May 2, 2012 2:25 PM
Can anyone help with implementing these ideas??
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This a great development having written to customer services and just got knocked back; so here are my main issues ith what is otherwise a first class service:
In our website entries we provide very detailed information about the proprerties we have available to rent - even the availability of toilet paper. However Homeaway provides minimum information about potential renters - people who will have full access to our clients valuable properties:
If I have a three bedroom house and the inquiry is for four adults and three children I first have to ask if any of the children are under the age of three - then we can accommodate them - could there be a sub category for infants [specifying under 3 years old]?
I have a couple of houses for rent at USD 14,000.00 a week; great location and exquisitely furnished. Having the money doesn't guarantee considerate renters and a 1500.00 returnable deposit helps but not if the house can not be ready for the next visitors and the demand is such that usually renters leave in the morning and the next renters arrive late afternoon. As on ebay sellers and buyers are rated : can we hsave such a system? or can you ask more searching questions - is it a nice family group or a bunch of college students who may not look after the property?
I have a database of over 1500 people who I want to send a newsletter to [MailChimp] every three months to encourage more repeat bookings. All I need is to be able to have my database in Excel - this is a request,please; cutting aand pasting each clients details is almost impossible.
To those of you out there with similar issues I'd appreciate your support to request these changes
Ian Thomas. I rent out 18 properties of different types and sizes in southern Spain on the Costa de la Luz in Cadiz Province.
I wholeheartedly support a guest rating system. They rate us right on our websited. We should be able to rate them. I guess tracked by email address or maybe they have to set up a "log in" to rent and it would track them that way? Brilliant idea! March on!!!!!
I think I see three distinct requests for Home Away followup - please correct me if I get this wrong:
1. An additional set of questions about the guest's party composition, including ages of children (optional?) I'd also like to see an optional field, perhaps with drop downs, for intended use: Reunion, family vacation, wedding reception, etc. It would also be nice to get the renter's age and get it documented right up front, instead of having to sneak into the question on the phone.
2. A way to keep a shared database (available to all verified, active HomeAway and VRBO homeowners) that lets homeowners rate and keep notes on past renters. Since HA does not require renters or even potential renters to create any kind of record (and I'm glad they don't!), I'd suggest that HA use some combination of inquiry email address and / or phone numbers as a record key.
3. Some mechanism to download the entries in our individual Reservation Manager histories into an Excel spreadsheet (or at least CSV format). Ideally it would include all known contact info, what dates they inquired about, what dates they rented (or at least an indicator as to whether we created a "booked" entry in the calendar forthe person), and whether they have rented multiple times and the dates (perhaps one line item per start date?) Ideally, there it would be in a format conducive to sorting by renters versus inquiry only, and for those who have rented or inquired multiple times, some way of sumarizing them into one line item per contact.
Secondarily, for owners with multiple properties, a way to consolidate the renter / inquirer info across multiple properties - although this could reasonably be done within Excel even if we have to do a separate download per property.
Have I summarized (and added to) the OP's request appropriately?
@swiss house
1. We could ask more questions, but we know that more questions affect inquiry conversion. However we do think profiles (see below) could get at this problem.
2. Many owners have asked for reviews of travelers - so you are not alone here.
3. You can search your inquiries and download inquiries in reservation manager today with the "export inquiry data". We don't have a consolidated view across properties, but we do have this across sites if you have linked your calendars. Put another way, if you have one listing on VRBO, VR, Homeaway, and they are linked in your dashboard, you can access all the inquiries for that listing in single download.
I *think* that is what you are requesting, let me know if it's not.
hope that helps,
tom
Hi
I think more questions does affect inquiry conversion especially at the moment we get the inquiry so better if done at the outset which could even dissuade unsuitable renters.
Please also could you tell me how to download all my inquiries Re: Can anyone help with implementing these ideas?? into an Excel format displaying all the relevant information about each inquirer.
Many thanks.
Regards
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
Hi there
http://help.homeaway.com/articles/en_US/Solution/export-inquiries
Has information on how to download inquiries from your dashboard on HomeAway.com or VRBO.com
regards,
tom
Hi there
Many thanks. I’ll try it out later today.
Regards
Ian.
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
This would be very useful, but the privacy issues would need to be addressed. I'm not a lawyer, but I'd imagine this would be very tricky to pull off without guests needing to signup for HomeAway and agreeing to terms of service that lay all this out. I'd be curious to hear an expert opinion on that.
In addition to seeing guest reviews, when someone sends me an inquiry I'd love to know even more information:
1) Have they sent me inquiries in the past?
2) Have they booked with me in the past?
3) How many other inquiries have they sent to other owners recently and over time?
Jeff Bailey
Creator of Vacation Props, an innovative iPhone/iPad app to manage vacation properties and quickly respond to inquiries
http://www.fourthframe.com/FourthFrame_Technologies/VacationProps.html
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/vacation-props/id452612798?mt=8
On Homeaway.com, we've been working to get travelers to create profiles on our site that tell you a lot more than just an inquiry with dates, number of guests and a terse "price and availability?"
See examples of traveler profiles here
http://www.homeaway.com/traveler/profiles/a3fc1857-0e56-4c38-a55c-518c1736fb93
or here
http://www.homeaway.com/traveler/profiles/7f5528bd-9e82-47fd-a0a1-01f83b5b113f
We're starting to put the links to these profiles in the inquiries, so you can quickly click through to learn more. Of course, it's early days still and we don't have this on VRBO at the moment, but we're trying to make it easier for you to vet travelers.
These profiles show some information about the traveler - whether they've reviewed properties before, whether or not they own vacation rentals, and some information that they have submitted.
I'd be interested in know what the community wants to see on these profiles.
tom
not sure what this is all about...clicked link and just saw a review and
some listings. I didn't see anything that I would consider a profile.
Thanks, Lin
www.ThreeSistersVacationRentals.com
<http://www.threesistersvacationrentals.com/>
ThreeSistersVacationRentals@mi.rr.com
Lin (313) 387-0690
Sue (248) 755-1618
@lin
Questions:
Does the review someone wrote tell you anything about that person?
Does the knowledge that someone is a vacation rental owner increase your trust in that person?
This information comes from our systems - and some users add their profile data (or link to facebook) - what info would you like to see?
tom
Hi there
Many thanks for your email.
The purpose is to learn more about the people making the booking:
Ages
Occupations
type of group – family or friends
The review would have been submitted by the previous owners where these people had stayed which would then give the potential owner a better insight into the suitability or otherwise of the possible renters. These reviews and scorings are also done by Ebay to protect the buyers and sellers on their auction site. One can take an informed view on the suitability of tenants: in high season with tenants booked one after another we can’t afford to have a tenant created calamity.
I would be delighted to help further.
Look forward to hearing from you.
Regards
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
I couldn't view your websites, I am assuming that is because I am on VRBO?
Hi Wendy
don’t know. I’m with Holiday-Rentals but with listing on european and USA sites.
My references are
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p404190
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p434743
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p498115
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p830849
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p837847
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p837848
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p837850
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p861581
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p863344
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p897357
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p897359
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p1007111
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p1007112
www.holiday-rentals.co.uk/p1007960
Do you think my properties should be listed on VBRO?
Look forward to hearing from you.
regards
Ian.
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
All, I can tell you is that VRBO has been wonderful for me. I love it! I see that you are in the UK. I was born there and moved to this wonderful country in 1966. I personally love the USA more than any other country that I have been to. We just got back from Brookings, OR. went through the Redwoods, Then across to Lake Tahoe. We had the best time....this country is BEAUTIFUL! Good Luck. If I ever decide to go to my birthplace I will contact you.
Hi Wendy
That sounds great – we have it in mind to do the route 66 one day soon . . .
Please do!!
Regards
Ian.
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
that is much appreciated – it may be easier and more immediate to put some on to the form so that at least travellers who are prepared to answer the questions do so. I would be happy with just:
name, occupation and age Re: Can anyone help with implementing these ideas?? of each person in the group – this is especially useful as for a house only capable of taking six people an inquiry for eight people is still possible if they are showing two in the group as younger than three as they can sleep in baby beds and have high chairs.
Regards
Ian.
Ian Thomas
Tel 01483 531322; mobile 07950635361
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