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This is feedback left on trust pilot but is removed for not being a valid booking or experience.
Well this is a valid review.. and its simply that unless i pay OD up to 15% of the booking fee, im UNABLE to call the owners direct.

Get over it, you cocked up big time.. and for that this website exists.
If you have feedback thats been removed, or you want to actually say whats on your mind, then use the contact form and send me your true feedback.. and provided there are no obscenities or expletives, i’ll post them here.

Trust Pilots.

owners-properties-direct.uk

FaceBook: OwnersPropertiesDirect

Don’t waste your time complaining, they simply don’t give a monkeys.

Don’t let Owners Direct / HomeAway etc rip you off by not only charging the Owners for advertising but you the guests up to 15%  (only god knows the formula) on top of the owners prices.

Its no longer possible to call or email the owners as your details will be removed by their system.

Only once you have paid Owners Direct will you actually be allowed each others contact details.

Guests please, do you really think you can book someone’s own personal cherished home from home without being able to talk to the Owners Direct and before you have parted with your cash… get on OPD and have a look round, there are some really great places to rent.. talk to the Owner..

Owners sign up:
go to the website above & sign up (after the pop-up shows),
receive instructions on how to list your property.. FOC

List your propery in any currency.. €, £, $ etc.

Responsive design, so works on all devices, PC, Laptop, Mobile and tablets. (No mobile APP required) However to really appreciate the pictures and website its best viewed on a PC/Tablet with your browser set full screen.

Your own control panel, enter as many properties as you like all FOC, enter your price, availability & calendar (With ical so that you only ever need keep one updated, works on Apple and Google Calendars), map location so that customers may find you on the map.. and more.

Have external links to your own website or other listing sites and retain your current feedback… have your contact details available for those interested parties to actually get in touch with you and without intervention.

ITS Totally FREE for all to use.. nothing to lose, everything to gain.

No commission, no service charge.
Nothing to pay what so ever!!

If your an owner of property on OD, check your account, they have purposely turned ON automatic renewal of your listing (Another 12 month contract) Outrageous.

 

See extracts from TrustPilot. Owners Direct, Owners Direct, Owners Direct.

Ownersdirect are the same as HomeAway… FAKE reviews this week…they are still conning everyone…BEWARE DO not book thro them!!!!

Ownersdirect are the same as HomeAway and all the 475 star reviews suddenly online this week are FAKE.

If you keep scrolling you will see that these bandits are conning the public and TRUSTPILOT shame on you for not picking this up.

I advertised with them for 16 years and they are now telling my potential guests not to book with me as I do not have online booking.
Its a total Scam and I hope they crash into a million pieces. I will never ever use them to publicise my house ever again.

CORPORATE BANDITS, Such a shame as they were good before being taken over by Expedia.

 

Ditch Owners Direct: there are much better options for owners and renters

I am an owner of a property in France and have listed successfully on Owners Direct since 2013 when it worked very well as a referral portal connecting owners and renters looking for a holiday home. In recent times, I have to report exactly the same negative experiences as other owners using Owners Direct since its takeover by HomeAway/Expedia. More positively, I have found it is easy to find much better options to advertise my house successfully and have listed with other specialist French rental sites offering a truly direct model – see later in this review. Firstly my recent time consuming and negative experiences with OD:

Referrals from OD had totally crashed over the last 6-8 months prior to Jan 2018 – a fact not noticed by me earlier as I had many returning bookings where guests came to me direct. In fact when it came to renew in January 2018, I realised I had no bookings from OD for the season apart from repeat stays.

I felt I had to agree to online bookings in order to avoid the additional surcharge making my listing ridiculously expensive. The help sections on online payments were misleading to put it mildly describing two options for receiving payments: either after check-in (who on earth would opt for that I thought?) or the “advanced payments system” which offered transfer of payments within a few days of the reservation being confirmed. When I received my first booking request and accepted it a couple of days ago, I discovered that all rental payments would only be transferred to me six months later and as they estimate a delay of 5-7 days could well not be in my bank account until after the renters left.

In a phone call yesterday OD informed me the ‘advance payments system’ did not yet exist and was currently ‘in development’. OD had also charged the customer £111 in addition to my rental for their ‘service fee’. The representative I spoke to at OD could give me not one single reason for retaining my rental fee for what would effectively be 6 months, nor could they explain what the ‘service fee’ covered apart from protection against non-returned security deposits (which I do not charge).

After this discussion, I decided that I did not wish to be associated in any form with Owners Direct in future, but find that (not surprisingly) I cannot cancel my listing and receive a refund. I also found my listing was set to renew automatically and I could not delete my credit card as it was “in use”. I have reset my account to not allow automatic renewal and will follow up getting my card details taken off the site asap.

As a result of this decision I cancelled the booking I had accepted (requesting a full refund) and wrote to the customer to apologise and explain my decision. As far as the listing is concerned the only thing I can do is ‘hide’ it so that I am effectively not advertising on the site until renewal when I will discontinue my subscription. I do not want to attract bookings with additional charges for the customer and delayed payment terms for me and so continuing to advertise on OD would be acting under false pretences. All of this is so unnecessary – there is a customer out there who wants to stay at my house for a week when it is vacant and under the old system of direct communication this would have been achieved with minimum fuss and lower expense for the holiday maker.

Since January when we had no bookings from Owners Direct I have listed my property on two specialist websites – French Connections and Holiday France Direct. I now have fully booked the house from end of June through to the end of August this year plus an advanced booking for 2019 – all from these two sites both of which allow direct communication with the renter. Holiday France Direct levies a small booking fee of £34 on the renter which I then refund so this is effectively a pay per booking site, French Connections charges an annual listing fee and no other charges. I have also listed with Chez Nous but have had only one referral which did not convert to a booking. There are many other options out there now (many openly comparing themselves with the OD offer) which I shall look at before renewing listings again in January 2019. Nearly all these sites are based on the direct advertising and renewal service and no add-on charges which used to be the successful model for Owners Direct. One thing I do plan to do is contact owners advertising on sites and get their experiences before booking or renewing a listing.

My purpose in posting this review now is to add to the voices calling for Owners Direct to move away from its current model which creates such levels of dissatisfaction. As I don’t expect the corporate Expedia giant will be able to do that any time soon, I add my experience of the advertising rental options beyond OD for other owners looking to find a replacement.

My message is – cast off the Owners Direct chains – there are much, much better options out there for owners looking to rent their properties and for holiday makers wanting to book direct. It seems to me that Owners Direct really has lost the plot!

Rip off

Still livid about having to deal with this horrible company, having read through the reviews, I wonder what now happens to the owner if the rental is cancelled at the last minute? In my own version of terms and conditions, it is clearly stated that full payment must be made 10 weeks before the start of the holiday, and that this is not refundable unless I am able to relet the property (admittedly this part is based on trust that I will be honest, which I, personally, would be). We also strongly advise guests to take out insurance so that they could be refunded if they have to cancel their holiday. With the new OD system, whereby the guest can apparently cancel at the last minute yet still be fully refunded (OD’s excuse for hanging on to the money until the holiday begins), the owner would be left completely out of pocket, without being able to find an alternative guest for those dates. What is the point of the owner having terms and conditions of their own if OD is going to override them with theirs? What is the point of my putting information about payment (25% deposit on booking etc) in my advertisement if it is then competely negated by OD’s methodology? Please correct me if I’m wrong, but the whole thing is a car-crash of a strategy. I can see absolutely no reason why owners would want to continue to work with OD, and considering that holiday-makers have a variety of ways in which they can insure themselves against cancellation which are considerably cheaper than the OD ‘service fee’ I can’t see what they advantages are for them either.

Reply from Owners Direct

Dear Lucy,

Thank you for sharing your concerns with us. Please be informed that travellers are entitled to a refund according to the property owner’s policy. Hence your guests are obliged to comply with your terms and conditions. BS..

In my recent review I highlighted a …

In my recent review I highlighted a number of issues with OD and their new “platform”. In their response they were either inaccurate or maybe thought they were responding to another complainant – with such a deluge of complaints it would be easy to be confused.
One of the issues I highlighted was the variance of prices quoted by OD on MY advert for which I have paid and composed. Here are the FACTS:-
The price I quote and charge is €135.00 per night or €1890 for 14 nights . In response to a recent enquiry (for 14 nights) the automated reply which OD presented to me for my approval the price they quoted was €2238.80. This is 18.455% higher – some “Service Fee”!!!
On my advert, which prospective clients see, OD have quoted the price as “Avg.£120 per night”. I do not quote or charge in £ as I live and the property is in the Euro area. In their response to my first review they deny this incorrect pricing. Please don’t attempt to bullsh*t me – I am not stupid. This is your final opportunity to address this issue otherwise you will confirm that you have no intention of addressing any customers concerns. I find it incredible that with such a poor rating – 96% – they continue to trot out the same corporate speak. Other than politicians, I have never heard anybody so proficient at continuing to speak without addressing the question. I am now actively looking at other websites other than those in the same corporate group.

Reply from Owners Direct

Hi there,

We do apologise that you didn’t find our previous response helpful. The service fee is between 5-12% for most bookings but can be above or below, based on the reservation. The percentage rate may change from time to time. The currency displayed on your rates table is determined by the currency used on the site being visited. For example if a traveller viewed your listing on HomeAway.co.uk or Owners Direct your rates will be displayed in GBP, but if they viewed your listing on HomeAway.com your rates will be displayed in USD. If you are using HomeAway Online payments the currency travellers are charged for their booking is determined by the location of your bank. Should you have any further questions please free to contact us. BS.

 

I have given up ranting about Owners …

I have given up ranting about Owners direct and trying to work around their system so I could contact our clients directly.They have taken all options away, after 24 hours if we haven’t finalised any queries clients are told the cottage is not available even if it is. Simple answer we have moved to Simply Owners who seem to be able to let us correspond with the client at no extra cost.
 

Trust them as far as I can kick an elephant

Over the last year or so we have watched this website with disbelief as this company seems to pursue its self-destructive policies. As property owners there’s not much we can add to the justified complaints of many others about OD, especially as far as owners are concerned. So, in quick summary:

1) OD blocked us from contacting prospective clients direct, both for their and our benefit, prior to accepting bookings – i.e. we were forced to accept complete unknowns into our cottage. Sorry, that’s not how we have successfully operated for the last 10 years.
2) OD arbitrarily imposed their absurd booking fee, supposedly guaranteeing clients’ interests. Toffee. How could they guarantee something that we provide? (I know, I can hear their corporate America-speak blathering answer coming at me right now). Anyway, bookings by credit card are protected anyway.
3) OD try to take clients’ payments in advance and then sit on it until the time of the letting. Nice one, OD. Do you think we are mugs?
4) Arbitrarily OD changed our payment arrangements to ‘automatic renewal’ AND put our previously-used credit card details against it. Sneaky. On top of that, OD wouldn’t allow us to change the payment arrangement without supplying details for another card. Not trusting them as far as I can kick an elephant, we put a block on OD as payees with our credit card supplier. Folks, bear this in mind.
5) OD insisted on us accepting bookings within 48 hours or they were rejected. We were engaged in dialogue with seriously interested clients from Australia, sorting out their sensible enquiries and agreeing non-standard dates for their benefit – but because 48 hours expired OD sent a notice to them saying the booking enquiry hadn’t been accepted. Oh bl**dy great. And because OD strive every which way they can to stop you providing your contact details, we couldn’t contact the client again lost the booking.
6) Finally, a week after our subscription expired, we had a phone call from someone at OD talking at us in a very aggressive manner as to why we needed to stay with them. I think he may have been selling used cars in a previous life. The breathtaking bit was when we were informed that visitors to our cottage were OD’s clients and not ours. Oh really O’Reilly?

Nuff said. Previously we left HolidaylettingsUK for similar reasons and have now moved across to the ‘obvious successor company’, just hoping that we won’t have to go through the same mill again in a few years time. As for OD, we don’t give a monkeys. But it would be nice to hear in due course that they have failed due to their complete intransigence, insincerity and plain disregard for people. Sorry guys, you can’t import that sort of Trumpist model over here. Oh, and don’t bother replying.

Monica Elston

I am Leaving Owners Direct as soon as possible .

I am appalled at how indifferent Owners Direct have become.
I own 2 beautiful properties by the sea in Sennen cove and always pride myself on being able to chat to my guests and ensure they feel welcome and assured before they stay.
Owners direct have taken all options away, and now my guests have no direct access to me as a property owner .
I am being charged to use their services with now from Jan 18 no loyalty discounts,and constantly bullied to comply to their new regulations …but I have refused to use their complete online booking service.
I am sure i am penalised for this in their ratings.
My guests are charged extortionate amounts on top of my weekly rental charges with no real gain .
I do not want a pathetic reply from this company .
Any ideas out there who I should move my business to ?

Reply from Owners Direct

Dear Monica,

Thank you for your comment. We would like to advise you that you will get access to your guest’s contact details after their booking has been confirmed. We do appreciate your loyalty; however, we do not offer discounts on our annual subscription. If a property owner does have the online bookings enabled it is against our terms and conditions to have them enabled but not to allow travellers to use them. The service fee is between 5-12% for most bookings, which is a lower percentage than many other holiday rental sites that charge a similar fee. Travellers who pay the service fee are covered by our Book with Confidence Guarantee. The Book with Confidence Guarantee offers the travellers their full rental payment and security deposit protection, 24/7 customer service and emergency re-booking assistance. BS.

 

Unbelievable just got an email from…

Unbelievable just got an email from Owners Direct title Your February 2018 monthly update, which always used to give number of page views etc & was useful but the statistics aren’t now viewable, over the top of the information is a message “Unlock Performance Coaching- Enable on line booking”. I have given up trying to argue with them since the last customer services operator tried to con me into letting him fill in information for me. I had contacted them for the fifth time to complain that my property was not showing in searches and they were therefore not fulfilling their contract and this chap told me it was because I hadn’t got any booking policies on my property, but not to worry he could fill them in while I was on the phone. Call me cynical but based on past experience would have involved enabling online booking. Who do they think they are! I am finished we are now with two of the sites that are regularly mentioned in reviews on this site which are reported by OD as adverts.
 

CA$H CA$H CA$H

… their accounts is all that OD care about now. I used their annual subscription service for years and had excellent results taking most of my bookings through OD. Then the bullying fueled by corporate greed got out of control. “You must accept online booking or else!”
“Why should I, the system worked perfectly for years?” I had a 95% occupancy without so people clearly weren’t being put off. It’s so obvious that it’s about scaring guests into paying booking fees to OD and holding landlord’s cash flow in OD’s accounts.
What really grated was that suddenly, without warning, my guests contact details vanished from the site. I got in touch with customer service, eventually, who said that they’d be visible once I’d “confirmed”. Well, we had mutual agreements, I’d been paid and so what else did they want in order for a booking to be “confirmed”? Oh, OD wanted me to tell the guests to pay an additional booking fee to them and then I could have the details – ransom! How dare they! Not only unethical but I’d agreed a price with the guests and they’d paid it, what right did I have to then ask them to pay more?Luckily for me their message scanners don’t scan PDFs and so I already had all the guests direct contact details as they’d filled out my booking form by hand and sent the scan back to me through the system. I managed to see out my last few bookings through this loop hole and have now de-listed from OD.Good luck OD, at this rate you’ll have no properties left, such a shame.

sue

Bookings already in the pipeline

Why cannot I give this dreadful grasping company zero stars? I have never dealt with a company who have ruined their business in such a short period of time. Shocking!!

I won’t be renewing but wonder what happens to bookings they already have for me which take place later in 2018. Does anyone have experience of this please?

I was shocked when my account was…

I was shocked when my account was debited of £240.30 by Owners Direct following the booking of a holiday property before it was even confirmed by the owners. That caused serious confusion between myself and the owners, as I thought I had part paid for the deposit. Owners Direct is not really owners direct as the above sum transpires to be their service charge which was not made obvious from the outset. If I had known their service charge would have been so extortionate I would have avoided them at all cost. My only contact with Owners Direct was on line, filling in forms and giving my account details (thought it was for the deposit to confirm the property). I tried calling them, someone did answer the phone but their was such a loud background noise and the person put the phone down on me.I am surprised they are allowed to practice. They should make it clear from the outset about their fee. Most companies charge around £39.00 but to pay £240.30 for a company that does nothing to aid the booking process. Owners Direct should not be allowed to practice under their existing name as its misleading. I thought if I booked my holiday via Owners Direct their would not be a booking fee.
I would like to know what Trustpilot will do to help customers not to be conned.

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