Listings Sites Survey Results – Suggested Changes to Listings Sites

What Changes are Needed on Listings Sites

684 holiday/vacation rental home owners and managers from 47 countries took part in our survey (Listings Sites – The Good, The Bad & The Ugly)

Question 9.

Is there a feature you would like to see added or removed from any of the listings sites you use?

Leading 25 features which should be changed on listings sites

1. Completely customisable pricing. Remove nightly rates. Add short breaks, weekend and dynamic pricing. Do not restrict cleaning fee amounts.
2. Guest details. Remove the restrictions on guest details visibility.
3. Book It Now. Remove the Instant Booking / Book It Now feature. Do not prioritise listings which use this feature.
4. Link to website. Add a link to owner’s website or make existing link more visible.
5. Availability calendars. Integrate iCal availability calendar synchronisation. Make it easier to update multiple calendars. Make availability clearer to guests.
6. Cancellation policies. Introduce customisable cancellation policies.
7. Guest reviews. Add a system to review guests.
8. Receiving payment. Change payment terms so rental income is received at the time of booking confirmation.
9. Statistics. Introduce better traffic, accounting and financial statistics (per individual property).
10. Refer guests to other properties. Add a system to offer or upsell other properties if requested rental property is unavailable.
11. SMS enquiry alerts. Add more information to text alerts including dates, number or guests and guest telephone number.
12. Dashboard login. Remove the necessity to log in to the dashboard to reply to every enquiry.
13. Payment method. Integrate a host’s own preferred payment method or system.
14. Payment credibility. Do not insinuate that bookings made outside of listing sites payment system is less credible.
15. Video. Add a facility to embed video presentations.
16. Owner or agent/manager. Make a clear distinction between an ‘Owner’ and a ‘Property Manager/Agent’.
17. Rental home or hotel. Make a clear distinction between ‘Self-catering rental home’ and ‘Hote’l, ‘Guesthouse’ or ‘B&B’.
18. Photos. Make images bigger or clear button to enlarge. Add feature for customisable captions.
19. Account Manager. Have an individual and accessible account manager.
20. Response Time Score. Remove ‘response time score’ which forces an owner to reply to scam and poor quality enquiries.
21. Online Support. Introduce live online support. Do not refer hosts to generic FAQs or make them call from overseas.
22. Currency Exchange. Improve the currency conversion or allow host to customise their preferred currency.
23. Introduce API integration.
24. Remove guest booking fees or make them more visible at time of quotation.
25. Replace ‘Payment Request’ with ‘Rental Quote’.

Over 70 different suggestions for change were provided by respondents.

OTHER RESULTS FROM THIS SURVEY: 

N.B. These results represent the answers and comments of the 684 survey respondents and in no way reflect the views of NeedMoreRentals.
 


 
Further Information

Due to the large response to this survey and extent of individual comment and opinion there was simply too much information to be included here. We have therefore summarised the most remarkable findings of this study.

If you would like to request any specific information about any of our results contact us on info(at)needmorerentals.com.

We will not share any direct comments or contact details of survey respondents however we can provide more in-depth detail about results relating to a specific website, country or owner/manager demographic.