Cottage.com or on our own

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
Statto
Posts: 5
Joined: Sat Jul 27, 2019 12:50 pm

Cottage.com or on our own

Post by Statto »

Hi

I wonder if any members can provide some guidance.

This is our first season and we decided to go with Cottages.com - to date we've been disappointed with them as they take ages to respond and bookings have been disappointing from them too (our bookings generated from them are only half of what they projected in our first season).

As a test we marketed the cottage ourselves on Airbnb as we had no bookings from cottages.com for July (peak season) and we needed some income - within 10 days July was fully booked from Airbnb (with the same income we would have made from cottages.com).

The problem is Airbnb is all short breaks, so extra changeover costs (which I've built into my pricing model but it's still time consuming), while cottages.com are giving us weekly and 2 weekly bookings. Also, for some weeks in August, customers are paying Cottages.com no way near what they would pay on Airbnb.

I'm debating if we should ditch cottages.com and go our own way or give them a second season. The issue is we don't want all our bookings to be short breaks and so are customers more likely to book longer breaks on other booking sites (such as HL, Homeaway) or are they all mainly short breaks too? I've been told that second season on cottages.com is better as you've got feedback.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on where we could get longer than 3/4 day breaks.

Thanks
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Cymraes
Posts: 519
Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:31 pm
Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

Well you obviously don't need cottages.com!

The market is moving more and more towards short breaks though. The pattern seems to be people are now booking more frequent but shorter breaks than the old 1 or 2 week models.

I take full weeks only during school summer holidays and short breaks the rest of the year. If I didn't take the short breaks then I'd struggle to fill off peak.
zebedee
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Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

How you you manage your short break pricing Cymraes?

Do guests ever expect a pro rata price, then take offence and decline a higher price?
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greenbarn
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Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 6:41 pm
Location: The Westmorland Dales, Cumbria

Post by greenbarn »

zebedee wrote:How you you manage your short break pricing Cymraes?

Do guests ever expect a pro rata price, then take offence and decline a higher price?
I’ll chuck in my 2p worth - we do short breaks all year, either 3 night weekend Fri - Mon or 4 night Mon - Fri and our rate is 70% - 75% of the full week. That seems to be a fairly typical percentage.
There’s now a trend towards wanting a 2 night weekend, which I price the same and point out they can leave any time on the Sunday, or sometimes offer a slight reduction (65-70%) for departure Sunday at our normal time 10:00am.
zebedee
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Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

Thanks Geeenbarn. That’s the price I offer and it’s stated on my website, but I don’t always get a very , let’s say “positive” response.

Maybe it’s the effect of the online booking sites, but some people expect a pro rata rate.


I also really struggle to fill in the remaining weekdays, so put those at a much lower price to attract a booking, but then still get left with gaps, or the only person benefitting is the cleaner who gets two jobs that week, whereas I have less income.

I really don’t know the answer...
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Cymraes
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Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:31 pm
Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

I also quote 75% of the weekly rate for 3 or 4 nights and yes the response isn't always positive but so be it.

My OTA adverts are priced at the nightly equivalent of the short break and I just discount for a full week. That seems to "hide" that it costs a lot more per night on a short break and I get plenty of takers.

I will do Fri-Mon and Mon to Friday to avoid getting the awkward gaps but in the really dead season I'll be more flexible. Any Dec/Jan sales are a bonus for me. I they want 2 nights then I still price at 75%. It isn't cost effective for me to do it for less. I've had a couple of bookings but I'm aware that makes me very expensive.
bessie
Posts: 585
Joined: Sun Sep 30, 2012 3:45 pm

Post by bessie »

Well cottages.c have set a record with me,not one booking .They suggested I greatly reduce rates to get reviews.Apart from that no help at all.I leave very shortly ,thank goodness I got my own bookings.If they can’t get bookings or Feel cottages are not ideal holiday lets they should say so.
whirlybird
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 1:24 pm

Post by whirlybird »

Hi

This is our third year, our first year with Cottages.con. They have been awefull, I have cancelled the contract and will do it ourselves next year.
They told me that the second year would be better due to reviews, but have had none. They don't chase up reviews, the only one we have is one I chased up.
https://www.moorparks.co.uk/farm-stay-self-catering/
https://www.facebook.com/moorparks/
Moorparks Holiday Cottages Moorparks, EX19 8NA 07850 356627


I have CDO, it's like OCD but all the letters are in the correct order as they should be!
CarolineJ
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Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: North coast of Scotland
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Post by CarolineJ »

I have a theory that they penalise you somehow in their searches if you advertise independently elsewhere. I leave it all up to them, the only thing I do is run a Facebook page and an Instagram account for the cottage, both of which link to a Scottish Cottages (part of cottages.com) booking page. They've been brilliant for me, I'm getting excellent occupancy rates, well above what they predicted for me when I signed up (I got 34 weeks in my first year versus an estimated 24).

So I recommended them to a friend of mine in a neighbouring village, who were already advertising on a couple of portals themselves but wanted more bookings. They signed up and have had one booking through them. Another friend of mine with them, who is a couple of hundred miles away and had been with them for a while, was getting 15-20 weeks a year, asked for more owner weeks so she could put herself on Airbnb and got 2 weeks through them in the following 12 months.
Faint heart never won fair holiday let...
whirlybird
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 1:24 pm

Post by whirlybird »

Hi

That's possible. We negotiated 11 weeks owner bookings with them, maybe that is part of the reason.
https://www.moorparks.co.uk/farm-stay-self-catering/
https://www.facebook.com/moorparks/
Moorparks Holiday Cottages Moorparks, EX19 8NA 07850 356627


I have CDO, it's like OCD but all the letters are in the correct order as they should be!
Barney
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Joined: Mon Jun 10, 2019 8:49 pm

Post by Barney »

Cottages/ Hoseasons/ Welsh Cottages yadayada - see my post ( below) in a thread from earlier in the year. The contract you sign with cottages states your property can only be marketed on their site, so by putting it on Airbnb you are, in theory, breaking the agreement.


Avoid !

We have two properties we decided to holiday let last year, advertising one with Hoseasons, Wyndham or whatever they are calling themselves this month and the other with Airbnb.

Airbnb has been spot on, sufficient bookings, high income, covered by their insurance and good customer service when I had to chuck a group out as they arrived with five in our four bed house. Review system is excellent, as is their online owner community and I can find nothing but good things to say about the experience.

Hoseasons - awful. Gobshite salesperson with verbal diarrhoea failing to disclose the reality, rules and regulations of renting through them
- discounting down to 18 % with their dynamic pricing ( although this can be reduced to just 10% if you are aware of the process and tell them to. We had a family of four and a dog stay for an extended period for which we received £9 pppn in our brand new cottage. They had the oil heating set to 26 degrees which can use up to £20 a day so with the other costs thanks to Hoseasons we became a charity and made a loss homing these people. I did feel sorry for them when their brand new range rover had a starting problem and they had to wait a couple of hours for the manufacturer to send a mechanic to sort out the issue
- the cost of wanting to cancel a booking - you pay an admin charge, cost of upgrade and compensation for the customer
- the implications of wanting to remove your property from their website - £500 minimum plus cost of relocating any bookings and it can take up to two years to be free of them depending on when you signed as the property must stay with them for a whole year minimum
- dreadful owners website
- when a problem arose with a guest they didn't want to know and gobshite sales person ignored our pleas
- certain members of the owners support team can't hide their arrogance and at times it felt very much like being bullied
- they allocate a certain number of days you are allowed to block the property for your own use, beyond that you pay them not an insubstantial nightly rate
- the review system is such that you may only respond to a guest review rather than review them unilaterally, plus it has to be done through them so they can monitor, alter what you write.
- no owners online community - wonder why Rolling Eyes Rolling Eyes

There is nothing good about this company.

Avoid !

whirlybird
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Oct 01, 2014 1:24 pm

Post by whirlybird »

Morning

I would agree with some of that.
You can get them to turn dynamic pricing off, but they will tell you the world will end and will get no bookings.
You CAN negotiate more owner weeks for your own bookings (we got 11 on each cottage) to manage through our own site.

But, I would agree with the rest.

Are any other OTA's different ? I don't care anymore, we have cut the cord and are now on our own.

Only one person to blame now. :shock:
https://www.moorparks.co.uk/farm-stay-self-catering/
https://www.facebook.com/moorparks/
Moorparks Holiday Cottages Moorparks, EX19 8NA 07850 356627


I have CDO, it's like OCD but all the letters are in the correct order as they should be!
CarolineJ
Posts: 65
Joined: Sat Apr 29, 2017 3:52 pm
Location: North coast of Scotland
Contact:

Post by CarolineJ »

I think it also depends how badly they want you to sign up - they were desperate for more properties where I live, so offered me unlimited owner weeks up front.
Faint heart never won fair holiday let...
zebedee
Posts: 1270
Joined: Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:57 pm
Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

CarolineJ wrote:I think it also depends how badly they want you to sign up - they were desperate for more properties where I live, so offered me unlimited owner weeks up front.
I would take that with a pinch of salt. We had an unlimited owner bookings contract and they sacked us because - guess what, we were having owner bookings!
It wasn’t a good time either as I was having urgent major surgery. They wouldn’t negotiate with us or even answer any letters.

Been on our own since then, which is better now, but not easy to learn the ropes and manage everything yourself when you have a huge mortgage, major surgery and you don’t know if you will be on the planet for much longer.

I wouldn’t trust them, personally.
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

zebedee, boing, good luck.
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