AA taking over Visit England Quality Assessments

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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

newtimber wrote:I've gone with the AA and it's just so much cheaper. All people really want to know if that it's been assessed by someone. With so many online reviews nowadays, does anyone bother with ratings from VE anyway?
I hadn’t realised the AA was significantly cheaper, so worth a look next time!

As for the value of an assessment, it acts as a differentiator when your property is in amongst a bucketload of others, and I’m thinking particularly on Facebook groups. Otherwise, it depends... (as always!)
Online reviews are basically meaningless as they have no baseline reference points and anything other than 5 blobs is considered a problem, verging on a disaster. The main purpose now served by online reviews is their threat value for guests looking to extort.
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

greenbarn wrote: The main purpose now served by online reviews is their threat value for guests looking to extort.
Yes and also a deterrent for owners wanting to leave the big OTA's, but reluctant because they will be leaving their cherished 5* reviews behind as well.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

An update on this - according to the latest EASCO (shortly to be renamed as the Holiday Home Association) newsletter, Quality in Tourism who were the assessors for VE before the contract went to the AA last year, are launching their own grading scheme. QiT was part of G4S but are apparently under new ownership.
A brief extract from the article:
The business is offering a basic safe, clean, and legal assessment, a full star-grading scheme, and savings on multi-unit properties where there are, for example, self-catering units and B and B accommodation on the same site. They are also pushing their new “unique” award for unusual property.
Could be interesting.

The “basic safe, clean and legal assessment” is something that the UK industry desperately needs as part of an operating licence to get rid of the cowboys.
COYS
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Post by COYS »

greenbarn wrote:The “basic safe, clean and legal assessment” is something that the UK industry desperately needs as part of an operating licence to get rid of the cowboys.
Agreed, for UK it would be a good thing for sure, but were it to become wider standard practice the industry as a whole (from an owners perspective) would benefit from the natural reduction in oversupply it would inevitably cause.
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FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

AndrewH wrote: Yes and also a deterrent for owners wanting to leave the big OTA's, but reluctant because they will be leaving their cherished 5* reviews behind as well.
Andrew, if you want to attract North American visitors, this site www.houfy.com may be the next big thing. It will of course take time but it is a different kind of site (they and Vacation Soup seem to be approaching from the same sort of angle) and the best thing is that if you have a Homeaway/VRBO/Owner'sDirect listing, you can upload it AND all your reviews straight onto it in seconds. It is a nice feeling being able to park reviews somewhere safe. I am still planning to pay TripAdvisor an arm and a leg in order to keep subscribing and keeping my reviews so they got me there! Houfy are not marketing yet and they are somewhat dependent on us all doing useful guides to our area etc. in order to keep google super happy. A couple of people have already had success even though it hasn't officially taken off. Have a look?
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

FelicityA wrote:It is a nice feeling being able to park reviews. Have a look? ( https://www.houfy.com/ )
Thank you Felicity. It looks good. I think they have got the right idea, and I have made a note for the near future at which time I shall be saying goodbye to OD/HA.
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