Have I broken the UK record for no bookings?

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
highlandboogieman
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Post by highlandboogieman »

Thanks everyone for your help. I'll take up all the suggestions.

Here's where I'm at with Holiday Lettings. A few days ago, I emailed them to ask them why had I no bookings from 52 enquiries. Following the initial unintelligible response in very broken English from Nazim Khan at Holiday Lettings, I asked for a proper response. Monica Dass emailed me in poor English - "I understand that you have received 52 inquires but no booking. I apologies for the inconvenience caused however, I would like to inform you that we are just an advertising website who so we cannot let you know the reason why you are not getting any booking. I would suggest you give some discount for your property or you can also add one deal or spotlight to get your property highlighted on the website and can get more booking."

Some of the kind responses I've had on the forum have been of the opinion that my property is priced too cheaply!

Then Manisha Sharma emailed me yesterday and asked me for "some more clarification". My initial enquiry to them was crystal clear, so I have no idea what else I could tell them.

Before I had a chance to reply, I received an email today from Sandeep Mhaske saying "We are sorry to see that you are not receiving inquires, not getting any booking in last 2 years." Now, in my initial email, I told them very clearly that I had 52 separate enquiries but no bookings, so why would a member of their staff tell me I'm not receiving "inquiries"? It seems to me that no-one at Holiday Lettings has the ability to check my account, or maybe www.holidaylettings.co.uk is not based in the UK?

From this experience, it seems to me that Holiday Lettings' staff don't have the basic ability to respond intelligently to a customer enquiry and deal with it. Rather than appoint one person to deal responsibly with an enquiry, they let 4 of their staff muck it up. Sadly, this gives me the impression that they couldn't run a sweet shop.

I live most of the year in Spain. Are Holiday Lettings an example of the way British businesses are run these days?
Zingara
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Post by Zingara »

I wasn't aware that Tripadvisor, who owns HL, is a UK business....?
highlandboogieman
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Post by highlandboogieman »

I should add - my wife and I are Scottish, and we're RBS customers. What a great wee Scottish firm!
highlandboogieman
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Post by highlandboogieman »

Zingara, I do understand that "co.uk" doesn't necessarily mean that the business is British. However, I would have thought that with a web address like that, they would have the facility to deal with enquiries in decent English.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

The original business was indeed English/British, but was sold several years ago to Trip Advisor which are definitely not. AS for the standard of English spoken, has anyone called their bank recently, or BT? Outsourcing of contact centres means many of them are no longer in the UK.
Marks
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Post by Marks »

HL customer service centre is based in India. There is a small department in the Oxford office that has a better grasp of English.
Some guests just need a sympathetic pat. On the head. With a hammer.
limousin-cottage
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Post by limousin-cottage »

I phoned customer services yesterday and my query was dealt with by two very nice guys who couldn't have been more helpful, and were definitely British born and bred. This is the number I used:

0044203701369

Going back to the issue of enquiries but no bookings. I must admit I find their pricing policy very confusing. Is this something to do with whether you have a nightly rate or a weekly rate, or both, on your ad? I don't put a nightly rate on mine, but perhaps should, as my ad appears on Trip Advisor at £26 per night. I have had good bookings through HL since going with their commission listing. This year I can't really comment as we have had no availability for the whole Summer, so have had very few enquiries.
JanB
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Post by JanB »

You are not alone in lack of bookings for HL. I changed to commission in January, as my hits had fallen from 300-400 per month to around 50 and therefore low enquiry level.

Since changing to commission, not one enquiry or booking. This, despite updating availability several times a week, 38 reviews, rates up to date and constantly ensuring the listing was interesting and up to date.

I have suspected for some time that responses to enquiries do not actually reach the guest.

Having now sold my last remaining cottage, I was delighted to switch off my HL listing this week - and quite a relief it was, too. Once the source of 80% of bookings for me, latterly it was not bringing a single enquiry or booking. Awful.
"It's a funny old world...." but full of the most amazing people. :-) Sense of humour essential!
Gazpacho
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Joined: Tue Aug 27, 2013 2:42 pm
Location: Andalucia, Spain

Post by Gazpacho »

I too have had no bookings from HL since going onto commission last October. A few enquiries, which I replied to but heard nothing more. I'm really only keeping the listing for my reviews, and I've resigned myself to getting no more bookings from HL. I'm certain it's the extra costs that are putting people off. When you have so many more houses to choose from and far fewer holidaymakers since the financial crisis, higher prices are going to be fatal.
shazza
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Post by shazza »

Holiday Lettings.so i saw mentioned on here where somebody said you dont appear to have any prices showing so that can put somebody off,well as i understand it they have taken all the rates away,even though mine are updated,its not for the public to see!!! they have to enter the dates they want to stay and then contact me for a quote!!!.if anybody knows how i can overide this and get my prices back so people can see how much it will cost them to stay then that would be fantastic.i understood the change was so people cannot see how much booking fee they want to take which varys.
i had a lovely couple who wanted to stay for a whole month and they contacted me for a quote,wrote a lovely long email and then when they found that it would cost them £400.00 booking fee they dropped me like a stone .i have tried to alter so my prices show but cannot make any changes,so looks like i am stuffed.between them and owners direct they have normally given me a lot of buisness but this year nothing,with all the changes i fear for the future,i only stay because they have all my reviews with TA.
always trying to keep my head above water,pray we don't have a flood!!!!
Guest

Post by Guest »

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Last edited by Guest on Thu Jul 16, 2015 11:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
shazza
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Post by shazza »

thanks 7 aspire i have done what you have suggested and we see what happens.thank you again for your reply.
always trying to keep my head above water,pray we don't have a flood!!!!
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

"well as i understand it they have taken all the rates away,even though mine are updated,its not for the public to see!!! they have to enter the dates they want to stay"

Shazza - I can see your rates on your listing without putting in any dates. I go to availability and then to 'more details' by rates underneath that - a click through. However, it probably does not have the booking charge added so +1 what 7Aspire says.... I can also see a paragraph for notes on rates and availability and you have something about logs in there. Perhaps that is the place to put your info about the booking charge surcharge.
highlandboogieman
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Post by highlandboogieman »

Hi guys. I started this thread and I've been interested to find that others are also suffering from a failure by Holiday Lettings to get bookings.

I'm now up to 53 separate enquiries without a single booking, and I'm willing to bet that this majestic failure rate is record-breaking. I think I'll ditch this commission based pay-per-booking disaster. Who on earth is going to pay 13% over the owners' rental rates? They'd need to be stark staring mad!
costa-brava
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HL bookings

Post by costa-brava »

Hi Highlandboogieman
I was born in Glencoe but now find myself in the Costa Brava. I posted comments in another thread that some of the other posters didn't agree with or didn't quite grasp. My experience of HL is not wildly different to yours and my opinion is this. The big sites are all moving over to the commission based model and, on the face of it, it looks good. But the crunch is that nearly everybody looking for holiday rentals in this part of the world seem extremely reluctant to do instant online booking.
You say you answer enquiries that just go dry. I have the same; a friendly exchange of info and then nothing. Just by the tone of the enquiries and the questions they ask you get the feeling that they think it's an old fashioned Holiday Rental site.
When you tell them they have to book online you hear no more.
This is not just a theory. It happens too often not to be the case.
The people who want to book online do so without contacting first. The big sites have gone over to this model because it suits their long term strategy, not because it is the mood of the market. This doesn't apply everywhere but it does seem to be the case in Spain.
On top of this they have picked you out because your advert says from lets say €500 a week. When your quote comes through they fall off their rocking chair.
In the old standard sites they could scroll down and see your price list.
I think it could be a conspiracy. They've all been taken over by RBS.
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