Directholidaycottages.com

[Bunny]

I've been offered a free listing on this site for 1 year whilst they get established. They have a more established sister site directvillasflorida.com. Whilst I don't hold out much hope for another site trying to compete with the big boys I guess I've nothing to lose by listing with them. Has anyone had any dealings with them good or bad please? Here is the discount code DHCF1Y. I expect they would welcome anyone using it.

[salmoncottage]

Have spoken to Sarah on the phone, helpful and very obliging.
Wish her well with her new listing site

[Bunny]

Thanks Salmoncottage. It was a Tracy who phoned me. Do you actually list with them? Any bookings?

[greenbarn]

They'll have to seriously improve the site and the search facilities (try clicking on Pet Friendly on the Home page and see how many results you get) and that over-saturated out of focus background is a real turnoff.
They don't seem to provide a link to the owner's website and no listing site is worth the effort without that, even a free one.

If they can make significant improvements to the site, and capitalise on the "Direct" part of the name, then more power to them; at the moment their site doesn't really inspire.
Has anyone tried the standard Google search tests to see if the site appears?

[Nemo]

They don't seem to provide a link to the owner's website and no listing site is worth the effort without that, even a free one.

If the owner has a website GB then it's a small link under the owner details in the side column. No great prominence, but then most of the sites I use don't give that anyway and encourages guests to send out enquiries from within the site.

I can't imagine that it has made much of an impression on Google as yet?

[Bunny]

Here is their spiel:

"Thank you for your time this afternoon – very much appreciated. As promised I have requested for some information to be sent to you direct from the site, which should be winging it’s way to you as I type and below is a little more about our brand new site – Direct Holiday Cottages - which we have recently launched to promote self-catering holiday homes here in the UK.

Based in the North East of England and established since 2007, our new site will run along the same lines as our Florida site Direct Florida Villas and both will remain dedicated to a single destination. All enquiries will come direct to yourself.

Although the site is live there are only 157 properties listed and we need more in order for our site Direct Holiday Cottages to be ranked. After the initial 12 months free trial, the price to renew will depend on where we rank at that time.

In order to help launch the site we have a small number of free trials available and we would be happy to build your listings for you also at No Extra Cost. All we ask in return is that if you use social media, such as face book or twitter, that you like or follow us. 

As I mentioned, after the initial 12 months free trial, the price to renew will depend on where we rank at that time, however there is no obligation to continue.
Initially with our Florida site we offered a free trial and then it was £50 for twelve months then £85, £100 and more recently £120 however, I would like to say that we do look after our loyal customers.

You can expect to receive the same great features as our sister site Direct Florida Villas which includes . . . .

A site dedicated to UK Holiday Cottages, no other locations included on the site
Randomised search results given everyone equal chance of appearing high on the searches
NO Commission fees
A professional and personal service from your own account handler
Unlimited images for your property
Unlimited description for your property
Video links
Website links to your own site
One click enquiries response
Multiple search facilities
Free printable brochure of your listing
Map Location

Our sister site Direct Villas Florida went from not appearing on the rankings at all to first page of results within 6 months – and is now consistently the Top Ranked site Dedicated to Florida.

We fully expect similar results for Direct Holiday Cottages which will follow the same successful model.

I would welcome your feedback on the above and will give you a call later next week, however my contact details are below should you wish to discuss things sooner.

In the meantime, thank you again for your time."

Agreed their search criteria is not great. Also I've noticed that they sell data collected from enquirers.

Any further opinions appreciated.

[Nemo]

Well I just searched using the keywords holiday villa Florida and sure enough it's there on page one. Probably worth the punt then?

Also I've noticed that they sell data collected from enquirers.

Where did you see that? I can't see anything untoward in their privacy policy; just the usual tick boxes to opt in or out?

[greenbarn]

They don't seem to provide a link to the owner's website and no listing site is worth the effort without that, even a free one.

If the owner has a website GB then it's a small link under the owner details in the side column.

Thanks Nemo - I looked at a couple of entries, one of which I know has their own website, but they didn't have a link; however, as you rightly point out, the site does offer one. One listing I looked at has multiple properties at the same location, and that could be why the URL of their own website (which they do have) is not given (even though all their properties are listed on the site). I'd fall foul of that ruling if I'm interpreting their T&Cs correctly.

I'm not sure what the benefit of the following statement aimed at prospective guests is (cut and paste from the site including typos):

As with all purchases, you can request cheaper rate to that quoted, however depanding on various factors, this may or may not result in a positive outcome, but there is no harm in asking. Please remember however that any requests should be realistic to have a chance of being realised.

What is a "realistic" request for a discount???

I wonder what the "reviews" are about - one of the properties I looked at had reviews that pre-dated their inclusion on the site. That suggests that owners can supply previous reviews/guest book comments/whatever. (I don't have a problem with that as long as the number of reviews isn't a searchable choice. The "reviews" are no more or less likely to be bogus than they are on TA et al.)

Does anyone know if they have an ICal facility for updating the availability? I list on one site that doesn't, and that's one more than I want to have to deal with. I'd have to choose between the two, or not show the availability.

I'll have a look at the Florida site tomorrow to get a better feel for what they're about, but as far as I can work out from a quick glance at some listings, the UK site has been going for at least 6 months, possibly a year; that combined with the experience they should have gained from the sister site does raise questions regarding why the UK site has so much room for improvement (being diplomatic).

If they can make the improvements and effort required, they might just have a chance of succeeding but they're really going to need a solid USP to survive alongside the other small independent listing sites. A background photo that looks like the aftermath of a particularly bad acid trip is not going to cut it.

[Nemo]

I agree with you on the calendar front. I can cope with manually updating a calendar if it brings some bookings, but as I'm already updating the Holiday Let one with zero effect, then I'm loathe to add another one to the mix.

[SandyBeaches]

Reactivating this recent thread as I had an email from Direct Holiday Cottages offering me a free listing for a year. I'd previously had a phone call, but hadn't bothered doing anything about it.

Bunny did you sign up with them? Does anyone else here have a listing with them and have they generated any enquiries?

I'm not sure I can be bothered to update another separate calender. I have enough to do .....

[Bunny]

Hi Sandybeaches. I went live on 25th March and have had 61 page views, but zero enquiries to date. I suppose it's early days and I wasn't expecting much. It did take quite a while to create my listing, particularly adding the photographs. I suppose the more cottages that list, the more successful it's likely to be. My only criticism so far is that their search facility is poor and frustratingly clunky.

[SandyBeaches]

Hmm - I might give it a go and see what happens. It's a quiet time of year for enquiries anyway. We tend to get busy October - February for bookings.

[falbayview]

registered with them yesterday and had very friendly and courteous chat with Sarah, very helpful.

as others have said, i like the 'direct' in their url, and hope they stick with that and buck the trend of the other mainstream players

i know there's lots on here who would more than welcome that

for sure, improvements can be made to their site, the ability to sync calendar availability would be an important one for me... but i'm sure they'll be listening carefully to the constructive criticism made here.

thanks to Bunny for bringing them to our attention

[bessie]

Just registered ,so helpful and friendly.

[Bunny]

Just had a long chat with Tracy. They are really pleased to have had a few LMH's sign up and would welcome more. They really want to succeed and want to listen to feedback (more than can be said for some that we all know of!) If they can grow and improve their rankings to mirror their US site that has to be a good thing. I'll let you all know if I get a booking (unfortunately I'm fairly booked up, so that may be a while).