Lay My Hat

Thank you for your replies. I do feel terrible when people are Charged such a hefty premium. I try really hard to give the name of our property in the hope that they might search it and find us independently without breaching the rules. I’ve just had a summer booking from them but now it seems they ...

We moved from a paid for listing to a commission based one at the start of the year but the prices they are charging are extortionate. Our summer price is £2500 and they are adding another £350 on top which means it’s well beyond the reasonable pricing for the location and size of property. Because ...

I’m afraid I don’t have much helpful news as it just gets confusing for your renters from here on in. You can dondirect bank transfer for the remainder of the payment and in theory set your terms but the renter doesn’t often know that. So they are forced to pay their fee to owners direct (which by t...

Irritatingly OD has outperformed Tripadvisor/HR so far this year in terms of enquiries. I would dearly love to drop it as I HATE the service model and I think its a rip off for guests and home owners to pay them twice. But at the moment it is generating business so I grit my teeth.

I also think it's down to tighter restrictions on school holidays during term time. Families with school aged children just don't have the flexibility they used to.

Thank you for higlighting all of this - I've been watching this play out for a while. We moved to online bookings for OD about three months ago just to test the theory that `everyone wants to book online now` - guess what, one booking has come that way whilst we have had copious people contact us an...

it is true, I like the personal touch - ours is not a business as such but a means to enable us to have a lovely house that we can use on occasions and therefore like everyone getting to know the renters first, direct not through a big company is important. I've just checked out our competitors in o...

Interesting debate - echoing the one my husband and I had last night! We don't take online bookings because although our house sleeps 10 it is maximum 8 adults and 2 younger children - a fact that, despite it being prominent in our listing is often overlooked by potential bookers when they contact u...

funnily enough I was just going through all my accounts and having the same trouble. I can't actually work out where my enquiries come from anymore - they seem to be one dashboard for FK and HL. My response rate has dropped to 80% because I'm getting so confused and think I've replied to someone who...

Welcome Roy. With much distaste (as I hate the dominance of the big companies in the lettings market) I would agree that HL are one of our best routes. The link up with trip advisor makes a difference I think, but it also means you need to work on getting past guests to write reviews.

Good luck

Cascat the majority of our renters are driving and booking for weekends so don't have the usual full luggage. I know flowers have been well received and taken home as they're not dumped in the bin when the cleaning is done. But I appreciate that different rental set ups mean it isn't going to be app...

You've probably decided by now but in the past we've sent a bouquet of flowers to the holiday house with a sorry card in it when something like that has happened. It is just a different gesture not too expensive but different from the normal compensation. On the other hand when the heating failed ov...

We are not on site so have never had the dilemma. There should be some polite way to signal as guests whether you want to chat or just be left alone! I wondered whether the owners saying something along the lines of we are usually available between x and y time if you have any questions which signal...

We (extended family totalling 18 for one week and just four of us a second) have just spent the last two weeks in two separate holiday homes as renters. As a rental owner myself I'm always curious to see how others do it. These are my reflections from being the renter 1. Owners living on site have i...

You were all right. Now fully booked for summer and only one weekend left available in July which I'm confident will go. Even Christmas looks like it's going to be sorted this week!