Lay My Hat

Since Brexit and the devaluing GBP I wondered what other folks are doing. Note: This poll only applies to folks who rent out property in the Eurozone.

If you advertise in both Euro and GBP on different sites decide which currency has the lions share and answer the poll with that currency in mind.

If you switched from say GBP to Roubles or Yen or some other currency then tell us about it in a post and give your reasons.

Thank you.

For my France properties, for which most bookings come from Airbnb, the majority of guests are from France. The second most numerous are from Spain, and the third UK, so it’s logical to price in Euros. Airbnb charge a premium to non-Euro currency bookers of 3% (to cover currency fluctuations - making their total take for those affected 18%) so my UK guests are doubly shafted at the moment. Hence they are fewer and further between than ever before.

The answer is Marketing wisdom:

It matters not where YOU live its where the bulk of your GUESTS live.

Said it many years ago and way before any real currency fluctuations. If you advertise in Pounds you are severely limiting your market.
Even visitors from outside the Euro zone or the UK would expect the property to be priced in Euros, if located in the Euros zone.

e-richard wrote:The answer is Marketing wisdom:
It matters not where YOU live its where the bulk of your GUESTS live.

+1

AndrewH wrote:

e-richard wrote:The answer is Marketing wisdom:
It matters not where YOU live its where the bulk of your GUESTS live.

+1

+1

e-richard wrote:The answer is Marketing wisdom:

It matters not where YOU live its where the bulk of your GUESTS live.

Correct. And I have been a "C" (don't you dare}, lol, for many years, because 70% of my guests are from UK. This was also beneficial when the GBP was strong against Euro and CAD. But here's my dilemma, my rental is eurozone and we also live there for 4 months, the rest of the time we live in Canada so my outgoings follow roughly that ratio. I have no direct use for GBP.

Because GBP is falling all the time and my outgoings remain the same then I am getting poorer when I convert it. I have been increasing my GBP rates across the board but that is very time consuming but the worst scenario is that I have taken bookings in GBP for summer 2018, so it is fixed, when HA-OD et al pay me GBP in August 2018 it could be worth 80p to the Euro so I have switched to Euro before anymore come in.

I realise that if the Euro gets super strong against GBP it might put Brits off, but then those that are, maybe replaced by Eurozone guests who like the convenience of the Euro.

It's a trade off I suppose. I guess it boils down to which currency I have the most faith in for the next 12-24 months. My gut feel thinks the GBP will remain low or get worse.

It will be interesting to see how, if at all, my UK, Eurozone bookings change. I have sentiments for what Ian and Irene say. Whilst advertising GBP to GBP clients might be convenient to Brits they very much understand Euro and pay with a credit card anyway so don't have to think too much about the implications. Lets see how it pans out.

Thank you for participating, I hope more folks will take part in the poll and also comment on how their circumstances dictate choices in this respect.

Up until 2016 - I listed my Italian Villa in GB sterling but it became obvious that my UK guests were dwindling and not being replaced. After researching on LMH, I nervously converted all of my listings to Euros and this year my income from bookings are 20% up. I asked myself the question - would I book accommodation in the USA and expect to pay for it in Euros because the owner happens to live in France. so it seems logical that the currency used relates to the country where the property is located. There may be a few exceptions to the rule if your guests are coming from a certain location.

I want to switch to advertising in EUR but the problem is switching currency if you are advertising with HomeAway and have online booking.

They will only cancel your existing online payment account and make you apply for a new one. And during the process you will lose instant payment on online booking and have to wait until guest checksin before you get paid.

totally tearing my hair out

Lets Go To Puglia wrote:I want to switch to advertising in EUR but the problem is switching currency if you are advertising with HomeAway and have online booking.

They will only cancel your existing online payment account and make you apply for a new one. And during the process you will lose instant payment on online booking and have to wait until guest checksin before you get paid.

totally tearing my hair out

I have switched all but have the same problem with HA because I have 3 deposit paid bookings for 2018. I have only spoke (by email) with Homeaway payments and get conflicting answers but basically they say I can switch to euros now, still receive the GBP deposits in GBP but have to ask the clients to pay me the balance in GBP directly to me. Which raises all manner of concerns and destroys credibility.

Did you discuss this with HA directly yet or just Homeaway Payments? I have not found an email address for HA only a UK telephone number and my Skype will not work anymore on Windows 10, not sure what is going on with Skype.

If you have spoken with HA please let me know what they say?

I did speak to HA directly. I called Yapstone and they linked HA into the call because they said I had to deactivate online payments and reapply and HA would go through that with me.

During a long and annoying phone call they told me I would not be able to switch if I had any open bookings. They were quite categoric about that. On the property I wanted to switch I have no open bookings (have only had 1 from HA for this year, the rest have been direct).

After that they told me if I switched off online booking in order to change bank / currency then when online booking was reactivated I would possibly lose my instant payment status as they could not guarantee a new application would be processed by Yapstone. First they said the payment provider was allocated randomly and then they said it depended on the country of the selected bank account. Who knows.

They could care less.

I would dump them completely but my other property gets about 50% of bookings from HA, the rest direct. Also have a few bookings for next year for the second property so I cannot change the selected bank account for HA to my EUR account bank anyway.

I'm tempted to add another free listing for the same property with EUR currency and keep the subscription listing on GBP as it currently is.

Which phone number is it you want - HA or Yapstone or both?

Lets Go To Puglia wrote: Which phone number is it you want - HA or Yapstone or both?

I have both but was hoping you would have an email address as my skype won't work and having a half hour argument with them will be costly from Canada using regular phone.

Setting a new listing up from scratch is a lot of work and of course you will loose all your reviews.

Yapstone - customerservice@holidayrentpayment.eu

HomeAway - can you use their online chat facility, Mon to Fri 8am to 5:30pm (UK time). It's on their Help page, contact us button at the bottom.

After spending hours on the chat and getting nowhere, apart from them suggesting that I contact my future guests and asking them to cancel and rebook in Euros or pay the balance out of the system, both are fraught with complications, I asked the chat person to hand me over to a supervisor, reluctantly he did and said they would contact me by email.

They did but gave the same arguments that it was impossible to switch currencies if I had live or future bookings.

I did not give up but gave them several suggestions with which they agreed to one of them. I asked them to keep my ticket open until all was resolved.

I duplicated my listing, it took about 3 hours, and listed it in Euros with my Euro Account. I then hid my GBP listing so I would not get any more enquiries or bookings from that one. I gave them my new property ID and they transferred all my reviews from the old to the new listing.

Although my GBP listing is hidden my future clients will still be able to pay their balances in GBP.

Job done! Why they could not suggest this in the first place beats me.

Codliveroil wrote:
I did not give up but gave them several suggestions with which they agreed to one of them. I asked them to keep my ticket open until all was resolved.

I duplicated my listing, it took about 3 hours, and listed it in Euros with my Euro Account. I then hid my GBP listing so I would not get any more enquiries or bookings from that one. I gave them my new property ID and they transferred all my reviews from the old to the new listing.

Although my GBP listing is hidden my future clients will still be able to pay their balances in GBP.

Job done! Why they could not suggest this in the first place beats me.

Sounds possible but still means online / instant bookings won't get paid out until after the guests have arrived. Currently we get paid out within a few days of HA receiving the money. I have a lot of concerns, cash flow only one of them, of being forced into waiting until after guests arrive to get paid.