My point was just that it's not just an online booking system. Some owners like the idea of showing availability and making it easy for customers to make enquiries.
Some owners also like the other features such as free text messages when an enquiry is made. They've found it helps them more quickly respond to customer enquiries and therefore ensure potential bookings are not missed.
Online booking service.
Addendum to my refund test:
PayPal took the money from my checking account even though the funds were already in my PayPal account. I don't understand why they did that -- I wasn't given the option to use my PayPal balance.
With the verified seller rating thing, I was just concerned that using the refund regularly might cause red flags to go up -- I don't want PayPal to freeze my account!
PayPal took the money from my checking account even though the funds were already in my PayPal account. I don't understand why they did that -- I wasn't given the option to use my PayPal balance.
With the verified seller rating thing, I was just concerned that using the refund regularly might cause red flags to go up -- I don't want PayPal to freeze my account!
Brooke
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
Well I've got it set up and running and think these are the pros and the cons. 15 day free trial until 15th June.
Pros-
1.can see enquiries and update bookings even when not at home. This may prove useful when I'm away over xmas and New Year at the start of the ski season.
2 I can also invoice for the balance by clicking a button. I don't need to transfer money from one account to the other, I can send it to my French paypal account, and so to my French account.
3. Visitors can immediately see availability. (I also see this as a downside), and can enquire (they don't need to send me the deposit for me to get the booking, I can request it later)
Cons
1-see 3 above.
2. Is it worth the cost?
3, How do I offer discounts? Need to ask about that one I think.
Helen
Pros-
1.can see enquiries and update bookings even when not at home. This may prove useful when I'm away over xmas and New Year at the start of the ski season.
2 I can also invoice for the balance by clicking a button. I don't need to transfer money from one account to the other, I can send it to my French paypal account, and so to my French account.
3. Visitors can immediately see availability. (I also see this as a downside), and can enquire (they don't need to send me the deposit for me to get the booking, I can request it later)
Cons
1-see 3 above.
2. Is it worth the cost?
3, How do I offer discounts? Need to ask about that one I think.
Helen
Helen, first of all, as a holiday maker I am not a big fan of availability calendars as I've yet to come across any owners who actually update them regularly.
That said, I like Holiday-Rentals' idea of ranking the display of rentals according to frequency of calendar update but this incentive only really works for owners with rentals in France and Spain, but not much incentive for people with rentals in Slovenia, Montenegro and other smaller places where the offerings are on one page.
Secondly, have you disabled the availability calendar on your site? I just had a look and it doesn't 'appear' to work. It contains the following instruction:
That said, I like Holiday-Rentals' idea of ranking the display of rentals according to frequency of calendar update but this incentive only really works for owners with rentals in France and Spain, but not much incentive for people with rentals in Slovenia, Montenegro and other smaller places where the offerings are on one page.
Secondly, have you disabled the availability calendar on your site? I just had a look and it doesn't 'appear' to work. It contains the following instruction:
Nothing happens when I move the mouse over. Is this because I'm using Firefox on Mac OSX?Move your mouse pointer over a selectable start date to see its price, click it to choose it as your arrival date:
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
Hi Helen, forgive me, I didn't read your site's opening blurb.
Perhaps you should mention it's not active though on the actual page of the calendar and on the enquiry page, just in case people don't catch that on the opening page.
Not everyone reads every single word, not even me
Calendar mouse-over does work but layout etc is still clunky.
Perhaps you should mention it's not active though on the actual page of the calendar and on the enquiry page, just in case people don't catch that on the opening page.
Not everyone reads every single word, not even me
Calendar mouse-over does work but layout etc is still clunky.
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
-
HolidayBookingsOnline
- Posts: 8
- Joined: Tue May 31, 2005 7:38 am
Clunky
Thanks for the feedback Garri.
I wonder if you could elaborate on "clunky"?
I can see you're someone who appreciates a good user experience, so I hope you'll drop a few clues as to what's clunky about it so that it might be improved. Might get you one small step closer to that "ultimate user friendly holiday rental site" you're looking for.
Thanks
Paul
I wonder if you could elaborate on "clunky"?
I can see you're someone who appreciates a good user experience, so I hope you'll drop a few clues as to what's clunky about it so that it might be improved. Might get you one small step closer to that "ultimate user friendly holiday rental site" you're looking for.
Thanks
Paul
I've had a change of heart, sort of.
I still think Paul's calendar solution has a clunky layout and design but that's something for him to take on board and I'm sure with some encouragment and feedback he will improve it, easily done.
But having read some of the comments on here I started to feel a little bit sorry for him.
He has obviously invested lot of his own time and effort into trying to come up with a good solution for owners - that's pretty commendable I think, and he should be congratulated for that.
When I get some time I will go through his site and give him
valueable feedback.
How did the UK's largest holiday rentals site start out?
I still think Paul's calendar solution has a clunky layout and design but that's something for him to take on board and I'm sure with some encouragment and feedback he will improve it, easily done.
But having read some of the comments on here I started to feel a little bit sorry for him.
He has obviously invested lot of his own time and effort into trying to come up with a good solution for owners - that's pretty commendable I think, and he should be congratulated for that.
When I get some time I will go through his site and give him
valueable feedback.
How did the UK's largest holiday rentals site start out?
-
Hells Bells
- Posts: 13173
- Joined: Sat Apr 30, 2005 8:42 am
- Location: French Alps
- Contact:
general
We purchased a rental property in Park City, Utah recently - I grew up there and both my husband and I are avid skiiers but now that my parents are retiring elsewhere we decided to keep our ties to Utah and buy this rental property.
It is currently being managed by an outrageously expensive management company (40% of revenue!). I want to take over and manage the property myself, which is slighlty complicated by the fact that we live in England. Nevertheless I believe this is doable and I am now in the process of developing the website, finding the perfect keyless remote access lock, finding the cleaners, etc etc. I cannot say how pleased I was to find the 'Lay My Hat' website today, it is amazing - so much good information, so many good ideas.
I am posting in this particular forum because I've been looking for an online booking/payment system that is affordable, and easy to use for both customers and owners. I found Holiday Bookings Online (http://www.holiday-bookings-online.com/) through HelenB's original posting and was VERY impressed with it.
I love the calendar (though I think the legend should be clearly labelled as a legend, be small so as not to detract from the calendar itself and offset from the calendar so it doesn't confuse people into wanting to click on it). A calendar is essential in my view; as a customer I'm always attracted to sites that have it, and I think Paul's is one of the better I've seen (jAC's at http://jhplace.net/jrac/ is also quite good). The strength of Paul's offering is the combination of a cool calendar with the excellent behind the scenes admin system, AND an online payment system. I may be the minority here, but as a customer I'm put off by sites that DON'T have online bookings, precisely because I don't want to spend a lot of my time emailing back and forth. A good website will tell me all I need to know about a place. As for the PayPal provisional booking system, well, point taken that some people may not want to have the booking before they get to talk to the person, but I at least want to know they're serious, and don't want to spend a lot of time talking on the phone to prospectives for practical reasons - I'm in a different time zone. and can't field calls easily - and because I wouldn't be inclined to do so anyway. Some of you wiser folk out there are probably smiling knowingly, nodding and thinking 'young whipper snapper...she'll learn'.
After hunting on the internet for days for a suitable solution with little luck, my hat off to Paul for developing this great tool. Sure it's not for everyone, but it's just what I've been looking for. And c'mmon guys, £50 a year is VERY reasonable. Frankly, some of the comments aimed at Paul rather sniff of sour grapes....
It is currently being managed by an outrageously expensive management company (40% of revenue!). I want to take over and manage the property myself, which is slighlty complicated by the fact that we live in England. Nevertheless I believe this is doable and I am now in the process of developing the website, finding the perfect keyless remote access lock, finding the cleaners, etc etc. I cannot say how pleased I was to find the 'Lay My Hat' website today, it is amazing - so much good information, so many good ideas.
I am posting in this particular forum because I've been looking for an online booking/payment system that is affordable, and easy to use for both customers and owners. I found Holiday Bookings Online (http://www.holiday-bookings-online.com/) through HelenB's original posting and was VERY impressed with it.
I love the calendar (though I think the legend should be clearly labelled as a legend, be small so as not to detract from the calendar itself and offset from the calendar so it doesn't confuse people into wanting to click on it). A calendar is essential in my view; as a customer I'm always attracted to sites that have it, and I think Paul's is one of the better I've seen (jAC's at http://jhplace.net/jrac/ is also quite good). The strength of Paul's offering is the combination of a cool calendar with the excellent behind the scenes admin system, AND an online payment system. I may be the minority here, but as a customer I'm put off by sites that DON'T have online bookings, precisely because I don't want to spend a lot of my time emailing back and forth. A good website will tell me all I need to know about a place. As for the PayPal provisional booking system, well, point taken that some people may not want to have the booking before they get to talk to the person, but I at least want to know they're serious, and don't want to spend a lot of time talking on the phone to prospectives for practical reasons - I'm in a different time zone. and can't field calls easily - and because I wouldn't be inclined to do so anyway. Some of you wiser folk out there are probably smiling knowingly, nodding and thinking 'young whipper snapper...she'll learn'.
After hunting on the internet for days for a suitable solution with little luck, my hat off to Paul for developing this great tool. Sure it's not for everyone, but it's just what I've been looking for. And c'mmon guys, £50 a year is VERY reasonable. Frankly, some of the comments aimed at Paul rather sniff of sour grapes....
Re: general
Perhaps those grapes were soured by the fact that Paul of holidaybookingsonline invented a character - pauluk2020 - to back up his arguments.bubulina wrote:Frankly, some of the comments aimed at Paul rather sniff of sour grapes....
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat