Grrrrr - Flipkey

[cambalala]

Until now i've been perfectly happy with Flipkey. I did the trial. Got some bookings, then I signed up for a year and have had a few bookings. Enough to keep me happy. I've also been happily collecting reviews for Tripadvisor via flipkey.

Now I've been looking for widgets to display my TA reviews, badges etc on my site. - BUT - cant find my property through the TA widgets. - Also not on any ipad (etc) TA apps.

No problem finding my reviews with the Flipkey widgets though.

That led me to think that maybe the Flipkey reviews were not actually TA reviews but only displayed on TA via flipkey.

After contacting flipkey. They confirmed this and confirmed that if i decided NOT to renew, my reviews would no longer be displayed in TA.

Until now i had NO thoughts of leaving flipkey... but the thought of loosing all my hard earned reviews sickens me!!! - I cant very well go and collect them all over again.

Yes I can back them up and display them vial own site etc etc etc. However... To me, TA is a great resource and the main reason I listed with Flipkey was because of their partnership and an easy way to get on the TA site as I'd always found this difficult before.

*sigh* - what to do.... what to do.

[Hells Bells]

Similar problem with both Flipkey and now Holiday lettings. I also couldn't link the reviews, so TA for a short time until I ditched Flipkey, showed two properties.
A recent guest actually left a review on TA, which hasn't even been published by them because I don't list wuth FK or HL any more.

[e-richard]

A timely warning cambalala. I've just received an email inviting me to upload a 3 month trial to Flipkey and was about to seriously think about it.

After contacting flipkey. They confirmed this and confirmed that if i decided NOT to renew, my reviews would no longer be displayed in TA.

I wonder if those reviews would still be available if you listed "directly" with TA - or any other of their associates (e.g. HolidayLettings, or Rents4You etc.) ?

This kind of confirms one of my long standing hobby horses that reviews should not be tied to listings.

Says he, who has all his reviews tied into HomeAway

[marsh frog]

We had something similar. We are with HL but did a free trial via Flipkey. One of our guests left a TA review but although they booked via HL they somehow ended up doing the review via Flipkey!!
We were not happy with Flipkeys performance - we had a handful of bookings & none converted into a booking even though they offered us an extra 3 months free so we were with them for 6 months in total.
I had to contact HL & Flipkey to try to get the review to show on HL before we left FK!! It took several weeks of repeated emails and phone calls but eventually got it transferred.
Like you say, all your hard work is lost otherwise - hope you manage to get something sorted out

[caboroig]

Sorry to be thick, i am looking on where best to advertise my holiday apartment so was reading through your posts... i was thhinking of flip key...i have used holiday lettings but who are TA? sorry any advise would be good x

[DaveN]

...the dreaded Trip Advisor...
Goes hand-in-hand with Flipkey from what I can find.

(Oh, and welcome to LMH!)

[caboroig]

thank you DavidN i am at a loss of who to go with... mmmmm more research i thinketh *slams head on keyboard* thanks for the welcome by the way

[wallypott]

I had this mail recently from FlipKey telling me I could add badges like my fk excellence award thingy to my web site etc. So, I thought I'd try adding it to my blog for starters (actually that was after I failed to add it to my Facebook page), but all I got is a poxy link and no badge - did the html thing - so what am I doing wrong.

Bah humbug!

As currently they only bring in 2% of revenue, 3% of bookings and 7% of enquiries they are not exactly a smash hit either.

[caboroig]

is anyone happy where they have advertised? i was ok with HL but the prices have gone so expensive that in this climate it's really hard to afford! ...then again i don't want to go with a smaller site for less money but no enquiries.... what anout owners direct anyone?... i have a feeling i should be on a new thread *punches self*

[cambalala]

So, I thought I'd try adding it to my blog for starters (actually that was after I failed to add it to my Facebook page), but all I got is a poxy link and no badge - did the html thing - so what am I doing wrong.

Ja... its a bit iffy! - I finally got it working on my work-in-progress site, but only after adding a plugin that allows for raw html to be entered.

[cambalala]

..... Like you say, all your hard work is lost otherwise - hope you manage to get something sorted out

I've got 39 reviews with em so far. - I really don't want to loose those. Grrrrrrrrrrrr.

[cambalala]

I wonder if those reviews would still be available if you listed "directly" with TA - or any other of their associates (e.g. HolidayLettings, or Rents4You etc.) ?

Doubt it:

If you plan on deactivating your FlipKey account the 39 reviews you have collected with no longer be live on FlipKey or on TripAdvisor. If you have a business listing with TripAdvisor under another accommodation tab you can collect reviews there.

Seems quite separate to me. - Unless i misunderstand them of course.

This kind of confirms one of my long standing hobby horses that reviews should not be tied to listings.

Could be a gap here to make a standalone review site. - Just have 3 sites to finish... then I could be tempted to try it as an experiment.

[cambalala]

.... maybe one should look into google places?

[esentziak]

Hi

I realised this a while ago and I would also be very reluctant to lose my reviews: Flipkey brings me a lot of bookings.

I still haven't worked out how to get reviews directly onto TA - it does not look as if I can, appears to have something to do with not being an on-site owner (or did I dream this ?)

so I am totally stuck with TA; some clients have told me that they would not book somewhere that did not have a review on TA.

Some overseas clients are worried about scams and I even had two clients last year asking if their friend who lives in Lyon could come and check the place, to make sure it exists.

Dominique

[cambalala]

Yes... you need a business listing on TA. And there are different levels that require different things. Like having onsite reception staff.

I think if you has a TA business listing then you could actually have your reviews wrong. (I stand to be corrected.)

Anyhooo... right now I'm also happy with flipkey as I get a few bookings and my reviews are kinda on TA. - I say kinda.... because try finding them via an ipan app.? lol.

But what disturbs me is that... IF i decide to leave.... they're gone. So its kinda (i like that word lol) blackmail.