Why Book Direct With The Owner?
Book Direct with the Owner
In Full Confidence and Avoid Service Fees!
When we started sharing our home with holidaymakers in 2004 we used to advertise in The Sunday Times and would take bookings over the phone. Then the internet exploded and we started to work with websites like Owners Direct and Holiday Rentals who acted as a kind of listing board for holiday home owners wishing to open up their spare weeks to paying guests.
It all worked fantastically well especially for higher end bespoke properties specialising in catering for important family occasions. Quite rightly, the guests wants everything to be just as they’d like and you can only achieve that when dealing with the owners directly. You need to know if the layout of bedrooms can be changed, you’d like the pool heating to be turned on, you need to know the speed of the broadband – it all works much more easily with a open direct line of communication between holidaymaker and owner. Our aim has never been to make profits. Our goal has simply been to cover our annual costs and provide a wonderful holiday home for our guests.
Sadly the industry has now changed. The independent listing sites have been brought up by corporate giants such as Expedia and Trip Advisor who are determined to turn holiday home owners into their inventory, charge service fees and impose huge commissions wherever they can. Most importantly to achieve that, they are intent on breaking that bond of trust between holidaymaker and owner and imposing themselves as a fee-grabbing middleman.
We strongly resist these changes at La Bomba. We believe a good relationship between guest and owner makes organising the detail of their holiday so much easier. We also see no reason why the holidaymaker should have to pay a service fee of 10% to book through these sites. The unavoidable reality is that owners now have no choice – if they are to survive – but sign up to the new terms and conditions.
We like knowing who is staying in our home and we believe the holidaymaker likes to know whose home they are staying in. You’ll still find us on Owners Direct and HomeAway but we’d always encourage you to come book direct with us through our website. No fees, no service charge, no spam emails – just a friendly relationship between guest and owner. Just like it used to be.