Is it worth getting a Tourist Board rating?

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Mazey
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Is it worth getting a Tourist Board rating?

Post by Mazey »

We have been letting our cottage through an agent for seven years but they were taken over by one of the big firms in 2017. We now have our own website and are listed on a couple of independent listing sites. Is it worth getting an official star rating from the English Tourist board?
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apexblue
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Post by apexblue »

We were 5 star rated years ago with Visit Wales which resulted in one booking.
It is better to remain quiet and have one think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....

The biggest mistake we make in life is thinking we have time.
zebedee
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Post by zebedee »

You won’t get many bookings from being on the
Visit England site itself, (or Wales) but what you will get is the very well recognised logo that you can attach to all your adverts and include in any advertising text.

It should help you stand out if your competitors are not star rated, and if they are, then it will bring you up to par with them. For people who will book direct from your website, it will make a huge difference to bookings as it offers a standard of assurance.
It’s only worth getting if you can achieve 4 or 5 stars, 3 may not make much impression.

We have always been 4 star and get around 50% booking from a search engine search. Not listed on any big listing or commission sites and it is hard work, but works well for us.

We’ve had several guests check out we are not a scam property using the VE website, which was down for about 2 years but has now been resurrected.

A lot may depend upon who your target market is.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

zebedee wrote:For people who will book direct from your website, it will make a huge difference to bookings as it offers a standard of assurance.
Will it though? There are other ways you can offer that assurance such as embedding reviews from another site...

Just my opinion, but I would seriously question whether it's worth it.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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Cymraes
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Post by Cymraes »

For the £110 it costs me for Visit Wales registration it is well worth it.

I can use the logo, emphasise that MY star rating is from a Govt agency and it does make a difference for those who care about such things. Certainly the older demographic seem to be reassured by it
Joanna
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Post by Joanna »

We had the same dilemma and eventually tried out AA grading for our Devon cottage last year. We got 4 stars and then I changed all our listing titles to 'Chandler's Cottage 4 star holiday let in Sidmouth'. I added the AA 4 star banner to our photos on Facebook, TA, etc and quoted from the AA inspectors comments on our web site home page.

We didn't get any enquiries via the AA website but our general enquiries did go up and overall bookings were up last year. It might have been a coincidence, we'll never know for sure.

My theory is that 'expert' reviews carry more weight. The AA inspector has seen hundreds of holiday lets so he really does know what he's talking about. We're going to get the other house graded too but may use the Visit Britain scheme for that one.

BTW we went with the AA because, at that time, Visit Britain weren't showing graded properties online so enquirers couldn't verify our grading.
Jo

Joint owner of Baker's Cottage in Chester & Chandler's Cottage in Sidmouth
Stewart
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Post by Stewart »

Go for it. Lets face it ABB, TA, and the other listing sites have star systems that are easily manipulated and everyone scores highly on so I believe the inclusion of an objective assessment is a good thing. Maybe hard to quantify £ value but it is likely to swing ditherers and you may find yourself ahead of the curve when the public catch on that on-line rating sites in general (inc Trustpilot) are, by design, flawed and compromised.
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

Stewart wrote:...when the public catch on that on-line rating sites in general (inc Trustpilot) are, by design, flawed and compromised.
Yes, I would say so. When it comes to providing paid services to companies which are also being reviewed on their website, as do Trustpilot, there is an obvious conflict of interest there. For example, the temptation to take down true but adverse reviews at their "customer's" request must play a part in this world of commerce.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Apologies, this turned out to be a lengthy post!

As above, don’t expect to get any bookings directly through the Visit England or AA websites; that means the financial value of an official grading is perhaps not particularly tangible.

What a grading does is say a lot about your property and how you run it. You and your property have been visited by an Assessor (and will be every year) so the first point is that your property does actually exist, which is quite reassuring for a lot of guests!

It shows that you have a fire risk assessment in place and meet the safety, insurance and legal requirements of operating, which most of the cowboy operators don’t. Many (all?) local tourist boards offer a simple assessment service which checks the basics of legality, safety and other minimum standards - a bit like the minimum requirements for a VE/AA grading - and no more than that, so no quality rating. I think that in itself is well worth having as proof that you’ve been checked out (as an aside, there’s the hope that an inspection of that nature will form the basis of a proposed licence to be required by all FHL operators).

An official star grading from Visit Britain or one of its approved assessors (the AA and some accredited agencies) then gives a good indication of the standard of accommodation a guest can expect; the assessment is intended to be as objective as possible, working from a documented Standard. I’ve always found the assessors to be approachable and happy to give any tips, which is particularly useful when you’re starting out.

A few years back there was a train of thought that said decent photos on websites would show the guest what to expect, and along with the reviews from TA et al the official star grading system didn’t really serve a purpose (a useful view for the Government to cut funding). We now know that the review system is fatally flawed, the majority are meaningless and virtually no indication of the standard of accommodation - regardless of standard and quality, anything less than 5 blobs is seen by owners as almost a disaster - and for small businesses like ours the review system is a wonderful tool for blackmailers, both financial and emotional. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen an owner post saying “the guest caused xyz damage but I don’t want to say anything in case they leave a bad review”, which pretty much sums it up.
Sorry, bit of a digression there!

In summary, reviews have fallen into disrepute and the official grading system remains the only way to demonstrate an expert and objective evaluation of standard. I agree with Zebedee that if you can’t make 4*, or maybe 3* Gold, it’s probably not worth having a grading; instead have a local Tourist Board approval to demonstrate the fire and general safety, insurance and legal aspects are observed. The system might well be undergoing a revival!
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