We moved from Airbnb to Cottages.com. We may be coming back.......

[Mike-And-Jane0]

Oh dear what a mess. We liked the look of Cottages.com (UK big provider of holiday cottages) and, when our Airbnb bookings dropped off the cliff thought we would give them a go. We thought we could run on Airbnb as well but it then turned out that Cottages.com put their properties on Airbnb and Booking.com so this would have been too confusing for potential guests. We have an 18 month contract but there is a get out clause that they have confirmed we can use if we want to leave immediately.

Things we liked about Cottages.com

1) Their bookings seem to come in earlier than those from Airbnb

2) They have a sophisticated pricing system that understands high seasons such as school holidays etc.

3) We thought their commission was only 3% more than Airbnb so worth it for the above

Things we can't make our mind up on

1) They display properties in price order which might encourage a drive to the bottom approach

Things we didn't like

1) When searching for properties you cannot view them on a map

2) To alter the pricing you need to ring up and it then gets updated a few days later. We did this twice and it was updated incorrectly each time

3) The biggie - Their commission is nearer 40% (YES 40%). I am annoyed I missed this but they charge the guest a £45 booking fee on top of the commission they charge us. For a short term booking of say 3 days on a price of £200 this adds 22.5% to the commission giving a total of over 40%.

4) It is very impersonal - Guests used to Airbnb will get no personalised messaging from the host as it is all done by Cottages.com.

5) Two of our apartments have had no bookings from them.

[Tammy45]

It does look like a nice website as a shopper. I liked what I saw as I’m going to London for Christmas. 

sometimes in marketing, it’s OK to raise your price for a more sophisticated webpage where the guests have deeper pockets. 

for example I charge higher rents on VRBO (who also adds my listing to Expedia)and  because guests  pay more it offsets the 15% fee that I pay. 
I don’t know if I’d like a contract however. 
Guests expect lower rates and quality on Airbnb and Hosts can expect less desirable guests in return. I’m addition the Airbnb guests know how to con support to get a refund. 
Booking.Com never refunds my rents, they (located in The Nederlands) leave that decision to the owner as it should be. 
I respect working with a partner like that. Who keeps their hands off my rent money and doesn’t take it away due to the new string of cons renting on Airbnb. 

[Kelly149]

@Mike-And-Jane0 can you set that listing to just take longer stays where that initial fee would be more tolerable. And I think you can re-write your listing titles to reflect the differences. Maybe change the order of photos? Using 2 platforms isn’t that unusual 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kelly149 I guess we could go for longer bookings but surely that would just restrict our bookings further. The issue is not using two platforms but rather that Cottages.com also list the property on Airbnb.As such we would have our 3 listings and their 3 listings all showing on Airbnb at the same place on the map.

[Denice0]

My experience with Airbnb is that often only 1 of my 3 listings will appear on the map when they are all 3 available.  They are all in the same location.  I don't think I would worry about Airbnb duplicating the Cottages.com listings and too much exposure.  If they all appear the guest will probably choose the best priced. 

[Kelly149]

@Mike-And-Jane0 but they’ll only all show if the parameters all match. And if there is duplication guests will likely choose whatever is best for them. But it is odd for a “platform” to list on another platform. You pay service fees twice?? And if the cottages listings books on abb who’s the host, you or them??

[Gillian166]

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@Kelly149 wrote:

And if the cottages listings books on abb who’s the host, you or them??

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excellent observation.  what a messy situation that might be if the guest calls ABB for a refund, and then ABB contacts Cottages.com to respond. yikes. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Gillian166 Indeed - If there are any issues the host is one step removed from the guest and reliant on two sets of customer service people to do the right thing!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Kelly149 the availability parameters will be identical across the two sites. I fully agree it is odd that Cottages.com list on Airbnb. It is also ridiculous that Airbnb allow a competitor to list on their site but I think this just demonstrates how Airbnb will chase every $ (£ in this case).

We don't pay two service fees. If they haven't done a deal with Airbnb for a lower commission Cottages.com will make about 3% plus £45 for each booking taken.

[Angela907]

I was originally with cottages.com, as I began holiday let's long before the invention of airbnb.

You can ask them to NOT list your property on airbnb.

I have always found this disingenuous anyway, we pay thier extortionate fees for them to advertise to guests we can not get ourselves.

Plus we the owner only pays 3% ish on airbnb whereas we pay 21% via cottages.com. Why pay them more to do a job we can do ourselves for 3%.

It is THIER job to advertised to thier large alledeged unique database!

The reality is Cottages.com is a stack them high and price them low business model. We the hosts are only important to them on sign up. Cottages.com and the like want to be able to tell the public and thier stock holders that they have a huge amount of listing on thier books.

They only make thier money from the commission therefore with more listings they can afford to reduce the holiday prices due to economies of scale.

What you will find is the price to the host will be driven down. The "dynamic" pricing scheme is a con. In 12 years it only ever reduced my price.

They also did not upgrade my photos or listing description more than once in 12 years.

I have watched my income from them slide from obviously nearly 100% of my income 12 years ago to about £500 a year!

Needless to say I have finally left Cottages.com.

OH AND DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE RESTRICTIONS FOR MY OWN BOOKINGS AND THE PENALTIES FOR BOOKING MORE THAN ONE WEEK IN JULY AND AUGUST OUTSIDE OF THEM!

My advice? Get out, get out, get out! 

All that said, views and bookings from airbnb have also declined dramatically at the moment, the sad fact is we are in a cost of living crisis globally. People may holiday once if at all. Price cutting won't even help much unfortunately (I have tried and tested that), you can't convert zero views by changing the price.

The reality is you are better being in charge of your own destiny. Airbnb at least allows you to set your own peak times, your own rates, your additional costs and to choose when you will and won't take bookings.

My suggestion save your 21% commission and invest in a WIX or equivalent self built website with payment platform via Stripe alongside airbnb, register with VRBO so you get pm Expedia too.

And then social media promote everything good about you!

Good luck!

🙂