Holiday lettings

[brightmike]

How can you see your page views on HL?

We only started this Spring so can't compare to previous years.

50% of our booking are via HL (commission)
10% via ABB
40% direct (I'm guessing after finding us on HL or ABB)

[e-richard]

Now I keep getting badgered by HA to change to annual subscription which would cost me less than half of the commission I've already paid out in 8 months.

That is quite surprising. The trend is towards commission so I (and I suspect quite a few others here) would love to see their arguments being used to suggest you move back to subscription

[Nemo]

Gordo, I'm not an HL user, but simply as a reader of the threads here, I'm sure many HL listers say subscription is useless as they are not getting enquiries. If the commission route is bringing you bookings, then I'd be loathe to change.

Edit. I've just seen you said HA. I don't use them either, only OD, but I'd still say the same. I wouldn't change something that's working. I change things that aren't.

[newtimber]

Now I keep getting badgered by HA to change to annual subscription which would cost me less than half of the commission I've already paid out in 8 months.

That is quite surprising. The trend is towards commission so I (and I suspect quite a few others here) would love to see their arguments being used to suggest you move back to subscription

Maybe it's to show that they are a responsible company trying to save you money - which may encourage brand loyalty. I guess there has been a lot of negative publicity about HA towards their owners and they are trying to counter this.

Alternatively, they now see their main business is in subscription listings and the commission listings are just a hook to get people to sign up to subscription.

[Lets Go To Puglia]

We were with Holiday Lettings until our subscriptions for two properties expired last year. We left them because of the way our properties, as subscription properties, came up in the search results.

Now HomeAway seems to be going the same way, plus their own SEO and search results have been badly affected by Google changes to move away from Listing sites.

Reluctantly we have put one of the two properties back on HolidayLettings (yesterday) on a commission per booking basis. It remains to be be seen whether the enquiries improve.

There must be some other way to go than depend on these major sites who change the rules to suit themselves. The stories in the press of HomeAway (USA) now charging guests an additional traveller fee (nothing to do with the owner or the property) add to the misery; how long before the Traveller fee hits Europe and the UK?

[AndrewH]

Now I keep getting badgered by HA to change to annual subscription which would cost me less than half of the commission I've already paid out in 8 months.

That is quite surprising. The trend is towards commission so I (and I suspect quite a few others here) would love to see their arguments being used to suggest you move back to subscription

Maybe it is because HA are finding commission listers too fickle. It costs them nothing except effort to add a listing. "Easy come easy go" and perhaps they find that there are more owners "going" than are "coming". Annual subscriptions are a smaller but steady income for HA, whereas commission income for HA is dependent on owners getting bookings and, if LMH is a good sounding board, those anticipated bookings are not happening for many owners in 2016.

[Stewart]

This drop in HL traffic. Is it not simply that the HL web marketing spend has been reduced? One thing I have noticed in this forum is the dramatic drop in complaints about that company after TA bought them out. Surely an indirect measure that HL ain't generating the business it once did (and latterly so badly!!)

TA milked the old HL customer and owner base for what it was worth and now the migration is complete what's the point in maintaining HL as a brand now that the supply and demand sides have been shifted comprehensively to TA?

[Essar]

This drop in HL traffic. Is it not simply that the HL web marketing spend has been reduced? One thing I have noticed in this forum is the dramatic drop in complaints about that company after TA bought them out. Surely an indirect measure that HL ain't generating the business it once did (and latterly so badly!!)

TA milked the old HL customer and owner base for what it was worth and now the migration is complete what's the point in maintaining HL as a brand now that the supply and demand sides have been shifted comprehensively to TA?

TA bought out HL in 2011. If you go back 12 months to 2 years on LMH you will see that the changes made to both the FK & HL websites by TA caused a tremendous amount of upheaval and distress for owners. The software problems have trailled away as they have been fixed; however, recently TA consolidated all the website administration for owners through a centralised TA dashboard. This again caused much distress, confusion and anger for owners, again, this seems to be getting sorted out.

The biggest problems seem to stem from the imposition of a guest booking fee in 2014 - this is probably why most owners find that their enquiries have petered out.

Travellers still use the HL & FK websites for their enquiries; although, TA has centralised the owner's dashboard they have not yet done the same for the enquirers.

TA's recent aquisition of HouseTrip will no doubt change the dynamics of their own meta-search website; consolidation in property listings to a single entry on TA rather than one for each separate subsidiary site tidies up their own realm. HT's high traveller booking fees may become the norm throughout TA land, but it could also mean the lowering of bookings fees on that site to match HL, FK & Niumba.

VacationHomeRental another of TA's sprogs is still run independently, so maybe HT will do the same.