Holiday-rentals

[Giddy Goat]

Susan: FC - yes, I much preferred their previous look. I wonder if it's just that, or something else as well which accounts for the lowered success rate?

Alexia - oh what a lovely pastoral scene you painted for us - though sounds very hard work. We'll draw a veil over the finding of the large stone bit, and those intrusive litigious thoughts. I prescribe a few more days in the sun, olive picking, listening to the bells and the birds; you clearly haven't completed the course yet.

[vrooje]

How do they do this - does it imply that they have not used the link or have FC got some other way of directing the enquiry via their site?

I think the answer may be simple -- they do allow the link, but it is not that prominent. It's under the owner's contact information, but it's certainly not above the fold, and it's a simple text link; the e-mail inquiry link is right next to it and is much more, well, inviting. I surmise that many people just miss the link, and of those that don't, plenty don't need to see the website before making an inquiry. Then perhaps they'll look at the website after inquiring -- or perhaps not.

I do have text on HR that invites people to ask for our website address, and I also suggest they do a search on MSN/Google and give them the search phrase "experienceburgundy" all as one word -- which essentially guarantees that our site (experienceburgundy.com) will be the #1 result on either search engine. Every month I do get a few hits on that search phrase. So it does work -- but it's quite awkward, in my opinion.

Jane, sorry for waiting so long to pipe in -- I had a rather long argument with HR and Holiday Lets about allowing links, and both went nowhere. So I feel in some way that I don't want to waste my energy debating it, as I doubt HR will change their minds. But it does feel good to gripe sometimes.

[Normandy Cow]

Alexia - I too am interested to find out how you managed to get the line about contacting you for your website address onto your HR ad...

I did insert a similar line into my ad a few weeks ago, but a couple of days later someone at HR had changed it to "Please ask us for more details"!

Could you let me have your HR property number so that I can have a look at it?

Thanks!

(Since pressing "Submit" on this reply, I notice that Brooke was replying at the same time so I hadn't read hers!)

[vrooje]

Catherine,

My property ID is 18976 -- if that helps.

Reviewing the ad reminds me of another thing that bugs me about the HR ads -- no paragraph breaks!

[Normandy Cow]

Thanks Brooke - I've just entered something similar on my HR ad. That's another one I owe you (after you so kindly helped me with the text on my homepage a few months back!).

Let's see whether this text gets past the HR censor! (and I agree about the lack of paragraph breaks).

[vrooje]

Good luck -- and keep us posted on that!

It should pass, since the text on there is what HR told me to write (after several of my own attempts were rejected).

[paolo]

This forum is read by holiday-rentals so don't give away your secrets too readily!

[Giddy Goat]

Holiday-Rentals must certainly take the prize for provoking the greatest amount of controversy and posts on LayMyHat!

To be continued by one or other or more of us tomorrow? Yeah, why not!!

[Normandy Cow]

Paolo,
Good! I am glad they read it, and I hope they take note...

[Guest3]

Thanks for the tip Brooke...well I've inserted my little text this morning but the addition has not appeared on the h-r site. So I assume it's awaiting approval.

[Giddy Goat]

Yes Brookie - thanks from me too, I've just tweaked my ad a bit, so wait to see how much H-R chooses to re-tweak, or do away with altogether!

I read on an earlier post that you were also discussing the same matter with holidaylets. I signed up for a free trial, so they wouldn't allow a weblink during this period of course, but I was under the impression that, though not totally happy about it for the same reasons H-R outlined, they will accept website links from subscribers, but charge £30 pa. for this. Did I get it wrong perhaps?

[Normandy Cow]

Although this morning my amended text was not yet live, I've just checked again - and YIPPEE - it seems to have passed the censor!

So thank you Brooke and Alexia for your advice...

[vrooje]

Jane,

I think you're right, Holiday Lets does allow weblinks for a substantial extra charge.

I remember having a long argument with Ross at Holiday Lets over this, and he gave me all the above reasons not to allow external links, then said they do as long as the user pays more. That made me wonder why he gave all the other arguments in the first place... if it's about money, that's fine. But does 30 pounds offset all that supposed business they're losing?

I say the web link would bring me more business from Holiday Lets, and I would know it had done so. Ross said it would seem to me as though it brought me less.

I never paid for Holiday Lets (love their site, just... didn't get any inquiries), so I never found out which of us was right.

Catherine, I'm glad the new text worked!

[A-two]

My listing # on HR is 16968 . I have from day one included a sentence in the text which suggests contacting us to ask for our website address for more information, photos etc.. This does work. To suggest a Google search phrase is an added bonus, being the best way to facilitate an instant response, which as we all know gives us the edge over competitors to make the booking. Thanks Brooke!

[Giddy Goat]

Hi Joanna - how's the land sale going?

With regard to suggesting a google search phrase to visitors to the H-R site in order to bring them to your own website, I've just tried a search phrase for our site, and yes, up it came - along with Lay My Hat and all my posts on it, which I'm not sure I want to share with my prospective guests! I did suggest typing in a search phrase in my H-R ad yesterday, but overnight am thinking of taking it out again!