Trip Advisor listing

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
SOKI
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Trip Advisor listing

Post by SOKI »

Does anyone know how to get round listing your property on TA without them having a link to book through them? We are newbies to the holiday let market and so have gone with Welcome Cottages to get the place known. They are really clear that all bookings have to come through them other than the few you are allowed as owner bookings. When trying to list the property on TA to get some reviews though they seem to ask that you provide details of how to book through them.

Have we misunderstood this?? Any advice welcome as although we have had some bookings and some really good reviews in our comments book there is nothing as yet for potential customers to see in the public domain. We had hoped for a greater level of summer bookings at this point.

Thanks
Spending Our Kids Inheritance
www.greathillslodge.com
newtimber
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Post by newtimber »

As far as Holiday Lets are concerned, TA is just a listing site. You have to either pay an annual subscription to one of their subsidiaries like HL or go on a commission-style listing which will require you to accept bookings through their site for which they charge guests a huge commission.
Sam V
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Post by Sam V »

I have a trip Advisor listing through a commission listing with Flip key. I've just received an enquiry for a £690.00 7 night booking and the 'booking fee' TA have added is £93.15
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dont mess in the affairs of cats for they are subtle and will p on your computer.

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kg1
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Post by kg1 »

You could list on HL/TA commission only & block out your calendar? Then you could collect reviews without taking bookings.
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Bassman
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Post by Bassman »

kyreniagirl wrote:You could list on HL/TA commission only & block out your calendar? Then you could collect reviews without taking bookings.
+1
I block out the weeks i know will be booked ie school holidays.
And welcome to the forum SOKI
AndrewH
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Re: Trip Advisor listing

Post by AndrewH »

SOKI wrote:Does anyone know how to get round listing your property on TA without them having a link to book through them?
Yes, list with Vacation Home Rentals. It is a 'subscription only' site and wholly owned by TripAdvisor. Your property will also be shown on TA as any other TA listing. I can't say about TA reviews, but I don't think there would be any problem and there is no booking fee for guests nor any 'Book Now' nonsense.
Kgreen
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Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:13 pm
Location: Lavenham, Suffolk

Post by Kgreen »

Hello! I am also having this problem. I have a booking system on my website, so I don't want to use TA for bookings, I just want a business listing to enable me to collect reviews. I've submitted the request for a 'free business listing' 5 times over the last 9 weeks with no response. I just get an automated message that says, that it may take up to 5 days to appear and that they will e-mail me when done.

It's frustrating as lots of other cottages in my area have a TA listing, without the book through TA option and their listing says 'contact accommodation directly for availability' which is exactly what I want. I need my prices to reflect my website and with TA adding booking fees and restrictions on pricing structure etc it just doesn't work for me. TA is vital for reviews.

I notice blocking out the calendar is an option from your comments above, but does this then deter people entirely as you cannot have a link to your own website, so people just won't bother checking your own website.

Help! This is frying my brain.
petitbois
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Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 6:54 am

Post by petitbois »

if wanting a review only listing onTA you need somone to post a review for you, then you can claim the business & send a link to depsrting guests to review their stay.
Kgreen
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Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:13 pm
Location: Lavenham, Suffolk

Post by Kgreen »

petitbois wrote:if wanting a review only listing onTA you need somone to post a review for you, then you can claim the business & send a link to depsrting guests to review their stay.
Oh my goodness, you are a genius - thank you so much, I've been driving myself mad trying to get this sorted! I didn't realise you could review somewhere that wasn't already listed! I will give this a go.

Thanks!

k
petitbois
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Post by petitbois »

the first reviewer needs to be a regular on TA I think & apply to recommend a new property by posting the first review.
Kgreen
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Location: Lavenham, Suffolk

Post by Kgreen »

Thanks Petitbois, crossing all my fingers that this doesn't just fizzle out into cyber space like all of my other attempts! I'll keep you posted, as if this works, this is very valuable information for the forum!

Katie
newtimber
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Re: Trip Advisor listing

Post by newtimber »

AndrewH wrote: Yes, list with Vacation Home Rentals. It is a 'subscription only' site and wholly owned by TripAdvisor.
I took a look at it and it now seems to be a pay-per-book site exactly like all the others in the TA stable.
AndrewH
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Re: Trip Advisor listing

Post by AndrewH »

newtimber wrote:
AndrewH wrote: Yes, list with Vacation Home Rentals. It is a 'subscription only' site and wholly owned by TripAdvisor.
I took a look at it and it now seems to be a pay-per-book site exactly like all the others in the TA stable.
It was a long time ago when I wrote that and I am most certainly no longer with that awful (my opinion only, of course) outfit. They were a subscription-only part of the Tripadvisor set of OTA companies. It would seem now that subscription renewals are only being offered to existing customers. My annual listing expired in April 2017 without a single booking from them and I wasn't renewing, particularly so because they doubled the fee to $600 or thereabouts.

I was surprised that they wanted me to stay, because I fell out with them to the point of threatening legal action. But that's another story.
Kgreen
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Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2017 2:13 pm
Location: Lavenham, Suffolk

Post by Kgreen »

No joy - message to reviewer sent by TA:

Hello ,

Thank you for taking the time and effort to submit this location to TripAdvisor. Unfortunately, we were unable to complete your request. Occasionally location submissions do not meet our guidelines and cannot be used.

For reference, your request was:
Name: Blacksmith's Cottage Lavenham
Address: 8 Water Street
Website: http://www.blacksmithscottagesuffolk.co.uk
Listing Request ID: 0000015d-a787-a71d-38c1-ac4852f30000

This might be a duplicate of an existing listing or might not meet one of our formatting requirements. For further help, here is a link to some articles that provide detailed guideline information.


I give up - there are so many cottages on there not with a subscription / book now set up. Just very annoying.
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