Have I broken the UK record for no bookings?

[highlandboogieman]

Hi all. This is my first ever post, so here goes:

I have 2 properties in Almeria, southern Spain for holiday rentals and I get the vast bulk of my enquiries and bookings from Owners Direct. A conversion rate of enquiries to bookings of around 50%, which is ok. Occupancy rate of around 85%, and both properties are well-equipped with air-con etc and have cracking views. There are some great reviews for both properties, but inevitably they're rather old by now.

I used to be with Holiday Lettings but found their subscription price high and booking low - maybe 2 per year for each property. So I didn't renew. Just over 2 years ago I accepted their pay-per-booking offer where I pay them 3% commission and the holidaymaker pays them a whack. Over the past 2 years I have had 52 separate enquiries - I say separate because some folk sent in more than one enquiry in error. According to Holiday Lettings, my response rate to the enquiries is 90%. Out of these 52 enquiries, I have not received a single booking !

I'm trying to figure out what is wrong with Holiday Lettings' business plan. The number of enquiries seems to be good, and I always provide a warm personal response to all enquiries, all in the language in which they were received. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I've contacted HL about this and got an unintelligible reply from a foreign-sounding chap with clearly a poor grasp of English. They're not interested.

Any advice would be very welcome. Can anyone beat this heroic failure rate?

[EdinburghCityApartments]

Do you have your rates loaded on to HL so enquirers can see the price before enquiring?

I find that if I've not added prices, these are the ones who don't generally book unless you're dirt cheap...

[FelicityA]

Sorry to hear of such a drastic downturn. And welcome to LMH.

Do you display and up to date availability calendar?

[highlandboogieman]

Thanks both. I've just checked and my prices are indeed shown on both my properties. But if I go looking for properties on HL, I can't see any seasonal prices for any properties - just a price range. Prices are also much harder to find these days on Owners Direct, and my page views and enquiries from them are way, way down on last year.

I keep my availability calendar scrupulously up to date, and of course not everyone looks at it before enquiring !

I've been wondering for some months why I go to the trouble of responding to Holiday Lettings enquiries as promptly as I can. I even tell the enquirers that the price they're quoted includes the security deposit, but of course some people will just see the quote and find it way too expensive. I never expect a response to my reply.

I think I'm doing everything by the book, but I just don't know where it's going wrong. Help !

[Casscat]

Maybe HL is not the right business model for you. I think a more conversational platform may enable you to spell out what you're offering. Why did you opt for a commission listing on HL? If you are doing well with OD then you need to look at any niche market you are failing to capture. For me it is the 'out of peak season' market. I am fully booked June-Sept via OD but wanted to fill May and October, plus some bookings either side so I added spain-holiday and just this week Rentalia. From spain-holiday I have my first ever November booking (Danish couples)

[Bunny]

Hi, as I'm in the UK I'm not familiar within Spanish rental rates but my first impression was "wow, that's cheap for 4 people!". Could that be what's putting people off? My second thought was "what's the catch; there must be something wrong with it?". I could be way off the mark here but perhaps some Spanish hosts on here could either confer and shed more light.

[Casscat]

With that site I cannot actually see at a glance what the prices are seasonally. A 'from X per night' figure means nothing, because that could be based on a two night booking from 15 January and no other dates. I really don't like the interface for HL and TA to be honest.

[Sam V]

I just had a quick look, looks lovely, yes cracking views' and nicely furnished. My immediate gripe is no rates viewable unless you put in specific dates. For anyone with flexibility on dates wanting to see the price range over the seasons, how is it possible to do so? To me this is very off putting and I'd start looking on another website. (I'm no longer on HL, although I'm considering re joining just for the extra exposure at no cost).

[FelicityA]

I have only had a quick look at your HL listing. I hadn't realised there is no rates table on there which is off putting for a quick browse. At least if there is I couldn't find it on a whizz through. I have the same on FlipKey and I rarely get an enquiry but I put that down to the hefty booking fee. They find my own website after googling - do you have one of your own?

Just putting in a few dates and bearing in mind I know nothing about your area, your prices look almost off- puttingly low. I know it sounds contradictory but are you charging too little perhaps?? My theory is, that if you make your place as nice as you possibly can, all singing and dancing in terms of furnishing and equipment and service ( as in pre and during stay) and make yourself close to the most expensive in the area for a similar property, definitely not at the lower end, you will get people wanting to stay with you, rather than at the cheaper properties. But as I say, I don't know your market.

Ps I wrote this ( and got called to the phone) while the last four were writing their comments and I see that we are pretty much in agreement on this.

[kg1]

Wow - so cheap! How can you run it at that price, it looks lovely. Are guests putting in a price range & you are under it by any chance? How does it compare with other properties in your area? If it's too inexpensive people do wonder what's wrong wit it.

[highlandboogieman]

Wow ! What a response. Thankyou everyone.

I don't know how you found my properties - the townhouse on Cortijo Grande is priced higher than similar neighbouring properties although I'd say it's the best of the bunch (oh well I would say that, wouldn't I). I recently put the price down for July due to not many bookings, although it's hot down there in an Andalucian summer!

I'll find out more about the spain-rental site etc. I took the commission deal with Holiday Lettings due to the subscription not being cost-effective for me. I'd expected to earn more than the subscription cost from my bookings, but sadly not.

I'd guess that Holiday Lettings are getting most of the enquiries via TripAdvisor, so can anyone advise the best way to take advantage of TripAdvisor. I've tried to help restaurants etc by putting up positive reviews on TA, and according to them I've had nearly 12,000 people read my reviews, so there surely MUST be a cost-effective way to harness the power of TA. I'd bet that nearly all the 52 enquiries came from TA, but no bookings. Is this a record?

Jim

[Nemo]

I don't know how you found my properties - the townhouse on Cortijo Grande is priced higher than similar neighbouring properties although I'd say it's the best of the bunch (oh well I would say that, wouldn't I). I recently put the price down for July due to not many bookings, although it's hot down there in an Andalucian summer!

You've put your website into your profile, so we can click on the www button here which takes us to your HL advert. The first picture is small, so you need to upload a better quality larger image to make a good first impression. It does seem very cheap, but then I'm not familiar with that region.

Have you had any past guests that would be willing to write a TA review for you? There is only one on your listing and that is two years old which doesn't help you much.

[Casscat]

I agree that your lead photo does you no favours - your second photo is superior.

If you are getting a good take up rate via OD I wouldn't fret too much about HL and its poor conversion rate - at least you are on commission and not subscription so it's costing you nothing. It may be that people find you on HL and then subsequently see you on OD at a lesser rental and choose to book via that portal.

[FelicityA]

I agree that you should stay on Trip Advisor. It gives you visibility. But you will get more interest, in my opinion, if you can rack up the reviews. People do seem to set such store by them these days. Write to some of your past guests and ask nicely?

[Mouse]

If you're getting enquiries then your advert and estimated prices are enough to get people interested, but you are losing them once you reply.
So this is the area to look at.

Are your prices quoted different from the estimated ones as Edinburgh suggests?
Do you add anything in that might put them off?

Personally I would go back to some of the enquirers and ask them why they didn't book.
I did this a few years ago when I had a lot of enquiries for a September week I had left and no one booked.
The answer was that the flights were too expensive. I checked and they were right. At that time of booking for some reason the flights were prohibitive.
So give it a go....just a nice friendly to the point email asking if they could help you improve by advising why they didn't book.I got a 65% reply rate.

Mousie
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