Holiday Lettings new "free" listings

[MartynE]

Anyone else gone for the new Holiday Lettings so-called "free" listings?

8% of the total rental - and they keep your money until after the guest's holiday has started - doesn't sound very free to me...

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=11767.0

[turkeyfan]

It seems to be 3% for owners, 5% from guests.

As an owner there are many things I don't like about HL but a free 3 month trial last year did result in a few bookings. If you choose this option I think you have to use their booking manager, which I would prefer not to use, as I like to speak to guests before confirming a booking  as I think you are less likely to have problems with guests if you have built a relationship with them.  That said I think there is a growing number of people who want to make an online booking and have no contact with the owners at all.

I also wouldn't want guests in our home, before we've received any money from them and I'm not sure if guests will want to book accommodation that has a 5% surcharge compared to properties that are free for the guest to book.

Their fixed fee option, I think is better but at almost £366 is quite an outlay when you're not guaranteed any bookings.

Listing websites......a necessary evil if you want to rent out your holiday home

[hobbo]

several interesting post on laymyhat regarding HL commission payments. latest one http://www.laymyhat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=20742&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

[turkeyfan]

Terrible.  Only 3 words.

Oh. My. God.

[pattaya]

I swapped to this last year and so far no problems very happy. In my experience guest seem to feel they have more security for the booking, and you can still communicate with them directly. I was advised by the holiday letting team that for me it was a better option. they said unless you was turning over £10000 a year it was better to do the free listing. i think the only downside is the guest does not have to pay the balance until 2 weeks before holiday. So if they cancel its likely you wont re rent it.
will stay on it for next year as I already have several bookings, and see how it goes. 

[Chris S]

Personally, I wouldn’t touch HL with a sterilised barge pole!
Where do guests payments go in the period between the date they are paid and the time they are paid to the property owner?  Into an escrow account? - I don’t think so.  What happens to the payments if HL goes into liquidation?  Can’t happen, you might say.  Remember Rolls Royce as just one example.
I suggest that the chances of them going bust is probably greater than the chances of the home owner going bankrupt,  so why are they telling potential renters that it is more secure to book through them.
Why are HL’s terms and conditions of rental imposed, rather than the property owner’s, and they then say that they are not a party to the contract as they are merely acting as agents? I have the suspicion that this would not stand scrutiny in a court.
Isn’t there a classic lack of transparency here.  Is it made clear to prospective holiday makers that they are paying extra for the privilege of booking through HL?  I wonder why not. 
Everyone should remember (holidaymakers and property owners alike) that there is no such thing as a free lunch.
What happens if the holiday maker cancels within 8 or less weeks of the rental commencing?  There is the possibility of re-letting the property at very short notice I suppose, but if not, who is left carrying the financial can?  Do HL deduct their commission from the initial deposit?  The Property owner is left holding the financial baby, even if the holiday maker has cancellation insurance as part of their travel insurance policy (which should be mandatory as part of the terms and condition of rental).
Why do all reviews of a property on Tripadvisor disappear if an owner cancels a listing on HL.  Doesn’t this clearly indicate that Tripadvisor are only interested in promoting themselves rather than providing an unbiased reviewing system for the benefit of the public, as they would have us all believe.  Oh yes, they own HL – I forgot!  Are the general public aware of this I wonder?
Back in 2010, when I first started offering my property for rental, HL was brilliant.  Then the owner sold out to Trip adviser and everything went downhill from there.  Such a shame.
If there are any inaccuracies in the above rant I apologise and would love to be corrected together with answers to any of the questions posed.

[Kalkan regular]

We tried it but withdrew after the first enquiry as I didn't like the guest having to pay 5% on top of our fee and I didn't like the lack of communication with an owner. We asked for our site to be removed and now if you google our apartment name you get 'this property is no longer available', which isn't true, it's just not available with them!

[turkeyfan]

i think the only downside is the guest does not have to pay the balance until 2 weeks before holiday. So if they cancel its likely you wont re rent it.

But you only need one 2 week booking to cancel and you would have wiped out any gains from using the commission only listing or worse, you may get a booking who reverses the payment like in the Lay my Hat thread. 

Each to their own and if it's working for you,  that's fab but I would prefer the safety of payment before guests arrive and knowing that if a guest cancels I still have 8 weeks to find another booking.

[Kalkan Magic]

The free listing option isn't actually that new, they've been offering it for some time. We have used it for some of our properties, in addition to OD and to our own website. It is okay if you only use it for late bookings or awkward weeks just to give a little more exposure then you don't have the problem of having to wait for your money. You can contact guests direct once the booking has been confirmed and deposit paid as this is when all of their personal details are made available. The other thing is that some guests voluntarily provide their own personal information, email address etc so you can just do the booking that way if the opportunity arises, then you can deal with them direct and talk to them as much as you want. We have had quite a few do this.
There is the full price option of-course but IMHO it is overpriced and OD has always been much more effective for us in the past. Hope this helps someone.

[MartynE]

Thanks for replying, everyone.

Our view on HL changes on a fairly regular basis. We always have found that OD were better and more cost effective, but gave HL "one more chance" last year.

We actually thought that the booking ratio with them had improved considerably over the last year (compared to say OD) but then when I looked at the traffic stats on our own website, I realised that a large number of HL bookings had actually gone to them via the link on our website rather than the other way round! So maybe we don't need them after all.

I think we will still go the commission route and use them in the way KalkanMagic suggests The cost of five prepaid ads (now they don't do co-located ads anymore) is eye-watering and cannot be justified!

[Chris S]

Have a look at the following link for reviews on HL lettings:
http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews186362.html

[Christina]

I've just parted with £394.80 for my annual listing fee on HL. I paid around half this price last year as I received a 'new client' offer, but when I called them recently to ask if the fee was negotiable, they really went for the hard-sell on the 'free listing' option. The more I heard, the louder the alarm bells started to ring. It was certainly something I didn't feel like rushing into.

For me, one of the downsides would be the difficulty in 'vetting' guests in advance of them booking. I like to talk to people in advance, to make sure that their expectations will be met, and that I'm not faced with a list of gripes when they arrive. For instance, the property is not particularly suited to young children (no shallow end to the pool, open plan stone staircase, glass walls, white soft furnishings). Nor would I want to accept a booking from young single-sex groups, hell bent on partying day and night.

Then HL went on to outline how they would be increasing my (carefully pitched) prices on their website to generate commission for themselves. How confusing would this then be for people who had also seen my property advertised on other sites at a lower price? Now the latest concern about some guests reversing their Paypal payments once they have had their holiday, leaving the owner without rental income - made me decide to bite the bullet, and go with the paid listing. In fairness this worked well for me last year with around 80% of my bookings coming from HL, and of course their commercial link to Trip Advisor reviews can pay dividends. I'll review my decision next year, but in the meantime will keep an eye on the experiences of others who have taken the 'free listings' option.