Owner Holidays listing site

Services offered by owners that are relevant to the business of rentals.
Nigel Goodwin
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Owner Holidays listing site

Post by Nigel Goodwin »

You may have seen various threads I participated in about what kind of listing site owners really want.

I decided to do something about it, and, with the input of various LMHers, who had excellent advice and plenty of injection of doses of realism, I have formed a new company Owner Holidays Limited, and I have developed and implemented a new site at:

www.ownerholidays.com

The concept is that it would be:
  • purely a listing site, not a booking site
  • for owners and small or medium size agencies
  • can be used with or without a third party booking system
  • has iCals and more integrations with booking systems
  • has a flexible pricing model
The basic functionality, including iCals integration, is complete.

The business model is I want it to be cooperative and collaborative and commercial. I will have more news on the business model later, but the idea is to have a wide spread of equity ownership.

Most income or equity revenue would be directed at marketing costs.

At present, all listings will be free for at least the first year.
Last edited by Nigel Goodwin on Wed Sep 07, 2016 11:42 am, edited 1 time in total.
ManxRed1
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Post by ManxRed1 »

This sounds most interesting, and well done Nigel for showing the initiative.

I will be listing my property on there very shortly, and look forward to hearing more about how you propose this site to function.
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

Look forward to seeing it take shape Nigel :)
farley
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Post by farley »

Hi Nigel
Very interesting and exciting, look forward to watching developments.
Just one glitch noted, pictures of what looks like a Greek villa but text describing a Boston B&B.
declanja
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Post by declanja »

Well done Nigel. At least you have got up and done something. I will join. I would prefer if your site was confined just to owners rather than owners and agencies but you have to try and make it work so good luck! Declan
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

farley wrote:Hi Nigel
Very interesting and exciting, look forward to watching developments.
Just one glitch noted, pictures of what looks like a Greek villa but text describing a Boston B&B.
Thanks.

Yes, there are a few dummy demo properties, but I will get rid of them as soon as I have some real properties.

No, I do not own all those properties, just the Newquay ones !

I also want to re write a lot of the bloggy articles, they are a bit too American.

Like all software I based it one previous work (for which I have paid and have the right to use), but have extended and modified considerably.
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

declanja wrote:Well done Nigel. At least you have got up and done something. I will join. I would prefer if your site was confined just to owners rather than owners and agencies but you have to try and make it work so good luck! Declan
My thinking on agencies is that they are necessary to make the site work, but I do not want it to be flooded with agency properties. so agencies will get a small discount, but not enough to compete unfairly with individual owners.

I want a level playing field.

The current free listing would be restricted to one property per agency, I guess.

If an agency wants to pay 1000 x individual subscription price for 1000 properties, I am not going to stop them ! But that is also to the advantage of owners - the revenue from the agency will be used for marketing all the properties.
AndrewH
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Post by AndrewH »

It sounds an excellent concept. Very good company name and good name for website as well.
declanja
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Post by declanja »

You are right Nigel, there is no point in having a great site in principle if it doesn't work in reality. So if you can get money from agencies well done.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Good luck with the venture!
Nigel Goodwin wrote: My thinking on agencies is that they are necessary to make the site work, but I do not want it to be flooded with agency properties. so agencies will get a small discount, but not enough to compete unfairly with individual owners.
I think if you can restrict to small agencies - the type that actually know their properties and the owners - preferably making it clear that it's an agency on the listing, most owners are okay with that. Seeing a lot of properties from Sykes and the other big players is a major turn off.
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

greenbarn wrote:Good luck with the venture!
Nigel Goodwin wrote: My thinking on agencies is that they are necessary to make the site work, but I do not want it to be flooded with agency properties. so agencies will get a small discount, but not enough to compete unfairly with individual owners.
I think if you can restrict to small agencies - the type that actually know their properties and the owners - preferably making it clear that it's an agency on the listing, most owners are okay with that. Seeing a lot of properties from Sykes and the other big players is a major turn off.
Exactly. Each 'owner' has to state whether they are an agency or independent owner, and each property shows whether it is from an agency or owner. The profile says owner or agency, and at the top of the book/enquiry screen it says 'book now with owner' or 'book now with agency'. I also have 'owner website' or 'agency website' buttons to link to the website.

Not doubt there are further places where I can show whether it is an agency or owner!
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

As a slight aside, I looked at HomeToGo last week, and now their ads are appearing all over pages I look at. The interesting thing is that they show a lot of garbage, and repeated properties. I get lots of duplicate wooden huts outside Newquay whenever I browse online.

Just goes to show they trawled everywhere, I really don't understand their business model.
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French Cricket
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Re: new listing site

Post by French Cricket »

Nigel Goodwin wrote: The business model is I want it to be cooperative and collaborative and commercial.
Good luck with it, Nigel. I for one look forward to knowing more about how you'd define a business model that encompasses those three things.
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GRL
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Post by GRL »

On www.holidayfrancedirect.co.uk/ from Brittany Ferries you can price really accurately adding weekly prices and nightly prices that can be different for the number of nights booked plus you can set the minimum number of nights at different levels for each week to suit you. It takes a little bit of time to input all the prices/days but it means your prices are right for any given enquiry.
Nigel Goodwin
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Post by Nigel Goodwin »

Rosie wrote:On www.holidayfrancedirect.co.uk/ from Brittany Ferries you can price really accurately adding weekly prices and nightly prices that can be different for the number of nights booked plus you can set the minimum number of nights at different levels for each week to suit you. It takes a little bit of time to input all the prices/days but it means your prices are right for any given enquiry.
At present you can set different prices for different time periods, and you can also set 1-6 day prices as a percentage of weekly prices. I have a multiple week discount also.

I am trying to make it all based around a weekly, rather than daily, price. I think that is more usual for holiday accommodation in Europe (funny story coming up).

My aim is to cater for 99% of pricing model needs, and I am looking at how SuperControl, PIMS and Bookalet do it, and cater for at least those three. Then I will be able to suck in pricings from booking systems, so you don;t have to do it twice.
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