Is Spain Holiday going too far?

[joddle]

Until this week, I have been a very happy user over many years of Spain Holiday. their attention to detail and to suggestions and complaints has been superb and I think that's one of the reasons I and many people I know people like using them. That personal touch simply cannot be found on most of the holiday listing sites and from reading this forum many of those other companies seem to hardly pay any attention to their clients' needs or requests. Thus SH have enjoyed many positive reviews from many people on this and other holiday forums.

It was therefore with great sadness that yesterday I found that SH have now seemingly begun to follow the big boys by imposing (without any consultation whatsoever) a new system of responding to clients request for information about properties. No longer can a property owner reply directly to the client as all emails now have to be routed through SH themselves. To add insult to injury SH are now withholding the email addresses of potential clients until a week before expected occupancy thus making direct email communication with the client impossible. There is now way of proving an email has been forwarded or delivered and if there is a problem at SH servers how would anyone know about it?

I am all for adding protection for clients and property owners but this new system does not seem to assure that. It simply adds another layer of control by SH which they in my view should not have. What goes on between my clients and myself is our business not Spain Holiday's. Its a real invasion of my private business that they now have access to the content of emails I send to people and they send to me.

I have written to SH as they actually asked for feedback about their new system - its just a shame they did not think of doing that at the proposal stage rather than after implementation!

PS - Just this minute had a response to an enquiry and a quote I sent using the new system - but the way the emails are shown on website dashboard is a complete mess - I cannot follow the email trail, some messages appear to be missing and the form for responding is placed illogically and hard to spot at all!

PPS And now they have disabled the ability to forward my email to the client - I had invited him to contact me for a special rate but they removed the email address from the message. This is the tail waging the dog so I don't think I will be renewing with any of my properties if this is not relaxed a bit. I'm not even sure if this type of mail interception is legal under EU law - especially as it was not in the T&Cs we signed up to with them!!

[Casscat]

Have you contacted Spain Holiday with your concerns and criticisms? They will respond to you on a personal level as usual. They have a lot of fraud/phishing issues to contend with, as do all the sites which previously published the full contact details of owners including their email addresses and phone numbers. I just this week I reported to them a phishing attempt involving a semi-convincing mock up of their own email notification. Tricky for them - unless they protect owners from criminals they are accused of failing their clients, but if they introduce barriers to direct communication they are accused of hijacking the relationship. There has to be a better way. Surely there must be some way to verify an enquirer at the entry point (SH) and then open the door to direct communication with owner???

[joddle]

There has to be a better way. Surely there must be some way to verify an enquirer at the entry point (SH) and then open the door to direct communication with owner???

This I agree with - and if they could do that I would be pretty happy - but what they are doing is gaining access to my business arrangements. they receive no monies from the clients and so they have no actual contract with them so therefore have no right to the information being exchanged. If they offered the service as an option I would be far happier.

[kevsboredagain]

Has anything been mentioned about the use of links and email addresses in the correspondence? Both required for payment, booking form and direction detail purposes.

I also had the email but it did not go into details. I was going to test it out as a potential guest.

[joddle]

Has anything been mentioned about the use of links and email addresses in the correspondence? Both required for payment, booking form and direction detail purposes.

I also had the email but it did not go into details. I was going to test it out as a potential guest.

There does appear to be a paper-clip symbol below the reply form so I assume that is to add an attachment - but its not obvious - in fact quite the opposite.

I suppose we could add our email details in written from in a pdf or other document but how dare they remove content of what could be part of a contract between me and the party - they are in no way involved with that part of the process and so have no right to alter my email document.

[Ele]

Have you received an email explaining these changes? I'm on SH and have not had any notification, so would be interested to know if I should have done. My last booking via SH was 6 days ago and it worked as normal, with direct client contact.

[joddle]

Have you received an email explaining these changes? I'm on SH and have not had any notification, so would be interested to know if I should have done. My last booking via SH was 6 days ago and it worked as normal, with direct client contact.

Hi - yes I did receive an email with the notice of the change the day before it was due to be put into operation - subject was "MUST READ: Essential updates to your Spain-Holiday secure inbox" and arrived 16th June. I only got one copy for whereas normally they send everything to each of my registered email addresses. The way the email was laid out and presented was messy and to me very confusing. Not at all what we are used to from SH!!!

[Ele]

Thanks for confirming - strange I didn't get this.

[roxytoo]

I haven't had this either, it's very disappointing. I have been with them since 2002, probably since the beginning and have always liked the way they do things, its the reason I have stayed. If this is going to roll over to everyone I'm outta there.....

[Sunbeam]

We have agreed bookings via the new SH emailing system and it worked efficiently, we attach our contract and have sent PDFs with getting here instructions etc. For all the security reasons Casscat mentions we find prefer to communicate with guests this way - we've been getting too many scam enquiries and phishing emails. We find it easy to switch to emailing via our own email address once payment has been made and if the guest is happy to do so.

[joddle]

We have agreed bookings via the new SH emailing system and it worked efficiently, we attach our contract and have sent PDFs with getting here instructions etc. For all the security reasons Casscat mentions we find prefer to communicate with guests this way - we've been getting too many scam enquiries and phishing emails. .

If you prefer that way then of course you should have the option to use it - not be forced into it. After all preventing scams is not always the listing site's responsibility - we all have a duty to be careful ourselves and not expect everything to be done for us.

We find it easy to switch to emailing via our own email address once payment has been made and if the guest is happy to do so.

That would not be so bad if that's how it will happen BUT they will not release the email details until week before due occupancy and for most of us that's a long time after the rental payment has been made. There needs to be a way of activating direct contact more easily.

[CSE]

if someone gave some details about the listing (not suggesting a link) then one of us could try out an enquiry. No booking need to me made. Then once the reply has been sent see if an email can be included.

[COYS]

If you prefer that way then of course you should have the option to use it - not be forced into it. After all preventing scams is not always the listing site's responsibility - we all have a duty to be careful ourselves and not expect everything to be done for us.

I don't use SH but absolutely agree with that sentiment. It is way past time that owners & renters excercise personal vigilance against potential scams. It should never be somebody else's total responsibility to ensure common sense.

[joddle]

Maybe others are complaining too - not been able to contact them this morning so far - as soon as their office opened all I got was "All our lines are busy" Another niggle - The link in their email to connect me back to my account does not work - obviously not properly tested!

Edit....
Just spoken with Helena at SH - and I have to say she is very good and listens carefully to what is being said. She is however pretty adamant that the new system will stay BUT she did take on board a few of my biggest gripes and will be looking at ways of making direct contact between property owners and potential clients a bit easier for those who want it. She also is looking at a little bug I spotted with their system.

I am still somewhat amazed at the way this was all introduced - i.e. without any proper client consultation - and if only they had done that maybe most of these issues could have been be addressed or at least highlighted before the launch.

I am interested to see how they handle this all now. I know they monitor this forum plus others so will be aware of what people are saying. Lets see how it all pans out!

[CSE]

I know they monitor this forum plus others so will be aware of what people are saying. Lets see how it all pans out!

Good at customer relations means that they could respond to the points raised on this forum. I have noticed that some companies are now doing this on other forums where they get mentioned.