Frustrated and disappointed

[Majik]

Thank you Frazer Lynn for your post I welcome your feed back.
I did not receive your enquiry as our villa is only a three bed. I do try and keep the photos on adverts up to date and we decided when building a web site to keep it very simple. I telephone our guests soon after their arrival to make sure they are settling in so need to be sure that everything is as advertised.
We sometimes rent villas ourselves when we want an extended stay and ours is already booked and have been suprised by some of the replies we have had!

[SteveandJan]

Fraser Lynn, it is very much appreciated you have taken the time to post your feedback on replies to enquiries. Your observations are welcomed. We would only reply to those when we have availability or if they have stated they are flexible and it's within their time frame. We do try to keep our online tour updated when we have upgrades carried out to our villa, for us its very important to show what we have done. We also reply in the first line we have availability. We do state our price further down and maybe this is something we can move to the top of the email. Font we keep to Comic Sans and the signature is in blue but the rest of the reply in black. We will look at our ad and see what improvements can be made. Our replies consist of 8 paragraphs but not lengthy ones. Thank you

Hope you manage to book the villa you are looking for.

[Madabouttigger]

Intresting thread, I must admit when I put an enquiry on earlier in the year, I also recieved emails with far too much information in them, when realistically I wanted to know how much, what the price included (personally I prefer the rate to be calculted including all the taxes and cleaning so I know excatly what its going to cost me), any add on's ie pool heat, how many beds / bathrooms and location. If the Villa ticks these boxes then I will look at the Villas web site / advert. Having contact details for the owners is also a plus, I have spoken to "George" twice now about the Villa we are renting and so far am perfectly happy with our choice and support he has offered. Oh and I love the 360 degreed tours but appreciate they are expensive to keep upgrading each time you change the villa.

Diane.[msnsmile]

[floridadreamvilla.co.uk]

Thanks for letting me have some of the details behind your post Fraser. I've acted on what you sent as we too agree that kind of thing is totally unacceptable. It's not only not helping the owner concerned, but it risks damaging our sites own reputation, which is something we absolutely will not stand for.

I'm not sure if we've ever posted this on the guest area, but all owners have a strict set of rules they have to adhere to when replying to enquiries. This is specifically designed to minimise (or totally remove) the issues Fraser has come across. Owners risk having their advert immediately removed from the site if they break them.

Here is what they have to adhere to:

1.	Do include a link to your advert on our sites in your reply. Without this enquirers have been told to ignore your reply as they will not know you are a genuine owner with a villa on one of our sites.
2.	Only reply if you HAVE got availability (don't even bother emailing to say you haven't).
3.	For Villa Specific enquiries ONLY, feel free to offer dates with 1 week either side of the requested dates if you do not have their exact requested dates (unless enquirer specifies more flexibility or specifies exact dates only).
4.	If the enquirer is very specific on a feature (in their comments) and you do not have whatever it is, then don't reply.
5.	Summarise that you have availability and the price at the very top of your reply.
6.	Try to keep the number of photographs your attach to your reply email to an absolute minimum. If you feel you have to, don't attach more than 100k of photographs. Any more and it is quite likely the enquirer will just delete your reply without reading it.
7.	Providing your own website confirms to the rest of our rules (i.e. no links to other villas, car hire, park tickets etc etc), do include a link to your own website (saves having to attach photos).
8.	Keep it brief but informative.
9.	Be as prompt as possible in responding.
10.	Don't forget, the membership rules of our sites still apply here too - in particular, no linking to sites that offer other villas, flights, car hire or attraction tickets (other than OV owned sites, of course) in your initial reply to any of our referrals.

Finally, if any other guest is reading this and has any concerns over replies they have had as a result of an enquiry on our site then please do email me at john@orlandovillas.com with full details as we'd love to hear from you. All emails will of course be treated totally confidentially.

[Albert the Frog]

I love the sensible comments on this thread and site--well done to everybody

[FraserLynn]

So, my feelings of frustration and disappointment have been replaced with one of very high regard for the professionalism that i usually have when dealing with this web site. In particular, John you reaction reaffirmed just how much you put into creating a quality that people can trust in.

Villa now booked and, of course, I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else for my car hire.

[Madabouttigger]

So, my feelings of frustration and disappointment have been replaced with one of very high regard for the professionalism that i usually have when dealing with this web site. In particular, John you reaction reaffirmed just how much you put into creating a quality that people can trust in.

Villa now booked and, of course, I wouldn't dream of going anywhere else for my car hire.

ditto [msnwink]