Homeaway-FEWO

[dado1977]

Hi people
i am following all the topics here about HA, unfortunately my property is in Croatia and we have a lot of Germans still through this web site.
Today i tried to renew my subscription and as i see price is now 299 Eur + VAT.
is this really true as if i remember correctly it was 199 Eur + VAT,
I really dont know what to do, mybe to switch to commission..

[AngloDutch]

Hi people
i am following all the topics here about HA, unfortunately my property is in Croatia and we have a lot of Germans still through this web site.
Today i tried to renew my subscription and as i see price is now 299 Eur + VAT.
is this really true as if i remember correctly it was 199 Eur + VAT,
I really dont know what to do, mybe to switch to commission..

dado1977, if you have German guests booking via Fewo-direkt then you should stay on the subscription package (the subscription amounts went up in 2016 and I have read that they are due to go up again shortly).

The reason why you should stay on subscription is that you will have noticed that many Germans can't or won't pay online with a credit card. If you switch to commission you will lose the ability to contact your potential German guests via their own email addresses and, as you are most probably aware, that means very few bookings from Germany as many Germans can't pay the online service fee (which must be paid by credit card), even though you can have alternative offline payments set up when on a subscription-based listing.

[Little Villa]

dado1977 We are also in Croatia. We list on OD (which expires in 2018) with Fewo add-on. The Fewo add-on expires earlier, in March this year. We would like to buy Fewo add-on again, as we do have German guests coming through it, but I thought I read somewhere that the add-ons finished recently.

As Anglo-Dutch says, German guests normally pay by bank transfer - the last one from DE to HR arrived the next day.

As we don't have any online anything enabled on OD, I have a battle with the OD pop-ups. We are also almost hidden on OD and don't appear on the map, and on the top of our listing, instead of our descriptive Lead Line and Title, there is just our Listing number! Having said that, we had an OD enquiry yesterday.

It sounded from your post that you may pay VAT. Because we have a Croatian PDV Number, we don't pay VAT. I hope you don't.

[Essar]

Any new subscription through HA or any of it's subsidiaries and country specific sites - all 27 - are now included. Add-ons no longer apply. So, buy a FEWO subscription and list on all HA sites including HAUK HAUSA OD VRBO, Spain, France, Australia.......

[Little Villa]

Thanks, Essar. I checked on our OD listing and it seems we are listed already in all the different countries. I must keep up

[dado1977]

Hi people, i hope you can help me.
I had listing on Homeaway regular subscription model. Yesterday i have tried to extend my subscription. In dashboard i had two options. commission base and this subscription model for 299 eur + VAT. So i have chosen subscription and paid 299 Eur.
Today i check and property is not online. I go on chat with customer service and they do not want to list my add unless i confirm some general conditions and enter some bank details.
Do anybody know hat is this now?

I can not belive what they did to very good site in just a year...

[FelicityA]

If you enter your bank details they will add a service charge to all your quotes. You are between a rock and hard place here. I would explain that Germans do not pay with credit cards so there is no point in you adding your details (this is the 'alternative payments' trigger that sets the service charge off) as you will not be taking any payments through their system. I don't know what to advise you to do except to try ringing many times and maybe find someone who will put your listing on line as it is. You have paid the subscription. They should be displaying it (although somewhere in the small print, maybe now they say you can't have a subscription unless you put your bank details).

[Essar]

Since September those renewing a subscription or a new susbscription only get two choices - commission or subscription.
Both models insist upon on-line payments and bookings. There no opt out on subscription any longer.

Up to September 2016 those renewing could opt out but only for another 12-months.

There are no longer country upgrades - all sites are included, so it doesn't matter which site you sign up with.

[FelicityA]

I have several times considered advertising on homeaway.at They are displaying 199 Euros + VAT for an annual subscription listing and although they say the 'best way' to get online bookings is to ENABLE (that implies you don't have to) online reservations, it does not seem to be a condition. Maybe you should think of pulling out of Fewo if they are imposing conditions (I think you can get your money back within 28 days of paying the subscription) and go for the Austrian version?

[COYS]

Since September those renewing a subscription or a new susbscription only get two choices - commission or subscription.
Both models insist upon on-line payments and bookings. There no opt out on subscription any longer.

Up to September 2016 those renewing could opt out but only for another 12-months.

There are no longer country upgrades - all sites are included, so it doesn't matter which site you sign up with.

But isn't their latest price hike aimed squarely at those who don't want or enable OLB? (increase to (edit) 399pa if I recall)

[dado1977]

FelicityA yes you are completely right!
they activate online booking to my advertisement.
They made me complete idiot. First i chose 299 Eur and pay. Than they did not want to activate my add till i did not enter bank details. When i enter they activate online booking.
So instead 199 Eur i pay 299 Eur and have online booking now..

[COYS]

Maybe this would be useful to you dado1977?
Below is an extract from one of many copy/paste customer service responses to a fellow misled advertiser posted on uk.trustpilot.com

HomeAway United Kingdom
Reply from HomeAway United Kingdom

Published 17 January 2017
Dear R****e,

It is correct that all new properties must on-board for the online payments and bookings in order to complete the advert but it the property owner is unhappy with this they can be disabled after the advert has been completed.

[AndrewH]

"... but it the property owner is unhappy with this they can be disabled after the advert has been completed."

But will they provide a wheelchair?

[dado1977]

So on the end i have paid this 299 Eur as they told me option 199 eur does not exist anymore. And if i want without online boooking i can pay 399 eur ?! # rd agent told me finally that this solution they force us is maybe not the best they made...


So i got finally first request today after more than 2 months!
And guest asked me what is the procedure about payment and what should i reply to him? i see final price is 983,50 Eur and i enter 900 eur. They have really great service as guest does not know what to do...

[Beachbumbler]

dado1997: If you have paid the subscription, you should be able to see the client's personal email address.
When you reply via HA or Fe-Wo Direkt c.c. or b.c.c. their personal email address in to the reply.
That way the customer gets TWO replies - one through HA and one to his personal email.
In your reply you can put in links to your website, or whatever you want about payments, as HA can't censor it, as they do with the replies through their site.