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French Connections Again!


CatherineS2
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I am very disappointed with French Connections - I have only had 2 enquiries via their website this year (compared to 24 from VisitFrance) and I have just contacted them to ask when we will be able to make our own changes to the text of our adverts rather than having to pay them £20 every time we wish to amend some text or a photo.  (I thought I would try to make some changes to my ad to see if it makes any difference before I make the final decision as to whether to renew my subscription in June).

Anyway, it seems that they are "unable to give you a precise time table, as this is still a project under construction."

They then suggested that I am "able to make changes free of charge at renewal.  In the light of this, you may wish to take advantage of this and pay the renewal invoice ahead of time, in order to take full advantages of the free text changes" !!!!

I find this suggestion both insulting and ludicrous!

I wondered how other people are getting on now with French Connections as the new website has had 3 months to settle in?

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Well, I am not 100% convinced their new format works better for us.  It is difficult to wholeheartedly say as we are now full for the summer, hence the availability calendar shows we are full and this saves the customer wasted emails. 

FC have added a map to their Home Page showing the layout and Geography of France, but I still believe they have lost some of the advantages of their old format.  I believe that customers tend to book in places they know of  and only start to expand to new areas when areas are booked out.  They have lost some of the random element which was successful in their previous site.  My opionion is bookings will pick up later on in the season.  However whether FC members will be happy with this I believe not and seek to move their business elsewhere.  FC are probably relying on historical goodwill which will soon expire.  As for charging for simple text changes, this is ludicrous and they need to address this if they wish to keep their customer base. Karen Vinney are you listening?

One other significant point to realise, when you type in Gites in France in Google, where does the FC site appear - sometimes not even on the first page, Visit France appears before them and a few others too.  FC should be on the first page and in the top 5! 

Food for thought!

Deby

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Tend to agree that something has reduced the market effectiveness of their site. Although it looks more polished, it is clearly not having the impact we are used to.

I also really hate the availability calendar - it takes me ages to work out what the hell I am doing, and I have to keep trialing it to make sure I have done what I think I have done.

I did complain about this, and got a very short and slightly rude reply. Other sites tend to use tick boxes and although they are a pain to click, at least you can see what you have done.

My renewal is due shortly - I am in two minds. 

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It looks as if French Connections will once again prove to be the best publicity for our gites, in terms of value-for-money, at any rate.

I agree it's annoying to have to pay for changes, and I have not yet replaced one photo of one of our cottages with a newer better one, for that very reason.

I notice that Karen Viney has responded to comments here before, which I think shows a commendable interest in, and awareness of, what her customers are thinking and saying. (Even if she doesn't necessarily take up any of our suggestions). So if she is there and reading this I hope she'll take heart from the fact she has at least one client still ready to speak reasonably well of French Connections.

Patrick (just a client of FC - no other connection)
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I did a search on Google yesterday to see which B&B/Gite sites came up first.  I came across Vacation France which is in fact, the old FC site.  Have they sold it on to someone else, or is Vacation France part of French Connections.  I no longer advertise with FC because although I found them excellent for my gite bookings, when I changed to B&B I got one one night booking for a whole year's subscription.  I don't blame them for that, it obviously wasn't the right site for me, but having looked at it recently I think the old format was much better.

Incidentally, paying for changes is relatively new.  When we were advertising with them two years ago you could make several small changes a year FOC - £20 seems a lot to me.  Some sites only charge that for a year's subscription.

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I totally agree with you Catherine about French connections. Only yesterday I sent them an e-mail complaining about the lack of enquiries this year compared to the previous 4 years I have advertised with them, where I was virtually fully booked all summer every year. This year I have had three enquiries and 1 booking.

They said that it had nothing to do with the new layout and that 'bookings will probably pick up soon' !!!

I have had lots more enquiries from Visit France who are also a lot cheaper so I am seriously thinking of ditching French Connections. A lot of people have also complained but they don't seem too bothered.
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My God!!!  HOw much are French Connections now then?  I last used them in 2003 and paid £100 plus VAT.  My renewal for Visit France is £125 plus VAT which I think is steep enough, surely that isn't cheap compared to FC or have they really whacked up their prices?
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Our enquiry and booking rate have dropped significantly too. Last year we were fully booked using only FC as an advertising resource. This year we advertise on two other paid sites as well, and about 7 of our booked weeks have come from FC. Without those other two sites, we'd be looking at a pretty bad year.

Earlier in the season Karen Viney and other FCers were giving us the "bookings will pick up; it's just a fluke" line. I didn't believe it then and I certainly don't believe it now that bookings from FC have not, in fact, picked up. 7 weeks booked is certainly worth a renewal for this year, but it's disappointing compared to the results from the old site design.

I wonder if there is some denial going on at FC corporate -- loving the new site so much that they're fooling themselves as to its effectiveness compared to the old site. I like the aesthetics and features of the new design too, but there is no doubt in my mind that the old one was better at bringing in the bookings.
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I was starting to wonder if perhaps my bookings, which appear to be coming from my own website were in fact from eithe VF or FC. Well if you use a good hosting service you can go in to the control panel and look to see were your visitors come from. We last month I had something like 6 bookings from 151 referals to my site out of 1933 visits in total (I can brag and tell you I had 40679 hits but then hits are not true visits). Out of these one was from FC which is actually one for than from VF.

The conclusion? Well I'm not getting the visits and I am not getting the bookings from either of these two. Fortunatly, and I don't know why, people like my website and are at least finding it and I am getting bookings from it which without it I would be stuffed. So there is a problem with these sites.

Does anyone get a message about certificates when they enter the VF site because if they do then so do punters and that would put them off.

My stats at the begining are from my host but even then if you look at my site the stats there generated by MS Frontpage are different which makes me somewhat sceptical of these companies who say "well yes but we get xxxxx hits per hour (I get 562 now work that out)", it's a load of old twaddle, not only are they kidding the advertiser but themselfs as well.

And to those budding website people who brows the forum who say computers don't lie then all I can say is I have a bloody good website for hits then.

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I have spoken to Chris about this before.

Sites like FC are useless on the whole for B&B. Nearly all those that visit FC are looking for gites and, possible every now and then, someone will also need to spend a night somewehre before or after a gite holiday.

To try and get the most from your place, you simply have to advertise your B&B on specialised B&B sites, just as you have to advertise a car on a car site or a gite on a gite site etc etc.

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[quote]I was starting to wonder if perhaps my bookings, which appear to be coming from my own website were in fact from eithe VF or FC. Well if you use a good hosting service you can go in to the control pan...[/quote]

"Does anyone get a message about certificates when they enter the VF site because if they do then so do punters and that would put them off."

 

 

Yes, I get that too.

 

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I would be interested if anyone has paid via their (UK) credit card to see what happens if the complain to the credit card company. Unfortunatly I sent a card as that is one option I would look at.

My main points are this, the security warning and lack of website access i.e. it does not come up in searchs, well not in my area till about page 15.

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This is the response from VF, which fixes the problem.

"Several weeks ago we moved the update area to this address:

http://www.fastupdate.co.uk/upd/

The old address will automatically 'refresh' to the new one. We have
removed the secure certificate, so you will receive a browser alert
when visiting the old version.

The VisitFrance.co.uk website is at an 'http' address, so no security
certificate is required, and the public visiting it do not receive a
browser security alert.

You may be receiving this message every time you login because you have
bookmarked the old address. If so, the bookmark needs updating."

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  • 3 weeks later...
Hi all

just to add to the debate. I work as an Internet designer and my advice to anyone is never to pay for any updates. Websites that are database driven are easy to update and there is absolutely no reason (other than to make more money) why a company should not provide a facility for you to update the text on your own webpage/website.

I would never dream of charging anyone for updates to a site. Also dont let website designers use 'you cannot make updates to your site as it may mess up my design' as a reason for not allowing you to update your own website. Its a load of rubbish !

It is easy to produce a basic website that can be updated simply by the owner. Take a look at http://www.bretagne-gites.co.uk. This website is fully updatable by its owner and is simply a case of filling in a form on the screen. There is no way the owner can mess up the design or stop the website working.

Robert
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Those of us that take advantage of free and cheap directory sites, know that most of them work by making it easy for you to update your own info.  I see no reason why FC can't do this, but suspect that it's because they want to control more closely what is put on their site. 

I have left them for this year because last year I had very few inquiries throught hem and even fewer bookings, for B&B, I think they probably still work for Gites.  Also I felt that at the end of the day they were far too expensive for a B&B directory listing, they are after all just another directory.  I was quoted in excess of £135 last year nearly 200 euros, I can get 5 or more french, english and US directory listings for that money.  I also left because I didn't get a very professional response to inquiries I made.  They certainly come up lately on the some of the search engines for B&B, have they got their act together a bit more.

Hits are no gauge as to the amount or sort of traffic you are getting through a site.  My stats show an excellent visit and page turn rate; but on closer inspection as to the source of the hits, most are commercial sources trying to sell yes - advertising mainly, a lot come through from identified local interest (competitors although I don't like the term).  I inherently distrust visitor counters. 

Buns

 

 

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We are still very dissatisfied with the response from FC but like Deby have to wait until next year to see if it's the availability which is stopping the enquiries as we are pretty much full for the summer. It's interesting to see that some people are not getting a response even with vacancies. Again, I agree with Deby on the search facility which I think is rubbish. It was a lot easier for someone to find a suitable property and then check out the area before than it is now.

A final gripe - they can't cater for activities and facilities which aren't on their standard list and they seem unable (more likely unwilling) to update this.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'd always been a firm fan of FC, but my enquiries are way down since they revamped their site.  I enquired about why I had so few enquiries via FC (thank goodness I have lots of repeat bookings!) and asking their advice, and their suggestion was not to update the availability pages, as people would enquire, and I could persuade them to take a different week!

 

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I am surprised that they told you to do this.  This is practically admitting their new format is not as successful as the old one then.  This calendar was supposedly to benefit everyone?!?

We chose not to renew as we switched our availability calendar off (Jan and March) and still only received 2 enquiries which were for the main weeks.  

FC had been very good until the new site launch, then practically nothing, so there is no point throwing good money at their new system which does not now work for us. Might for some, but not for us.

They are also running a promotion at the moment, so things could well be looking bleak for them, but who really knows?

Deby (17 Charente Maritime)

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I've just received a call from FC, from a young man called Brad (I think) who was in a very busy office with lots of background noise.  He had it in his records that we used to use FC and wanted to know if we would consider coming back to them.  I explained that as a gite owner I had found their site very useful but that as a B&B owner I hadn't had a single booking from them and had not therefore renewed my ad.  He asked if I would reconsider and I said no.

Interesting on two counts, i) they must be getting worried if they're phoning clients who haven't advertised with them for over 2 years and ii) it is clearly a whole different set-up now and perhaps that's where the problem lies.  When I first signed up with them I used to deal with a lady called Gwen I think.  She lived somewhere in the SW of France and I got the impression it was more or less a one-woman (maybe two or three) band.  My emails were always answered immediately, or she would phone me.  My reference number was somewhere in the 400's, now there are 1000's and 1000's of properties.  I think she must have sold out to some big company who have employees, rather than an owner/manager and that is possibly where the trouble lies, when you all complain of slow responses, couldn't care less attitudes, charging the earth for tiny changes etc - not at all the FC that I remember using.  And as for the new site, I agree, it's nothing like as good and clear as the old one.  Progress heh?

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...
Arnold,

You shouldn't confuse B&B advertsing with gite advertising.

What works for one, sometimes is dead in the water with the other. We have friends who are still doing very well with their Ads in CN. I have only ever known one or two to do well with their Ad in CN if it is purely for B&B.

CN really does needs to have the best possible photo you can muster, for many a pool makes their advert work, for others price, others area etc etc, many things can make up the whole. The size of the Ad in relation to properties to let, price etc all need to attract the potential guest in to choosing your place. With so many now in the brochure, one needs to have luck in positioning and something "je ne sais quoi" to catch the eye.

The brochure will be around for many years yet, take a look in the Sundays to see just how many brochures you can still order by phone (or online) to see just how popular they remain.

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Oh I know Miki, but we advertise both the B&B and the gite in CN.

CN does obviously work for a lot of people. The problem is that to find out whether or not you are one of them costs you £500 vs perhaps £150 max on a website.

I do worry though about the trend towards internet-only advertising as it's sure to be cutting out quite a sizeable proportion of the population.

 

Arnold

 

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