Has booking online had its day ?

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Zur Alten Weinkelter
Posts: 201
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:22 pm
Location: Moselle Valley (Mosel) Deutschland

Has booking online had its day ?

Post by Zur Alten Weinkelter »

Has booking online had its day ?

As we all may have experienced so far this year 2016 has been quite strange year in the travel and accommodation industry.
With all the known booking portals ( sites) changing ,buying each other , dictating how us as property owners conduct our business and forcing guests who normally book their holidays this way to also pay “ booking fees “or join holiday clubs,
The confusion with sites as HA , TA /Holiday Lettings and throw in all the negative publicity with sites such as AirBNB in to mix , then to top it off with the increase of phishing SPAM enquiries that most of the online sites i not really interesting in sharing and turning our normal route of booking in to a flat spin no only for us owners never mind the potential guests trying to book their leisure time.

And now waiting on the pending EU Referendum outcome what does the remainder of the 2016 season hold let alone planning for the 2017 season
Normally by now i have like most of us hopefully a nice healthy booking diary and thinking of starting to plan for the next season for example what sites failed to perform price changes etc …

But sadly this is not the case at the moment so is anyone finding performances in 2016 extreme different from past seasons
and are anyone making any radical changes for the 2017 season
maybe moving away from their regular advertising network
looking at other options like local tourist offices , classified printed publications maybe instead of embracing new ways of generating business reverting back to older methods

maybe a interesting discussion for sunday !!
When it comes to wine, I tell people to invest in a good corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is the drinking

The truth is the best German wine remains in Germany
So forget your memories of Blue Nun & Black Tower
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Lets Go To Puglia
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Location: Puglia, Italy
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Post by Lets Go To Puglia »

We have two rentals in more or less the same location, one has done very well for 2016 the other is at about 80% of previous years.

We considered going with travel agents .. but the commission charges and exclusivity requirements make that a no go.

We've added our properties to lots of other smaller rental sites that don't charge the "travellers' fee" but had no results.

We did get our first Trip Advisor booking a couple of weeks ago, tried to steer the guest to booking direct but they went ahead and booked paying the extra.

We tried printed advertising 10 years ago when we first started renting and got nothing at all. Reluctant to go that route.

I'm not sure what difference the referendum result will make whichever way it goes.

Complete independence seems to be the answer. Much of which has been discussed on the forums already. Current thinking is that we will continue to advertise with HA, probably subscription with online booking and HL and a few others on commission only. But we will up the ante on our own website SEO and shoot for page 1 listings on Google.

I'd be interested to hear what other people are thinking / doing.
Ciao, Debbie

Puglia Holiday Villas Facebook Page
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It's not the things you did you look back on and regret it's the things you didn't do!
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Lets Go To Puglia
Posts: 163
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 2:55 pm
Location: Puglia, Italy
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Post by Lets Go To Puglia »

We have two rentals in more or less the same location, one has done very well for 2016 the other is at about 80% of previous years.

We considered going with travel agents .. but the commission charges and exclusivity requirements make that a no go.

We've added our properties to lots of other smaller rental sites that don't charge the "travellers' fee" but had no results.

We did get our first Trip Advisor booking a couple of weeks ago, tried to steer the guest to booking direct but they went ahead and booked paying the extra.

We tried printed advertising 10 years ago when we first started renting and got nothing at all. Reluctant to go that route.

I'm not sure what difference the referendum result will make whichever way it goes.

Complete independence seems to be the answer. Much of which has been discussed on the forums already. Current thinking is that we will continue to advertise with HA, probably subscription with online booking and HL and a few others on commission only. But we will up the ante on our own website SEO and shoot for page 1 listings on Google.

I'd be interested to hear what other people are thinking / doing.
Ciao, Debbie

Puglia Holiday Villas Facebook Page
---------------------
It's not the things you did you look back on and regret it's the things you didn't do!
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

I think, if anything, the listing sites' attempts to turn into travel agents has reminded us all that we shouldn't be so dependent on them - and that maybe we don't NEED to be.

The desire of guests to book without a middle man, was what drove the success of these sites. I don't believe that will change. The question is: how will they react to the changes in the listing sites...once we know that, we can respond. In the meantime, yes, we owners need to freshen-up our thinking.

My UK enquiries are different this year, much much later...difficult to know why... is it the exchange rate, flight prices, weather, political uncertainty, terrorism fears.....? Who knows....I certainly don't :D
Jenster
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Location: Cornwall
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Post by Jenster »

I feel I need to spend a bit more on advertising, to work out what works.

I will renew my OD listing in January, on the cheapest rate with online booking and payment. You never know, it may continue to perform, but I don't want to rely on it.

I will pay for a TA subscription listing as others in my area have this and it seems to work for them.

I have put my lising on Visit Cornwall, the Cornwall tourist information website. I have also signed up to their 'fair booking' initiative where every guest who books direct through my website gets a bottle of wine or cream tea on arrival.

I have improved my website to add online booking through freetobook and gained the ability to take credit cards.

I will try a bit of Facebook advertising in peak booking season, perhaps in January.

All this will cost more than I necessarily would like to spend but I see it as an investment in working out what will work for future years. If I don't try things I won't know what works.
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I finally sold our last week for 2016 on Thursday....so at the mo I'm a happy Mouse BUT it was very hard going. I didn't have any repeat business this summer and I have had to do some wheeling and dealing plus partner with some agents and market more agressively through Facebook.
I have 3 weeks booked for 2017 but they're all repeats though I have had a couple of decent enquiries through OD....one that I lost as I couldn't give him one of his weeks.

What to do for next year is a dilemma. We are not in a niche market...although we do have a usp.
I'm trying to up the anty on our seo but that's very difficult. So I'm spreading the villa around other sites both commission, subscription and free to see what works.
I am also going to seek out agents I can work with....my theory being that the good ones do actually give a service for their commission.
I will also approach wedding planners as that's big business during shoulder season and relatives have to stop somewhere
I will also offer credit card bookings.
I have purchased business cards to distribute....just thinking about how to do that.
I have also been fiddling with our online adverts to make sure they come up first if selected by price etc.

It has been a strange year...and I agree that people are booking late. In the past week I'm getting enquiries for august and Sept. Usually September enquiries are coming in around May.

Mouse
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One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
Zur Alten Weinkelter
Posts: 201
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2011 12:22 pm
Location: Moselle Valley (Mosel) Deutschland

Post by Zur Alten Weinkelter »

Well 2 short stay bookings arrived over the weekend 1 returning visitor but they are for July and September respectively late notice for these months …which normally i am booked so accepted them gladly
and normally we get our run of motorbikes passing through but this is slow but the weather has not been great and things at the channel ports have properly put them off

so if i can not salvage much for this year ..start planning like changing my website template which is defiantly dated and well over due a change to hopefully get more direct bookings next looking at changing all the add on’s like toiletries as just looked a my current supplier and i need a change so if anyone has any idea’s of something different

as i am now an adult only establishment so i think i need to offer something better maybe some handmade or better branding stuff

this is something i do out of season but i maybe in time for the sales on all the other bits & bobs and have a few appointments booked with wine producers to re fresh the selection

i have also noticed on the UK television channels this week there seems to be a lot of adverts for the hotels in the UK brand names like Mecure & Accor groups offering discounts to book direct on their sites for the UK so it looks like that are moving away from the other booking comparison sites and B.Com are always very heavily represented but i noticed nothing from ABB or HA in a while
i thought i would take a stab at some of the printed advertising however soon changed my mind when i seen their rate cards

so time to go through the existing sites that i am on and ploughing through them to see what is happening so starting with "A":wink:

i am not really in to social media but might have to re fresh my thinking on this

so onwards and upwards :?
When it comes to wine, I tell people to invest in a good corkscrew. The best way to learn about wine is the drinking

The truth is the best German wine remains in Germany
So forget your memories of Blue Nun & Black Tower
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

There are a lot of niche businesses/hobby groups on Facebook, wine-lovers, walkers, historians, photography etc... so it might be an idea to get yourself a personal page and start playing around.

Then you create a separate page for your holiday rental. I'm not sure it's brought me any business but every little helps.

It can be a bit daunting at first but you can always come back here for advice.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

Bucking the trend maybe, but I've never had as many 'expressions of interest' at this point for the following year as I've already had for 2017 - we always open bookings in September, first to past guests, then to people who've already been in contact, then finally to everyone else. If they all book, that'll be 9 weeks gone without any repeats. They're all directly from our website too.

There IS life after Owners Direct :wink:
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