Listing sites - where nowadays?

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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kendalcottages
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Listing sites - where nowadays?

Post by kendalcottages »

Hi everyone

I'm looking at joining one or two of the big listing sites after a long hiatus of not being on them. (I got fed up with them doing huge increases on the annual fee in a bid to move people on to a commission only model, so ended up relying primarily on repeat guests.)

Now I'd like to look into them again, and realise it's probably inevitable that I have to operate on a commission basis (I'll just need to tweak my rates accordingly).

Any that you'd suggest I definitely do, or definitely avoid?

Any top tips / offers / etc...?

Thank you for any pointers...

Paul
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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apexblue
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Post by apexblue »

Welcome back Paul.

Our best site is still HL followed by AirBnB.

We've learnt to be flexible on start days and number of nights except August.

3% on both.
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.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Thanks, apexblue... :)

I used to do HA and it brought some bookings, but didn't like being pushed into a corner with the commission-based model. I could have sworn listings were creeping up from something £200pa to more like £400pa, but notice nowadays they are more like £250. Have they had a U-turn on that of have I just imagined it?

I was also on Tripadvisor by virtue of being on Flipkey and resisted joining HL because the main attraction I saw in it was getting on to TA (which I was already on). I don't remember exactly, but I think they too were trying to push a commission-only model. There was also a lot of confusion (and horror stories) at the time about what happened to people's reviews if they tried to migrate their listing from one site to another. Are those still the ways to be on TA? ie. either via Flipkey or HL (sorry, I'm so out of touch and guess I should really look this all up...!!)

Finally, I did try Airbnb. To be honest, I didn't feel it was the right market for us at that time, but am open to the idea that that could have changed. For us, it invariably attracted plenty of enquiries for people looking for just one night - not really what we want to do as we both have other jobs. I'm away with work quite a bit and my wife is a teacher, so we rely on cleaners who work fixed dates, and would prefer to keep this rigid (although understand some flexibility might suit guests). On the only occasion we did accept an Airbnb booking, we faced unauthorised over-occupancy (essentially they lied about who was staying) from a large group of Chinese students... definitely not our typical target market.

I've also been on lots of other listing sites in the past, attracting a small dribble of bookings at best...
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Ugh... what a horrible, horrible experience... I started with a call to Tripadvisor and it makes me want to not bother!!!! After about 40 minutes on the phone, I am told that I either have to lose all my reviews on my old listing and will then be able to take payments into a UK bank account (not something I want to do because they are all five star reviews) OR keep the reviews but have to accept payments via PayPal (not something I wish to do because PayPal take a commission on top of the commission I would already be being charged and on top of the fees being charged to the guest)... this is seemingly because I used to be with Flipkey and not Holiday Lettings. :roll: :(
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Called Holiday Rentals today because I had a couple of queries about my listing that I wanted to renew (for example, there's a load of five star reviews I have that now say 'no rating' next to them instead of displaying the number of stars, so I want to see what that's about). After 11 minutes in a queue, I got a recorded message saying 'everyone's busy - please leave a message'. And that's the sales line... :shock: :roll:
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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apexblue
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Post by apexblue »

Paul we DM them via Twitter and always get a same day reply.
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.
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Thanks... I got there with them in the end. What I can't understand is why they can't accommodate two changeover days out of season. Out of the main season, we have changeover days on Mondays and Fridays (so people can stay Mon-Fri, Fri-Mon, Mon-Mon or Fri-Fri). I was under the impression that this was pretty commonplace but it seems they have no provision for it on their rates calendars and just suggested that I include it in my description... has anyone else had this problem?
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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