French Connections website search options

[Anna]

Re FC new website, I note that one of the options on the search facility is pool exclusive or shared. Our pool is shared and we are correctly shown to be in that category. However, I do not think it is fair of FC to have a number of holiday homes shown in the "exclusive" category which are clearly "shared".

I pointed this out to FC before Christmas and had a reply agreeing that only pools which are for the exclusive use of the guests of the holiday home should be shown in that category and not homes which are shared with more than one home or shared by the owners family. To date FC have not rectified this situation and I think this should be rectified by FC as I think this gives some an unfair advantage.

Personally, I have had no enquiries since being on their new website. My renewal is due and I don't think I will renew it.

[passiflora]

Hi Anna

Yes I am now in the same boat as you with the new FC website as I have two properties on one site and I had originally been told by FC I could only advertise each one as a separate entity and if I wished to advertise the two together I would have to pay for a third page.  So like you my pool is down as shared.  I have now, however, been told on further quizzing that I can have the properties on one page so will probably change my entries accordingly.

I renewed in December having been quite happy with bookings last year but unfortunately nothing since the new website. There is, of course such a huge choice for the consumer.

Carole S (16)

[suein56]

As someone who has just made a rental booking for a property on the FC website I can only speak from a consumer point of view; but I found the site user friendly, informative, quick to load and easy to navigate. I found what I wanted easily. I was impressed.

I looked at two or three other sites but they did not seem as appealing as FC and certainly not as immediately informative. Some had such a 'busy' design I found them exhausting.

Sue

PS I have absolutely no association with FC at all - apart from successfully using them to find somewhere to rent!

[Anna]

Well, good for you, everybody to their own, so to speak.

It just goes to show that everybody is indeed different and you just have to be guided by what you gleen from your own individual experience.

However, I stand by my own experience, as someone who has subscribed to their site for a few years now, this is the poorest response I have ever had re booking enquiries from the FC site.

I am just about fully booked for the coming season but not from any enquiries from FC!

Therefore I shall not be renewing my subscription with FC.

[Anna]

Also, I meant to add that, as my original posting pointed out, I hope your booking, if indeed you wish to book an exclusive use of pool, it does turn out to be just that!

This was my point! i.e. that some of the rental properties advertised as having exclusive use of pool, do not have exclusive use and are actually either shared with other properties and/or shared with the owners!

My posting wasn't about whether the site was user friendly but it's acuracy.

[GRT17]

Sue (aka spg) good to have some positive feedback about using the French Connections website.

Have a good holiday

Gill

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote]Also, I meant to add that, as my original posting pointed out, I hope your booking, if indeed you wish to book an exclusive use of pool, it does turn out to be just that! This was my point! i.e. that ...[/quote]

Anna - I checked our property ads following your post One of them that (as is clearly pointed out in the text) has a shared pool was coming out as having an exclusive one. FC have now corrected this, but didn't offer any explanation as to how something so simple could be messed up.

We've advertised with FC for some years now. The old site was the source of over 50% of our bookings. I think we've had one enquiry from this site since the changes. That might be because (and I can hardly complain) we were well booked before the upgrade, but we are still getting plenty of enquiries from other portals. Personally, I like the new layout (and, from the post above, so do some others), but for whatever reason I don't think that it is cutting the mustard. I shall be interested to see how things develop.

[passiflora]

Hi

The day after my whinge about lack of bookings through FC I got an early season booking through them.  However, have only received two enquiries since the new website but that is probably to do with everyone basically wanting the same weeks in the main summer season and those already been booked.

 

[CatherineS2]

I have had only one enquiry (which did not result in a booking) from FC since the new website, although I have managed to book 15 weeks already via other booking sites, and will not be renewing my subscription when it becomes due this summer.

When I first joined FC a couple of years ago I got loads of bookings through them, but it petered out to a trickle last year. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and renewed on the promise of this new super-duper website they assured me was going to go live "real soon", but it does not seem to be living up to the promise - and you still can't edit your own text and photos like on the other sites! Very poor...

[Mikey]

I'm not impressed either, we've been with them for a few yrs now, last yr we only had 2 bookings through them, the rest were through francedirect.com.

i've not been very impressed with their customer service either, for about 4 weeks whenever i did a search my details came up but the picture was of someone elses property.

out of interest catherines who do you advertise with, i'm seriously concidering not renewing in april.

[Flora]

I agree with Mikey  and the others.

I have been with FC for 4 years and almost all of our bookings have come through them but I really don't think I'll be renewing in April. Since the changes in Dec I have had no bookings through them at all and in fact we have only had 2 enquiries and one of those I couldn't even reply to as the contact e-mail address was wrong.

I've written to FC 3 times...one of our photos was missing, details were incorrect..little things that have eventually been corrected.

 However my main concern is that when their main page opens it looks as if they only really deal with chateaux, manoirs and skiing holidays. There is not a lot there to attract, dare I say it, 'normal' holiday makers who want a fairly standard summer gite. The photo they used to have with pretty blue shutters was much more enticing.

One other thing the position on the details pages does not shuffle at all, meaning that if you are several pages along you stay there, which obviously also diminishes your chance of bookings.

I too was pleased to hear that the site was going to be revamped and improved. What a disappointment!

I am certainly not getting the service I had come to expect, and even worse, that I have already paid for.

[Ron Avery]

I think it would be a mistake to drop FC they are a very well used site, and offer travel concessions to users as well.  The problem with the lack of bookings may be due to the success of the site, there are hundreds of properties to choose from so the holidaymaker has lots of choice.  I also think some of the "reality programmes" have given some people a very inflated idea of what they can charge, there are some very silly prices being asked out there in what is now a very competitive market.

 I have booked many holidays through FC, the booking is easy and many owners now have a link to their own site where more details and pictures of the property can be found, all helping with selecting he right property.

 I support the shared /private pool division, I won't knowingly share a pool with anyone, and some owners disguise the fact the pool is shared by omission, or blatant fraud, I stayed in a cottage in the Lot, that the owner conveniently forgot to mention my cottage adjoined her house and that the private pool was actually in HER garden

[CatherineS2]

In response to your question Mikey, I advertise on www.VisitFrance.co.uk and am very pleased with the flexibility and functionality of the site as well as the response. (And no, I have no connections with them whatsoever, I am just a very satisfied customer).

[Mikey]

Thanks Catherines2, i'll check them out.

Ron i agree withsome of your comments, but from an advertisers point of view they really have gone down hill and become very un-personal annd slow in responding to the advertisers.

has anyone else noticed that once you've paid for the yr they never send a reciept or even a THANKYOU

 

[Ron Avery]

Mikey  You are best placed to know what FC are like as an owner and paying customer.  My experiences as holidaymaker go back a year or so now as we liked the last location we holidayed at so much that we moved there.

If you are dissatisfied with FC and think you are not getting value for money, keep on to them, you cannot change things from the outside so to speak.