WVR Mega Site: combines them all (H-R, A1...) into HomeAway

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
User avatar
debk
Posts: 1053
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:01 pm
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

WVR Mega Site: combines them all (H-R, A1...) into HomeAway

Post by debk »

Perhaps this helps explain Alexia's lament over the holiday-rentals "new look"

http://homeaway.com/index.cfm/tgt/HA_products

From the About Us page:
HomeAway is the world's most complete marketplace of vacation rental properties, representing over 50,000 vacation rental homes, condos, guesthouses, cottages, and cabins in over 45 countries. HomeAway incorporates the inventory from several of the most respected vacation rental listing collections on the Internet, all owned and operated by WVR Group, Inc. (CyberRentals, H-R, GreatRentals, A1Vacations, FeWo-direkt and TripHomes)...

All WVR Group Web Sites are members of Rentors.org. The purpose of Rentors.org is to provide owners of vacation rental properties with universal calendars and guest books that can be used on any web site.
The good news is that perhaps, oh please oh please, h-r will eventually move to the rentors.org calendar so that I don't have to update their stinky proprietary one. The bad news is that I fear rentors.org will soon no longer be free.

fyi,
debk
mvus
Posts: 118
Joined: Sun Sep 04, 2005 8:56 am
Location: Andalucia, Spain

Post by mvus »

Interesting that they recommend you ask for references before booking a property and where possible visit the home in advance
User avatar
paolo
Posts: 3885
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 pm
Location: Provence, France
Contact:

Post by paolo »

pja wrote:Interesting that they recommend you ask for references before booking a property and where possible visit the home in advance
Covering their butts! If it becomes the norm for renters to ask for references that would be a real pain. We'd have to keep bothering previous renters to email them, as we should not be giving out people's email addresses.
Paolo
Lay My Hat
kevincohr
Posts: 110
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:44 am
Location: Nice, France

Post by kevincohr »

It will be interesting to see how this develops. Will they continue to invest in the HR, Cyber,GreatRentals and A1 brands, or will they put all their marketing behind HomeAway ?

It's pretty clear they HomeAway will become a massive site very quickly, although they will need heavy marketing to drive a lot of renters to it .....

Does anyone know what WVR have they been communicating to Cyperrentals / A1 owners ?

Kevin
Paul Carmel
Posts: 3836
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
Location: Palma Mallorca & Greece
Contact:

Post by Paul Carmel »

I don't use A1 or CR, but I am tempted to give it a go, so which one do you use? If its both which ones gets the bookings?
Cheers
PC
janskov
Posts: 124
Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2004 8:20 pm
Location: Croatia, South Dalmatia
Contact:

Post by janskov »

I used A1 for a year. Cost me 150 Euro for 6 inquiries and no bookings. :(
User avatar
paolo
Posts: 3885
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 pm
Location: Provence, France
Contact:

Post by paolo »

Paul Carmel wrote:I don't use A1 or CR, but I am tempted to give it a go, so which one do you use?
vrbo!
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Paul Carmel
Posts: 3836
Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 12:25 pm
Location: Palma Mallorca & Greece
Contact:

Post by Paul Carmel »

Dont push it Paolo! :lol:
Cheers
PC
User avatar
debk
Posts: 1053
Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2004 12:01 pm
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact:

Post by debk »

Cyberrentals is absolutely HATED (rabid, rabid, rabid) by a number of VRowners at the yahoo thread. Mostly seems to center on unacceptable customer service, which has only worsened with the WVR acquisition. Poor results, too, of course. A1 seems to be considered a bit of a dead horse.

In choosing between A1 and CR, I'd recommend that you buy your wife some new topsiders.

(i was going to say 'vrbo' but paolo beat me to it)
debk
User avatar
paolo
Posts: 3885
Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 pm
Location: Provence, France
Contact:

Post by paolo »

Paul,

If you are considering a US site, I think vrbo is more likely to perform, although you have not had any luck with them.

I am not too drawn to A1 and Cyberrentals. You might consider www.greatrentals.com and www.vacationhomes.com

I quite like these sites and have reasonably good results from them. Although I dumped them because vrbo was doing so well...
Paolo
Lay My Hat
kevincohr
Posts: 110
Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:44 am
Location: Nice, France

Post by kevincohr »

If you want to take a punt on a free site, you could do worse than consider Vacation Rentals 411. Basic listings are free and you can "bid" for higher placement in the search results.

Given that your location is relatively unusual ( for those listed on a US site), you can probably get away without the need to bid.

I have had lots of positive comments from owners who have advertised there.

You may also want to consider VacationHomeRentals. They have a 3 month free trial and again, I have received positive comments.


Regards,

Kevin
kasperdoggie
Posts: 23
Joined: Mon Jan 23, 2006 1:56 pm
Location: Cape Cod, MA, USA
Contact:

Post by kasperdoggie »

I prefer VRBO myself for our Cape Cod homes, but I also have to pipe in with positive feedback for Cyberrentals.

I have read every message on Yahoo vacation rentals group, discussing the negatives of Cyberrentals. While I do not for one minute discount the very valid concerns that those who are unhappy with Cyberrentals policies bring up, my experience with Cyber has been quite different. Every question and every request I ever had for them has been answered within hours. I have experienced examplary customer service with Cyberrentals. They never stopped bringing inquiries, even as they were bought by WVR and SEO went down the drain.

To date, from January 1 up to now, I received 50 inquiries and booked 10 weeks via Cyberrenatls for our 3 homes. VRBO generated 21 inquiries and 4 bookings during the same time period.

Although I have noticed that in general my conversion rate with Cyberrentals is lower than with VRBO or WeNeedAVacation.com (regional listing site) and there are more requests for discounts/special breaks that come my way via Cyberrentals than any other listing site.

A1Vacations (which I was going to drop after 7 months of dead silence) is slowly resurrecting itself - 13 inquiries and 2 bookings taken in the month of January.

On the other hand, VactionRentals411 and VacationHomeRentals, free and all, did absolutely nothing for me. I advertised on VacationRentals411 for at least 3 years now, and I had exactly 2 inquiries and 1 booking during that time. I still have a listing - hey, free is free :)

Julia.
Post Reply