Villerenters.com

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
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Hanorah
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Joined: Fri Dec 10, 2004 2:50 pm
Location: Turkey

Villerenters.com

Post by Hanorah »

Has anyone used Villarenters. They offer free listing but charge a 10% commission on bookings. I have been with them for a while but only received my first booking yesterday so as a rental listing site they have not been that successful for me.

Since then although I was aware you could use their calendar and credit card payment for personal bookings I had never looked into it properly.

I am however thinking about embedding their calendar to my own site and processing all my bookings through it. There is a 3.25% for credit card payments but their robot secretary sends out all the reminders for payments etc that would save me a lot of time and effort as well as allow me to take instant bookings straight off my website. They also collect money from the safety deposit automatically or refund it on the day you specified. You can also insert a file with instructions on how to get there etc and other important info to go out at the times you programme in.

It is fully tailorable and you can enter discount codes as well as use your own branding etc. It also would mean my guests could simply enter their dates from my website see if they were free and if interested book instantly by paying their deposit.

The main benefits seem to be

1. Instant online booking and payment once the calendar is up to date with any major credit card.

2. The facility to enter manual bookings for those that do not wish to pay by cheque or cash.

3. The robot secretary to manage all aspects of the booking and payments.

The pitfalls

The cost of course but I think the time it saves me plus being able to take online credit card payments may balance this out.

It does seem slightly complex to set up so if anyone else has done it and found it successful or equally if it caused problems it would be good to know before I go ahead.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

I like to find out about my potential renters by having an email or phone dialogue before they book. If they could simply book online like buying a plane ticket I wouldn't know what I was getting.

If this site can convince people to pay 10% commission for every booking, they will be doing very well indeed. :o
Paolo
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roxytoo
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Post by roxytoo »

I've been with them for a year now, had about 8 enquiries but no bookings, you are rated on whether you can book online or not/testimonials/log in and maintain your calander etc so I am on 50%, don't think that is very good so is probably why I am not getting any enquiries now!! It does seem a bit complicated to me so I have steered clear a bit, I don't think it is very user friendly and I get the feeling that it is all villarenters or nothing and I don't want to stick to one website for my bookings.I think some people do very well though, maybe just not me!!
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Hanorah
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Post by Hanorah »

Hi it is a good point about knowing your guests first I will need to think this through.

I would not be using them as my only source of bookings though just taking advantage of their online booking and payment facility, and the robot secretary etc. The charge for putting a credit card payment through them is 3.25% for a private booking. So if you find a booking from an alternative source to them ie your own website or another villa listing site you can use their facilities too and just get charged on the credit card payment. You only pay the 10% if the booking comes through their site if you see what I mean.

I suppose I could still use this facility after I had vetted my guests but direct them to a hidden page on my site to allow them to pay online if they wanted. I could also enter manual payments if necessary and still take advantage of the automated system for requesting payments etc. From what I understand you can also cancel bookings if you are unsure about any aspect of somone who has booked.

I agree they do not seem to be a good source of bookings for me either but looking into their management tools I am tempted by the time it will save me doing it all manually and of course for a way to handle credit card payments other than PayPal. Still haven't made my mind up yet will mull it over further and thanks so much for the replies.
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Fraise
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Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:25 am
Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

Hi- I've just signed up with them today but I was a bit worried when I saw them advertised on Visit France website.Are they connected? I have just paid around £150 for a years' ad on Visit France and don't now want to have to pay an extra 10% on any bookings from them because the sites are connected! Does anyone know?

www.thepetitmanoir.com
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Hanorah
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Location: Turkey

Post by Hanorah »

Hi Fraise I don't know if the two sites are connected but I doubt it. You could try their live chat feature from the owner’s area.

I have decided to go ahead but at the moment not to enable instant booking. They can still request week(s) of their choice through the online calendar and then I can choose to accept or decline it. This will allow me sometime for email banter etc. Once I have decided to confirm it they will automatically be sent an email asking them to pay the 25% deposit to secure the weeks. If they do not pay in 24 hours I can manually cancel the booking and free up the time. The system will automatically send them another email 56 days before arrival for the balance and once paid will send them arrival instructions and you can even include a attachment on the email. 5 days after arrival back if I have not taken some monies out for damages etc the safety deposit will be refunded by the system.

All sounds ground in principle and if it works without probs will be worth the 3.25% but we will see. I will keep you posted if I have any problems.

If you want to take a look at the page on my website it is

http://www.villahanorah.co.uk/onlinebooking.htm

Please do not make any booking requests though as it will screw up my calendar and stats if I need to cancel any fake ones.
Always Learning
Fraise
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Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

Hi- did you have your own calendar on your site before embedding the Villarenters one?If so, did you simply ditch it?

www.thepetitmanoir.com
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Hanorah
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Post by Hanorah »

Hi I had the renters org calendar so I copied all the info first you can manually make dates unavailable. I am not 100% sure I will stay with the villa renters but will commit for this season to see if it makes life easier. If not I can revert back to renters org next year. I also offer flexible payments so this will not work with villarenters but I am going to see if I can still use the robot emails etc for those bookings I haven't figured it all out but only 2 guests have these plans this year so it should not be a problem either way. Really look into to it first if you are considering it as I can not give a personal recommendation yet until I have really tested it all out.
Always Learning
Fraise
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Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

Thanks,yes, I'm not sure about them .That 50% thing is a bit weird? Are people going to bother looking at your site if they think it's not up to date? I keep mine up to date but there seems to be no way of getting over 50% unless you commit totally to them? Why should we?The jury is definitely still out!!

www.thepetitmanoir.com
kevincohr
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Joined: Sun Aug 28, 2005 5:44 am
Location: Nice, France

Post by kevincohr »

Hanorah wrote: I have decided to go ahead but at the moment not to enable instant booking.
All sounds ground in principle and if it works without probs will be worth the 3.25% but we will see. I will keep you posted if I have any problems.
Hanorah,

From the look of your website, you are still using the Villarenters calendar / booking service : one year on, what's your view of their service ?

Thanks,

Kevin
Guest3
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Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:24 am

Post by Guest3 »

I like to find out about my potential renters by having an email or phone dialogue before they book
Ditto!

I looked at VillaRenters last year and decided that I didn't like the idea of a 'robot secretary' taking bookings on our behalf. From an enquiry to a booking, we normally have an exchange of emails or telephone calls and it's a more personalised service.
Fraise
Posts: 2079
Joined: Sat Oct 30, 2004 8:25 am
Location: Charente Maritime and Middle England

Post by Fraise »

I ended up ditching them :cry: I felt as though the 50% business was actually pointless and I wasn't about to be bullied into only using their system.Complete waste of time for me.
paul smith
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Post by paul smith »

I was looking into it but may think again now. Good info :)
lakegarda
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Location: Lake Garda

villarenters system

Post by lakegarda »

Hi
I've been using the Villarenters system for a while now, and use it for about 12 properties I manage for the owners.
Don't be misled by the term robot secretary: that only kicks in once they've made a booking. All the usual correspondence prior to booking takes place, it's just that once they book online all the reminders for deposits and the balance are done automatically, and the directions are sent out automatically once the balance has been paid. I think the system is brilliant and while there are sometimes glitches the team behind the system are good at responding to requests for additional features and this year a lot of new features are going to be added. They have also made it possible now for you to take manual payment for free for your own bookings, but you can still take credit cards for 3.25%. I haven't come across anything to match it so far.
Later this year they will be introducing a create your own website feature for free. I also like the automatic discounts feature, the optional or mandatory extras (for example cleaning or optional cot rental etc.).
I don't work for them, I promise!
Guest3
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Joined: Mon Aug 15, 2005 11:24 am

Post by Guest3 »

As the saying 'To each his own' but I personally prefer to be in control of who I accept bookings from.
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