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Post by High Priestess on Oct 13, 2015 16:44:51 GMT
Thanks a lot Oliver for bringing these things up. I had no idea about the fact that HomeAway does not requre full payment up front, or that some countries like France dont allow full payment to be made more than 6 months in advance...and I didn't know about other things you have mentioned. Yes, I hope that some of these things are able to be mentioned at the Open during the time they will have for hosts to give feedback to staff -- as they did last year at the OPen in San Francisco I think they intend to do again this year in Paris, opportunity for hosts to ask questions or give feedback to staff.
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Post by Olivier François on Oct 13, 2015 17:16:47 GMT
Deborah, the law is just for individuals who are renting their property on their own.
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Post by Maria Lurdes (Milu) on Oct 16, 2015 16:37:31 GMT
I have my first booking from GAYBOOKING.COM coming next week! They are based out of the UK. Clunky interface, but not difficult to use.
I have had nothing but problems with Bookings.com and can't even seem to cancel out of that site.
I use VRBO with a lot of success, and have my places listed on Flipkey with less success. I used to have half my bookings from WIMDU but now that's dried up to having 1 inquiry a month, so no longer as relevent to me.
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Post by maggie on Oct 17, 2015 22:20:06 GMT
We use Homeaway and Flipkey, as well as Airbnb. Flipkey has gone very quiet but I keep it just for Tripadvisor! I like Homeaway as there are no guest fees, ( got the subscription for $199 per listing) and I can deal directly with the guest by phone are email, and organize payment method as I wish. We get a lot of return guests. Tried Wimdu and Homelettings but they were a total wash out! House tripping is supposed to be good but you must have a full kitchen and no home sharing:-/ As for ease of use , I think they are all a pain in different ways, I just wish all the calendars synced reliably. Maggie
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Post by Dionne on Oct 19, 2015 9:37:36 GMT
I agree maggie. I find that if I don't sync calenders manually they won't update for hours (although each say that they update every 2 hours). It certainly is a pain but then again part of the process to log in everyday to keep them up to date and make sure that there are no over bookings.
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Post by apricotnelli on Oct 19, 2015 14:04:01 GMT
I didnt see this thread earlier and think I posted in the wrong section sorry Deborah I only do short term and use Wimdu and roomorama as well as airbnb. I have tried homestay and flatshare. I get about one or two bookings a month from wimdu and its great, easy people like the early airbnbers and prompt payment. Roomorama are harder to deal with . They are very very slow to pay. I have been getting one booking a month but for a while for some strange reason their support were dealing with booking queries so I would get a prepaid booking and then have to try to find out something about the person through the support at Roomorama. Also they are inclined to change my listing text and send me queries for longer stays even though I said I dont want them Homestay charge too much commission and I get a lot of rubbish queries like can we book your single room for 2 people and we want a double bed and an ensuite even though the listing says it doesnt have that. I took one booking from them. The guy was fine but in general not worth the hassle. They also seem very low priced for listings. Flatshare rang me and signed me up but I never got a query from te,.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 19, 2015 15:30:04 GMT
apricotnelli -- sorry to hear that you don't find Roomorama to be very good. I was wondering about them -- have never heard much about them, but since most of the alternate sites seem more geared to whole home rentals, and many of us have rooms, not whole homes to offer, I had been intrigued to learn about Roomorama. in particular, I find it upsetting that they would change your listing text! That seems so very inappropriate! I actually get plenty of business from Airbnb and Craigslist. MOstly from Airbnb but I do take a few longer stays from Craigslist.
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Post by apricotnelli on Oct 19, 2015 16:56:56 GMT
The majority of my bookings are airbnb, they are fine to deal with I find Roomorama annoying to deal with but I get a booking a month from them and they are usually a week plus as opposed to airbnb a lot of shorter bookings. Wimdu guests are great better guests than airbnb, lovely people and they pay more quickly but their cancellation policies are a pain. That is my only issue with them. A guest can get a full refund if they cancel a few days before. Both Roomorama and Wimdu don't let you put a picture of your animal in your listing which I disagree with as I had a dog (I don't now) better to be sure your guest knows there is one in the house. Its really annoying when non native English speakers change your listing text. I think it was Wimdu that gave me the new title Rustic home(I live in the city). They have an extremely annoying feature where they offer to write you a professional description which means in effect they add inaccurate text and you have to go back and tell them to change it. They also take out things I want there like "please don't contact me about long term lets I don't do them". Not this autumn but last from Roomorama it was non stop fake queries. Someone would send me a query for a space of days that read "I am looking for an apartment will you do a longer let", "no" was the answer and then Roomorama support complained I was declining too many queries. Homestay is more hassle than its worth dealing with the queries. For some reason they seem to get a lot of non English speakers who want a cheap place to stay and ignore all of the listing parameters. They also get a lot of very young guests 18 or so who want meals (again I don't do them) and people who want to practise their English. As I live alone I can't really give that service. I tell them they are better off with a family. I like that airbnb collects the money and pays. Homestay take a deposit and then you have to ask the guest for the money yourself. Homestay also take too much 20 % from the guest. Its flatclub not flatshare - they are aiming for medium term lettings as opposed to short lettings. www.flat-club.com. They are UK based. They approached me and copied my listings with a big sell that google was their client in Dublin. I never got any queries from them (one once for a longer stay ). I dont use the calendar sync which both Wimdu and Roomorama have I do it manually. This is because I have a room I don't always let but do if it is very busy and I want the freedom to swap a guest into that room (its bigger than the other two so its an upgrade). I tried 9flats and got one query once in Websummit week when the whole of dublin was booked. Never another so have given up on it.
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Post by mootpointer on Oct 20, 2015 15:14:34 GMT
Greetings All - this is a great discussion - about 60% of our bookings are through HomeAway/VRBO and the rest from Airbnb. I much prefer HomeAway/VRBO booking site since it is very clear with the quotes as to what the guest is paying for and the host can add different fees for pets or week long cleaning fee. Anyway none of those features are available from Airbnb which is the cause of constant confusion for my guests. Additionally in the long run the fees are less with HomeAway/VRBO for the hosts and guests as proven by a study provided in this forum awhile back. I have noticed that Airbnb keeps updating the review system and adding more ways that hosts get reviewed and the like but is not working on making the booking system more flexible. Also my experience with the pricing system offered by Airbnb is quite dramatic since if the price changes depending on the day your guests get totally confused since the listing posts a price and that is what they expect to pay. Anyone else's experience on the pricing would be helpful. Cheers,
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 20, 2015 15:49:03 GMT
Hi Mootpointer -- I have never used HomeAway or VRBO and probably wouldnt' qualify for those sites since I offer only rooms, not entire places. I was wondering, do those sites have a review system too, where guests review hosts and hosts review guests? Do you find that it is easier to screen guests and get information you need about them, to make a decision whether to take them, on any particular platform?
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Post by educatordave on Oct 22, 2015 1:52:34 GMT
I was wondering how many people have had success with Tripadvisor. I had no idea that I could post on them as a vacation rental. Anyone?
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Post by educatordave on Oct 22, 2015 1:55:35 GMT
I just also checked out FlipKey and it seems to take me to the Trip Advisor Vacation Rental site. Are they one and the same?
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 22, 2015 5:38:34 GMT
I found this online: "FlipKey is a TripAdvisor company and powers the vacation rental experience on TripAdvisor.com—the largest travel site in the world—and other TripAdvisor Media sites" www.flipkey.com/pages/about_us/
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Post by Olivier François on Oct 22, 2015 7:24:15 GMT
Deborah, on Homeway the review system is quite different. You can ask people to leave a review sending an email link even if they didn't rent through the platform. If people rent through they are automatically asked to review. But there is no guests review and you don't have any specific informations about them. But as you are supposed to have a formal contract signed by 2 parts it's easier than with airbnb to solve issues with guests here in France. One of my best friend is a lawyer and help me to write my contract. She said me that if I don't have one (like with airbnb) nothing could be done. Accepting airbnb policy is not legally valid.
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Post by Dionne on Oct 22, 2015 8:10:33 GMT
Flipkey, Holiday Letting & Trip Advisor are all the same company. @equatordave For me about a third of my bookings come from Tripadvisor, the rest are all Airbnb. I was originally enlisted on Holiday Lettings but they recently updated their dashboard when you log in, now it takes you straight to a Tripadvisor dashboard.
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