OD/HA moving from subscription to commission

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Dusty
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OD/HA moving from subscription to commission

Post by Dusty »

I thought I would let you know how I got on with the above as it may be of interest to others.

My subscription listing ran out last weekend. Monday morning I received a phone call from OD saying that it had run out, did I know? I explained that I let it lapse as I wasn't getting the enquiries/bookings that we used to get through the site and wasn't happy with the recent changes. He then asked if I would be interested in moving to a commission listing, no prompting on mybelf, just part of the normal process. It would be really easy, they would copy our old site across immediately and all our old reviews would move across in 4-5 days, bish bosh, the jobs a good'un.

I checked yesterday to see if we were back up and running and where we were in the listings.....nothing. I logged into our account and they had created 2 new sites for our gites but nothing had moved across. I called them and was told that, as we had a listing linking our 2 properties they couldn't copy the old site across and I had to recreate them both. They did assure me that, once I have created both sites I needed to get in touch with them again and they would move the reviews over.
I am in the middle of creating the sites and so haven't been able to confirm that they will move the reviews across but I have found that lots of our old photos cannot be moved across as they need to be a minimum of 1920 x 1080 pixels, clearly a lot of our old ones aren't that big!
And they have also stated that we don't get paid until the guest checks in or 30 days after they have paid, luckily we are not getting many bookings from them otherwise our cashflow would be destroyed.
And they insist we price on a per day basis even though our minimum stay is a week so I making sure all my prices are divisible by 7 (as well as adding 8% to cover the OD commission).

If it wasn't for the reviews I am not sure I would bother with the move.
Zingara
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Joined: Tue Apr 09, 2013 8:36 am
Location: Antibes, PACA

Post by Zingara »

I am clearly not of the favoured (?) few...

My subscription (of 15y) ran out last Wednesday and I've not heard a thing from OD...
Igor
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Joined: Sat Jun 10, 2017 4:27 pm

Post by Igor »

My thinking is that the time your subscription runs out is the time the fun starts!

Here's an extract from the Owners Action Plan part of the new StaySavr website:

...let your subscription expire and then switch to "Pay Per Booking" and follow these steps:
  • Join StaySavr
    Raise your rates on Homeaway to cover the commission percentage
    Edit your property description to encourage inquries rather than bookings
    Use StaySavr's "Text Disguiser" to divert inquiries off-platform
    Offer a reduced rate for direct bookings (i.e. commission and service fee removed)
    Take the majority of your bookings direct
    Take an occasional booking through Homeaway to keep them sweet
Igor lives in Fort StaySavr, a secret location high in the mountains
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

Zingara wrote:I am clearly not of the favoured (?) few...

My subscription (of 15y) ran out last Wednesday and I've not heard a thing from OD...
Perhaps Expedia have discovered through experience that, as a group, HA/OD's longest standing subscription customers are the most difficult, tiresome and complaining subscription-listers of all. It may be true, and HA/OD will be glad if these old hands leave the stage and don't renew again on commission. I am expecting the same cold shoulder treatment from them when I delist after 11 years in June.
COYS
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Location: Greek Islands

Post by COYS »

AndrewH wrote:
Zingara wrote:I am clearly not of the favoured (?) few...

My subscription (of 15y) ran out last Wednesday and I've not heard a thing from OD...
Perhaps Expedia have discovered through experience that, as a group, HA/OD's longest standing subscription customers are the most difficult, tiresome and complaining subscription-listers of all. It may be true, and HA/OD will be glad if these old hands leave the stage and don't renew again on commission. I am expecting the same cold shoulder treatment from them when I delist after 11 years in June.
I'd tend to agree that is very close to the mark AndrewH & almost certainly they are confident that any shortfall in desertion numbers can easily be recouped by gradually applying the squeeze & tweaking the terms on their 'new' inventory. Any long term lister will know how perfectly adept the MegaCorps are at that.
Why bother trying to persuade everyone when you can make just as much or more by exploiting those that are now reliant &/or willingly 'on board'?
Like Zingara, I don't suppose I will get 'the phone call' either come June. That bothers me not a jot, however wouldn't it make for an interesting few minutes? :shock:
This time next year Rodney, we'll be millionaires.
Giraffe
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Joined: Sun Jun 26, 2016 10:10 am
Location: Cornwall, England

Post by Giraffe »

I had no enquiries from OD since last September, so last month I converted from subscription to commission. OD advice is to let your subscription lapse and then renew as commission. We did this. Did not receive a phone call but an email from them. So the next day we renewed directly online as a commission listing. It was very easy, took less than 10 minutes. All our information was copied over. We have not put in daily rates as we only do whole weeks. We only have 1 holiday let so did not experience Dusty's problems.

And lo and behold, within 2 weeks we had a booking. And we are also coming up in the first 6 in searches instead of 400+. I dislike OD's ethics, but if they come up with the business, that's fine by me.
The best things in life are free
Jenster
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Location: Cornwall
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Post by Jenster »

Giraffe wrote: I dislike OD's ethics, but if they come up with the business, that's fine by me.
I agree, but unfortunately a commission listing will cost you a lot more than subscription, if it brings in a decent number of bookings. It's catch22 - sub doesn't bring the bookings, commission might but is more expensive once you get past a certain point. Added to that the nightmare that is their new pricing structure and I'm at the point where I may bail next year, even though it is still working for me.
ronsat
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Location: Neffiès, Languedoc, France
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Post by ronsat »

Different experience. We dropped our VRBO listing three years ago - as we were not getting many bookings. A few months ago, I noticed the new commission approach, and so called them to see if somehow I could set up a listing and keep the old reviews that we had had. No problem. Our old listing had simply been suspended, and they renewed it as a commission-based one - distributing it to all the VRBO/HA sites. I had to quite a bit of work to redo the photos and update subscriptions. But we do have our first renter of the season through the site. The commission, though, is too high.
We are Canadians who love spending time in Languedoc.
http://www.languedocvacationhome.ca
GailR
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Joined: Fri Feb 23, 2018 2:19 pm
Location: SW France
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Way to bypass OD and contact customers direct

Post by GailR »

This was told to me by someone wanting to contact me direct and not through OD (they redact any email addresses):

"Initial of my first name dot my full last name at the google email service."

It works.
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

What is "the google email service." ?
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
GailR
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Google email service

Post by GailR »

The "Google email service" is code for 'gmail' ie "joe.bloggs@gmail.com"
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

:wink: :wink:
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
SPJ
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Post by SPJ »

I've just renewed my subscription. As I knew my renewal was coming up I thought about moving to commission so I did a quick calculation based on this year's bookings and realised that the commission option would be much more expensive.

I did have a phone call from them a couple of days before I was due to renew and he offered commission, but we agreed it wasn't worth it.

I explained to him I was only staying for my reviews and my presence on their site and that in fact I hoped I would get NO bookings through OD and that everyone would come to me direct since I find the fact that they hold onto my money until the guest arrives quite disgusting. Most of my bookings for high season are sold nearly a year in advance. That means OD would be holding my deposits for a year.

I'm fortunate in that I am only looking to fill a few weeks between visits from friends. If I was relying on OD for my livelihood and my cash flow was suddenly switched off like this I would be spitting blood!
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

I've just gone back on with them as a commission listing. I have only 4 wks to sell for this season as we've been very fortunate with repeat bookings, so though for 4 possible bookings I would see.
However I've increased my rates to cover their 9.7% charges to me so after enquirers get their charge lumped on then I doubt we'd get any takers.

Just as an aside, being on commission would cost me almost as much as subscription after only 1 shoulder booking (if i hadnt increased my rates to cover it) but as I haven't had any interest from OD for nearly a year I don't want to pay for subs.
The charge they're putting on top of my rates for enquirers are eye watering.

Mousie (not holding her breath)
x
Dusty
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Post by Dusty »

SPJ wrote: I explained to him I was only staying for my reviews and my presence on their site and that in fact I hoped I would get NO bookings through OD and that everyone would come to me direct since I find the fact that they hold onto my money until the guest arrives quite disgusting.
They do move your reviews across if you move from subscription to commission so you can retain them, it waqs for that reason that I stayed with them, otherwise I would have left.

Like Mouse I have increased my charges to cover their subscription costs, I will and see whether we get any enquiries from them.
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