I think I’m a fairly savvy owner, as well as an experienced traveller – and I’ve spent a career in business focussed on serving the customer. So I think I pretty well know what’s good and bad, what works and doesn’t, what’s needed and what isn’t. I’m also pc literate, and have embraced the instant gratification of internet surfing and shopping. I’ve bought holidays, trips, airflights, cruises, hotel rooms, banqueting suites, seminar and conference rooms online, let alone other unrelated products and services.
So I think all this gives me a perspective on booking holiday rentals. What’s good and not so good, what needs to be done and what is just marketing fluff.
Holidaymakers navigating through rental listing sites currently have a pretty horrible experience. We – the owners – are in part to blame. We display poor photos. We don’t show enough photos. We write outrageous descriptions. We leave availablility calendars out of date. We expect excited, eager to buy holidaymakers, send us an email to say ‘I want it!” and we take days to reply. Or, never reply if we’re uninterested in the enquiry.
But for those of us who at least try and up our game we’re too often let down by the online listing sites.
Site navigation is often poor. We want filters so customers can quickly narrow a search, but then if they say they want NE France / rural / villa don’t give the customer a Paris apartment because the database structures are poorly designed. If customers click they want a price point of €1,500 / week don’t give them €350 / day. If they want the Greek mainland, don’t give them a Greek island (however pretty it may look).
Owners and Managing Agents. Stop agents listing multiple properties and allowing them to bait and switch with absurdly low starting rental prices (I’ve seen £1 rental prices on some ads).
Reviews. We like reviews. But if you use reviews to rank advert position, make sure they’re genuine. If a review is critical, make sure its justified.
Cross-site listings are a holidaymakers nightmare. I’m a property owner who lists across multiple sites, but what does the holidaymaker think when they see my properies represented differently on them, with descriptions that don’t match, when they find free sites that have stolen my pictures and information and pricing – and are now out of date -, or when some photos are small and fuzzy and others panoramic and crystal clear – and with availability calendars that don’t match? With almost every owner I know, if they have taken the time – and spent the money – to build their own website it’s nearly always better than the advert on the listing site. Better photos, better descriptions, better presented. But too many online listing sites don’t allow links, or, they make us – their customer – pay extra for them. Strange, but I aren’t we are all in the business of trying to satisfy customers?
All shoppers want sites that aggregate data,and holidaymakers are no different. In fact, they’re used to it when they buy an airticket, rent a car, or book a hotel. Almost every industry has them, from utilities to insurance. But not our industry. Our customers have to visit numerous sites to see all the properties that might meet their wants. I’m willing to bet all of my properties against the fact that 99% of customers never see all the properties that could have met their needs before they booked. Because they couldn’t find them.
Photos are the heart and soul of every property advert. Hell, even the online listing sites tell us that. (They’re also fond of telling us that statistically #n photos get more bookings – but don’t include that in the standard price and happily charge us extra for more). We all know that you need photos of the rooms, the exterior, important features and the external area. How can they let an owner wax lyrically about a swimming pool without insisting on a photo of it? How can a listing site let an ad run without enough photos to meet a minimum criteria? (And, by the way, who started the myth – beloved by all the listing sites – that photos should be without people in them. Without people having a good time? Without people laughing, playing and enjoying themselves? What hard evidence is there to support this?) Every site should insist on exterior views, terrace or balcony view/s, living areas, bedroom/s, kitchen. bathroom/s. And the surrounding areas.
Text Descriptions should be free text as much as possible, but to a minimum criteria. The more free text the customers reads, the more confident and knowledgable the customer is at point of purchase. If the listing site has an international audience why should we have to pay extra for translations? To help them reach their audience?
Data Mining. Availability calendars provide a service to the customer. But we owners want information on who looked at our property – not just when a prospect enquires. We’ll keep our calendars updated if you – the listing sites – in turn give us full, accurate, statistics and leads on the potential customers who were interested in us, please. Tell us more about how how ad is performing, and show us what works best, and worst, across all adverts.
Sending and acknowledging enquiries is ancient business practise. Instant booking should be available, as standard within the advert price, for those who want it. It avoids the abuse of availablity calendars, and gives holidaymakers instant satisfaction. And please, put that together with secure, safe, payment methods as part of the service to the holidaymaker and to us, your paying customers.
Reviews and Ratings are a good thing. But if a site allows an owner claim a 5 star rating from some Tourist Board or other agency, the listing site must take some responsibility and check it out. Having a disclaimer that we are responsible for the description is just a cop out. Likewise, we all know there are some unscrupulous holidaymakers out there, willing to abuse the review system of some sites to force an owner to reduce a price or return some money – and we all know there are some equally unscrupulous owners writing their own reviews. If sites are willing to put reviews up and allow ratings, they should take some responsibility for their accuracy.
In the final analysis it’s simple. Make the product easier to buy and more reliable and more people will buy it. Don’t, and and holidaymakers will keep choosing alternatives and most owners will be stuck withlow occupancy rates. There are sites out there beginning owner verification processes, checking the veracity of claims and complaints, and adopting an straight-forward open approach to advert pricing. But it’s too few, too slowly.
So that bring me to a question. HomeAway are busy buying up the more successful, the bigger, sites internationally. For more of the same, or to change the rules? It’s putting them in a unique position as a gamechanger. Are they up for it?
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It’s about time we said this – we owners for to long have been victims of there actions, they look after themselves not us.
AN excellent opinion, Michael, and I agree with you – there’s a lot more that should be done in this industry. That represents opportunity for most of us. Did I see you on a webinar on this somewhere a couple of months back Michael?