Bookings.com

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
charliechoice
Posts: 73
Joined: Wed Nov 15, 2006 9:33 pm
Location: Ayia napa

Bookings.com

Post by charliechoice »

Good morning, we have decided to advertise our apartment on Bookings.com for the coming season, has anyone got experience of using this site please, basically seeking information on what to beware of if anything as their owner forum seems to contain a lot of disgruntled people. Many thanks Phil.
declanja
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Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2008 8:59 pm
Location: Nice France
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Post by declanja »

I use them for my apartment in Nice. They charge very high commission but do provide lots of bookings. I had to deal with their customer services and found them helpful. They edit the text in your ad so it might not read as you might like it. They encourage visitors to leave reviews and practically all do, which is good for me. They had replaced Homeaway as my best site.
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Cymraes
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Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

It's instant book and they take a hard line on double bookings so a mistake on your part can be very very expensive.

Check your prices and availability on there very carefully and once you've done that check again! And maybe again. Seriously. If you double book the site will find guests an alternative and you will be paying any additional rental costs.

I update that site manually. I don't trust iCal refreshes as they can be as slow as once a day from some sites.
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

The disgruntled comments in the forum are somewhat justified, but then they do generate a lot of bookings.

The key to using this company is a psychological one:

When you list with them, you are handing over the rental of your property lock, stock and barrel to a 3rd party who will do it all for you. You get the property ready, pay the bills, sit back and wait for them to just pay you. Do not imagine that you have any control at all. You will have to do some work initially to set it up, but after that THEY are the boss - not you. And they only pay you AFTER the end of the holiday.

If you can tolerate that approach, it will work.

The only other thing to remember is that unlike the other listing sites that work on commission where the commission is paid by the guest, Booking.com charge you the lion's share of a high commission. I have used them for 2 years. Acceptable level of bookings, but then I build their commission into the price so that the guest still ends up paying - and they still book - even though its quite a bit higher than anywhere else.
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
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Cymraes
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Joined: Tue Jul 07, 2015 3:31 pm
Location: North Wales

Post by Cymraes »

e-richard wrote:You get the property ready, pay the bills, sit back and wait for them to just pay you. And they only pay you AFTER the end of the holiday.
Not necessarily - I collect the money from the guests according to my own terms and conditions - ie 30% deposit on booking and rest 6 weeks before arrival so all is safely in my account long before the guests arrive.

Booking. com invoice me for their commission monthly after the guest has checked out.

Works really well for me. I don't list on the sites like AirBnB and Tripadvisor that collect and hold on to the money.
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