Is this channel to market completely sewn up by big players?

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
onthecostas
Posts: 7
Joined: Tue Nov 12, 2019 11:59 am
Location: Orihuela costa

Post by onthecostas »

I have just joined the forum and reading this post interests me as i advertise on my own website and TA, they give me about 50% of bookings

My question is would you prefer to pay a commision and you add this to your charge rate, or pay a yearly fee and may get nothing from a portal site.

Me personally i put there commision on the rates and when the guest comes i explain come direct next time and you save money
Stewart
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:32 pm
Location: Fife, Scotland

Post by Stewart »

Nearly 2000 views and only a handful of replies. Frankly a bit crap. What has happened to this community?
SPJ
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Location: Aquitaine
Contact:

Post by SPJ »

Sorry it's annoying you Stewart, but I think Roxytop made the point earlier. Your title sums it up and there's not more to say! If other people are doing the same as I am, then the "views" isn't the number of people who have looked at this thread. Each time there's a new posting, I come back and look again, but haven't felt the need to post myself. So I have probably read this thread about 17 times - 17 views just from me.
The "what has happened to this community?" sadly is Facebook and a much more fragmented (and IMO poorer quality) source of advice and information and support. Personally, I don't go near Facebook if I can help it and much prefer to come here.
Also, I suspect we're all just tired of talking about what has happen to this market and have just got our heads down trying to make a go of it. There's only so long that one can rant about the sheer awfulness of the big platforms (especially if we've been with something like Owners Direct and had no say in what has happened).
I'm fortunate, mine is what most of you would call a "hobby gite" so I am not looking for many bookings a year. Most of my business now is repeats. Once I could entirely rely on Owners Direct. Now, it's my own website, Holiday France Direct and HomeAway. I stay on the latter for "presence" in the market and my 5 star reviews. I have no problem with getting no business from them and hope that people have the sense to google me and come direct.
I'm intrigued to know what you expected when you asked your question? Were you hoping that there was some secret source out there bringing other people business?
SW31
Posts: 86
Joined: Fri Jul 04, 2014 5:02 pm
Location: Haute Garonne, France

Post by SW31 »

Yes it definitely is. That’s why HA can get away with now holding booking payments!
Stewart
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:32 pm
Location: Fife, Scotland

Post by Stewart »

Thanks SPJ. A considered, detailed and interesting response. I guess my frustration is that the big OTA's are an extant threat to owners' margin and cash flow. I thought that would be "discussion-worthy" but clearly not to a great extent.

Maybe (as you say) people have got their heads down or the modal LMHer these days is pursuing a hobby. Or maybe I'm just too grumpy and should lighten up. Ours is a small business but we take it seriously and we seek out the insight of others to improve what we offer and what we make. Alas insight is completely missing from any of the social media groupings I have looked at and is getting harder to find across the board.
zebedee
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Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Hi Stewart,
At the beginning of this thread I replied to suggest Independent Cottages to you. You asked me what % of my bookings came from that site and I sent you a pm to explain I had just had a bereavement so was tied up with other matters.

On considering your request now, what I can say is that several bookings appear to come from my own website, but as I always speak to potential guests that enquire, I routinely ask them where they saw my property advertised. The answer (as said previously) several times has been that they found me on Independent Cottages, followed the link to my own website and made the enquiry from there. I therefore cannot give you an accurate response to the actual percentage of my bookings, but it is a good number. I also get good uptake from their late availability offers and have had Christmas and other winter bookings from them.

Edited to delete part of this post
Last edited by zebedee on Tue Jan 28, 2020 9:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Stewart
Posts: 131
Joined: Sat Jun 11, 2011 1:32 pm
Location: Fife, Scotland

Post by Stewart »

Thanks Zebedee and thanks to all who posted.

As a footnote, I was completing my year end today and was pleased to see ABB are doing the majority of of one and two nights and at an average of £122/night compared to £85 to £95/night for three to seven night stays that come through our own website. To me that confirms observations I made earlier in the thread on how I employ ABB and use a different pricing model.

ABB are great at one and two nights (but not longer durations) and we will use them to fill gaps.

I'm assuming that as ABB become more dominant (organically or expand through acquisition), their terms of trade will tip away from us suppliers so I welcome the business - for now.
Kilm
Posts: 44
Joined: Mon Jul 24, 2017 4:23 pm

Post by Kilm »

I think one thing I've learned is, look around and see if you have a local agent covering your area. It may not be that obvious.

The one I found when I started out covered my very specific area and from the get-go, generated 87% occupancy for me for two years running before I left.

I realistically could have left it with them and I would have had to do nothing to fill the place year on year but if I hadn't looked around, I wouldn't have realised they existed.
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