Folly Beach Townhome

01/03/2024

When renting through any of the major online listing services... confirm the features of the property/listing that are important to you.

AI has been implemented for awhile and usage is increasing. Locations are by latitude/longitude so "nearby" businesses/features/destinations may be close as the crow flies but a long drive (especially in barrier island geographic regions). An owner had a photo including a great deal of blue sky interpreted by AI as waterfront and tagged as such. Photos are being switched around. Verbiage the owner is not responsible for (nor true) is inserted into listing info and in one case into a property’s description and lately it seems even photo captions are vulnerable to being overwritten. It’s causing problems from both perspectives and not the owner's fault at all.

I’m not saying this to sway you to book direct, truly I am not. Just alerting you to make sure you take note of the features that are important to you and confirm them once reservation is made... so you’re not disappointed and... the owner is not left dealing with an angry guest and confusing situation not of their making. None of us can monitor our listings for accuracy constantly.

I liked technology… in the 80’s… when it actually saved time and was useful in the hands of a skilled human… now… not so much.

20/02/2024

Book Direct Day - continued thoughts and some additional tips...

The graphics below with abbreviated points are all good… but… I wondered if publicity of fraud attempts (that exponentially increased during pandemic) have caused hesitancy to book direct. I suspect I’d need a bit more information to feel confident if I wasn’t familiar. Fraud has existed on both sides of the equation for a long time and has definitely escalated the past 4 years but there are steps you can take to help protect yourself.

Reserving through an online listing service/OTA is likely costing you 15-20% more than booking direct (re: service fees to the listing service) and although some listing services provide protection for bogus listings by offering refunds or alternate accommodations in that event, they generally do not require proof of ownership, nor proof of the right to manage a property when a listing is posted, which seems to me to play a part in the overall problem. If something went wrong you may be shifted to another property, or a motel, for which you would be grateful for any assistance during a stressful occurrence in the event of a fraudulent listing or natural disaster etc. I’m not saying that’s without merit, just be aware you’re paying extra for that. Some listing services are so fraught with unpleasantness that owners are compelled to increase their prices to cover the issues that are certain to arise periodically... so you’re paying even more.

If you feel the need to speak to an owner prior to reserving here are some tips… even if you prefer to reserve through a big presence online listing system it’s still nice to be able to speak to an owner first (especially for a place like ours).

Check the person you are dealing with legitimately owns and/or manages the property. I believe any honest owner should be glad to offer assistance in confirming and be glad you were doing your part… as we’ve been forced to elevate due diligence regarding outright fraud (stolen credit card data) and even more alarmingly in my opinion… “friendly fraud” (an oxymoron if ever there was one…).

Property Ownership Records - This may feel a bit complicated for those never involved in any sort of real estate records search on a regular basis and jurisdictions have different systems and formats and ideas about public records so it may prove to be a bit difficult but definitely helpful.

Utility Bills - A decent secondary approach, but would be easy enough to fabricate so I’d not rely on that alone.

License Or Registration Numbers - Most jurisdictions are now requiring license or registration and the listing services to provide owner's a designated data field to post their STR (short term rental) license/registration etc (and most owners will also post this their on their websites). For instance... the City of Folly Beach requires such and you can call or email them to check out who is authorized to rent/manage a property and get and/or confirm contact information.

Call The Owner/Manager At Least Once… apparently it’s easy to spoof outgoing phone numbers…

… AND be aware if an owner has published their phone number on the internet… as we all did back when things were friendlier... they likely have had to rearrange their phone service and implement call filters… you may have to leave a voicemail or jump through a hoop to connect… during first quarter of 2020 spam calls became outrageous here... something had to change… it’s difficult to get anything done if the phone is ringing 80 times a week with bogus calls… so... don’t let call filtering alarm you.

Listing Title - Owners who began renting after the "by owner" sites transitioned to allow (and actually offered preferential treatment to management companies) were often savvy enough to designate the name of their website as the title of their listing.

Google Image Search can also be a useful tool.

Breadcrumbs... may be found in listing verbiage… read it all.

Name - Sometimes even just a simple name search of the owner or manager will get you the information you need.

Payment - ALWAYS PAY BY CREDIT CARD if you choose to rent direct... (not a debit card).

08/02/2024

Ahh... even better... the book direct map owner created a web page for it and has added a page of links to regional sites and general info.

https://www.directbooknetwork.com/

08/02/2024

Direct Book Network Map... started by a good owner a few years ago. Zoom in on the map where you want to go.

Vacation homes directly from owners, no booking fees. DirectBookNetwork.com Colors indicate occupancy YELLOW - 1 to 5 GREEN - 6 to 10 RED - 11 to 15 PURPLE - 16 to 20 BLACK - more than 20 The following have varied capacities: BROWN Star - multiple rentals/varied capacity MAROON Bed - BnB, hostel/var...

08/02/2024

It’s Direct Day!

Good advice in graphic below... although I would add to be sure to pay by credit card on first encounter... and another hint may be that many governing agencies require that short term rental license number etc. be posted on internet listing sites. I would also add google image search as a powerful tool. Nobody really minds if you feel better about renting through one of the major online listings sites... but in order to actually speak via phone prior to reserving... you'll need to put in a bit of extra effort.

Haven’t posted in awhile and this new page layout has me baffled… please be aware we don’t use FB messenger so if you’re trying to reach us call or use contact form on our website.

There’s also a google map with a lot of properties an owner started compiling a couple years ago that has grown with owner managed properties who are happy to book direct… will post that too...

08/02/2024

08/11/2022

https://follybeachtownhome.com/blog/reviews/

08/11/2022

Surprised... it seems with facebook lite app we can display reviews hosted on OwnerRez (integrated property management system... which we are very pleased with... API connected to listing platform(s) and securely connected to our merchant processor so we no longer manually process credit cards nor need to securely store that data ourselves... guest enters credit card info into OwnerRez secured system). Reviews auto-update as new reviews trickle in. Ahh... I see... the app is rendering the full page in mobile format. Still... I think it's helpful...

08/11/2022

Snowbird escape available: It seems there may be an ongoing glitch on a listing platform we use. We do offer winter Snowbird 4 week reservations from early January through February. The code on our estimate/quote page is not necessarily set to calculate this way but you are welcome to contact us for a custom quote.

availability click for add'l CURRENT INFO & general CONTACT FORM We're leaving a week between guests until we can again find reliable cleaning help that doesn't conflict with synthetic scent free requirement. It saves you time, effort & money to bookmark our website in your web browser... we're cons...

06/12/2021

Good advice... and many governing agencies are also requiring that business license number be posted on listing sites. I would also add google image search as a powerful tool. Nobody really minds if you feel better renting through one of the major online listings sites... but in order to actually speak via phone prior to reserving... you'll need to go another route.

28/05/2021