Update on phone number information

For some time we have been using a local call rate number of -
0844 310 0077
This number is now published on most of our website listings and adverts and brings benefits of auto messaging specific to office opening times and the ability to forward messages electronically via email to us out-with office hours, picked up via a mobile device.

Our existing number of 01349 877158 will still be available for use (not for accommodation enquiries) but will no longer have an answer phone or fax facility. A new fax number of 0844 272 3006 is now connected which again brings the benefits of converting a fax into an email attachment and sending to us at any time.

It is our intention to offer Auto Attendant options on our 0844 number to allow callers to choose to be put through to our office, for booking or general enquiries, or to be diverted directly to Gillian Cooper’s mobile number if they are a guest staying in one of the Gael managed holiday homes and they have a housekeeping issue or enquiry. Call costs will be no more than the local rate of up to 5p minute regardless of where the caller is diverted to.

HolidayLettings.co.uk trial

We have reached an agreement with HolidayLettings.co.uk to trial 25 of the Gael listed properties on their website for a 3 month period.

As part of TripAdvisor (an Expedia owned company), with 27 Million on the website per month we hope that this investment will convert into more bookings.

Each listing includes full property details, pictures and auto updated information for availability calendars and tariff tables (posted in from our Supercontrol booking system).

The present cost of advertising on the Holiday Lettings website is £219 per year per property. We hope that the trial will be successful and if it is our intention would be to list all properties on the Gael website on the Holiday Lettings website also. We will offer this free of charge* (terms may apply).

We will let you know how effective this trial is in generating qualified enquiries and bookings.

View examples of our HolidayLettings listings

• Apartment 208 By the Bridge
• Balinoe
• Dun Brae Cottage

Proposed changes to cancellation policy for guest’s T&C’s

The current terms and conditions of rental are deposits and final balance payments are non-refundable in the event of a cancellation. If a booking is cancelled prior to the final balance payment, due 6 weeks before arrival, then this payment is still due to be paid.

As we are going through difficult economic times we feel this clause may be deterring potential guests from booking. We have noticed a shift in booking pattern from booking up to 6 months in advance of arrival to a significant proportion of bookings with arrival dates within the next 2 months.

To offer more piece of mind to potential guests and encourage early booking we are proposing to change the T&C’s so that the final balance payment will not need to be paid if the booking is cancelled before the payment due date, 6 weeks prior to arrival. This would still allow time to secure another booking.

Deposit payments of 25% to confirm a booking will remain the same and will not be refundable. If the booking is cancelled within 6 weeks of arrival, after the final balance is paid, then this will also be non-refundable.

We will of course continue to offer all guests the opportunity to consider holiday cancellation insurance at several points in our communications with them. This can be through our recommended agent or through an agent of their own choice.

We would aim to make these changes for bookings made from 1^st April onwards, however we would invite your thoughts on this before any changes are made. If you wish to comment please post a reply.

Note – this does not affect apartment rental bookings with payments due 10 days prior to arrival.

Changes to our financial reporting

For Owners on Full Management package

We have been having a challenge with how the booking system statement reports property management costs and how it delivers income, expense and balance information in a straight forward manner. We have been discussing this with the booking system software developers as we are not entirely happy with the current format and would hope to see an improvement in the format toward the end of the year.

In the meantime, from the beginning of April, we are changing the report so it will only show rental income, detailed booking by booking, with the corresponding commission amounts. Any additional property management or other costs will not be shown on this statement. We will issue up to 3 documents on our usual payment run dates. These will be two invoices, one for the commission and the other for the additional expense costs (only if there are any) and a financial statement showing all invoices and payments made against these.

We will no longer be sending the booking system commission report by email as this can be accessed at anytime by logging in to the booking system. The report can be found in ‘statement of accounts’, filtered to show a date specific range and can be either printed or exported in an excel format.

The payment flow remains unchanged.

For Owners on the Agency agreement

From the beginning of April we will issue up to 2 documents on our usual payment run dates, one invoice for the commission on bookings and a financial statement showing all invoices and payments made against these.

We will no longer be sending the booking system commission report by email as this can be accessed at anytime by logging in to the booking system. The report can be found in ‘statement of accounts’ and can be either printed or exported in an excel format.

Let us know if you would like your log in details for the Owners side of booking system to be resent to you.

The payment flow remains unchanged.

We hope you will find these changes beneficial and will post any updates on how the software guys are getting on with changes to the reporting system.

Thanks

Website technical update

We are aware of a technical issue with the slideshow on property pages timing out on occasion and clashing with restrictions set on some website visitors web browsers. If you have experienced this issue then you will probably find that if you hit the F5 button to refresh your browser  the page will load the slideshow.

We are discussing a resolution to this and also improvements to stop inconsistent page load times on property specific pages with the web developers at present and will have a fix for this within the next few days.

The intention is to pull forward a change to the main slideshow page on a property listing and change the slideshow for a static main picture with options to view a thumbnail gallery, with images that can be enlarged through the Fancybox pop up, and a tab to allow visitors to view a virtual tour of the property. The VT button will be greyed out until there is a virtual tour available to show for the property. As previously posted on our blog we will be working on virtual tours for most Gael properties soon. These will be free of charge for inclusion on the Gael website.

To respond to guest comments and demand there will also be the addition of a button to ‘Email this page to a  friend’ on every property page. This is something that will help to close down enquiries more quickly, converting them into bookings.

We will update the blog as the changes are made on the websites.