holiday-rentals.com

[Maggiem]

We've always thought that we'd advertise on 3 sites, but currently appear on just 2. Because so many people here seem to like holiday-rental.com I've just looked at their site, but I can't understand bits of it! What is a searchable holiday offer, and why do I have to pay extra for it?? I'm a little perturbed by all the extra add-ons that have to be paid for - are these really necessary?
Is it worth persevering with their not-very-user-friendly site, and paying their higher than average fees, or should I look elsewhere? Any opinions will be most welcome.
Maggie

[tansy]

Maggiem - I am one of h-r.coms biggest fans...it is £155 which include 4 photos - incidentally was all I had for 1st 2 years - I dropped all other sites and stuck wth the one so thought I would pay for extra pix.

The extras...I've only ever used a special offer once and got a booking withinn 24 hours! I can't remember how much it cost but I was stuck with 5 days as I let someone have the house 10 days.

I agree at times the search seems quite labourious - but there is the facility to show where you house is on the map which does help.

But last year we had 44 bookings from h-r.com for our 2 poperties - this year so far 10 weeks for next summer in one house.

I would advise go for bog standard at £155 with 4 good pictures and see how you go - but you must be pro-active and update your availability chart on a regular basis - there is even a facility to advertise special events in your area should you choose to.

we are property 10652 & 7114 if you want to have a look.

Good luck with it all

Tansy

[Maggiem]

Tansy, thank you for replying so quickly.
I can't find a price of £155 - it seems to be nearly £190, am I missing something? I think that I must have a mental block when the price exceeds the £150's, which I realise is completely daft. I don't have a problem with managing the site actively, that is something I already do on the VisitFrance site, and I know what a difference that can make.

I'll look at your properties later - you're not very far from our own holiday home, which is in the Mayenne.
Maggie

[paolo]

I have asked someone from holiday-rentals to tell us about this - may as well get an answer from the horse's mouth! - hopefully they will post something soon.

By the way, it is holiday-rentals.com, not holiday-rental.com, which is a completely different site.

[ross]

Maggiem,

My Name is Ross McGowan, I am the sales manager at holiday-rentals.com. Hopefully this will answer your questions.

Holiday-rentals.com standard rate for advertising is £155 plus VAT (if you are a UK resident). I would say that the vast majority of adverts on the holiday-rentals.com web site are the standard page advert.

When advertising in any medium there is a cost involved. What it boils down to is, what do I get for my money and what is the best value for money. Before spending any money on advertising your property ask these questions. 1. how many people use the site (visitors), 2. ask what the average number of inquiries properties in your area are receiving. 3. What do I get for my money?

Before you pay, pretend to search for your property on the site, how does the search criteria work. Do the base searches work!

There is a lot of tough competition out there, there is also a lot of rubbish! In some cases being on lots of low cost sites can cost you more than paying for one quality site. Not only in monetary terms, but in your time as well. A quality site will provide you with highly qualified inquiries.

We do offer an additional product, “searchable special offer�. This is to drive late cancellation weeks, or to encourage early bookings.

The searchable Special offer is not essential to have, it is there for our advertisers to promote specific weeks of availability. There is an area on the homepage as well as on each geographical area for visitors to search only by properties that are offering a special offer. This does not necessarily mean a reduction in rent (although most are!), some are very inventive. For instance, “book a weeks accommodation before January and we will throw in a case of local wine!� or car hire for instance.

I agree with Tansy (hello!), a standard page advert with 4 photos will suffice (unless you have a very unique or large property where extra photos need to tell the whole story!)

Please feel free to contact me to discuss things further.

[ross]

Maggiem,

My Name is Ross McGowan, I am the sales manager at holiday-rentals.com. Hopefully this will answer your questions.

Holiday-rentals.com standard rate for advertising is £155 plus VAT (if you are a UK resident). I would say that the vast majority of adverts on the holiday-rentals.com web site are the standard page advert.

When advertising in any medium there is a cost involved. What it boils down to is, what do I get for my money and what is the best value for money. Before spending any money on advertising your property ask these questions. 1. how many people use the site (visitors), 2. ask what the average number of inquiries properties in your area are receiving. 3. What do I get for my money?

Before you pay, pretend to search for your property on the site, how does the search criteria work. Do the base searches work!

There is a lot of tough competition out there, there is also a lot of rubbish! In some cases being on lots of low cost sites can cost you more than paying for one quality site. Not only in monetary terms, but in your time as well. A quality site will provide you with highly qualified inquiries.

We do offer an additional product, “searchable special offer�. This is to drive late cancellation weeks, or to encourage early bookings.

The searchable Special offer is not essential to have, it is there for our advertisers to promote specific weeks of availability. There is an area on the homepage as well as on each geographical area for visitors to search only by properties that are offering a special offer. This does not necessarily mean a reduction in rent (although most are!), some are very inventive. For instance, “book a weeks accommodation before January and we will throw in a case of local wine!� or car hire for instance.

I agree with Tansy (hello!), a standard page advert with 4 photos will suffice (unless you have a very unique or large property where extra photos need to tell the whole story!)

Please feel free to contact me to discuss things further.

[John Borg]

I use www.holiday-rentals.com and must admit that I find the site to be excellent value for money. Enquieries are high and the bookings derived from them are high too.
I must admit that I have never used the "special offers", as I have never had to really.
I have to state that one thing to my advantage is that there is only one page of adverts for Malta - an advantage of living on a tiny Island in the middle of the Med!!
Seriously, I have nothing but praise for this site. I find it quite user friendly, you can change text at any time, without any added cost like with some other sites.
To be able to pin-point a rental property in a specific location, it is important that the owner places the "home" icon in the proper location on the map of the country. This will direct the prospective guest to the region, then it is up to the feedback response and the owners ability to keep the availability calander up to date in order to move up the ladder of adverts, hopefully to the first page and even better to No. 1 position.

[paolo]

Thanks for the input Ross

[Linda Freese]

I'm a big fan of holiday rentals and infact have now dropped all the other sites (bar one - Costavacations - which is great for the Costa del Sol). It's very user friendly and as I have quite a few properties listed on it, I now get a discount! I recommend it to everyone I know! Hey, Ross, perhaps I should receive a commission?!!

[Evie]

Basically easy to use & update oneself (once you've got the hang of it). I'm property 1573. They are growing in popularity & we get more bookings each year.

[Martin]

Hi,

Following the discussion about holiday.rentals.com I called them.
Because on their listing are 35 other properties in the same area as mine (Paris). I asked what I can do to be on the top of listing and I was answered: The last updated property shows at the top.
I verified and in fact the last listing is the latest updated.

Martin

.... then it is up to the feedback response and the owners ability to keep the availability calander up to date in order to move up the ladder of adverts, hopefully to the first page and even better to No. 1 position.

[ross]

Martin,

Many thanks for contacting www.holiday-rentals.com I hope our staff answered all your questions. Just to clarify, holiday-rentals.com wants to provide our userbase (renters) with relevant and correct information.

We also want all of our advertisers to have the opportunity to be listed at the top of the search results. If our advertisers update their availability charts at the same time each week, their proeprty will go to the top of the search results at least once per week.

As the week progresses and more advertisers update their availability charts, their property will drop down the listing, until of course next week. This is the fairest way to refreash properties and keep informartion correct.

I hope this clarifies things, of you or anyone else has any questions, please feel free to contact me.

[Evie]

Another reason I like this company, is the free text message alert. Great if you are away from your computer. I got a booking one night, at a time I wouldn't have normally been in the office.

[A-two]

The positive feedback posted by others here contributed to my recent decision to list with holiday-rentals on December 9th. Since then I have received one underwhelming inquiry, which is this:-

The person below has sent the following enquiry about
Holiday-Rentals.com property number 16968.
Web address: http://www.holiday-rentals.com/index.cfm/property/xxxxx

Name: Rev anthony shun
E-mail: mikky02@keromail.com
Tel: + 234 8035807025
Arrival date: 15 Jan 2005
Departure date: 22 Jan 2005
Total no in party: 2 (including children)
No of children:
Further info:
Hello,
i am a prist here and my church bisshop wants to
send three of the reverrend father for a holiday in
your coutry,
so we will want to lodge in your home,and i will want
to know if you accept an amerian cashier check for
your payment,cos the Bishop sending us there want to
pay with that,pls kindly get back to me asap.


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Other comments:-

1. Significantly, this is the first SCAM that I have ever received through a listing site in 3 years.

2. Since December 9th, I have made 3 sales through other listing sites and have another in negotiation that looks promising. One of the sales is to a family from the UK.

3. I have regularly updated my availability calendar, although that doesn't seem entirely necessary since I am the only property listed in my area.

Since we don't get page stats, I don't know how many hits our site has received, but one can't help wondering whether anybody but me, holiday-rentals and the "bisshop" even knows it's there.

The jury is still out.....

[alexia s.]

Joanne, I don't know how scammers choose their "victims": we have been with holiday-rentals since 1998 & have never received one. Maybe New York is more profitable than Provence.....
Don't worry about the (non)enquiries - yet - holiday-rentals becomes active in Jan-Feb.

Alexia.
http://perfectplaces.com/VictorianVilla.htm
http://perfectplaces.com/BeautifulOliveMill.htm.