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Lee

What is the best booking websites? ie. Booking.com, airbnb, etc...


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pibomarco 5 years ago

BDC
AirBnB
Expedia
Your own website

There are hundreds available channels, but I only receive bookings from those above.

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fluff 5 years ago

BDC

Expedia

Own website

Local agents

Agoda

My list. except for BDC, has changed radically over the last year or so with Agoda dropping like a stone down the list and our own website and Expedia climbing significantly.

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

For me: 1) BDC and Airbnb. Same performance, the difference is that BDC 7% higher in income.
2) walk in clients due to location
3) FB or return clients

Fluff, is Agoda good only for Asian clients?

No one mentioned VRBO, TripAdvisor and Facebook. Facebook has book now button. TripAdvisor brings clients only if you give super low price. Even Airbnb is not that bad compare to TripAdvisor.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

I think that Agoda is part of the BDC. So if you are listed on BDC you should be listed on Agoda too.

Never heard of VRBO. Is it ok?
Facebook, Tripadvisor I do use, but I really don't know what is the performance. Usually those potential guests go to my website and we take it from there.

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fluff 5 years ago

We used to get all sorts through Agoda but we are Asia based of course. I've discussed the drop in performance from them with my account manager but we can't see the reason for the lack of performance.

Not that I mind though, their commission is higher and Expedia are now providing more than A and E put together on the previous year.

I have a total mistrust of TA and refuse to use them.

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fluff 5 years ago

BDC and Agoda are owned by the same parent company. I have received Agoda bookings taken from the BDC site before but not vice versa.

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Nikolas Archanco 5 years ago

VRBO, just booked once and bad experience, they are focused on the USA I think

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Lee 5 years ago

Nikolas... lol

Read the question again I think better ;-)

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Pibomarco is based in Europe, where people trust websites. Fluff is based in Asia, where Facebook is the most popular and website is secondary, if not say to none.

So, how do leads work? For Pibomarco FB is either attachment to website or leads to website. And for fluff (and me, since it's the same location - Asia) - FB normally leads to call telephone numbers.

Did anyone try branding?

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Nikolas Archanco 5 years ago

I would like to work with Homeaway since they're appartments are very high prices, but no one is using it here.. (it is part of VRBO)

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Nikolas Archanco 5 years ago

I consider three factors here, general performance, Price per night, safety:

Best performance Bdc by far followed by Airbnb;

Price per night Agoda and homeaway/VRBO

Safety Airbnb by far, is the only one where you have the power to reject a booking, but more important, you can add some requirements and users have to fill a lot of information

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fluff 5 years ago

Fellow BDC members,

Does anyone have high-up contact number for someone at AGODA that I can make a serious complaint to and get proper answers from a genuine Agoda employee who can make things happen. Local office just fobs me off with bovine brown-smelly-stuff.

(Now you're curious!

OK then, Agoda have recently started putting unsanctioned discounts on our listing (yes, final price), obviously this makes the other OTAs search-bots twitch and spit their dummies out.

As a temporary fix we have closed all rooms to Agoda indefinitely [don't get much from them anyway]. Therefore, they can only sell from affiliates and BDC where their discounting cannot happen.)

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fluff 5 years ago

@ Katerinka12

Facebook gives us messenger contact with customers for direct bookings. never had phone calls involved via this route.

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pibomarco 5 years ago

Wanted to list VRBO, noticed it is very similar structure to AirBnB and they don't have API - two way connection via channel manager, only calendar sync which is not acceptable for me.

With AirBnB it is a good advantage if you have a "super host" status. With instant book ON and with no rejecting.

Katerinka what exactly do you mean by branding?

Wimdu is also selling as an affiliate. Because I see that my property is listed there via Expedia.

fluff I wouldn't know, the data is same as on BDC for our property on Agoda.

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Katerinka12 5 years ago

Branding means promoting your name in any way you can:
Embroidery on towels, door signs, stickers on shower gels and anywhere you can, pens, notes...embroidery on bed scarves and pillows...basically anything that could trap on pictures.
And of course, logo on your site and Booking, where the brand could mean the click on your website that would result in direct booking