welcomefrance

Hi Travel agents,
Can travel agents present in fodors forum who directly book their itinerary for their clients tell what to do to make my home more attractive for their clients to stay? what sort of commission do you all prefer?
What will be demand from clients and expectations from travel agents to consider home in their itinerary?

Do/will your customers agree to leave hotel for apartments to stay? Please help

Christina

I'm not a travel agent but have rented apts and read a little about travel agent business, so my advice is --

If you want to rent your home to travelers, go to some website where you can do it directly (ie, VRBO.com) or one where the agency handles some paperwork for you and manages the website. In Paris, three I know like that are www.nyhabitat.com, www.lodgis.fr and www.parisattitude.com. I'm sure there are others, also.

YOu don't even say where your home is, there might be similar sites to the above for other areas in France, of course, and if you are rural, you naturally have the national gites program. You don't even have to be rural for that, they handle some places in towns/villages.

Now maybe some travel agent will tell you otherwise, I'm just speculating, but unless you have some deluxe mansion that would be a niche market for movie stars or something like that, I think you should forget the idea of trying to rent your place through travel agents, and go with some agency that does this. For apt. rental agencies such as the ones I've mentioned, I believe they usually charge 25-33 pct of the rent. Of course, if you do it on your own, you don't pay any commission. I don't know if any travel agent would even do this, but I think their commission might be more like 5-10 pct. I don't know that much about that angle, though, I admit.

If you don't have any idea at all about the entire area of vacation rental apartments, which it sounds like you don't, you should be reviewing all the many different agencies and websites who do this and learn more about the subject.

The obvious things appeal to clients -- a comfortable attractive place, wash and dryer, good ventilation, nice view, lower floor or elevator, good appliances (like a TV with cable so you can get channels in languages other than French, internet connection, coffeemaker, etc.) Air conditioning is certainly a big appeal in most of France for summer months. Real beds are appealing (surprising how many don't have any, only things like futons or those mattresses without any box springs, etc), that are comfortable and of decent size. For a home, a variety of bedding configurations would be nice (queen, twins, etc.). A good location near shops and public transportation, unless you are rural, is good.

Christina

BTW, are you Irish? I just wondered as your screenname is the name of an Irish company with rentals in France.

nytraveler

I would think a travel agent would be extremely loathe to offer apartment rentals. With hotels there are numerous means of checking out properties before booking clients there. With an apartment they have no means of knowing the specifics - and can't imagine they would risk sending a client there.

Note; some travel agents do rent out chalets in Switzerland to groups of skiers - but typically they are purpose built chalets owned by a company and for groups of 10, 12 or more people with on site staff.

For a regular apartment, I can;t imagine it would be worth their while.

LikeLivingThere

I'm an agency in the USA and some of my best friends are travel agents. They do NOT want to bother with apartments; too often they do not get paid, it's hard to quickly verify availability and other reasons.

You want to stick with booking agencies, or you could do VRBO and still let some agencies represent you. Above reference to 25-33% is high. Depending on how much you can do yourself, such as take or have taken good photos, it can be less, 20-25%.

Apartment renters want: cleanliness, comfortable beds (bigger is better), quiet, access to sights and public transportation, good neighborhood. They also like being greeted by the owner or manager, not picking up a key somewhere else and having to let themselves into the apartment.

They hate extra charges, except maybe for cleaning, but keep that as low as possible. They also don't like large damage deposits (cautions), especially if they must be paid in cash.

The price you can charge depends on those things, plus the floor and whether or not there is an elevator. These days price is important, especially for USA travelers who must pay high prices for airline tickets.

Where is your apartment?