HomeAway rates change

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vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

I think, VT, that it's probably best to use the changeover setting to force blocks of 7 nights.

For example, if you have a Saturday changeover, and guests want to stay 10 nights, leaving on the Tuesday, just make sure that all days are set to a Saturday changeover. The system should then not allow any other date pair
But it does!

For July & August (the only period that we need weekly lets showing) I have set the changeover to be Saturday and minimum of 7 days but it doesnt seem to help! I can still go back into the system and request 8 nights starting saturday,

The issue is that it is not changeover day but start date. Providing the minimum of 7 nights is ok then they can book what they like over and above this!

I assume that the same would be the case with short stays. eg if you allow a long weekend of say 4 nights there is nothing to stop someone booking for 5 as the "leave date" is not something that you can influence

Unless you have managed to find a way to stop this? Your email implies that you have. Please share!

Thanks

VT[/quote]
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

vacancesthezan wrote:
But it does!

For July & August (the only period that we need weekly lets showing) I have set the changeover to be Saturday and minimum of 7 days but it doesnt seem to help! I can still go back into the system and request 8 nights starting saturday,

The issue is that it is not changeover day but start date. Providing the minimum of 7 nights is ok then they can book what they like over and above this!

I assume that the same would be the case with short stays. eg if you allow a long weekend of say 4 nights there is nothing to stop someone booking for 5 as the "leave date" is not something that you can influence

Unless you have managed to find a way to stop this? Your email implies that you have. Please share!

Thanks

VT


VT, I have spent the last near 2 hours looking into this….

My conclusion: their rateable calendar does not work and should not have been released.

Examples:

Even though I have set between 2-3 nights minimum stays through until January 2020 (with no changeover restrictions), it is still possible to book 2 nights midweek.

If you select a date in one month, the following month’s dates are blanked out, so you cannot depart into the next month (after clearing previous date pairs from the auto quote). It seems that there is a hidden maximum stay set?!

I am not sure if there is still a VR call centre in the USA. They were the only people who ever managed to help with problems like this. Don’t even bother contacting the outsourced call centre that we get connected to from Europe (I think that any enquiries to their FB page would just tell you to contact the outsourced call-centre).

I might call the VR call-centre myself, but I’ll leave it for the moment, I have got a splitting headache from this…
vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

AngloDutch wrote:

VT, I have spent the last near 2 hours looking into this….

My conclusion: their rateable calendar does not work and should not have been released.
Hi AngloDutch

I spent 2 hours on a live chat with the call centre and they refused to see that there was any problem with the system. Plus numerous hours trying to make the system do want it did previously!

Historically we only quoted rates at a weekly price and this together with a changeover day of Saturday was sufficient Now all has changed

There is another (equally worrying) change. Prior to this HA have shown rates in sterling (along with euro, dollar etc) on their site however it has been made clear to the potential renter that this is only an indication and when it came to the actual quote it was shown in euros (if this was the currency used on the advert).

After this recent "improvement" this has all changed. Now ONLY sterling is shown at a conversion rate decided by HA. Even quotes only show sterling. Anyone booking a property would rightly assume that this was the price they were paying (whether on commission of sub)

But of course it isnt!

We would question whether this was actually legal! It is false advertising to offer something for sale (or rent) at one price and then actually charge a totally different price.

We tried to point this out on the live chat but the line "mysteriously" went dead! We will try and send an email on this matter tomorrow to see if this gets any response. We are not optimistic though as HA will not want to admit they are wrong.

VT



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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

vacancesthezan wrote:
Hi AngloDutch

I spent 2 hours on a live chat with the call centre and they refused to see that there was any problem with the system. Plus numerous hours trying to make the system do want it did previously!

Historically we only quoted rates at a weekly price and this together with a changeover day of Saturday was sufficient Now all has changed

There is another (equally worrying) change. Prior to this HA have shown rates in sterling (along with euro, dollar etc) on their site however it has been made clear to the potential renter that this is only an indication and when it came to the actual quote it was shown in euros (if this was the currency used on the advert).

After this recent "improvement" this has all changed. Now ONLY sterling is shown at a conversion rate decided by HA. Even quotes only show sterling. Anyone booking a property would rightly assume that this was the price they were paying (whether on commission of sub)

But of course it isnt!

We would question whether this was actually legal! It is false advertising to offer something for sale (or rent) at one price and then actually charge a totally different price.

We tried to point this out on the live chat but the line "mysteriously" went dead! We will try and send an email on this matter tomorrow to see if this gets any response. We are not optimistic though as HA will not want to admit they are wrong.

VT

Hi VT,

I have checked what has happened to the former VR/HA call centre which used to be in Texas, and it seems that it has also been outsourced, and gone to Jamaica (I have no idea if any of the helpful and experienced non-level 1 staff in the USA moved with it, probably not).

So, the only way to get through to OD/HA about a problem like this now is via Trustpilot and FB (I would state that you have already been in contact with the call centre where you were eventually disconnected).

I will also post on Trustpilot about this as well. If there are more complaints on there (about the calendar, there are enough general complaints already!) then they will hopefully take this seriously and realize that there is a problem.

I did not notice about the currencies, only saw of course that the dropdown to alter currencies (which used to be at top right on your listing's rate tables) disappeared with the former rate table.

Further to this, I have just checked our VR listing and dashboard (yesterday, I only checked the dashboard). This is interesting:

The dashboard, as I said, still shows the old rate tables (still with the ability to add the 'do not apply weekend rates to stays of x').
But our VR listing on the site has now the same layout as OD, with the same new calendar, no currency alteration possible (rates are defaulted and fixed to USD, although our rates are in Euros).

So, OD seems to have a different dashboard now set up for rates....

Can those LMHers with a listing originally created on HA check their listing and check separately the rates layout on their dashboard, and please report if the setup is as OD (new calendar with nightly rates/former rate table now gone from dashboard), or as on VR (new calendar with nightly rates/former rate table STILL SHOWING in dashboard)?

It can also be that listings on each site show either of these rate set usp, and whether you are on subscription or commission could be a factor as to how the layout is as well.

Again, everyone with listings on an HA site with the new calendar needs to test their rates before instant bookings start coming in with quote totals that some of you may not be too happy with….
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Post by mmg »

Anglo, my listing is pay per booking on HomeAway. I have the new nightly rate calendar only - the old rates table has gone.

I spent a week in January adjusting rates across listing sites and my own website, taking into account exchange rates, commission rates, minimum stays, etc. And then they do this - no notice, I only discovered it as I had an enquiry. If it had been a booking request I would have had to accept it at a loss or refuse and find myself at the bottom of 570 properties.
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Post by AngloDutch »

mmg wrote:Anglo, my listing is pay per booking on HomeAway. I have the new nightly rate calendar only - the old rates table has gone.

I spent a week in January adjusting rates across listing sites and my own website, taking into account exchange rates, commission rates, minimum stays, etc. And then they do this - no notice, I only discovered it as I had an enquiry. If it had been a booking request I would have had to accept it at a loss or refuse and find myself at the bottom of 570 properties.

So, the same set up as now on OD.

But I still don't understand about the VRBO presentation...if the old rate table is still in the dashboard, then adjusting nightly rates won't work (which the new nightly-rate calendar now appearing on the actual VRBO site is capable of handling). It's 'either/or', but on VRBO they have only changed half of the setup?!

The ability to have different minimum stays when booking on certain days of the week, which we have just updated yesterday on OD, just won't work with the current set up on VRBO...the only way round this would be to create an amazing number of seasonal rates (for us, 2 different per week, as we have a minimum stay requirement of 3 nights for arrivals outside the weekend).

I'm sure that their system would tell us that we had reached the maximum number of seasonal rates before we hit the summer this year! :shock:

You are right about HA and OD not informing us about this. The only notice they give about this new rate system is when you sign into the dashboard. No email notification at all about this important change (unlike notifications that you get from ABB).

And, why do this at this time of year? Complete madness....
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

UPDATE

I have run some more tests on our OD listing in the last few minutes and, on the applicable arrival days, our 3-night minimum stay is now being observed.

Maybe they are aware of the mess, and have been working on it?

I was just about to post an amazingly long rant on Trustpilot about the mess but will hold off for the moment.. :wink:
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Post by delilah »

Thanks, I hadn't realised the old rates table have vamoosed and new system. Rates tables had same issues re not enough flexibility (e.g 2 night breaks have to be more than a nightly rate x 2 for a weeks or 4 night stay, otherwise not making any money, but have never been able to sort that) so I have had issues with inaccurate quotes for a while now.

I did put a bit in the property description (which doesn't seem to infringe their "content guidelines" which says "please contact owner for an accurate quote before making any payments", which seems to get taken notice of, then I have a bit of time to amend the quote.

Wondering about the rise in blood pressure meds in owners with the endless fun now generated by this 'horrible site, which used to be so simple really (I know the security wasn't up to scratch...had that issue a few years ago, but it was much easier)
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Post by waterwitch »

How strange - one listing is as usual in the old style, which I have just updated. The other has gone to the nightly calender today and keeps crashing every time I try to update. Doing some checks on that listing, I have now gone to a fixed nightly charge of £82.00 - God knows where that has come from, and of course it's generating totally inaccurate prices. Just at my busiest time of year for bookings too :(
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Post by louiseddie »

Hi all, thanks for the tip off about this. I checked my rates and they had arbitrarily applied 65%+ discounts making my peak weeks c£40 a night for stays of 7 days or more (instead of c.£120 a night!).

I spoke to them and they said it was a glitch and apologised. To be fair to who I spoke to, they indicated that they too are tearing their hair out and are receiving a lot of calls about this. They corrected the 'glitch' and I have now had to laboriously work through my various time periods working out the % difference between 7x multiple of my nightly rates and my desired weekly rate in order to make that % the discount. I told them that owners don't work out their weekly rates by % discounts (which have now ended up as weird numbers like £500.36 for a £500 week - as close as I could get it!) and we just need a box to put the weekly rate figure in - it wasn't broke so don't bloody fix it!

Anyway, thought you may be interested to know they gave me a three month free extension to my subscription for my trouble.

Good luck out there!
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CHECK YOUR RATES

Post by vacancesthezan »

louiseddie wrote:Hi all, thanks for the tip off about this. I checked my rates and they had arbitrarily applied 65%+ discounts making my peak weeks c£40 a night for stays of 7 days or more (instead of c.£120 a night!).

I spoke to them and they said it was a glitch and apologised. To be fair to who I spoke to, they indicated that they too are tearing their hair out and are receiving a lot of calls about this. They corrected the 'glitch' and I have now had to laboriously work through my various time periods working out the % difference between 7x multiple of my nightly rates and my desired weekly rate in order to make that % the discount. I told them that owners don't work out their weekly rates by % discounts (which have now ended up as weird numbers like £500.36 for a £500 week - as close as I could get it!) and we just need a box to put the weekly rate figure in - it wasn't broke so don't bloody fix it!

Anyway, thought you may be interested to know they gave me a three month free extension to my subscription for my trouble.

Good luck out there!
If you were using the old weekly system without a daily rate then CHECK YOUR PRICES.

Ours are all wrong as like the poster above HA have applied a % discount rate to the already weekly price (/7). Therefore the quote that was automatically sent out last night to an enquirer was about 30% too low!!

VT
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Post by Giraffe »

Is there a set OD discount rate for a 7 day booking? How does one set a daily rate unless this is known? I only let whole weeks so a daily rate is meaningless to me - until now!!
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vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

Giraffe wrote:Is there a set OD discount rate for a 7 day booking? How does one set a daily rate unless this is known? I only let whole weeks so a daily rate is meaningless to me - until now!!
Without wishing to second guess the bizarre logic applied by HA/OD....

If the rates have genuinely changed from weekly to nightly (not all the systems seem to have done so).

Highlight the first and last date of the season period you use. Divide your weekly rate by 7 and voila this is your nightly rate however....


1. Make sure that you set a changeover day of the week (assuming you do this) AND that the minimum stay is 7 nights.

2. Double, triple quadruple check that no discount has been set for either 7 or more days and 28 or more days. If you didnt previously have nightly rates on your advert as well as a weekly rate the system will automatically have assumed your "standard tariff" and applied this.

Having done and saved all of this I would rigorously check various periods on the actual advert to ensure that what you think you have set has been applied!

We think that they have been back in and "fiddled" since last week as we are sure that we checked our advert and it was ok - well this morning it wasn't again!

VT
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Post by jafa »

Just had a prospective guest tell me that I'm fully booked March 19. Rang HA and they tell me that my dashboard has defaulted on various settings, including my cancellation policy. Good of them to tell us.
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Post by russellt »

Jenster wrote: I absolutely hate the new system. Getting more and more similar to Airbnb which I find a nightmare to use.
Quote Expedia CEO:
"They've[HomeAway team] developed some incredible technology around their marketplace feeds, the revenue management platform, [and] they've rolled out lots of great reasons for property owners and managers to actually use the platform."
Unquote.

haha. This article is worth a read, if only to show how far independent owners are from the Expedia/HA view of life.

https://www.hotelmanagement.net/operate ... t-earnings

The book direct initiative is biting. Where the hotel sector leads, perhaps the holiday let sector will follow, though the renewed focus on 'home-sharing' a la AirBnB must be a concern for our sector.
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