| Q.
What is this site all about? |
This site is all about helping you, the tourist, to find great places
to stay for your holiday at fantastic prices all around the world. We give you
the power to simultaneously negotiate directly with lots of different owners and
managers of holiday properties at your chosen locations - to enable you to find the best deals
available. We have built a huge database of owners and managers of holiday properties
all of whom are willing to consider your holiday plans and budgets and quote you for your
needs. Some may offer you holiday bargains which you wont find anywhere
else on the Internet - sometimes due to last minute cancellations or other market
conditions. We invite you to browse our site for yourself and check out the
properties we advertise. Feel free to contact any
individual owner directly or, alternatively, submit your holiday plan to all
owners in your chosen destination(s) and pick the best deal available.
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| Q.
How can I find a holiday bargain on HolidayHomeAds.com? |
There are some fantastic bargains to be found on HolidayHomeAds.com.
Many users have already found dream holidays at bargain prices with the aid of this site.
To find your holiday bargain, simply submit your Holiday Plan to our members
at your chosen holiday location(s). We currently have thousands of private
owners and managers of holiday properties standing by and waiting to quote
for your needs. Some have fantastic bargains just waiting for you. Why not submit
your holiday plan today? See below for more details.
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| Q.
What is a Holiday Plan? |
If you are planning a holiday, we enable you to submit your holiday
plan to all of our members who are owners or managers of holiday
properties in your selected locations. The plan consists of your
intended travel dates and duration of stay, the numbers of persons
travelling and numbers of bedrooms required, your preferred location(s),
your minimum and maximum accommodation budget and any special requests
you may have. Once submitted, our advertisers who have placed ads in
the selected locations will be alerted.
Owners and managers will respond to your requests and quote you
for your needs. A Holiday Plan is the easiest and most convenient
way of finding a holiday rental at a great price. You don't have to be a member of
HolidayHomeAds.com to submit a Holiday Plan and it takes just a few
minutes to complete. Our owners and managers have some fantastic bargains
just waiting for you – all you have to do is ask!
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| Q.
Why should I use this site to find my holiday rental? |
There are a number of excellent reasons why you should use this
site for finding your ideal holiday rental. For example:
- Choice. Because its FREE for owners to advertise, we have a HUGE and rapidly expanding selection of fabulous properties from all over the world to choose from. Every property owner or manager with a serious interest in marketing their holiday properties to a worldwide audience will place their ad on our site - so look no further!
- Exotic Destinations. Also, because its FREE to advertise, you will find properties advertised here that you won’t find anywhere else on the Internet – many of them in less well known and exotic resorts not found on the major travel websites.
- Easy and Fast Navigation. Using our powerful proprietary search technology, it is extremely easy to find a selection of properties matching your exact requirements within seconds. As the entire site functionality is provided on a single page (the home page), there is no need to navigate through complex structures of geographical menus so often found on other sites.
- Compact Ad Format. Our compact ad format allows you to choose which sections of which ads you wish to see - using our proprietary ‘mouseover’ technology. Users are not obliged to lose their position within a set of search results by viewing full description of a property in a new page. There is rarely a need to click to see the full details of any property – except for printing – and even then it appears in a new window.
- Communication. Communication with owners and managers is greatly simplified for the user using the ‘Email Favourites’ functionality and the ‘Holiday Plan’ functionality not found on other sites. See below for more details on these.
- Neutral Presentation. Most vacation websites promote the properties that pay them the most – making it difficult for the holidaymaker to find the most appropriate property for their needs. By contrast, our displays are completely neutral. By default, the most recently updated ads are displayed first regardless of how much the advertiser is paying us. See below for more details.
- Finding a Bargain. No other site has the means by which you can submit your Holiday Plan to every owner within a town or region. Owners will then respond to you with a quote within a few days.
- Save your search. Once you have searched for your desired properties using the search panel, you can save that search to your favourites in your browser. This allows you to recall that set of results again at any future time – showing any recent updates to our database. This is a simple way of quickly checking what is new to the market.
- Self Catering Accommodation. As the main theme of our site, it is not surprising that most of our ads are for self catering accommodation such as villas, apartments, cottages, chalets, cabins, farmhouses, castles and more. Every popular tourist destination throughout the world is covered by our database with most locations offering a great selection of properties to choose from.
- Serviced Accommodation. We have a great selection of Hotel and Bed & Breakfast accommodation to choose from. Many are small boutique properties offering a friendly yet professional service not always advertised on the major international travel sites.
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| Q.
How can I contact property owners or managers using this site |
There are 3 ways in which you can contact owners/managers using this site. These are as follows:
- Message each property individually. This is a slow but reliable means of finding your ideal holiday rental. For each of the properties you are considering for your holiday, click on the email icon, under the thumbnail photo, type in your message and then press ‘Send’.
- Email your Favourites. Click on the ‘Thumbs Down’ icon under the property thumbnail to add the property to your favourites. The icon changes to ‘Thumbs Up’ indicating the property is now in your favourites list. Subsequently, you can email all your favourites in a single email. This functionality is available to members only – so you need to register with us first.
- Enter a Holiday Plan. Select any location in the world in which you wish to spend your holiday, enter your travel dates and duration of stay, enter your minimum and maximum accommodation budget and then simply submit the plan to our owners in the location of interest. Quotes will be returned to you by return email. This is by far the simplest way and fastest way to find a holiday bargain!
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| Q.
If I submit a Holiday Plan, is my email address given to owners? |
No. When you send a message to an owner or submit a Holiday Plan,
your email address is not revealed. Only when an owner
replies to your Holiday Plan – is your email address revealed -
to that owner only.
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| Q.
It is cheaper to book directly with owners compared with agents? |
Generally it is - but not always. During peak season, for prime rental properties,
owners will generally charge the same rates as agents. However,
for many properties in off peak or shoulder seasons, a lot of
owners will be keener to negotiate rates directly with the client,
taking into account factors such as special offers, under occupancy
and current market conditions. However, larger agents and property
management companies, managing hundreds of properties, will usually not
have the time or the flexibility to negotiate rates directly with the
client at any time, but smaller agents will very often have the same
flexibility as owners themselves.
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| Q.
Why not use an online booking site to book my holiday rental? |
It can be very convenient to book holiday rental properties online giving instant
confirmation. However, the renter will often not be getting the best rates possible.
Most, if not all, online booking sites do not have the flexibility to allow owners to
quickly enter special offers, to discount standard prices based on factors such as
under occupancy and current market conditions – taking the individual circumstances
of the client into account. Furthermore, online booking sites themselves will charge
the owner at least 10% commission (and sometimes up to 30%) which means the owner will
need to recoup this from the client making the booking.
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| Q.
When I search for properties, in what order do they appear initially? |
When you search for ads, the default order is by last date updated –
showing the most recently updated ads first. The order of display is
completely independent of the membership type of the advertiser and
independent of how much the member is paying us.
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| Q.
How can I know that the owner is legitimate? |
We have no personal knowledge of any of the advertisers of holiday
properties on this site. It is the responsibility of the renter to
ensure for themselves that the owner is legitimate. We urge caution
and in particular to avoid cash deposit or balance payments to owners
by untraceable means such as Western Union.
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| Q.
Can I use this site to find a Hotel or Bed & Breakfast? |
Yes of course. We welcome property ads for either serviced accommodation
providers such as Hotels and B&B's as well as from self-catering accommodation
owners or managers. To find Hotels and Bed & Breakfasts choose 'Serviced Accommodation'
on the property type selection, or alternatively, select either 'Hotels' or 'Bed & Breakfasts'
and then press 'Search'
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| Q.
Is the format of all ads the same? |
Yes. Regardless of how much the advertiser is paying us, all ads
have exactly the same format.
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| Q.
Can I re-sort the search results to display in a different order? |
Yes. After doing a search, the results come in order of the most recently
updated ads. You can then resort the results in order of price (lowest first),
page hits, location (alphabetical by nearest town) or by numbers of bedrooms.
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| Q.
As a HolidayMaker / Traveller, what are the advantages of becoming a member? |
There are several advantages of becoming a member of HolidayHomeAds.com.
- Even faster submission of Holiday Plans – no email verification required
- Track the progress of your Holiday Plans after submission
- You can extend or reduce the validity period of your Holiday Plans
- Its easy to sign up and takes just a couple of minutes
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| Q.
How can I find out if the property is available for the period I am looking for? |
A large number of independent owners use a neutral availability calendar
to store their availability. This allows them to show this link on all
the sites they advertise on and therefore maintain their availability
in one place. So by clicking on this ‘availability calendar’ link on
the ad, the availability can be seen for the coming 12 month period.
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| Q.
What are the 'Travel & Tourism Ads' on the right hand side of the search results page? |
These are ads from our Business and Corporate members of HolidayHomeAds.com.
These can be advertising any company or service available in the region being
searched. For example, flights, car hire, restaurants, tourist activities and
so on. We show the most appropriate ‘Travel & Tourism’ depending on your search.
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| Q.
What are Featured Ads and how are they selected? |
Featured ads are those ads shown to users returning to our home page.
They are selected randomly from our Gold, Business and Corporate members
and changed every hour.
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