Changes At Hoseasons?

[JennyMorgan]

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/airbnb-looks-set-to-takeover-lowestoft-based-hoseasons-1-5315240

[KaptinKev]

Well if airbnb takes over, just lookout for secret cameras if I read the recent news on this sort of thing rightly.

[LondonRascal]

Airbnb is simply a company which connects hosts to guests, so if a host rents out a room and has in that room a secret camera that is down a weird host who needs to be kicked off of Airbnb's community and also why makes sense to get to know the hosts online through Airbnb before you book and arrive to see how they are to deal with and what reviews they have.

[SwanR]

Interesting article. Looks as if Hoseasons is up for sale so whether Airbnb buy it in the end or not, Wyndham are selling this and other brands that they own.

[dnks34]

I wonder what this means for the hire operators.

Airbnb Boating Holidays doesnt roll off the tongue in the same way, its always sounded to me like it should be selling flights not accomodation. 

[SwanR]

Just now, dnks34 said:

I wonder what this means for the hire operators.

Airbnb Boating Holidays doesnt roll off the tongue in the same way, its always sounded to me like it should be selling flights not accomodation. 

A lot of hirers book direct with the yards now and some of the yards don't even use them anymore. There are probably very few that don't run any kind of booking operation of their own.

[Vaughan]

What a pity that the "journalist" who wrote this article had obviously never heard of Wally's son Jimmy, who became one of the handful of men who genuinely made the Broads into what it is now, in those early years of the 50s, 60s and 70s.

He was a pilot with British Overseas Airways (BOAC) after the war before he took over his father's business and "pinched" their renowned bluebird emblem, which became so famous on the Broads, on the bows of all of Hoseasons boats.

A good friend of my father's and a man I came to know well. 

Such a shame that the EDP nowadays, seems to know very little of Broads history.

[C.Ricko]

most yards have known about this for a while now, in fact it was spoken about at the conference so i a little surprised it has only just hit the papers. 

 

[JennyMorgan]

Perhaps the paper needed time to get its facts wrong?

[Londonlad1985]

I booked with Hunters through airbnb in the summer and I've used them loads for city breaks. It seems like a good system. I don't think it would do Hoseasons any harm to modernise a bit. It could introduce a new raft of potential tourists to the broads... of the more tech savvy types that may not have heard of Hoseasons.

[Oddfellow]

Just because AirBnB is a possible buyer it doesn't mean 

1) it's a done deal

2) that the AirBnB sales model will be applied. In fact, I would suspect that the majority of boatyards would strongly reject such a model. 

 

I have, for a long time, said that Hoseasons is no longer a necessary part of the Broads boat hire infrastructure. The route to market via the internet is relatively simple these days. Whilst Hoseasons and Waterways Holidays provide boatyards with a turn-key system, thus saving boatyards for the effort of having to get into marketing and IT, the alternatives are many and varied and potentially cheaper. Proof of my statement is my own company which has never had a third party agent and whilst Freedom is small scale, Herbert Woods and Ferry Marina are not and both have ditched Hoseasons in the last decade and are still around and expanding. 

For those still with Hoseasons, there are clearly advantages for them and don't forget, Hoseasons represents lots and lots of holiday companies and thousands of holiday cottage owners too. There are many strings to Hoseason's bow. 

 

 

[JamesLV]

I believe the reason it’s called Air BnB is because it originated as a way for aircrew and cabin crew to ‘house swap’ on layovers

[ChrisB]

I Air BnB'd three times in Australia in October. Had three beautiful places at a fraction the cost of a hotel in Sydney where you are hard pushed to find a room near the waterfront under $500 per night.

[Chelsea14Ian]

I may be wrong,but think most yards can go it alone,many do so already. 

[DAVIDH]

Silverline, Summercraft, Bridgecraft, Sandersons and Brooms don't have bookable websites and appear on page two or later of Google for the search term "norfolk broads boat hire" (unpersonalised results), so I think they might struggle without Hoseasons. Plus you have to ask why with all the marketing muscle and reach of the likes of Richardsons, Faircraft and Barnes Brinkcraft, they still use Hoseasons.

[ChrisB]

Beds on Board uses a similar formula and can really help out with mooring fees. 

https://www.bedsonboard.com/

[JamesLV]

I think this is the thing with the 'agencies' such as Hoseasons etc, they have access to marketing knowledge, budget and clout that an independent yard might not have. Search Engine Optimization and Pay Per Click advertising are quite tricky things to master if you don't know what you're doing, and can be very costly if you get them wrong. Granted with Hoseasons you are sharing the marketplace with several other yards, but the market itself is much more visible, ergo larger.

Beds On Board was something I was going to mention as well, a great idea, but the uptake has been pretty small, so it's actually quite tricky to find one where you want one.

[DAVIDH]

The airbnb deal's off!

http://www.edp24.co.uk/business/airbnb-drops-hoseasons-lowestoft-takeover-bid-james-villa-holidays-cottages-com-1-5364146

 

[JennyMorgan]

As I read it Hoseasons is still for sale, hardly a confidence builder for their clients. 

 

[Meantime]

1 hour ago, JennyMorgan said:

As I read it Hoseasons is still for sale, hardly a confidence builder for their clients. 

 

These days any business is for sale if the price is right. I suspect given the auction comments they would even be prepared to give it away if a buyer could be found.

[trambo]

Perhaps a romantic and in the World of today a not totally commercial thought but why don't the hire yards on the canals, Broads and Thames form a cooperative or association to market themselves? They could even have a flag with a big A on it. 

Fred feeling nostalgic and getting old.