Website Calenders

[Quillan]

I don't know about anyone else but I am starting to get a bit fed up with them. I have spent nearly all of yesterday setting calanders up for 2009 on about 8 sites we advertise on.

Most of the advertising websites have calenders these days and to increase your exposure you are obliged to keep the calender up to date which quite frankly I am finding a bore and quite time consuming. I did find a company which provides software that gives a single point of entry which then, once you have set it up, updates all the websites in one go. Unfortunately all the websites we use are not included (its designed for the US market) and even if they were you now have to type in a 'one time' code to enter them.

Whilst being able to check availability online with the advertiser is a nice thing for prospective guests it seems that to a degree, in my book, a restrictive practice because if you don't use their calender your advert goes down to the bottom of the list. Do these websites seriously think we put all our eggs in one basket, can they guarantee to get reservations for all your rooms all of the time, of course not.

Apart from being fed up with them I think perhaps its about time that these companies that 'force' you in to using their calenders started thinking about those that advertise with them after all its us that are paying their wages.

The only solution I can come up with is that the advertising companies get together and give us a calender to install on our own website which they in turn can 'point to' on their website so guests can check availability.

Any thoughts anyone?

Rant over.

[Cerise]

Often I think they are bluffing.  I've stopped filling in calendars as it is too time consuming, but on checking out websites still seem to remain near the top even though I don't do the updating.  It is also (outside July and August' quite rare that we are full.  May only have one room left or a couple of rooms for one or two days, but B & B is not like gites with tidy Saturday to Saturday bookings.  Most of the calendars make no allowance for that.  Even when I've marked calendars as 'full' I still find people from that particular website contact me 'just in case you have a space' so pretty much feel it is waste of time.  There are so many websites out there all desperate for our advertising so don't feel they can dictate too much.

[cassis]

Waste of time for B&B. 

If you're a gite owner, with several gites, you've also got more chance of persuading someone to book another, available, gite by not having a calendar which shows their first choice is already booked.

It makes more work, constantly telling people you're full on the date they want, but we often persuade people to take alternative dates.

[Owens88]

I sympathise.

 

I only have one gite and keeping that up to date across many sites is a headache. There is one site that penalises me for not accepting instant bookings, but then If I take a verbal booking I give some grace to get the money then update the websites within a couple of syas (internet depending) .

 

A 'one source fits all' routine for europe would indeed be good.

 

Incidentally I never have any intent to decieve (or manipulate) and most enquiries from these sites are enquiring of many owners. As a booker myself I do resent the ones that need you to ring to enquire (often hotels).

 

John

 

[Callie]

From the enquiries we get, it's quite clear that most people don't even bother to look at the calendar ! !

[osie]

Hi

I on the other hand have just started to use these advertising web sites.  The reason is that I think as much publicity exposure as possible is necessary. 

I have set several up lately and it is a nightmare trying to find which button to press and following their manual and wording.  Never the less, I do think it is a necessary task.

My idea is to advertise 1 room available for booking and in the unlikely event when this is not available, to ring round to a few other hotels in the area.

The local calendar is a good idea... maybe write the code and market it.  I would hold the data on a central server via web which can be accessed by the various websites and data added by the various guest houses.

osie