2 ms·
That is actually really compelling. Particularly if you can break the annual or 2-yearly contracts and allow owners to experiment with different listing sites
by buro9 14y ago
That is actually really compelling.
Particularly if you can break the annual or 2-yearly contracts and allow owners to experiment with different listing sites for short periods of time (monthly listings).
This is even more compelling if you are the ones centrally managing the visibility of availability across the listing sites (so if a booking is made via site A the unavailability is reflected on site B).
The fear in making a bad marketing decision for a small holiday home owner is real. Their margins being small they can only afford 1 listing usually, 2 at a push. But just as with Open Table and restaurants, the home owner isn't really sure whether it works, or if it does whether it works better than other alternatives. Giving them the ability to see this stuff would solve a real pain point for them and truly make them happier.
Unfortunately, for some of the smaller listing sites they're likely to go out of business. In somewhere like the Lake District in the North West of England, there are about 5 or 6 listing sites but only 1 or 2 that really work... as soon as home owners have visibility of this the smaller ones are likely to sink very quickly.
Of course, this is to the advantage of home owners, but I wonder whether the smaller listings sites will see the big picture and realise that your solution is good for everyone but them. Not that they deserve to survive when all they sell is fear and very little real marketing power.