Lay My Hat

Yesterday I got an SMS from Gecko saying they are offering a free listing for my property for one year! - no obligation to stay after a year! - so what have I got to lose? Seems too good to be true though! Anyone else tried them?

Never heard of them and can't even find them. The only search result I can find involving 'gecko' and 'holidays' is an adventure holidays site for 18-30s looking for a cheap trip.

I think they are Australian, but could be wrong.

Ah sorry - should have given all the info and not half of it! The site is www.gecko.villas and looks reasonable BUT it does not have many properties just now so I think its looking to expand using free ads for a year.

Decided to see if this looked any good so started to set up and account. After the normal email and contact details etc they then asked for a whole raft of papers ' passport, deeds, utility bills and loads more besides - far more than I have ever used in the past to establish actual ownership. This made me think of possible ID theft so I did not submit any further info and changed much of that already input to nonsense. The problem is the system saves as it goes along so once you have put anything in they have it and there is no undo facility or unsubscribe. Glad I did not put anything too detailed in.

I don't see how anyone will ever find Gecko Villas. What search term would one use to be directed to their site? There is also a firm called geckovillas.com in Moraira with which they could easily be confused. The Moraira firm looks like a general estate agency but has holiday rentals as well as long term lets and property sales.

I have now received an email from their director offering me 2 years free listing! - so I am seriously thinking about it. He stated more clearly the minimum info required to prove ownership etc - which is much better then the page suggested on-line! They are obviously new with only a couple of hundred properties at the moment but maybe they will grow - or fail! Who knows??

Nothing to lose I guess, but we might want to be taking bets now as to how many bookings you'll secure via the site in that two year trial period You may also like to suggest to the MD, now you're on good terms, that a revamp of the web site might be in order. It looks really, really old fashioned and for a new start up there is no excuse whatsoever for that. I'm all in favour of any intrepid company wishing to challenge the increasingly dual monopoly of HA and TA, but they don't do themselves any favours by looking like amateurs.

Well I decided to let them know what others are thinking (without saying who or where from) and they seemed quite pleased that someone was giving feedback - and then offered me two years free listing which I have accepted! I have uploaded my property profile and so now await with baited breath for all the extra enquiries!!!!! In registering I found the site does need some work as I had problems uploading and listing my photos - of course I will pass this info on to them and who knows, maybe will get another free year!!!!!

Keep us posted!

Just had a few emails from Gecko - and so far I have to say I am quite impressed with their attitude. They have taken everything I have suggested well, responded quickly- almost by return - and made several changes that I suggested and dealing with a few niggles I had noticed - so it appears they seem to be quite customer focused.

I do have to agree that some of the site is a bit old hat - but its certainly functional and pretty easy to navigate both from searching for and managing a property.

I will keep posting my findings here and maybe its worth it for some people - to me it has the feel of how SH used to be before it upgraded but only time will tell how effective it is!

Well despite my reservations, I have actually had an enquiry from them! Alas not a perfect match so I don't think it will come off but hey-ho - it was an enquiry!!! Lets hope there will be more.

Well the enquiry did not even respond to my email - but alas that seems not too unusual these days.

I have continued a dialogue with the director of the site pointing out numerous bugs and so far he seems to have welcomed the suggestions and has already implemented some and saying he will be implementing others.

The main issue I have with the site is that the geography is all to pot. For instance if someone is searching for a villa in a certain town, it then offers that town in subgroups of areas!!! eg if looking for Denia is will then offer you Denia-Alicante" or "Denia- Costa Blanca" BUT any particular property will only appear in one of those - not both so your advert can easily get missed if the viewer does not happen to chance on the actual option where your property is. Its just one of the things I have mentioned and they say they are looking at; but to me that's pretty important and the site perhaps should not have been launched with such an important defect.

I will keep going with them for now and see if things improve.

Just an update - following promising initial response to my observations about their site and errors, now everything has gone very quiet - no reply to the past 2 emails to them so beginning to think that they are not interested anymore. No bites from them so far. Maybe they are giving up!!!!

Having had my domain stolen and all my emails disappeared, I would never ever give these kinds of details to anybody I didn't do careful checks with.

I was trying to set up a web hosting service, I sent my passport details, a few weeks later all hell broke loose.

You have a LOT LOT LOT to lose.