Well, you at least can't say you were ignored! Happy picking.
"posted a request got 107 answeres" - a serious point is it would be helpful to have a more sophisticated request system. When I posted a request I had a similar level of responce and it took days to wade through them all. Some replies offered alternative dates to the ones I had requested, and some were for 3 beds when we wanted 4. If you only got replies from relevent properties you could open the site up to more members (property owners).
We've visited this subject many time Chris7 and the main upshot is that the overwhelming majority of enquirers LOVE the choice they get when enquiring through out sites - something they just do not get elsewhere.
It's a tricky one as we will never please all of the people all of the time and have to go with what the majority tell us .
We do not want to take on any more properties as we feel we have got the levels about right.
There is a problem with some owners responding to enquiries that they really should not respond to (e.g. if they do not have the dates) - we have an Owners Reply To Enquiries Code Of Conduct which sets all this out for owners and is linked to extensively so there can be no excuse for not following it. Unfortunately, as with everything else in life, there are always going to be a minortity of owners who do not follow the rules for one reason or another.
When ive made an enquiry its been great, Yes I had a few that offered other dates, but
these were only 1 day out which at the planning stage is ok. Never had that many responses
though, that does seem high
My wife did a search this time and was (so she told me) quite specific about what she wanted
and got replies from villa owners that met the critea she had requested. See Women seem to
do things right according to her. I think to be honest she has moved our holiday dates by
one day, so we can have the villa she decided upon. So in this case it worked out great for
the Villa owner and Us
I agree with the above, you cant please everyone all the time and thats the same in normal
life as well. The other hard part is to actually pick one of the Villa's as all the owners
have taken a lot of time/effort and money to make them lovely.
Chrisj
I must say that of the 107 replies 10 did not have avialability, but it is nice to know that if i could change my dates they may have been able to help. I have finally managed to whittle it down to about 10 and i am now bombarding them with questions about the villa & location.
I must say how impressed i have been with the quality, time & effort the owners have put into trying to rent a villa.
Sorry i have to dissapoint all but one of you[V]
I agree that it is comforting to know that availability is good. When planning the holiday I was faced with the "chicken & egg" question - "do I book the flights or the villa first?" .
From the response I got, I knew I was safe to book the flights and be sure to get a reasonable villa (even if we couldn't get our first choice). I know I'm probably in a minority of one, but life is complicated enough without having to try and differentiate between 100 villas when probably most would be OK and there isn't much to choose between them.
I would say though that all the responces I had were very polite and friendly, and even those I sent a "no thanks" to were kind enough to wish us a good time anyway
We always book the flight first, the way I look at this is there are more Villa's than
flights and so once the flight is sorted you can then concentrate on the villa.
I agree the responses were great even when we have had to say no, being civil costs nothing
Chrisj
It does make sense to look at flights first but unless they are on a special offer prices do not differ too much within a season and within the same airline such as BA.Assuming some flexibility in dates and what your requirements are it can help to look at the Villas first as the Villa you really like may be a couple of days out on your dates which cant be changed if you have already booked the flight.
It really depends on whether you are after something special in which case choose your villa first and sort out flights later,most owners will hold your dates for a couple of days while you arrange them.Otherwise you can only choose from villas which have availability which may not have all that you wanted.Kevin,you probably got so many replies as you completed a general enquiry for three of four bedrooms rather than selecting which one,nothing wrong with that but could explain the torrent(no I wasnt one of the replies-5 bedrooms in mine)
Lesley
Lesley
www.orlandovillas.com/florida-vacation-rental-784.aspx
"Kevin,you probably got so many replies as you completed a general enquiry for three of four bedrooms rather than selecting which one" - Ah but Lesley, I took great trouble to only contact owners who had villas with locations/specs I was interested in. Unfortunately the "referral" system means that any villa owner who didn't have availability put my details onto the board and it was "open season" from people who didn't have the benefit of knowing exactly what I was looking for.
I know there is no easy solution, but I think it's helpful for owners to see it from the other side of the fence too
I'd agree there Chris - your points have been taken.
quote:I know there is no easy solution, but I think it's helpful for owners to see it from the other side of the fence too
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