Owners Direct 

As with most other reviews, how have Owners Direct managed to ruin a good company. I was reluctantly forced into online booking after 10 years of handling all bookings direct. As others state this means OD can take up to 25% (12% surcharge from customer, 8% booking fee and 3% handling fee from owner) from each booking. Previously their income was a one off annual membership fee. In a competitive marketplace this is ill-judged greed.
On top of this they provide an unacceptable level of customer service to owners far below that of other sites that we use.
Like many others, my 2 properties will be removed from Owners Direct.
Owners Direct management need to take notice very quickly or they will have no owners and no income. A good Google ranking is not enough if you exploit your owners.

Strange that a lot of 5star one liners were sent on April 2/3rd.this site.Perhaps the company has not sent the one liners but the large number appearing on April 2nd and 3rd suggest that the staff may have been encouraged to send them.In addition to losing over 1800 owners they will also lose holiday makers unless they improve their communications

I have been trying all afternoon to reach Home&Away's so-called customer service department.
Total waste of time. They have no customer service. I keep following the instructions on their website, getting through to sales who can't help me,or don't want to as they only want to talk to people who want to pay them more money. In the meantime, customers, who have been with them over 10 years, are not important enough to speak to. Has anyone got a phone number where you can actually talk to a human being, or don't Home&Away have any humans working for them.

This must be illegal. This is why the competition authority needs to get involved- one organisation now owns all the big sites and they are abusing their position- it is black and white.

Owners all signed up to a service. They list out property we deal with the booking.

Overnight they have started abusing their position. They now take 5-12% of YOUR booking fee off your client. OD then hold on to the money for over 12 months and pay you no interest- that means you have lost 3% due to inflation. They then now take another 3% off the money as another fee (And no it's not a credit card fee)- so in total we and our clients have been fleeced of 18% of all our booking fees? Plus of course they also want your annual membership that takes the total nearer to 20%!!!. Or all YOUR profit

If a UK operator did this they would be on Watch Dog- its dishonest, its devious and I am certain its illegal. Of course I am moving I would rather have no bookings than line their dishonest pockets. It will not stop until they are made to stop- who do you think owns all these websites? Once you know the true owners via their shell companies, all this is no surprise.

Cad wrote on 2nd May ... 3% PRICE HIKE, NO THANKS, OFF TO AIRBNB
Your reply was... the credit card transaction fee is charged by OUR payment processing company hence we do not have control over this.
If this is indeed YOUR payment processing company, then you must have control over the charges. If it is not as you say OUR company then this rather worrying, as how secure or how safe is the travellers money? Is it covered by any financial guarantee schemes. Is the company regulated by a financial body in every country that a traveller is paying from ?

I have a question..... how do you offer travelers peace of mind?
For instance, a family books a villa through you but when they arrive at the address there is nothing there! They call you immediately..... what would you do in an instance like this?
Can you Clarify the Emergency Booking?
Everything in your terms states “may”. Meaning you hold no obligation.

....... could you copy and paste here what emergency booking really means?
All I can find is the following in your terms and it repeatedly says “may”
“May” is then defined underneath......
“May” means you hold no obligation ?????
Only 7 nights re book????
Could you clarify please (in detail and quotes from your terms this time).
This is all I could find in your terms below!

2. Protections Provided.
Subject to the restrictions and limitations set out in these Terms, the Program offers the following protections for Protected Travellers who suffer a loss due to a Protected Incident (noting that the particular protection or combination thereof offered to a Protected Traveller is subject to the type of Protected Incident, the amount of Loss, the ability to mitigate such Loss, and Our discretion):
Arrangement of Lodging. If a Protected Traveller is without a place to stay due to a Protected Incident, We may arrange alternative accommodations, where available, for up to seven (7) nights.
Rebook another property. If a Protected Traveller’s Reservation is wrongfully cancelled, We may offer to rebook the Protected Traveller at another property advertised on a HomeAway Site, if a substantially similar property is available for the same period and under a new reservation.
Loss Reimbursement. If a Protected Traveller suffers a Loss that in Our judgment can only be remedied by a monetary reimbursement, We may reimburse the Protected Traveller up to the amount of the Loss subject to the below process requirements.
Please note the qualification to “may” in the three paragraphs immediately above means that we will endeavour to provide the assistance or remedy (as the case may be) but that we shall have no liability for any failure to provide any such assistance or remedy.

Just discovered that as as an owner I will have to pay the the annual subscription and a 3% payment processing fee. No extra service offered for the hundreds of pounds extra I will be paying. Will therefore be leaving Owners Direct and listing my house with Airbnb.

Owners Direct have replied and said this is the credit card companies charge. They could however keep the direct payment option that I currently use and there would be no charge at all. Don't understand why this change is necessary.

I've been using ownersdirect for 10 years now and up until they sold to this rubbish company I was very happy got load's of bookings for a one off fee and I dealt with all the payments. Since this company took over owners- this is what they have done
first they started charging you more money to get to the top of the web search ( was always a rotation)
Then if you wouldn't allow them to take your payments you were permanently at the bottom of the search page
Then you had to allow them to take your payments or leave
Then you were stopped getting any contact information everything blocked phone numbers email everything
Then your personal web site was taken off the Ad
Then all payment including any deposit were only paid after the guest arrive
Now the latest is if you don't get a booking from them your guest cannot leave a review.
I have been constantly complaining to them after all of these change's and get the same corporate spiel that their research tells us "guest really wanted all these changes" don't know who they are asking but I find it very convenient that all their research is financially massively in their favour. I can tell you for sure they didn't ask the owners because only a fool would give these greedy corporate money grabbers a very sizable chunk of there income for providing a substandard service
I personally have now had enough I'm cancelling my ad I have gone from all my booking via owners to this year NOT ONE
Do yourself a favour if your considering using these people DON'T

After there threat last year they gave us another year without online booking as they want to tax the owners 3% and the customers upto 10% plus charge us for advertising there business is made up of owners no owners no business obviously they might respond to this but the person who does ,you will be looking for a new job soon as we are looking for new platforms .

Like many others, we had been very happy with OD before the Americans got their hands on it. It has gone rapidly downhill since. The original 'partnering model' has completely shifted to one of us being a mere supplier and their Ts and Cs now over-ride ours. Best example is a recent mail from a woman in London threatening us because we had the audacity to encourage a customer to book direct with us - preventing the additional service charges, payment charges and immediate docking of the re-fundable deposit. How can such an exellent company go so quickly from 5 stars to one star so quickly? A real shame and a sad loss to our industry.

I am a property owner and have been advertising with Owners Direct for many years. I am so disappointed with how greedy the company has become; they now take commission from both the traveler and the owner. They force owners to accept online bookings without owners being able to monitor or ascertain who is making the booking and who will be staying in their holiday home as the 'house rules' option is completely ineffective.
House rules are a joke - I apply my house rules as requested; no children, no single sex groups, no adults under 25 years. Guests then book online ignoring the house rules completely. I am then forced to decline the booking and hey ho I am penalized in the ranking metrics for doing so. Customer services are a nightmare and the advice they offer is never ever consistent. When I contacted customer services regarding this issue, One customer services adviser said "as long as you email the guest then decline the booking you will not get penalized" - NOT TRUE. Another said, "call customer services and tell them and they can make sure you are not penalized" - NOT TRUE. Another said allow the booking request to time out and and you will not be penalized - NOT TRUE. I have sent emails to Owners Direct customer services and left feedback on their feedback options regarding this issue on many occasions but have never received a response.
Our apartments are luxury apartments and we have a strict criteria to ensure that we optimize our chances of letting to guests that will hopefully look after them. We like to communicate with our guests before accepting bookings. Owners Direct have done everything possible to prevent this; they have prevented communication directly between the guests and the owners (contact details are hidden) and have forced us to accept online bookings or we are no longer able to advertise with them. This is purely greed on their part.
I will now be taking the advertising for all my apartments to SIMPLY OWNERS - no commission for either the traveler or the owner and the traveler is offered the same protection as with Owners Direct.
No more inconsistent advice, no more lack of responses, no more being penalized for not excepting guests that do not meet our booking criteria. No more premium rate charges for making phone calls to them

I have been advertising my villa with Owners Direct since 2005 and love the improvements that they have made to the system. I don't have to deal with endless enquiries as guests can book instantly. They take care of rental payments and follow up. Guests pay a minimum fee for the service they receive and peace of mind with their booking. I hope other holiday home booking sites follow as it is definitely the way forward for the industry.

Very sad we have been advertising our property on Owners Direct since 2007, it was perfect, east to use the website as an owner and holiday maker looking for somewhere to stay. Then the Americans got hold of it and ruined it. Our listing ended this month and there is no way we would enable online booking so that is it finished.

Owners direct is now no longer a marketing site for owners I have just looked at a villa and it was £650 more on their web site than the same Vila on simply owners. I contacted the owner to ask what was the real price, it was the simply owners price the difference is the fees charged by owners direct. I don’t know how they can justify adding fees when I am booking the villa directly with the owner. Needless to say I have booked with the owner via simply owners.

I made a booking for a holiday in July and paid in full in advance. A week later the booking was cancelled by the owner without any explanation and they refunded me. However due to the exchange rate I lost out and received less back. I contacted owners direct and they say they do not cover this risk. So I didn't do anything wrong and I lost money and had no reservation. I then made another booking for the same period and the exact same thing happened but the booking was cancelled three months after it was made. Again I paid in full in advance and was refunded less due to the exchange rate. Again owners direct refused to compensate me. NEVER USE THIS WEB SITE

Do try Simply Owners who do provide advising and booking direct with owners. Owners direct is not mow direct and It's almost impossible to edit my property and prices the website has changed so much. You have to work to their rules which are constantly changing.. Changed beyond recognition. The charge to travellers makes my property uncompetitive.

Resolved a refund issue via owners direct complaints.

How interesting. As Expedia shares tumble, one wonders how many of the curiously timed and sugar coated 5 star reviews for Owners Direct here are actually by Expedia shareholders. Clients are leaving OD in their droves due to the greedy nature of their business model, creaming off money from all sides and preventing exactly what their title wrongly suggests:- 'Direct' it is not. If you are considering a holiday letting... avoid Owners Direct at all costs.( extra costs to you actually ) and if you own a holiday home certainly look elsewhere. Head for SimplyOwners...as I did. You will not be disappointed.

The cottage was as described, mattresses comfortable, everything immaculate, removal of kitchen refuse daily as no bin collectionnot a problem! The view of the river and railway line and the college was wonderful, and although we had to park a car down the road, the walk to the ferry across to Dartmouth was part of the hol and necessary exercise. The locals are helpful and friendly despite a justifiable resentment at the over buying of holiday homes and doubtless greed of some short sighted developers! A visit to Slapton was made impossible as the road is out of use, thanks to winter storms, they need to get on with repairing that, as the country lanes are not really made for range rovers and mercedes...However the trip round made the visit to Torcross worth the trouble. Our daughter in law was highly impressed with the sleeping arrangements and two bathrooms. Thank you. ***Oh one snag, not very computer literate, found initial booking and trying to get details off something that said Download here, BUT DIDNT! a trial, SO I emailed the Owner who was more than helpful! I was not sure how many companies were involved in the end, and did not need offers across the globe for 4 nights!