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Self Catering
Frequently asked questions
Please find below examples of questions that have been raised to date from the trade about the new Self Catering booking model.
Why use visitscotland.com as your booking intermediary?
Taking bookings via an intermediary agent is a normal part of doing business for most accommodation/travel and tourism businesses. For most Self Catering businesses this means not instead of but as well as ie complementary to the ways you are getting bookings currently. Working with visitscotland.com increases the overall volume of bookings that will come your way.
For some Self Catering businesses it may be that a not particularly high percentage of your total business will actually come to you through visitscotland.com, but it is still an important opportunity to reach more of your potential market and draw in incremental customers at low cost. Remember no sales equals no commission to pay visitscotland.com and at 10% the commission is as low as you'll find anywhere in the market.
(a number of Self Catering specialist intermediaries take 20-30% commission)
What are the benefits of marketing your business through visitscotland.com as your intermediary agent?
Working with visitscotland.com is a powerful way of extending your marketing reach to attract more customers and increase awareness of your business, harnessing the marketing power and sales capability in which visitscotland.com has invested heavily, in a way that a stand alone provider could never afford to do.
Why does visitscotland.com take full payment from the customer?
This is the common payment process amongst leading agents in the self catering market. It is easier for the consumer because they make all payments to one place. Customers increasingly want to confirm or pay for bookings using credit or debit card which they can do with visitscotland.com (where most providers do not have that facility). It also provides other benefit s such as guaranteed payments for providers and a third party can apply ”the rules” effectively etc.
How do I make visitscotland.com work for my Self Catering business?
To gain full benefit from the opportunity of working with visitscotland.com you need to pay attention to how you present your property in its web entry for maximum positive impact and crucially you need to keep visitscotland.com fully updated on an ongoing basis via IONA about the availability of your business.
This will enable visitors to the visitscotland.com website and the National Contact Centre sales agents to quickly find your business as a suitable available-to-book option that meets the customers' needs. The visitscotland.com team have made this easy for you by developing a special easy-to-use website called IONA, where you can log in securely to your business details and update your availability and other info on a regular basis.
How much does it cost me to sign up to the new visitscotland.com booking service?
Access to the IONA service comes as part of the Business Opportunities Packages offered by VisitScotland, please contact your local Network Office and ask for your Business Relationship Manager
When do I receive payment for my bookings?
All payments to you will be made on or around the 3rd of the month. Where full customer payment has been received for a booking which starts in a given month this will be paid on or around the 3rd of that month. If late bookings are received after our Direct Credit to you has been initiated with the bank, these will be paid on or around the 3rd of the next month.
Are customers able to make provisional bookings?
No, the new self catering business model will not allow customers to make provisional bookings.
Why can’t I be paid by cheque?
visitscotland.com like other organisations makes use of secure automated banking transfers of money. This is a reliable and efficient low cost process.
How will I know when payments are due?
You will be able to monitor the status of your bookings and payments via a report in the IONA application to which you are given your own password access.
Can I see what bookings I have coming in for any given month?
Yes, by viewing the report detailed above.
What if I am full and get more enquires?
If your self catering business is full, please update the IONA system as per training guidelines. If you have direct enquiries when you are full, you may have referral arrangements with other providers in the area and can pass on bookings this way. visitscotland.com can also help customers in these situations because we have a full range of self catering properties nationwide. We suggest that you give out the following telephone number for visitscotland.com;
- 0845 2255 121 (from within the UK)
- +44 (0)1506 832 121 (from outside the UK)
Opening Times
- 8.00 am to 8.00 pm Monday to Friday
- 9.00 am to 5.30 pm Saturday
- 10.00 am to 4.00 pm Sunday
If I get a complaint from a customer and I have done my best to resolve it but they are still not happy what should I do?
The customer must raise the issue with you at the start of or during their stay, to allow you the opportunity to put it right. If you are not able to resolve the issue or the customer is still not happy, please advise them to contact us at visitscotland.com. visitscotland.com will make best endeavors to resolve the issue with the customer and will refer to the Quality and Standards team if required.
I am VAT registered, what are the implications for my business?
We send you an invoice as if it had been sent to us, by you. You may already have this arrangement with other agents working for you. It saves you having to raise an invoice for the 10% commission that you pay us, even though it is taken by us from the customer’s payment. You will still need to account for and be able to reclaim the VAT on this commission. This is a standard Inland Revenue system called Self Billing.
How can I contact my guests?
Thousand of customers book their holidays through an agent or intermediary. Once the deposit is paid,visitscotland.com supply full contact details and encourage providers to contact customers and to be in touch to discuss arrival details and to cover any other information required.
What about short break bookings?
In today’s market place there’s is a high demand from consumers for short breaks. Feedback from self caterers providers tell us that there is big growth in the short break market area . The visitscotland.com booking system will enable you to advertise your business for short break stays .The functionality will be in place to allow you to do this , it is your own business decision whether you choose to make your business available for short lets or not.
How can I be sure that visitscotland.com will give me bookings?
This is a major initiative by visitscotland.com with significant investment in processes, training and systems. We are very committed to growing our self catering business and we will work very closely with you, the providers and VisitScotland Marketing teams to raise the profile of self catering in Scotland. One example is the work that is being carried out to optimise our web site so that search engines such as Google quickly bring prospective customers straight to our site. Also changes to our main search facility to include self catering properties will increase visibility of self catering properties on the website. Additionally VisitScotland added self catering to the generic marketing campaigns last year and will continue to include them in future campaigns.
I have just bought a self catering property and have read much of the information on this site. Where do I go to see about signing up?
Please email our provider team initially who will advise you updates@visitscotland.com
How can I improve the chances of my property getting bookings?
- Make sure you have all your business data correctly entered
- Make full use of the space given for your description and use good photos
- Maintain your availability because when our customers search by date you will be listed in top results where you indicate availability
If you do not provide availability or it is ‘unknown’ you will still be listed but lower ranked, therefore less likely to get bookings.
Can I still call my local Tourist Information Centre( TIC) to let them know I have availability?
If you have a current arrangement with your local Tourist Information Centre, continue maintaining this relationship until otherwise informed. As you will now be offered a secure web based tool (IONA) to maintain your availability , you will have the ability to maintain your own availability.
Do I have to be around to take bookings from visitscotland.com?
We will need to contact you when we have an enquiry for your business. Please ensure we have your correct contact details on our system. In the future, when we offer you the opportunity to provide allocation, we will be able to automate the customers booking process, which will remove the need to contact you at the time of booking. We will keep you advised of developments in this area.
I am not very good at updating things on the internet - will I lose business if I don’t do this?
Indicate your availability and you will be returned in our searches where we have a request for those dates. If you do not maintain your availability or pricing, you are less likely to be returned within our searches.
Note: If we are frequently finding that you are showing availability and we find every time that your are not vacant we will get in touch regarding this as it is wasting the customers (and our) time.
How will the visitor see my own terms and conditions?
There is a standard set of legally binding Customer Terms and Conditions (T&Cs) which apply to all Self Catering bookings made through visitscotland.com. These are issued to the customer at time of booking by email or post. Although these standard T&Cs cannot be varied there is the opportunity for each Self Catering provider to add reasonable and concise special booking instructions that must be adhered to for each of their properties. There is also the opportunity to specify your policy on Group Bookings.
Any information that a provider sets up in the special booking instructions for their property will automatically be included in the customer booking confirmation issued by email or post to the customer at time of booking and forms part of the contract for that booking.
Please note that there is limited space for the special booking instructions, otherwise it would not be possible to fit them in to the customer booking confirmation.
Having received their booking confirmation, by continuing with the booking (ie not cancelling) the customer is accepting and agreeing to be bound by the T&Cs that have been issues to them - both the standard visitscotland.com ones and any additional requirements/information that have been stipulated by the self catering provider in the special booking instructions.
Self catering owners/operators should not separately issue customers with any other terms and conditions either on arrival or before, as these would not be a valid part of the contract and would only lead to confusion.
Do I have to take a security deposit?
This is entirely at your discretion.
Why do you only accept Credit /Debit Cards?
visitscotland.com took the decision to take payments this way to ensure that when a booking is made with us, it is guaranteed. Payments by cheque take time, can ‘get lost in the post’, can bounce and involve extra administration . Payments for late bookings are also much easier by card. We know from industry feedback that cheques often cause delay and uncertainty with bookings.
How do I inform a customer that I have some special information for them?
If you need to advise your client about arrival instructions, key access, security deposits, cot/dog charges, unsuitability for your accommodation for storing diving gear or golf clubs, different arrival/departure time to 10.00/16.00, avoiding same sex groups by adding ‘Families and mixed groups only’, then you can enter this into Special Booking Information in IONA which the Contact Centre can advise the client and is also printed on the Booking Conformation.
Until an update is made in Phase 2 of the project to being able to only book for certain arrival days and periods it is advisable to mention any specific arrival dates and length of letting in the above.
If you have any other questions , do not hesitate to contact; updates@visitscotland.com
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