Holiday-rentals

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
ashtondav
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Holiday-rentals

Post by ashtondav »

Well, as I wrote the other day, I have now taken up the "Money Back Guarantee" :D one year sub with H-R.com.

Blimey! I had forgotten about VAT and when thats included the annual price is £182! Unless I receive 4 bookings over the next 6 months I'm gonna want my dosh back! Even 4 is going to work out at 10%+ a booking for my little place :? .

It seems mighty unfair that a large villa charging £3,000 a week pays the same price as a little apartment charging 90% less. But then I guess life isn't fair :(
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alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

As far as I know, advertising space anywhere (tv, newspapers, magazines, the web, aeroplane banners......) generally costs the same to all takers, whatever the profits this advertising might create. Bulk advertising costs less but that has nothing to do with the profits.
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Alexia.
gh
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Re: Holiday-rentals

Post by gh »

ashtondav wrote:Well, as I wrote the other day, I have now taken up the "Money Back Guarantee" :D one year sub with H-R.com.

Blimey! I had forgotten about VAT and when thats included the annual price is £182! Unless I receive 4 bookings over the next 6 months I'm gonna want my dosh back! Even 4 is going to work out at 10%+ a booking for my little place :? .

It seems mighty unfair that a large villa charging £3,000 a week pays the same price as a little apartment charging 90% less. But then I guess life isn't fair :(
Firstly I have to say, WHAT A GREAT SITE, very interesting and informative above all friendly. :D

Thats weird I was looking today for a new site for our property.
I looked at there site this morning 14154 properties, just looked again 14200 now x that by minimum of £155 per advert made £8,650 in half a day. Not bad.Less there overheads, still a healty turnover/profit per annum! Work out how much annually with 14200 properties @£155 min. I kinda work that, if they get me enquires which I convert into bookings, and there charge is less than 10% of takings ok, adding on 10% to rates covers advert. Another we are on charges 10% com no add rate, up the rate by 10% to cover their costs. Seem to work as were booked now from June through to Sept '06. :lol:



Apologies if I rambled on a bit.

Johnel
alexia s.
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Post by alexia s. »

"4200 now x that by minimum of £155 "
Yes, the figures are amazing.
However, H-R doesn't have that many paying customers: each new customer gets a NEW number which is (at least usually, I don't know if this is always the case) NOT re-allocated if that customer discontinues the subscription.
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Alexia.
gh
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Post by gh »

alexia s. wrote:"4200 now x that by minimum of £155 "
Yes, the figures are amazing.
However, H-R doesn't have that many paying customers: each new customer gets a NEW number which is (at least usually, I don't know if this is always the case) NOT re-allocated if that customer discontinues the subscription.
Hi Alexia s. sorry should have made it clearer, my mistake, its 14,200 preperties to rent, imagine if they had discontinued there subscription the properties would not still be advertised.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Yes, it is 14,200 active ads. If you look at the most recent additions to the site, they are at number 56000 or so.

14,200 x £155+ is a lot of cash, and presumably they got a very good price when they were bought out this year.
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kevincohr
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holiday rentals

Post by kevincohr »

Although they are not the largest European site ( Homelidays has 17,000 listings), the fact that, unlike most other sites, they don't offer free trials, volume discounts or compromise on pricing means that their revenues are likely to be in the GBP 2m range. Given the level of competition, this is quite remarkable.

It will be interesting to see how they do as part of WVR. My sense is that they will find it hard to grow and are likely to see erosion in their market share because of their relatively high prices.

Other views ?

Kevin
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Giddy Goat
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Re: holiday rentals

Post by Giddy Goat »

"It will be interesting to see how they do as part of WVR. My sense is that they will find it hard to grow and are likely to see erosion in their market share because of their relatively high prices.

Other views ?

Kevin"

My quarrel with HR, as I've already made known on threads here, is that they do not allow links to personal websites. I reminded Ross McG of this, (nicely) suggesting that with the burgeoning number of listing sites threatening to claim a chunk of HR's market, they should be considering to move with the times and offer this service. The bottom line is that I still get more inquiries and bookings from the other main site I advertise on, which provides the link. My point fell on stony ground.

Increasingly, holiday home owners, themselves under pressure from growing competition, are recognising the value added powers of personal sites, and will be including the link in their set of criteria when choosing which listing sites to advertise on.

One of these days I'll be obliged to move on to greener pastures!
Last edited by Giddy Goat on Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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mvus
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Post by mvus »

I also know someone who has complained about not allowing website links but I think they've left it way too late. If they allowed it now they would need to update their system plus on the basis of 20%-25% people adding their website they would need to manually check around 3000 - 4000+ websites before amending the clients ads to ensure they were not commerical/pornographic/or other rental company sites or have links to commercial sites which owners direct have done from right from the start.

With lots of free blogs and website tools now for people to get a basic site set up and make use of free ads etc and put up more photos etc it will only get worse for them and possibly harder to grow market share in the long term
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

Is it worth us putting together some sort of "petition" to H-R asking them to allow this?

If the reason they are not allowing it is because of the cost of checking each link then maybe they could charge an extra £10 if an owner wants a link.

I suspect though that it is also due to the fact that they charge for each extra photo - and those owners with websites would not pay for the extra photos.
mvus
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Post by mvus »

I think the main reason is they want owners to know the bookings came from them and not their personal website and don't want people leaving their site to look at other websites, however, I think most bookings still go through the holiday rental companies and people go on to use the owners website as further reference, reassurance, a link to show family where they're going on holiday etc etc etc
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

pja - I absolutely agree with what you've said, and Catherine, I happily pay for an additional photo on the site I use which does provide the personal website link, as I see it as an extra bit of encouragement for people to then click onto the link.

It seems to me that H-R are a bit more interested in protecting themselves and their own income than in across-the-board customer satisfaction. At the moment they're very successful, as there is still a large number of owners who do not have their own websites and therefore have no axe to grind - but this situation is bound to change. Market trends will see to that, and H-R's attititude is very short-sighted. If, as pja intimates, there is a very real practical problem associated with approving each and every individual website, then, as Catherine suggests, a charge for allowing a link would be perfectly acceptable, I'm sure.

Are you listening, Rossie?
Last edited by Giddy Goat on Sun Dec 11, 2005 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Jane Bennett wrote:It seems to me that H-R are a bit more interested in protecting themselves and their own income than in across-the-board customer satisfaction.
If there are no outbound links from their ads, h-r is likelier to retain and 're-cycle' a visitor. If one ad doesn't satisfy, the visitor will look at others, maybe yours. If they can click off to another site, they may be lost to the wider internet for good.

I guess that would be h-r's justification for their no-link policy.
Paolo
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

Well, the two other sites on which I advertise (VisitFrance and SpecialPlaces) have no such qualms and allow the website link at no extra charge - and yet the vast majority of my enquiries/bookings come from these sites, not from my website, although they probably do visit it for further info.
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

I very much see the point with Rental Sites which take a share of the owner's rental income from each booking. They have their incomes to protect.

I don't see the point with Rental Sites which simply charge a flat fee. They have nothing but their statistics to protect.

I carefully record how our guests found us. I don't have a Personal Website and there are no links between the Rental Sites I use. My e-mail address and my telephone number are both published and I often get a direct enquiry, not through a Rental Site enquiry system. The fact is that some guests have bounced around from site to site and just can't remember which one took their fancy.

Alan
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