Why book with the owner direct?

So why should you book with an owner direct.  Well many people don’t realise that they are paying a weighty premium when booking through one the larger online booking sites such as AirB&B, Tripadvisor Holiday Lettings, Booking.com and HomeAway.

These sites are charging guests anything from 6% to 20% surcharge on the rental price which can be up to a few hundred pounds for a week during peak season.

In addition to this the big sites also charge the holiday home owner a fee which is sometimes passed onto the rental price by the owner.

The result means not only is the customer out of pocket but so is the home owner too.  The only ones benefiting from process is the big sites.

There’s no wonder a book direct movement is gathering pace.

Despite the big sites making it difficult for the potential guests to communicate with owners, there are still ways around this and here are some of the things you can do to find the holiday home owner and book directly with them to avoid the pricey surcharges:

Finding holiday properties that take direct bookings:

1. When googling, ignore the first page of results and any paid ads. These will be full of the Online Travel Agencies (OTA’s) who use your money to boost their visibility
2. Try Facebook, most owners have a Facebook page for their property and many of these will have reviews for reassurance. Here is ours
3. Play detective. Look for the name of a property that takes your fancy on one of the OTA sites. Many owners will have dropped hints in their listings about their own websites. Then google the property name of find the owners website
4. Tripadvisor also have some ‘direct booking only’ listings but they are usually at the bottom of a search list. Also look for ones that do not say ‘payment protection as these owners pay a subscription to list their property instead of an agent taking commission per booking from their guests.
5. On some of the OTA sites you can still communicate in advance of booking so rather than going straight to ‘book now’ ask the owners if they are willing to book with you privately
6. Check google maps, this will come up with a number of properties in any given area where you will find the details of places you can book direct
7. Try using the hashtag #bookdirect on your favourite social media sites

Conclusion

As well as saving money, when you book direct with the holiday home owner you will always get a much better more personalised experience, as they will be on-hand at all times to help you with any local knowledge or question you may have.

To book with us direct you can call us on  01392 984231 or use our booking form