Best Prices For Self Catering Holiday Rentals

7_Aspire

Largely unseen by the consumer, there has been significant consolidation within the online self catering holiday rental listing web sites, particularly for the biggest players offering 100k's of properties around the world. Smaller web sites have been acquired by larger operators, and the larger operators have invested heavily in SEO to ensure they appear on Page 1 of search engine results, in order to drive business to their web sites.

At the same time, there has been a marked shift in the way such web sites operate. In the past, owners and local agencies would pay an annual fee to have their property(s) listed. Increasingly, such sites are shifting to a commission-based model where, rather than paying an annual fee, the listing sites income comes from charging both the owners and the guests a percentage of the rental cost as a commission. From the consumers' point of view, this arrangement is driving up the cost of self catering holiday accommodation. The additional fees paid by consumers can add between 5-21% to the cost of their holiday accommodation.

To ensure owners and guests do not bypass the listing site (to avoid paying commissions) the large operators control the communication channel between owner and guest, and will sanitise any communication between the two. However, the purpose of my thread is to highlight how these additional charges can potentially be avoided.

A significant proportion of rental property owners will maintain their own web sites and will offer prices that reflect their commission-free rates to those guests willing to deal direct. However the cost of SEO and the ranking methodology of search engine operators, means that few of these owner web sites will be readily shown on the first few pages of a general search.

My tip to cost-conscious consumers is use the big listing sites to compare properties, but having found a property that you are willing to book for your holiday, take the opportunity to search for that property's own web site to see if the total cost is less by dealing direct. If the name of the property is visible on the big listing operator's web site, then search for that by name. Some listing sites will change the name of a property to something nondescript (luxury cottage, seaside apartment, etc); in this event select and copy a portion of the property's description (often owners will use the same form of words on all their listings to describe their property) and carry out a web search using these words. Finally, if that doesn't reveal the owner's own web site, consider using Google's image search tool; select a photo on the big operator's listing and search for identical images embedded on other web sites.

The big operators would justify their increased margins by suggesting they offer services or guarantees not offered by the individual owner, and this may have some merit in part. The ability to book online with a credit card with no additional fees is one such suggestion; withholding payment to the owner until arrival, to ensure the listing is not a scam. Many owners now offer online booking and/or credit card payments. To avoid being scammed into renting a non-existent property, avoid paying 100% of rental up front for an unrealistic discount, check property reviews (TripAdvisor carries reviews of rental properties as well as hotels), and if not sure ask the reviewer for their input or confirmation that the property/owner is real; or contact the owner directly and ask searching questions about the locale.

I am a holiday property owner who is concerned by how much the big operators are loading prices for the consumer, to the potential advantage of my competition (hotels, B&Bs, etc).

EssexExile

The self catering market has certainly changed a lot over the years. My destination of preference is the USA & a few years ago it was almost impossible to find homes to rent in most of the country. I've searched for hours. Florida has always been easy, we have used a small website that only covers the area we are interested in several times.

When that site couldn't give us what we wanted a couple of years back we found another house in the same area on HomeAway & that all worked well. This year we have used HomeAway to book a couple of houses in the Rockies, I'll soon let you know if anything goes wrong! I looked at other agencies but didn't find any that were as easy to use, ease of use is very important.

HomeAway gives the owners the choice of a set fee or commission & we have had no problems contacting any of the owners directly. In fact the owners of the last house we had in Florida emailed me yesterday.

I'd be interested in other people's views on HomeAway & any other recommendations.

7_Aspire

EssexExile wrote: »

HomeAway gives the owners the choice of a set fee or commission & we have had no problems contacting any of the owners directly.

HomeAway is the perfect example of consolidation in the holiday rental market with over 1 million properties advertised through its acquisition of 11 other listing sites (VRBO, Vacation Rentals, FeWo-direct, Abritel, Homelidays, Owners Direct, Toprural, Alugue Temporada, Bookabach, Stayz, and Travelmob).

The other big player is TripAdvisor with nearly 650k properties, who owns Flip Key, Holiday Lettings, Niumba and Vacation Home Rentals (as well as over a dozen other travel-related web sites).

Whilst owners will have contracts with one or more of the individual web sites, their property will usually be listed on a combination of the consolidator's companies. On the one hand, being listed on any number of web sites can increase the exposure of an individual property, but for the consumer can present an overwhelming choice of properties to choose from in a given area. (For my property's area, I have seen the number of properties advertised by my original advertiser increase by 8-fold in 2 years because of this effect).

Part of the problem created by the consolidator's is the mixing of subscription and commission paying listings on the same web sites. The extent of the commission to be paid may be masked by such methods as: only showing the additional fee at the point of booking, incorporating the fee into the rental total (rather than showing it as a separate item), using nightly rates 'from' that exclude fees, skewing the search results to favour commission listers at the expense of subscription listers, etc.

In all cases potential guests will be able to communicate with owners prior to booking, however, the acid test as to whether you may be looking at a property that charges commission is whether you are forced to communicate via the listing sites' own messaging systems prior to committing to a booking (this allows them to police the messages), or have to commit to a booking on the listing site. Any attempt by an owner to include details of their own web site, direct telephone contact number or email address, will be sanitised by the listing sites and any such attempts will be punished by the suspension of the listing or even complete removal from the site (and all its sister sites). Accordingly it is in the owner's interest not to attempt to bypass the system by drawing potential guest's attention to where their prices may be cheaper.

Despite my tone, I am not attempting to criticise the operating methods of either the consolidator's or their individual listing sites. The aim of my post was to highlight the increasing incidence of guest's being charged additional fees in the form of commissions, and potential methods of seeing if an individual property can be rented directly with the owner at a lower price.

richardw

In Europe there are frequently useful links from the Official tourist office website to self catering websites that are outside of the big players and that offer good value accommodation. Like most things, if the Money saver spends a bit more time searching then interesting things can be found.

7_Aspire

richardw wrote: »

In Europe there are frequently useful links from the Official tourist office website to self catering websites that are outside of the big players and that offer good value accommodation. Like most things, if the Money saver spends a bit more time searching then interesting things can be found.

Such tourist office web sites can be a good source of accommodation specific to a given area. Their value to owners of individual rental properties can be very variable however.

Invariably such web sites operate on a subscription basis - they don't have the financial wherewithal to invest in the sort of ecommerce necessary to support full online booking systems. Accordingly subscription prices vary hugely depending on what the market will stand. In my case, my local tourist office charges nearly £600 per annum to carry an advert and web site link for a single property. Unfortunately the same fee applies to local rental agents offering dozens of rental properties. Spread across 10 or more properties such a cost is almost insignificant, but for the individual property owner the cost is prohibitive.

Such fees make an owner's choice of seeking commission-based listing sites an easy one. Fees are only paid on the delivery of bookings by the web site - no bookings, no outlay by the owner. Moreover, the majority of the effective cost falls on the guest rather than the owner, with their fees being between 5-21%, whereas the owner with be paying commission of between 0-10%.

athenagreece

This is a quotation from MSE's "Cheap Holidays Rentals Guide" as updated in July 2016:-

"While it is possible to book via agencies, such as *******, these tend to be pricier, as you're adding a middleman"

What MSE doesn't get is that every time a holidaymaker books and makes a card payment through any of the sites mentioned in their guide he/she is paying a middleman! The middleman is the rental website, which will add and take for itself, as included in the card payment, a cut of anything between 7% and 13% on top of the property owner's price. This they call a booking fee or service fee.

7 Aspire's posts on this thread have very clearly set out the true situation. If you really want to get the best value, search the internet to see if your chosen self catering property has its own private website through which you can book. You will not then be paying a booking fee and so saving yourself well in excess of £100.

Topcat2007

Speaking as a holiday home owner, another way for guests to verify a property is to check how many years the owners have been advertising that property on the listing website. For example, I list with Holiday Lettings and in the contact box it says we have listed with them for 8 years. Also check the dates on reviews, there will be reviews going back many years on properties.

[Deleted User]

I have a number of rental properties which I market through Homeaway and Tripadvisor.
It's a great business and both sites are good in their own ways,if a little impersonal.
But I know one thing - I haven't had a single customer in hundreds of guests who has been dissatisfied with the way both websites work.
They're safe,very efficient and the fees and process by which the bookings are made are clear as daylight.

dragonsoup

athenagreece wrote: »

This is a quotation from MSE's "Cheap Holidays Rentals Guide" as updated in July 2016:-

"While it is possible to book via agencies, such as *******, these tend to be pricier, as you're adding a middleman"

What MSE doesn't get is that every time a holidaymaker books and makes a card payment through any of the sites mentioned in their guide he/she is paying a middleman! The middleman is the rental website, which will add and take for itself, as included in the card payment, a cut of anything between 7% and 13% on top of the property owner's price. This they call a booking fee or service fee.

7 Aspire's posts on this thread have very clearly set out the true situation. If you really want to get the best value, search the internet to see if your chosen self catering property has its own private website through which you can book. You will not then be paying a booking fee and so saving yourself well in excess of £100.

I've been banging this drum for ages now. You really will save a fortune booking direct. The prices I advertise on Trip Advisor and AirBnb what I charge - you will get another 6-10% or so added by the listing site. If you want the cheapest price you'll need to hunt me down - I've made it as easy as possible!

If you are nervous about booking direct look for properties that are listed on sites such as Visit England and Visit Wales. These are inspected regularly by what were the official tourist boards and you can be confident that they do exist and of the standard you expect.

mchale

Deleted_User wrote: »

I have a number of rental properties which I market through Homeaway and Tripadvisor.
It's a great business and both sites are good in their own ways,if a little impersonal.
But I know one thing - I haven't had a single customer in hundreds of guests who has been dissatisfied with the way both websites work.
They're safe,very efficient and the fees and process by which the bookings are made are clear as daylight.

I would suggest as a rental owner you are in the minority, have a look on the laymyhat forums & you will hear of many disgruntled owners.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-adjusts-its-rental-commission-model-adds-traveler-fee/


Also as a consumer I would prefer the old days of the website charging a annual listing fee and before I booked I could contact the owner direct to ask any questions about the rental, now you can not contact the owner until you have booked.

[Deleted User]

mchale wrote: »

I would suggest as a rental owner you are in the minority, have a look on the laymyhat forums & you will hear of many disgruntled owners.

https://www.tnooz.com/article/homeaway-adjusts-its-rental-commission-model-adds-traveler-fee/


Also as a consumer I would prefer the old days of the website charging a annual listing fee and before I booked I could contact the owner direct to ask any questions about the rental, now you can not contact the owner until you have booked.

Well,if the owners are unhappy they can always take their business elsewhere.
Seems to me the fees charged by Homeaway and TripAdvisor are very reasonable.
I get my listing on two sites with a global reach,the financial aspect of money being held in escrow means I never have to worry about not being paid and the review system means good owners who provide a great service get more bookings.
My properties are rented out for nearly 8 months a year to visitors from all over the world - I couldn't hope to target that sort of audience on my own.
And the agencies take 10% for all that which I pass onto the customer anyway ?
I'm VERY happy with the deal and all my customers seem happy with it too.