Web sites

[Martina]

Hi everybody! I have a good experience with vrbo too, this site bring me costumers every year, but in 2004 I discovered holiday-rentals.co.uk, witch is more expensive than vrbo is, but I consider it excelent web site if you want inquiries from Europe and particullary GB. With this site I have already booked 6 Summer weeks! This is a very good result for the property located in Moravian Silesian Beskydy, far from Prague and beeing January!
Martina

[paolo]

Welcome to the forum, Martina!

[Alan Knighting]

Internet enquiries and bookings have started very quietly this year for me. Fortunately, I have a good number of bookings from people who have visited in previous years. Perhaps it is too early to start making judgments but I am thinking maybe I should get myself onto some more Rental Listing Websites.

I would very much like to see some sort of league table of the available Websites – there are so many of them it is impossible to make a sensible choice.

As a gite owner I would prefer a league table with the emphasis on actual results in obtaining bookings rather than Search Engine rankings and ease of use for the property owner. After all, that is the sole reason for me being on any Sites at all.

I realise that any league table based on the experiences of this Forum’s members, even if all members were to relate their experiences, would represent a very small percentage of the market as a whole but I think it would be valuable nevertheless.

Paolo – how about setting up a comprehensive question and answer poll from which a league table could be compiled. I say a question and answer poll so that members would know the criteria used in making up the league table. Some questions I have in mind are:-

1. Setting up and annual cost.
2. Ease of use for the property owner.
3. Ease of use for the enquirer.
4. Search Engine ranking.
5. Level of enquiries generated.
6. Level of bookings achieved.
7. Country of origin of enquiries.
8. Country of origin of bookings.

As if you didn’t have enough to do already.

Alan

[centime]

Don’t us ladies just love you guys – league tables – great idea just like the football (soccer) on Euro News! For those of you that don’t get this channel, we can see at a glance who is top of the Spanish league, the German league, the Dutch league etc. who is wining and who is knocking the other of the top! I am right with you Alan on this idea, a bit like the country leagues, the European cup and the World cup in relation to the best paid sites for us to spend our hard earned rental cash! Now Alan put your money where you mouth is and get us a draft poll questionnaire, don’t leave Paolo with all the work! Who knows when we get it down to a fine art as to what we want from these sites we will be in a very good position to influence them in delivering the goods! The better at they are at sending us the punters the more we will spend on their sites – everyone will be happy laughing all the way to the bank! Keep the good ideas coming guys (and gals)!

[Alan Knighting]

centime,

Now Alan put your money where you mouth is and get us a draft poll questionnaire, don’t leave Paolo with all the work!

I'll think about it but not being a polster I'm not sure I would know where to start. Anyone else with qualifications or experience?

Alan

[oskar]

Sounds like a good idea, but do you not think that such a poll which takes into account the level of enquiries generated, would lack a bit of meaning as it misses out the other most important aspect of any advertisement on a rental website - how you've marketed your property?

You could be advertising on a website viewed by millions, but if you haven't marketed your property well, then you won't get many enquiries.

[Alan Knighting]

askar,

I'm sure you are absolutely right.

I am thinking on the lines of "Which rental websites are productive and which are not?"; "Which rental websites to consider and which to ignore?" Why re-invent the wheel when you could rely on the experiences of others?

The detail contained on the page is up to the property owner.

Alan

[HolidayWebs]

I think the issue is that different listing sites are going to work better for different people. Some sites appear to be better for different regions as well.

[paolo]

The trouble with a table is that rental owners only use between one and a handful of listing sites. So they can't say what are the best sites. For that we'd have to be using dozens of sites each, and we'd also all have to be marketing our properties to the same standard to give a level playing field.

The question of which sites give the most bookings is asking too much of the listing sites. Their job is to put a potential renter in our inbox. Ours is to turn the enquiry into a booking.

I think the only measurables are:

1. Search engine rankings for particular search phrases.

2. Overall customer satisfaction. This would encompass most of Alan's list above.

Anything else is conjecture. Isn't it?

But again, if you are only using a couple of sites, what do you have to compare your customer stisfaction to? You could sing the praises of the sites you are using, but there could be far better sites for your property that you haven't tried.

So I am not sure what the answer is, but being a man I would like to see an ordered table!

[Alan Knighting]

Paolo,

But again, if you are only using a couple of sites, what do you have to compare your customer stisfaction to? You could sing the praises of the sites you are using, but there could be far better sites for your property that you haven't tried

.

You have hit the nail on the head. How does one know about other sites and how good they are, without trying them? Maybe by going to a league table.

Perhaps the real answer is to do as you suggest - do searches as though you are a holiday maker and do your own analyzis of the results. In one of your previous posting you gave a short list of suggested key words one could use. Could you point me towards it please?

Ah well! The thought of a league table can be put to bed - attractive but not practical.

One comment I would make about myself. Until very recently my links to the Internet have been through dial-up modem and ISDN when I was very conscious of the clock running with FT. I keep forgetting that I am now on 1024k ADSL and can use the Internet 24/7 at the fixed monthly cost of 23€ so I am only using my time and not running up huge telephone bills when I am surfing the Web. And broadband is so much faster.

Alan

[paolo]

Hi Alan,

Here is my surefire method for finding the best ranking sites for your property:
viewtopic.php?t=257

It includes finding the most used search phrases. It is time-consuming but I believe it delivers 'the truth' about listing sites.

[Alan Knighting]

Thanks Paolo,

Many happy hours browsing are ahead for me.

Alan

[Alan Knighting]

Does anyone have any experience of www.gite.com ?

It looks intersting but, does it come up with the goods?

[vrooje]

We don't list there -- it's much more expensive than the other site we use -- but we had to refer a client out to another renter last year who does use gite.com, and they seemed pleased with it.

But I can't say yea or nay whether it's a good site...