HomeAway rates change

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mmg
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HomeAway rates change

Post by mmg »

Just signed in to HomeAway to answer an enquiry which involved checking my nightly rates. It's all changed!

The prices are all now listed nightly with a discount for stays of 7 nights or more, I have very little availability now for July/Aug - just a few nights here and there (flexible changeover days) and the nightly rate had changed from the rate I entered to 1/7th of my weekly rate.
Jenster
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Post by Jenster »

Just checked and yes you are right! What a complete pain. Sadly I have just renewed but I might have thought twice if I'd known this was coming.

Edited to add: I just checked it out in detail and I absolutely hate the new system. Getting more and more similar to Airbnb which I find a nightmare to use. I hope it is more user friendly from the guests point of view!
snoozeboy
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Post by snoozeboy »

Here's a transcript of my chat session with the customer assistance, which identifies and solves the problem.

In brief, they've made a really stupid mistake that if left uncorrected is going to cause them huge problems.

You need to go to Tarifs, find Settings, then reduce the long stay reductions to zero (or whatever you choose). Mine had defaulted to 57% (ridiculous).

Here's the Monty Pythonesque transcript. Having re-read it, I think I'm cast as the Basil Fawlty character...


English
Your chat session has been established.
>hello
>is anybody there?
Merci de contacter Homelidays. Je m' appelle Marie . En quoi puis-je vous aider?
>i received an enquiry today, which applied a reduction. I don't know where the reduction came from.
Merci de contacter Homelidays. Je m' appelle Marie . En quoi puis-je vous aider?
Pouvez-vous me confirmer le numéro de l'annonce s'il vous plaît?
>I already did
>{redacted}
>why is "English" marked at the top if you are addressing me in French?
Merci Monsieur, je vous demande un instant s'il vous plait
I am really sorry sir, you are contacting Homelidays. This is the french website and we are french agent. But I will be very pleased to speak to you in english tonight
>I don't mind either way. I just think it's odd that one can choose English and then receive French
I ask you a security question to access the account: {redacted}
I am really sorry for this Mister, I will be very glad to attend you in english.
Could you please tell me under which name is the enquiry?
>{redacted}
Thank you sir. Please, give me a minute while I double check the information
Are you on the account sir now? Can we go on your tarif together?
>yes
This is the tarif that are applying for more that 07 nights for the dates required by the traveler
>where does it say that?
If you are on your tarif, on the new version, and you click on the option "Par nuitée sur 07j ou +" you can see the breakdpown of every night
>Where does it say, "for stays of more than 7 nights, there is a reduction of 57%?
>or "stay 14 nights, pay only 6"?
"for stays of more than 7 nights, there is a reduction of 57%
There are some days at 29,80€
Can you see it?
>no
You are on the new version of your tarif right?
>i never put that price in.
>i'm looking at the tarifs now.
Just a moment please, I am checking for you
>4th of august to 18th of august is 70e weekday, 100e for sat, 100e for sunday.
>...which makes a total of 1100, which is about correct.
>where does it say that there is a 631e reduction?
But you have to choose the option en "Voir" and choose the option "Par nuitée sur 07 jours ou +"
And you can see the discount that applies
>where does it say that?
>the website is now so stupid I can't find it. Lots of little pictogrammes, but little of it is understandable.
>ok, now I found what you are talking about.
Great!!
>can I ask a reasonable question?
Yes please,
>where did you get these ridiculous discounts from? I didn't put them there.
I am going to check. Just a moment please.
I see that there is a discount registered of 57,43 %. We can modify it if this is not correct to avoid any further incidence on the reservation request
>that wasn't my question.
>I want to know who posted that discount without my permission.
>it's like someone from airbnb hacked your website, made a big mess and then ran away laughing
>so I have three questions.
>1) who posted that reduction?
>2) what planet are they on to think that a 57% reduction should be applicable on stays of more than 7 days? By the same logic, if the guest wanted to stay a whole year I guess the price applicable would be 20 minutes.
>3) what kind of impression do you think this initiative gives a) to your customers and b) to people like me, your suppliers?
Vous recevrez à la suite de cette discussion un questionnaire de satisfaction. N'hesitez pas à nous donner votre impression au sujet de notre contact de ce jour.
My apologies for the last message, please disregard it.
>i didn't finish
I know. I am reaaly sorry
>two more questions
>4) how do I undo your stupid reduction?
YOu have to click on "Paramètres"
>5) can you pass on my suggestion to whomever will listen at your company, that whoever posted this initiative is a complete imbecile?
>ok, where is "parametres"?
>ah got it. It's the stupid wheel thing
In the tarifs, on the top right, there is a small wheel for "Settings"
>ok, I've done it. I've reduced the stupid reductions to zero.
>now before you go, can you answer my first question?
Do you refer to the question of "who put this discount"?
>yep, the first question. The one with the (1) next to it.
Ths sytem put the discount from your former tarif between the price of the day and the price of the week.
>er... ok
>but I operate seasonal pricing
>it's an apartment in a ski resort, so without skiing, without even snow to ski on, in May, prices are cheaper.
But the discount was taken from the standard rate
When the system made the migration, it applies automatically the standard rate that you had where you did not have seasonal rates.
>so my price of a week was about 400, off season and the price of a day was about 70. Can you show me how this amounts to 57%?
>do you agree with me, there might be a flaw in the logic of the person who programmed the system?
>why would a person staying 14 nights pay less than the price of a week?
>It would be fair to say, stay 14 nights, pay 13 or 12, but stay 14, pay 6? Why would anyone book for a week?
I understand, I will send the incidence to the tech department for them to check it. There might have been a problem at the moment of the price migration. I really apologize for this
>thanks for trying to explain
>at least we found and corrected the problem.
>but you're going to have a long night sorting out this problem with every one of your accommodation owners.
>people are going to go crazy
I am sorry for this incidence. I send it to the tech department straight away for them to check why this discount applies
>if I were Homelidays, I'd sack the tech department straight away and try to find some engineers that had a didgeridoo what planet they're on.
>Thanks for your help and I wish you all the best with it.
>goodnight.
Thank you for your time and patience. I am glad I help you. Please feel free to contact me should you require any further assistance.
At the end of the chat you will receive a short survey via email about the service I’ve provided to you today, we welcome your feedback.
I wish you a great evening and thank you for contacting Homelidays!!!
The agent has disconnected from this chat session.
Cosy, duplex loft sleeps 4-6 in Chatel village centre - www.chatelaccommodation.com
KathyG
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Post by KathyG »

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
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ManxRed1
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Post by ManxRed1 »

...and try to find some engineers that had a didgeridoo what planet they're on.
And good luck putting that into Google Translate monsieur!

:lol:
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

I checked our OD listing on HA nl this morning and our rates being calculated are way out. We updated all our rates across all our sites at the beginning of January and they were all accurate. But we are not getting a mass of enquiries because of any discounts - our rates are suddenly several hundred Pounds more per week!

For example, a week in August is now showing GBP1,574 on OD without the service fee - it should be GBP1,265 (I had to recalculate that, as they have of course pulled all the rate tables from their site. What is wrong with being able to see at a glance when a property's high season begins?)

I have now checked what is going on and can confirm what has taken place: in their eagerness to copy ABB, they have discontinued the former rate calculation they had in place to ignore any higher weekend rates set when stays are greater than 'x'. In our case, 'x' was 4 nights, meaning that someone staying 5 nights (including the weekend) doesn't end up paying more than the weekly rate.

What is happening now is that just like with ABB, every night rate is just added together - in the example above: Friday & Saturday night - GBP337 x2 // Sunday - Thursday nights - GBP180 x5 = GBP1,574....

They have again copied ABB and discarded the better system that they had in place.

Does the mayhem ever stop with these people?! :shock: :roll: :x
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

Is this only on OD? Because VR still shows the old rate tables and the 'Do Not Apply Weekend Rates to stay of x nights' is still applicable.

This has now forced us to add a 20% auto discount to stays of 7 nights or more on OD.

If you have a listing on OD (HA as well?), then you need to check your rates in case they have gone down or increased....

mmg, my thanks to you for noticing this. We would have wondered why it had been so quite with enquiries if we hadn't seen this. Actually, this couldn't have come at a worse time of year - and they didn't even inform us that they were going to do this (yet again!)
Jenster
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Post by Jenster »

I've checked my rates and luckily they seem OK, apart from the inevitable fact that 5 and 6 nights are now quoted at more than the weekly rate! This is because my short break nightly rate is proportionally higher per night than the weekly rate, and you can't apply a discount for 5 and 6 nights. Ridiculous.

They have removed my weekly rates and instead calculated the discount on my nightly rate required to acheive my previous weekly rate. I had a booking the other day at £478.99 (a penny out) and wondered what was going on - turns out this is because the discount they have applied can't calculate it exactly. Again, ridiculous.
vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

Do any of you clever LMHers have any idea how to stop someone trying to book 8 or 9 or 10 ..... nights in peak season?

doesnt seem like HA understand the concept of weekly lets!!

Ta

VT
Giraffe
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Post by Giraffe »

I need the same please. I only do whole week lets as my changeover costs are so high. How do I stop OD giving quotes for say 10 days which I have to reject? ( and then go down the rankings, although I think I am at the bottom already)
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

vacancesthezan wrote:Do any of you clever LMHers have any idea how to stop someone trying to book 8 or 9 or 10 ..... nights in peak season?

doesnt seem like HA understand the concept of weekly lets!!

Ta

VT
The only way to do this is to set changeover dates to say, Saturday only. But looking at the OD dashboard, I can no longer find anywhere to set this - it is nowhere to be found under Rates>Settings.

They've made it very basic and simple, and it looks like guests can book whatever duration they want unfortunately.
rosebud
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Post by rosebud »

What a pain..!

I hate these nightly rates. and yes it is far, far more difficult to make any sensible offer.

I don't like nightly rates on the AirBnB site either but Airbnb does allow a lot of control .. Owners Direct / Home Away doesn't..

My renewal date with OD is June .

My bookings through OD/HA have been going down but i have have still been loathe to leave them. However these nightly rates may prove to be the final straw!
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

OK, now have discovered where the minimum stay and changeover settings are - you have to click each night in the calendar separately.

You can enter whether you accept check-in on that day (and date), and the minimum stay.

What is a bit strange is that if you click 'no' for allowing check-in, shouldn't the dropdown for the minimum stay go to 'grey' or something similar? If you don't allow check-in on that particular day/date, how can there be a minimum stay rule?!

We are just going to copy our ABB set up over to OD. Sunday-Thursday arrivals allowed, minimum stay 3 nights (otherwise, the rates are too low). Friday and Saturday, again check-in allowed, minimum stay 2 nights, due to our higher weekend rates.

It's getting a full time job to constantly check/alter your presentations on these sites. This seems to be being phased in site by site. As I mentioned, VRBO still shows the former rate layout that many of us prefer..
vacancesthezan
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Post by vacancesthezan »

AngloDutch wrote:OK, now have discovered where the minimum stay and changeover settings are - you have to click each night in the calendar separately.

You can enter whether you accept check-in on that day (and date), and the minimum stay.

What is a bit strange is that if you click 'no' for allowing check-in, shouldn't the dropdown for the minimum stay go to 'grey' or something similar? If you don't allow check-in on that particular day/date, how can there be a minimum stay rule?!

We are just going to copy our ABB set up over to OD. Sunday-Thursday arrivals allowed, minimum stay 3 nights (otherwise, the rates are too low). Friday and Saturday, again check-in allowed, minimum stay 2 nights, due to our higher weekend rates.

It's getting a full time job to constantly check/alter your presentations on these sites. This seems to be being phased in site by site. As I mentioned, VRBO still shows the former rate layout that many of us prefer..
Check in seems well catered for but not stay lengths and therefore check out days!

Therefore in theory although you only offer weekly lets someone could book 8 nights starting from the "allowed" check in day. They could then leave the day after the next check in day. The next booking couldnt start until 6 days later!!!

The big difference between ABB and HA is that ABB was a system for short stays (hotels B&B s etc) which has been developed to accommodate weekly lets. Whereas HA was designed for weekly lets but has now been totally destroyed to try and accommodate short stays. Neither of which it seems to have managed to achieve

Have to ask which pilchard thought up this system? Sorry to insult pilchards!

VT
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AngloDutch
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Post by AngloDutch »

vacancesthezan wrote:
Check in seems well catered for but not stay lengths and therefore check out days!

Therefore in theory although you only offer weekly lets someone could book 8 nights starting from the "allowed" check in day. They could then leave the day after the next check in day. The next booking couldnt start until 6 days later!!!

The big difference between ABB and HA is that ABB was a system for short stays (hotels B&B s etc) which has been developed to accommodate weekly lets. Whereas HA was designed for weekly lets but has now been totally destroyed to try and accommodate short stays. Neither of which it seems to have managed to achieve

Have to ask which pilchard thought up this system? Sorry to insult pilchards!

VT
I think, VT, that it's probably best to use the changeover setting to force blocks of 7 nights.

For example, if you have a Saturday changeover, and guests want to stay 10 nights, leaving on the Tuesday, just make sure that all days are set to a Saturday changeover. The system should then not allow any other date pairs.

Just finished adjusting our minimum stays from now through till end of first week January 2010. Although you can click on through dates (and not per date), just like on ABB, it still took a good 90 minutes to get it all done. OD copy your base rates through until end December 2010, so I have now adjusted our minimum stay to 180 nights from January through December 2010 :lol:

Yes, there seem to be too many staff in various departments at Expedia HQ who have to dream up even more ways to completely assimilate the former Homeaway into a basic version of ABB. No doubt there will now be a further surge of owner complaints about these new changes on Trustpilot and their FB pages. One wonders what's coming next.... :shock:
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