Lay My Hat

After 3 months of barely a murmur from OD, I have just had a manic 2 days. October half term booked, plus all 6 weeks for next year's summer holidays. Lots of enquirers disappointed as they were pipped at the post. All bookees paid deposit immediately. Great!

Anyone else had a manic weekend?

PS - and I'm on subscription, no online payments with OD. Bottom of the heap on their searches. But that's for another thread.

Congratulations! That is seriously impressive! Quiet as a church mouse here but our usual busy time is Sunday evenings - shame we're going out! though we did get an out-of-the-blue 10 days next June from AirBnB a few days ago

Slight deviation, as our weekend hasn't been quite so exciting. But, we did get a 10 day booking on Friday for 2017 and are also on subscription with OD until it expires then we are kicking them into touch. To my point, the booking was direct through our website and I tried to remove those dates and show as booked on OD, it would not allow me to do so without entering information I was not prepared to devulge. In the end I just changed my calendar via the dashboard so the days don't appear, though the dates still obviously don't show as booked. How did you get around this Giraffe?

Simply put the surname (or anybody's surname) and a spare email address you have for collecting spam. Nothing that can identify YOUR guests, but enough to satisfy the HA/OD oberleutnant! (By using your spare email address, you will then discover what emails HA/OD send out to your guests).

A sign that the weak pound is having an impact and staycations are in vogue?

As far as OD is concerned, well they have always provided the majority of my bookings (I wish that was not the case, but it is...) Their monumentally intrusive hospitality manager THING is the stuff of nightmares. I think someone else suggested that for a guest email address you should input OD's own help email addy so they can receive the colossal weight of spam that they would otherwise pile upon your guests. Sounds like a good plan to me

Thank you so much, as always somebody here comes up with the answers, what a wonderful community this is.
Joe Bloggs is now confirmed for 2017!

Not for next year but we got a booking for all of the winter via OD over the weekend. The guest wanted to come and view anyway so the "service" charge was not an issue. We do a low rental cost over the winter if the guest pays the energy costs. Works well for us and for them.

Very impressed that you have sold next summer in the UK. We dont tend to get any bookings until at least Xmas.

Gone quiet today, not a peep. Just manic on Friday and Saturday.
What happened? As my dear Mother would have said - "there must be something in the water"

Could it be that you happened to show up higher in searches for a couple of days? This sometimes happens to me too on both HL and OD and that's what I put it down to, sometimes we're higher and sometimes we're not.

Louiseddie, you're right. Last week I was almost bottom of the heap, today 16th out of 119 for The Lizard! Thanks for the info.

Well done Giraffe.... how exciting..

No bookings from OD for me since July...

This time last year I had 5 weeks booked for the following year - currently one..

Before OD ended tiered subscription I was prominent under Brighton and Hove - not any longer.... I am getting far fewer views.

This year from early April so far has been my best. My Nov to beg Apr bookings are mostly within a month so not worried yet...

Well done Giraffe, always satisfying to have a productive weekend like that!

chipiechoo wrote: we did get a 10 day booking on Friday for 2017 and are also on subscription with OD until it expires then we are kicking them into touch. To my point, the booking was direct through our website and I tried to remove those dates and show as booked on OD, it would not allow me to do so without entering information I was not prepared to devulge. In the end I just changed my calendar via the dashboard so the days don't appear, though the dates still obviously don't show as booked.

I'm on subscription and have had this happen once. I think it's just a glitch at their end as you simply don't need to give this information whilst on subscription. I found by using the HA app on my phone you could get round this and it can be quicker to access OD for simple updates via the app anyway.

chipiechoo wrote:To my point, the booking was direct through our website and I tried to remove those dates and show as booked on OD, it would not allow me to do so without entering information I was not prepared to devulge. In the end I just changed my calendar via the dashboard so the days don't appear, though the dates still obviously don't show as booked.

?? Log in to OD, click calendar, highlight dates, click 'booked', log out. Even OD can't be too stupid to realise that other listing sites may not provide you with guest contact details. Our recent ten-day booking through AirBnB has given me no details but I have still been able to mark those dates as booked on my OD calendar.

?? Log in to OD, click calendar, highlight dates, click 'booked', log out. Even OD can't be too stupid to realise that other listing sites may not provide you with guest contact details.

Seriously do you think I wouldn't have tried just that !

I'm on subscription and have had this happen once. I think it's just a glitch at their end as you simply don't need to give this information whilst on subscription. I found by using the HA app on my phone you could get round this and it can be quicker to access OD for simple updates via the app anyway.

Love your suggestion Nemo but whatever the model of Nokia is that we own hasn't advanced to even a camera...

chipiechoo wrote: Seriously do you think I wouldn't have tried just that !

I have no idea what you have and have not tried. I have no difficulty updating calendars without divulging any guest information.
You had the problem and I tried to help. Being snappy achieves nothing.