Kalkan Turkey Forum - EnjoyKalkan.com
The Owners Lounge => General Discussion => Topic started by: Enjoy Kalkan on August 30, 2012, 12:47:29 PM
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Hi All,
Im just interested to hear views from people who use Holiday Lettings or Owners Direct to advertise their properties which website do you find best for ease of use and or qualified leads / bookings?
Thanks :)
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We haven't used Holiday Lettings, but had very little success with Owners Direct so stopped using them.
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I've mad one or two bookings through Holiday Lettings but have had far more success through Owners Direct and have always been very satisfied with easy of use, response from owners and the choice of apartments and villas.
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We have advertised our apartment through Owners Direct for the past 6 years & are very happy with it.We have bookings for next year already.It's very easy to use.As soon as we get an inquiry which you receive via email & text we always reply immediately.We have very few time wasters & nearly all follow up with a booking.Have not tried Holiday Lettings so cannot comment on them.Only negative thing i have to say about Owners Direct is they are quite expensive.
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Hi, we used to advertise our properties on both HL and OD but stopped using Holidaylettings as the vast majority of bookings were always through OD. I continue to use Owners Direct very successfully and also have many bookings already for 2013. It seems to attract a good calibre guest with many knowing Kalkan well. It is also easy to use and includes plenty of photographs. Can't remember how prices compare. In fact, I have just had a quick look at Holidaylettings and each villa entry looks very 'busy' with a lot of info and looks confusing. If I was a guest I could quite easily be put off by what appears to be a bit of a confused layout.
KM
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We used to advertise with both, but after the first year dropped Holiday Lettings. All our bookings come from Owners Direct. Although they seem fairly expensive as a one off payment, compared to Villa Renters which charge a percentage for each booking it works out quite reasonable. We have had our villa 7 years and it has always been let from May through to October with only the odd few days free.
As mentioned before the Holiday Lettings site seems a little too busy wheras Owners direct is clear and easily navigated,
always a good calibre of bookings as well!
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I agree with Kalkan Magic the H Lettings site has too much information and is confusing to navigate. The only bonus is the Trip Advisor listing associated with it. We have had more enquiries from HL since they amalgamated. We also advertise with OD. Their site is more user friendly and still continues to generate lots of enquiries.
KK
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I advertise with both HL and OD - HL is FAR more expensive than OD - but I am loath to give them up as I get about 50:50 bookings from both - neither one outdoes the other.....
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I have used OD for nearly 10 years and have never had a problem. They are cheaper than HL, have a more user friendly site and it looks good to potential guests. We only have 4 weeks available for next year and have had 700+ site hits for August. I would recommend OD.
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I have rented apartments through both HL and OD equally in the past (spend hours researching) with no problems in the past. However since HL made changes to the site recently and amalgamated with Trip Advisor there is too much information, it is now slower loading pages and I get fed up of waiting. So from a renters point of view, at the moment I prefer Owners Direct - much quicker and less complicated.
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We have an apartment which because of location does very well through word of mouth but all our gaps are filled very quickly by Owner's Direct. We find that one in three enquiries convert to actual bookings.
As an owner, the sites very user friendly, updates to calendar, pricescetc are instantaneous and you are given lots of room for description and pictures.
They even allowed us a grace period one year when we forgot to pay for our renewal which We thought was very generous.
Have also found their staff helpful and responsive on the rare occasions we have had to ring with a problem.
KK
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I use HL, OD and FlipKey (like HL, FlipKey is also linked to and owned of TripAdvisor). FlipKey is great for getting guests reviews onto TripAdvisor.
Now get around half our booking enquiries through FlipKey and the balance approx. equally from HL and OD. Thinking of rationalising this for next year. OD appears from other comments to be a better site now and more successful for marketing.
Surprised no one has mentioned EK accommodation listing and how it compares to HL or OD.
How successful do others find getting booking enquiries through EK ? It's free compared to the others ! I used it 4 yesrs ago but dropped it when the system charged a couple of years ago. Is it time to change my mind ?
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As we mention the EK Accommodation system, the reason for the change is that the accommodation section is now part of (www.enjoyturkishholidays.com) so properties will be visible on our sister sites when we launch them. I know they have been a very long time coming but lots of background work has been going on :)
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As a serial renter, I prefer HL. I find the site easier to navigate, quicker and the search facility better. I put my preferred dates into HL right at the outset, but this is more difficult with OD. The fairly recent link-up with Trip Advisor has also enhanced the site for me. I've booked with both HL and OD and have had no problem with either - just personal preference.
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I prefer HL as a renter too, Kalkan4eva. We've used both many times (not just for Kalkan) but I find Owner's Direct a bit frustrating to search on. They require you to be very, very specific, or else get a stupidly high number of results.
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also a serial renter for many years..we always use owners direct..simply because we always find what we want so don't see any point looking elsewhere, part problem for some places we have found is booked calender isn't always kept up todate by owners which can be frustrating if you think you have found what your looking for to find it's not available >:( ..we tend to repeat as guests where we are looked after..as for EK?i had a sneaky peek and i defo would not book a property without seeing a picture/s and without upfront prices listed.
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We use both Ownersdirect and Holiday lettings for our four apartments.
HL is more expensive and we did toy with dropping it last year, but in the end we were loathe to do so it as it still accounts for about 20% of our bookings at the moment (Ownersdirect is about 40%, the rest coming from repeat bookings, referrals and our own website and Facebook pages) so on balance it's still worth the expense.
To be honest, it was the link to TripAdvisor that saved HL in our eyes - a lot of people seem to find the TripAdvisor reviews helpful. Anyway, I did manage to negotiate a price reduction with HL when we threatened to leave (the cost of running four co-located adverts is hideous)! The jury is still out on them price-wise though and we will review it again during the winter.
Apart from the expense and obviously the need to spend a lot of time maintaining so many different sites, we haven't really had any cause to complain about either - but if we had to stick with just one, it would have to be Ownersdirect simply because it represents better value for money.
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I have used both and usually look on both to make sure I haven't missed anything! HL used to be v good cos you could search for exactly what you wanted more easily. Now it is more difficult to do that. It seems to me that OD have more ads for Kalkan than HL.