Staysavr - App for direct Guest Contact

[Nigel Goodwin]

I'm sure all this good feedback will result in rapid improvements. BTW, I have no personal involvement with staysavr, I just find it interesting.

[Nigel Goodwin]

The support seems good and responsive.

[Quiterio]

I'm in the process of signing up - just waiting for the word 'energetic' to appear on my property page (if you've already signed up, you'll know why). It's taking a while. Maybe HA have twigged this and made it a banned word too!

In the meantime I thought I would share 2 experiences (I'm on a subscription with HA)

1. An enquirer sent a Booking Request, and I replied directly to his email, telling him that it was his choice but he could save €88 by booking direct with me. He had some other questions, but then a further booking request came in, so I accepted it and he paid the full inflated amount. Then I had an email from him saying yes please he would like to book with me direct! When I told him this might be difficult now - he'd probably have to cancel his booking first, he agreed it would be simpler to leave things as they were.

2. This enquirer wished to book direct and I sent her a booking form, but she found she couldn't attach it when she tried to send it back via the HA address. So she emailed me to ask for my own email address - but this appears to have been expunged from my reply. I ended up having to phone her to let her know my email address.

So - all power to StaySavr. I really like the potted history on their website, and the toll road analogy.

[Nigel Goodwin]

So - all power to StaySavr. I really like the potted history on their website, and the toll road analogy.

+1

[Quiterio]

You're right.

It's over to us to get the message out there!

[russellt]

'russellt' has started a new site

Yes, a more traditional listing site, for owners who wish to actively encourage direct contact. I just pushed out the proximity search module for casual surfers this morning, and there are other modules/functionality in the pipeline.


Staysavr is an interesting approach. It gave me cause to look at the source code for an HA page, and there in the middle is a great string of json with phone number, address, contact name, etc and even a poorly obfuscated email address.

I guess that is what staysavr’s app is stripping from HA listings. A good idea and food for thought, but I suspect this can be easily countered by HA using extreme obfuscation or javascript, if HA gets its act together.

Have a look at a Google page source. It’s almost unintelligible. In the meantime staysavr is populating its database. Haha.

once you have installed the extension

Yup. I had a chat with another LMHer about this approach. As I understand it, the guest needs to be motivated to install a plugin. Hmmm.

[Nigel Goodwin]

'russellt' has started a new site

there in the middle is a great string of json with phone number, address, contact name, etc and even a poorly obfuscated email address.

Are you sure you want to tell the world this? On the other hand, I found it after a few minutes a couple of months ago. My other interfaces read the full DOM, it isn't difficult.

Plenty of listing sites are extracting this without permission, which I do not agree with.

Staysavr is simply letting guests view the web page in a slightly different way.

[russellt]

Are you sure you want to tell the world this?

Why not? Those able to do something with it surely already know it is there.


Just a correction to my post above. I tested a few more HA sources and the email address was not there. Phone, contact name were. I think it may have been an old version of the listing. The dom was a very different layout.

(Apologies if I gave some HA devs a heart attack. )

[Sam V]

I also joined Staysavr a few days ago and have the same phone number on my listing. What is HA Booking Assistance? Is HA now taking bookings on our behalf by phone?

[COYS]

What is HA Booking Assistance? Is HA now taking bookings on our behalf by phone?

Not yet. Just where the call centre staff read from a list of their pet properties in your (guest) preferred destination. Or within 50 miles or so anyway!
Is it only on subs listings that don't enable OLB by chance? - the perfect opportunity for them to point your potential guest elsewhere (i.e more lucrative) under the guise of assistance.

[AndrewH]

anon, this is what I see on your VRBO page when I sign in as a guest (I haven't yet signed into Staysavr as an owner). I have obliterated part of your phone number:

"Deal direct with the owner or manager on *++44 ******
Or visit http://www................."

Looking at your VRBO listing on another browser, which doesn't have the Staysvr plugin, I see the words on a button: "Send a Message", which appears to be in place of what is written above. This takes you to a VRBO generated message form.

Now there is a further twist to this. On the browser without the Staysavr plugin, there are two further buttons, "Get an instant quote" and "How to Pay Safely". It's a bit different on the browser with the plugin. Here there are buttons stating: "Send direct email enquiry"and "Get an Instant Quote".

I am curious, even suspicious, about the button marked "Send direct email enquiry". When clicked you see is totally anonymous form which asks me, the potential guest, for my email address. Does this come from Staysavr or is it a VRBO counter-ploy, I wonder?

Would you like me to send you a "direct email enquiry" using a throw-away email address, to see what happens?

[Hells Bells]

I've just clicked on your listing, with the app installed, and got your direct contact details. I've also opened it in incognito, and they aren't shown unless you activate the extension in Chrome settings.

[AndrewH]

I seem now to have signed up for something, but it is Staysavr who are behind it:

Your account has been successfully set up Actually, I think this might be something to do with Outlook.

And then a copy of my email to you:

Accommodation enquiry via Staysavr

Hello. I saw your property on www.vrbo.com and your direct email address was provided by Staysavr. Checking availability for arrival on: Arrival with departure on Departure.

I think the telephone number you refer to may have something to do with Homeaway's 'Booking Assistance', and nothing more than that. If guests get lost or confused trying to navigate a Homeaway site, there is this number to ring for guidance.

[KathyG]

Deleted

[paolo]

One member who posted in this thread was worried about repercussions so I have removed reference to him/her. There may be some non-sequiturs in the above as a result.