First Visit for 9 Years

[fiona]

There are problems with every system of course, but at least the prospective guests have a wide selection of wonderful villas to choose from on this site.

I would caution those looking at the popular dates because they get booked up very quickly. (For example I find Easter is fully booked at least 12 months in advance, and usually Christmas and most of the school summer holidays and October half terms as well.) As Lesley says we are usually happy to hold the dates for a couple of days while flights get booked and shift round if necessary, if our villa is the one wanted.

However I do not respond to general enquiries unless I can match the dates and specification, although if I match the specification and am out by a day or two I will then reply!

[chrisj]

Fiona

Thats what the villa owner did with my wife, they were 1 day out and sent thier details to my wife, as
a result we changed our holiday by a day so we could rent the villa. In this case we have booked the
villa before the flights. We can be flexible with flights etc as we have friends in florida that we could
fly in earlier and stay with them for a day if we had to.

[huckleberry house]

Hi Chris7
My comments about the general enquiry generating so many responses was aimed at mkrw and was not a critiscism,I received the general enquiry from him even though my home is 5 bedrooms and this isnt what he was after.In the comments box he had requested 3 or 4 bedrooms but owners of other sizes may have answered as well anyway, hence the amount of responses.Personally I have not replied to any that I could not meet the exact spec and exact dates but interesting that I may have missed a booking or two if I had suggested they change their dates.

Lesley

[Chris7]

Hi Lesley,

I wasn't suggesting that it was a critiscism[:I], only that the referal system (IMHO) is a bit daft if the original lead has been generated through this site. If I've found my way here and made contact with some owners on this site, I don't see the sense in having some of them "refer me" on to others on this site. If I wanted to, I could contact those owners very easily for myself. [}]

Sure If you get leads from your own sites/advertising etc which you can't meet then offer to refer them (most owners do this too!)

Also, I think a better "filter" than number of bedrooms required would be number of guests. In my case there are 3 adults and 2 kids (both girls). We could very easily have taken a 3 bed, but opted to have a 4 bed for the extra comfort (and I would have considered a 5 bed if we couldn't find a suitable 4 bed).(we have a 7 seater car for the same reason)

I really feel that owners undersell their property (which I appreciate is easy to say when you don't own one) The villa cost of a 2 week holiday in Orlando is about 20% of the total cost. Sure I'll shop arround for the best ticket prices and forex rates, because I'm buying a comodity. A Disney ticket gets you in whether is cost £250 or £199, but why compromise to save £100 on the cost of the villa. (about 2%)?

[huckleberry house]

Hi Chris7
I agree with you that owners should not post referrals on the forum that will already have been sent out to appropriate owners,actually I hadnt realised that any were duplicates and will check carefully before responding to those posted on the forum now I am aware.
It would appear though that there may be no perfect answer to where the general enquiries get sent though as even with a 5 bedroom all my bookings have been for four or five people so would prefer that size of property was not used as a criteria,in fact my latest query is for three people! I can only see using what the enquirer has stipulated as their requirements as being the only decider i.e. if they want Lindfields only then only forward to Lindfields owners etc but I guess the admin involved would be massive to keep selective lists of email addresses for each configuration.
I am concerned that I am following the rules of the reply instructions but possibly losing bookings whereas others dont follow them and make a gain,I also wonder if the amount of replies,many not appropriate, put potential bookers off making another enquiry when they return at a later date.
I would prefer not to take the "if you cant beat em join em" line but without enforcement of the rules (and feeling like a newbie sucker) I am questioning my methods.
Lesley

[Karen]

Lesley, there is no easy answer to this. I know John & Roger do not want to add to many boxes for guests requesting details to have to answer, but on one of the other sites we are with one of the questions is "Are you flexible with your dates" and they can enter either yes or no.
John/Roger would this be possible to add as it is very easy to reply to and would be of help to guests and villa owners alike?

[Chris7]

I think Karen's idea of a "flexible with dates" box is a good one. Clearly anyone who has booked flights would have to say no and that would save both the renter and the owner's time.

Lesley said "all my bookings have been for four or five people so would prefer that size of property was not used as a criteria" that also agrees with the point I was making. There isn't much difference between a 3 bed and a 5 bed (in comparison to the total cost of the holiday). The idea of having 10 of my nearest and dearest in a 4 bed for 2 weeks is too scary for words

With regard to allowing renters to select specific communities, there is no reason this couldn't be done. When a renter searches for a villa, they can select (one at a time) the communities they are interested in. I did this and drew up my short list. Unfortunately the referral system meant that the "chosen" replies were swamped by the replies I received through the referal system (whose villas I didn't want because they were in the wrong place!)

So how do people whittle down that list? - the problem os that they will have more criteria than you can ever cover. For example I wouldn't have taken yours Lesley (this time) because we will have my mother with us and she would find a single storey home easier.

[MRKW]

Oh my good i stirred up a hornets nest, at no point was i critising anyhting about the number of responses, quite the opposite. With regard to if an owner should or should not reply i think all who have avialability near to the dates requested should respond. Although we requested 3 or 4 beds this was down to assumed cost, in fact some 5 bed homes are the same as 4 bed. My initial queries were for a date that i then changed due to cost of flights as going after 24th may was cheaper!!!.

Thank you to all who replied, i think i have narrowed it down a bit more unless another villa turns up.

A the end og the day you cannot please all of the people all of the time but i think the current system serves the majority, hey i have used it twice now.

[Chris7]

I don't think it was a hornets nest[:I] probably the best featre of this site is that the contributors are all very helpful and considerate. I'm sure they take constructive coments as an oportunity to improve their business/hobby.

[Chris7]

In fact, now I think about it, this is the only BB (on any subject) where I haved never seen any "bitchy" comments (although we came close with the interloper from a certain travel company