, which is why I decided to give them a fair crack of the whip and signed up for a year's subscription.

BTW I've never thought about trying to bargain for a lower rate with any of these sites. Susan, what's your secret?!

[la vache!]

Jane, it has never worked with any of the other sites, they are, as you say, just really nice at holidaylets.net! I shouldn't write this, but every year I tell them how badly their site has performed for me (which is true) and how I don't want to re-new despite really liking the site and they have always done a little deal. I have been with them for years, don't know if this counts for anything! I can't bring myself to finish with them as they have provided the odd good off peak let for me, but funnily enough, nothing ever in peak!

[Giddy Goat]

Susan, on what do you judge performance - number of inquiries, or number of lets? I have just opened up a poll on this very subject... . Did HL perform badly on both counts?

[Hells Bells]

Jane, I set up the trial last summer when I was first certain we would be able to take rentals for the winter.So I didn't have any bookings then at all. I set it up with availabiity from February onwards, just in case of delays to the completion. I got one booking for a peak week,and possibly another enquiry that didn't convert. One the other hand, Homelidays got me another 2 peak weeks booked. All through the winter I had a total of 9 consecutive weeks booked,from Feb to Easter, and the rest were via my website. My online booking has a box for them to state where they saw our ad. Homelidays allows a link, and they clicked through to the website to book.