Ok, today my contribution goes in favour of owners more than of guests... or probably not. Anyway, I need to tell a story.
And a ridiculous one.

I work with several agencies. All of them serious, no doubt. Probably some of them are too serious.

I got this request from an agency working on a commission basis, which means that for any reservation that I get through their portal they receive a 10% commission.

No problems with that, it is a great service.

I am not a proper touristic business though, and of course my only way to have a secure server for credit card payments is to use paypal services, which are free for the person who pays and totally secure because I never get to see any credit card numbers. And I like it exactly for that reason! I don't want to handle anybody's credit card number because I cannot afford a secure server or a POS system.

I normally accept bank transfers, but if somebody asks for a credit card payment to avoid the transfer fees I am happy to pay a little percentage to have it done.

This lady wanted to book. I confirmed the reservation through the agency system, so they had all the transaction.

The lady says she has problems to pay via bank transfer because she works all day and she would need to get a permission, etc.

I write to the agency and ask for the email address of this lady, which I am not normally allowed to see. It's a mediated contact and purged email exchange...

I explain the situation and they say that for privacy reasons they are not allowed to give me the email.

Ok, perfect... I must trust the people who are going to live in my house for a week, but I am not allowed to see their email address.
Fine. It is obviously an excuse, because they want to avoid that owners and guests have private agreements.

But I had already confirmed the booking through them, and you cannot cancel it, unless you relocate the guest into another structure, so they don't loose anything anyway.

However, I say, fine, so if the lady is willing to give me her address, is that alright?

The poor girl at the customare care is forced to say yes, otherwise the privacy thing has no basis.

I say, ok, let's see if it works (I was SURE they would erase it from the message I would receive). And in fact, there comes the message with no address, but clearly a message which did originally contain one.

Two minutes later I receive a message by the "lady in charge" who writes that that is not their policy, that if I keep on using paypal instead of POS via their secure server they will interrupt our cooperation.

I reply that it is fine for me: if that is their policy, I have no problems. I will never again accept a reservation through them if the possible guests are not willing to pay via International Bank Transfer.

And that means loosing for both of us, but I can easily occupy the weeks that I rent out through them in a different way.

What I find absurd is:

1) I can simply ask my clients for their email addresses as soon as I meet them and never again go through the agency in the future.

2)I have been working for a hotel which worked with them and they used to send nude cc numbers via email... isnt' that worse than sending to an owner who has already confirmed a booking through them an email address?!

They say that now they have a secure server and that cc numbers don't fly here and there... I checked it with a friend of mine who has a hotel and they'd better check their secure server! If the number is encripted once it is sent by the client, it is quickly transformed in a clear number when it arrives by email to the owner or a hotel!!!

Well.. I would just like to say, that whatever structure you find in a portal, if you have this kind of problems (because in the end it turns out to be a problem for everybody), just try and see if you can contact the structure directly.

I think this often saves time and energy...

Sorry for the long message but I am so upset...

Hi Gloria,

I'd think that someone would try to work with you to save a customer.

Can't the client use PayPal?

Could you accept a check, written in dollars, and absorb the check cashing fee?

So frustrating Gloria. Sounds like people who don't know how to run a business!

M

Hi ira and Marian!

No, client booking through them cannot use paypal, because in order to send them an invoice or in order for them to send me a money request there must be an email exchange. And they don-t allow that.

I could yes, I don-t exactly know how much is the cashing fee. The problem is that I use paypal to accept reservation deposits. I should ask my guests to send a check by mail and I am always worried that it might go lost that way.
Maybe with a secure mail server.

I imagine they don-t allow email exchanges in order to avoid loosing clients that way, but, come on, after I have already confirmed through them they should trust us a bit more...

It is also frustrating because you cannot even exchange telephone numbers with the client, so if he has any questions about how to reach us and so on, he has no means to do that. The same for us. Should we have any sort of unforeseen problem we have no way to contact our guests...

It's pretty silly.

I am searching now for vacation rentals in England. What I do is find listings on portals or agency pages, then google the town and house name to see if they have their own page. Yes, this bypasses the agency - and we all know I do like to support agencies - but I am not on this search. I figure the agency and the owner have to work things out.

I am now accepting payments for our classifieds through PayPal and having problems with some Italian customers. They say they cannot use PayPal with their credit card or they do not understand the instructions, then they want to do a wire transfer, but then they find out it costs too much for a small amount to be transfered ($50). They can't send me a check - it will cost me too much in fees to process a check in Euro. So I have told some of them to guess at the amount in Euro and mail me cash!! One person sent me a moneygram!

I have heard that PayPal is going to set up an International version - maybe many people will start using that.

Payments for rentals in Italy are frequently problematic - wire transfers (which we Americans are not used to) or paying in cash the minute you arrive. If they all used PayPal, it would be easy for us!!

Pauline,
I just wired money to Sicily and Belgium for our deposits. My bank charged me $35 for each transfer. Then the owners received 10-20 Euro less than I sent. So by the end, it cost me $340 to send 190 Euro.That's the first & last time I wire money.

Hi!

Yes, Pauline, the problem with paypal for Italians is that we cannot withdraw money from Italian Bank Accounts. So you are only left with the option of paying by credit card. I imagine taht if you don't understand English that's a problem.

Bank Transfers are a problem for everybody instead. First of all some people don't want to or cannot go to the bank to pay the deposit.
Second there are quite significant fees for everybody.

Cashing checks is always a problem because it takes a long time.
The other possibility is cashier's checks. But you have to mail them, so you have to go to the bank or the post office or both anyway.
So, in the end you can just send a postal money order.


If you have a small business, it is really hard to find a way of transferring money. I cannot afford having a Visa merchant account.

This is why I found Paypal an incredibly great thing! Ok, I pay a commission for every transaction (4.5%), but the guests pay nothing and they can pay by credit card.

I feel that when you are offering a service, and you ask a certain amount of money for that service you should actually grant certain things.
And since I think that my guests pay the right amount of money for the service I offer with my house, I am more than happy to provide my guests with the means to pay me without any further expenses.

I agree with you Pauline, agencies are to support and they often offer a great service. But honestly sometimes they are convinced that without them you would be lost, and that is often not true. In my case it is not true. Of course I am more than happy to give a percentage of my rent to an agency to have a week occupied. But they should find a way to meet the needs of smaller owners, or we end up having big businesses with all the advantages and smaller ones suffocated by all these problems...

In the end they get money just to show my house in their portal, so they should be more understanding with people who have been honest with them all the time.

I have NEVER asked for a client's email address before confirming a reservation through them. This way I loose reservations through them and create problems to my guests.

I am really sorry about all this hassle, really...