VillaRentals / RentalSystems new website launch

Just in time for the Christmas season and potential customers starting to look for their next year holiday, VillaRentals relaunched their website on the 23rd December with a new cleaner and simpler look and feel, and a number of behind the scenes improvements including an improved ability to upload unlimited holiday property photos.

One of the most significant changes with the relaunched website is to the way that VillaRentals now shows holiday rental prices.  Previously the Gite rental price we charge is displayed against the listing, and then only when a customer progresses towards the end of the booking process are VillaRentals' mandatory credit card and booking fees added.  The end result is not surprisingly that customers are annoyed by seeing the price they pay change.

From now on all this is simplified and VillaRentals now shows from step 1 an all-inclusive weekly rental price.

Previously VillaRentals charged 2.5% for handling the credit card payment and £15 booking fee for rentals generated by themselves, or £8 for rentals that we generate and process through VillaRentals payment engine.
In the new scheme these two fees are replaced by a single combined flat rate 4.5% fee.

The nett-nett is some slight swings and roundabouts. VillaRentals generated bookings work out generally slightly cheaper for the customer (a £500 weekly rental price now costs £522.50 whereas previously the customer would have paid £527.50), and member generated bookings work out slightly more expensive (the same £500 rent would have cost £520.50 and now costs the same £522.50).

All in all though providing all inclusive prices should definitely make things better for our customers. We usually get one or two bookings direct each year from our holiday Gite advert on VillaRentals.