AirBnb, Booking.com, Holiday Lettings, Travelnest, VRBO - they are all the same. Good for clients, maybe, but DEFINITELY NOT FOR PROPERTY OWNERS.
By far the worst, according to many "propietarios" is Booking.com, the market leader, the biggest and most dominant of these "shop windows".
[Image courtesy of Hosteltur]
Preamble
I know no owner, be they hotelier, guest house owner or private holiday home renter who has a good word to to say about this US company. And, believe me, I know loads, who are friends, neighbours and acquaintances who live here in southern Spain.
[Photo courtesy of LinkedIn]
"But they are the biggest holiday rental website, so they provide us with the majority of our bookings, so we have to put up with it!" is a common refrain.
But if they make a mistake, which they frequently do, you cannot contact them to sort it out.
Travelnest
This is not a reservations site. It's a booking platform.
Travelnest works with the booking companies as a kind of "host" and deal with clients - mugs - like me, in exchange for five per cent of the cost of the booking.
That's on top of the 15% charged by the companies. So a grand total of 20% gets deducted, and for what?
[Travelnest]
It's really not good value for the poor service these companies provide.
The worst aspect of Travelnest is that their telephone lines and chat service are closed at weekends, which is precisely when most problems occur, since Saturdays and Sundays are popular changeover days.
My latest problem
Without going into all the mundane details I received a message from Travelnest on Saturday night congratulating me on a new seven-day booking which was due to start today, Monday. This is a mistake by either Travelnest or booking.com, since these dates are blocked on my calendar, ie not available.
Could I contact anyone to sort it out? Of course not.
Booking.com are infamous for their poor interaction with property owners and Travelnest was shut!
[Image courtesy of Freepik]
I contacted the clients to inform them that they should not turn up at my house as it was not available. Not their fault nor mine. This is an error by the companies.
All I got was a tirade of abuse from the "clients" using the most vile language imaginable and threatening to turn up, break into my house and destroy the contents. The clients are Italian and maybe "mafiosi".
I advised this man that I would be informing the local police of his threats and that they would be waiting for them.
My good friends, also property renters, advised me that these were most likely empty threats, but I shall denounce them nevertheless. Just in case.
[Image courtesy of iStock]
Conclusion
I can name and shame these two organisations, Booking.com and Travelnest, because I have the evidence that they are guilty as charged.
I'll let you know what happens.
But one thing is certain. I shall contact Travelnest as soon as they open this morning and inform them that they need to sort the problem out urgently with Booking.com and advising them that my relationship with them is over - for good!
© The "Namer and Shamer"
Acknowledgements:
Freepik, Hosteltur, iStock, LinkedIn, Travelnest
Tags:
AirBnb, Booking.com, Freepik, guest house owner, Hosteltur, hotelier, iStock, LinkedIn, mafiosi, "Namer and Shamer", Paul Whitelock, private holiday home renter, propietario, Travelnest, VRBO