Sykes, Exedia, hotels.com: The Guardian 19/12

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
leon
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Sykes, Exedia, hotels.com: The Guardian 19/12

Post by leon »

What happens if the holiday accommodation you booked is unavailable when you turn up? According to these readers, precisely nothing …

JK of Stockport and his family booked a week in Staithes, North Yorkshire through Sykes Cottages. They arrived to find the cottage already occupied. “The housekeeper told us the family who had booked the preceding week had decided to spend an extra night. Eventually, she said we could stay in another property but would have to be out by 11am the next day, could not use the master bedroom and would have to pay for the cleaning.

“Sykes was sympathetic but useless. We waited in the car in atrocious weather with two young children and a puppy for two hours while waiting for them to contact the owner. It was eventually confirmed we could stay the night in the other cottage without paying extra. We spent much of the next day waiting for the booked cottage to be cleaned. We lodged a complaint but have heard nothing since.”
KT of Bournemouth reserved an apartment in Budapest via Expedia, electing to pay on arrival. The booking was confirmed over the phone but, when she arrived, it had been cancelled. Nonetheless, £162 was debited from her card and the owner failed to respond to messages.

“Expedia claims they are just the booking agent and my bank says I cannot file a dispute because I don’t have written proof that the reservation was cancelled,” she says.

PD of Elstead, Surrey, paid Hotels.com £320 in advance for three nights in a French gite. He arrived to find it had been double booked. “We were left late at night with nowhere to stay,” he says. “Hotels.com admitted its error and offered us a £100 voucher, but three months on it has not refunded the £320.”
Sykes Cottages says that in JK’s “isolated issue” previous guests had booked through another agency and claims a “technical error” prevented his complaint reaching the “correct team”. Only after the Observer intervened did it refund the first night of his stay and offer a £175 voucher.

Expedia says KT should have contacted customer service when she was refused entry to her apartment. Its terms and conditions, however, are silent on procedure, nor was a helpline provided on the booking confirmation. It has now refunded the cost of the original booking and the difference in price between that and the emergency alternative.

Hotels.com says it had not been able to find an acceptable alternative for PB as it was high season and an “administrative error” prevented a refund. After media pressure it returned the cost of the gite, out-of-pocket expenses and added a £150 voucher as PB “didn’t have a great experience”.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I read this earlier and was comforted to see that many of the comments from readers suggested using these portals only to identify accommodation and then going direct to the owners.

Maybe the message is getting through slowly as most explained that by cutting out the middle man people would avoid these issues...and most probably get a cheaper deal.

Mousie
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e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

So much for "book with confidence guarantees" !

When OTAs make claims that they protect travellers better than the owner ever can, I tell people to call their helpline at 1am to see what they can do for guests who have travelled for 6 hours to find the property that does not exist or is somehow unavailable.

Mind you, the first barrier is actually finding any useful telephone number !
** Richard
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Post by KAB-Dennis »

Mouse how do they go about finding the owners when they want to book direct??
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e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

KAB-USA wrote:Mouse how do they go about finding the owners when they want to book direct??
Kate,
You have to use a bit of intelligence to search using property name, maybe owner name, or you're a bit more clever you can use Google image search in the hope that there is a reasonably unique photo on the listing site that matches one on owner's website.

You can try to give hints in early correspondence in the hope that your guest will cotton on and the HA algorithms don't trap your writing, or when all else fails, you can sell up and move on to happier times - as Mouse has recently done :wink:
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
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Post by Joanna »

KAB-USA wrote:Mouse how do they go about finding the owners when they want to book direct??
It really helps potential guests if your place has a distinctive name. The OTAs suggest listing titles like 'cosy riverside cottage' - ignore them and go for 'Chandler's Cottage, Sidmouth, East Devon', for example. Then guests can Google that exact phrase and find your own website, assuming of course that you've used those words throughout your homepage.

Make sure the name you choose is unique within your area and ideally one that you can register a domain name for.

The other thing I do is sign off all my OTA messages with:
Kind regards,
Jo

Mrs Jo Cunningham | owner : Chandler's Cottage, Sidmouth, East Devon
Then people can also Google me as well.
Jo

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

e-richard wrote:
KAB-USA wrote:Mouse how do they go about finding the owners when they want to book direct??
Kate,
You have to use a bit of intelligence to search using property name, maybe owner name, or you're a bit more clever you can use Google image search in the hope that there is a reasonably unique photo on the listing site that matches one on owner's website.

You can try to give hints in early correspondence in the hope that your guest will cotton on and the HA algorithms don't trap your writing, or when all else fails, you can sell up and move on to happier times - as Mouse has recently done :wink:
It does require the owner having her/his own property website, where the owner's contact details can be found (i.e. email and phone number). The site needn't be an expensive affair, but it's good to use the same lead photo as appears on HomeAway et al, to assist with image searching on Google.

These big OTAs with their heavy commissions and coining it by hanging on to, and investing, guests' money till the last minute, would never permit the appearance of an owner's details, for obvious reasons. However, they do also make useful 'directories' for the savvy holiday maker, who is prepared to think out of the box.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Hi everyone!

I'd echo Andrew's point about needing to have your own website. People are getting savvy about googling for property by name, owners name or some other unique facility.

I managed to mention my website quite a few times dotted around my HA and TA pages. Here's what I did (incase it's useful for anyone);
1. I set up my contact name as the actual website address so that it came up as www.number21ibiza.com and not my name.
2. In owners details I mentioned having a website with useful hints and tips for Ibiza
3. I took a photo if a blackboard message left by a guest that had my website address written along the top
4. I got 2 regular guests to mention our website in their reviews :D
5. I mentioned the website in terms and conditions, facilities and payment details.

I never used air bnb or booking.cm so don't know where you might get away with publicising your own details but certainly you need a unique property name.

Mousie (who escaped :lol: )
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AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

These are very neat tips, Mousie. Particularly the one for getting the site a mention in reviews. :lol:
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Thanks Andrew. I know a lot of my enquiries via those sites came direct. Of course I did get a few who didn't see the hints or preferred to go via the website, which is fair enough.
Direct guests often couldn't believe the 100's of £'s difference in price.

Mousie
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