rentalsfrance.com - one to consider for owners in France

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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paolo
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rentalsfrance.com - one to consider for owners in France

Post by paolo »

I've seen a few owners in France saying here that they are looking for a new listing site to use - if you are not inclined to research which sites do best on the search engines, and prefer a personal recommendation, you could consider rentalsfrance.com

I picked this site because it did well in Google for my property/location. I had misgivings about it because it is not pleasing to look at (sorry rentalsfrance), and it is not that easy to use or understand either. But I gave it a go and the results have been pretty good anyway.

This site is different. You buy a period of advertising which you can switch on and off when you want, so you can only have the ad showing when you need it. Or, you can use the credits system. With this you are told about an enquiry - name, dates, numbers - and you can either accept or decline it. If you accept it you can read the whole enquiry and respond. If you decline (i.e. that period is already booked), the enquirer is informed and the enquiry is put out to other similar properties. As a result you only pay for enquiries for available weeks.

If you take up an enquiry that another property has declined, it costs you half a credit.

Prices: £88 for 52 weeks advertising which you can spread over a 2-year period, or; 52 credits. There is a scale of payments from 8 credits/weeks to 520.

If I haven't explained it very well, it's because I'm not even sure I understand the system fully!

It isn't the most attractive site, and I don't know how the rotation of properties on the results pages is done, but on the plus side, you can upload as many pictures as you want, in any dimensions (saves time resizing everything).

Does anyone else use the site?
Paolo
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

Nope, I've never used it -- but isn't this a pay-per-enquiry system? I don't think I'd like that...

Then again, maybe I've mis-read it.
Brooke
Paul Carmel
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Post by Paul Carmel »

We gave it a whirl but we did not get squat at a time when other sites were producing the goods. I, like you Paolo, liked it's payment system and it's Google ranking. But once you stop paying you get these tedious e-mails ( every other day )telling you you have to pay. We tried to stop them and were told no probs and they went away, only to start up 2 or 3 months later.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Brooke,

It is a pay-per-enquiry if you choose that mechanism. Or you can choose the normal advertising - the twist is that you can choose which weeks your ad is displayed. You can let it run its course as per usual, or play about with it if you know that certain periods of the year are hopeless for enquiries. This is unusual because it is not in the site's interest to allow this, so you feel you are getting a good deal.

Same with the credits - you don't have to accept them. You could hold out for bookings of 2 weeks or more only, for example. You could even decline any enquiries for weeks you know you will book by other means.

I don't like the idea of pay-per-enquiry at all, but I am currently trying out this system. For now I like it, I don't get many enquiries, and they are usually for the most popular, already booked weeks, so I can decline those.
Paolo
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