Hoseasons 2016

[DAVIDH]

Just received the new Hoseasons 2016 brochure through the post after ordering on-line a few days ago. No surprises - all the boatyards are listed including Alpha though not Swancraft of course.

Each boat listing is quite small however so I need a magnifying glass to see the detail. Richardsons/New Horizon still only showing a small selection of their boats with the invitation to go on-line to see the full range. Also, each boat only shows a summary of pricing again with the invitation to go online to get actual costs. 

Faircraft really pushing the boat out (sorry) with their Starboard collection. Many added from last year. So far the only boats I can find as new for 2016 are Fair Commissioner and a Broom Captain, which is surprising as last season was better than average what with the overall fleet size reducing, overseas pricing, airport security delays and in resort terrorism fears. 

Regards

David

 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

Hi David,

 

I can`t see the logic behind only showing a selection in the catalogue, but inviting you to see the rest on-line. It sounds like they`re competing with the very agents they are contracted to?. Strange?.

[Oddfellow]

He means check the Hoseasons site on line - not the individual operators.

There are probably a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, Richardsons is massive compared to anyone else which would heavily skew the brochure. Secondly, print costs.

 

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I see what you mean now Andy,

i do think it`s bad though that they are driving people to go on-line, when still, there are millions of people who don`t want to have anything to do with the internet. This sort of action IS losing them customers, because if someone wants a boating holiday, but their ideal boat is NOT in the brochure, and they don`t go on-line, what are their options?. It`s no good trying to explain something by word of mouth due to individual interpretation.

[LondonRascal]

Frankly, I am surprised Hoseason's still keeps the Broads within their 'umbrella' of water based holidays and I recon if ever Richardson's decided to 'go it alone' and rely upon their own very well designed website, social media and marketing campaigns to cater for customers and attract new ones (remember they even had TV adverts made for themselves)  that would kiss goodbye not to Hoseason's as a company, but to featuring the Broads when they could concentrate on other waterways here and abroad.

In my opinion, the time is right for companies to begin to 'shepherd' people increasingly towards online booking - and remember, even this is beginning to get a bit 'old school' to have a large website to maintain as more and more people don't use a computer to perform a transaction, but a 'smart device' like a tablet or phone through and App.

There are already companies in the hotel markets that provide only an App as a way to book - with live chat a preferred way to deal with queries.  I myself use Hotels.com reasonably often, but only the App and often save a few pounds for so doing as an incentive to use it and not the main website.

While there may be a good proportion who do not understand how to, or do not wish to for whatever reason use the Web to make bookings or buy things - it is getting to the stage where those people can be (to be blunt) let go.

A physical brochure costs a lot to produce, costs a lot to post to people and from the moment it is printed is either out of date or unable to be changed  - not to mention the environmental impact in having them produced and getting them to peoples door mats verses a data centre in Texas serving up a website amongst many hundreds of other companies sharing the energy footprint to run such.

I'd give it another 3 to 5 years for the days of the printed brochure to be over - that goes for things such as the Argos catalogue too, it is simply too outdated and paper running alongside digital for the same content can't be a wise financially.

 

 

 

 

[JennyMorgan]

I wonder if 'driving' people onto the internet is not quite simply a ploy to choose their customer base? 

Hoseasons has always been statistics driven. Perhaps computer savvy people are more desirable as customers? Whether we like it or not the car that we drive, where we live, our accents, the dog that we own and our christian names, for example, all information that is seen as relevant & desirable to our marketing gurus. 

[JennyMorgan]

Re the Argos catalogues and the web, both my daughter & I have tried using their new Fast Track service, the one designed to take on Amazon. In both our cases it's been less than a pleasurable experience. If Argos, & others, want to major on the internet then they really have got to sort out the gremlins before they rush in. Hopefully Hoseasons have got it right, both for their own sakes & those of their customers.

[JennyMorgan]

Just a thought, apparently Google & others build up marketing statistics based on our computer usage. Targeted advertising is seen, in many quarters, as the cost effective way forward. Perhaps not so much now but there was a time when yards 'chose' what type of customer could hire their boats. Perhaps not so much the case nowadays, any customer is better than no customer, but certainly the case in years gone by. There is no question that some yards have gone 'up-market' as I believe is the intention of Hoseasons itself.

[NorfolkNog]

11 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

There is no question that some yards have gone 'up-market' as I believe is the intention of Hoseasons itself.

You could have a point there Peter. I heard that Hoseasons quote socio-economic classes (I think that's the right phrase) for their  'target' customers.

I had to chuckle because I certainly am not in any of those classes!!!

[JennyMorgan]

You probably are, Howard. We all like to think of ourselves as one offs, but someone somewhere will have pigeon holed us, even Maurice Mynah!

[imtamping2]

Bloody big pigeon hole to get a Morris Minor in....

[NorfolkNog]

3 minutes ago, JennyMorgan said:

You probably are, Howard. We all like to think of ourselves as one offs, but someone somewhere will have pigeon holed us, even Maurice Mynah!

   

[BroadScot]

Flat caps.... pigeons....I see a connection somewhere! 

 

Iain.

[NorfolkNog]

7 hours ago, BroadScot said:

Flat caps.... pigeons....I see a connection somewhere! 

 

Iain.

Sounds like where I live Iain   

[SwanR]

May I remind those advocating the move entirely from paper content to digital that there are still people in this country who don't have a computer or internet access or a smart phone or tablet.

My 96 year old mother-in-law is the most amazing woman I have ever met in my life. She embraces technology as much as she can but she doesn't have a computer or an internet connection where she lives. She is still very active despite problems with her eyesight and her hearing. She gets two buses to go to the bingo twice a week! She has an e-reader which we keep an account for and every so often we buy her more books and bring her device home to transfer them for her. She has a digital camera and every so often we bring that home and get the photos transferred to our computer and send them off for printing. But you really can't presume that no-one still needs that good old-fashioned paper catalogue to browse ... and I think it's wrong to say that those people are not valued consumers ... or in LondonRascal's words should be "let go".

Personally I also sometimes like to sit and browse the Hoseasons brochure rather than try to keep flicking between pages online. I would also disagree that sufficient people are moving to tablets and apps to stop using websites - I don't have a tablet and I don't use apps, everything I do online is done on my computer. If that makes me a dinosaur then so be it. 

[LondonRascal]

And you are far from alone Jean in not having a tablet or using Apps – and while it may seem as if I am all for the push forward to banish books and catalogues I am not but it is none the less an inevitable conclusion.  

A very good example of how an App has caused a very big change and a hell of a lot of problems along the way, is Uber.  Something you thought was pretty unchangeable - getting a taxi - has suddenly been turned upside down where you see where the nearest is to you, and in a couple of taps its picked you up and after being dropped at your destination, no money has physically changed hands between you and driver - who thought that would lead to protests and all the headlines it has.

Of course for many is nice to be able read through something, make a choice and pick up the phone and talk to someone, ask questions get some reassurances and just feel generally more human and appreciated as a customer and that you are talking to someone – a real person - to make a booking with. 

Having said that, if you are a small business you can ‘punch above your weight’ with a website that you might not be able to afford with glossy brochures and print advertising – and it must be nice for the likes of a B&B to have been busy with breakfast orders and then thinking about doing the house keeping to come to the computer and notice, without any effort someone has seen you on Expedia, made a booking and paid – all of this can’t happen in the paper world and I find it fascinating how quickly things have come along.  I still can’t believe I am now able to actually make journeys around London and pay for things tapping my phone on readers – my phone has become a credit card and travel pass whatever next!

[JawsOrca]

I work in IT, I'm a software developer.. I read books made with paper (Belive it or not they still print IT training material!).. I read magazines printed on paper.. Computers/tablets/phones etc are usless for reading on... There is nothing nicer than printed material.. I will never change!! 

(Stop being lazy Hoseasons) 

[Guest]

I agree with Jean, it is unfortunate for many people for so many things to gradually become only available via the Internet.

....and I say that as someone who has been a computer geek for 40 years, since affordable "Personal Computes" first appeared. I learnt programming on a Sinclair Spectrum, then CPM, then PCs, then changed careers to become a Systems Analyst/Programmer, for the bulk of my working life.

I started online back in the Prestel and Bulletin Board days, initially with kit built modems, long before broadband.

Yet I can very clearly see how awkward and uncomfortable many people are with computers, and always will be. As I'm sure many others do, I assist many friends and acquaintances with PC problems and setting up etc.. and although most are very intelligent people, the gobbledygook that surrounds most IT subjects often leaves them utterly confused. Even keeping them safe with a free antivirus program like AVG needs constant visits when they are lured into the paid version or it otherwise fails to update, leaving them vulnerable to viruses.

It's bad enough that online shopping and commerce has now taken over, but the demise of local high street bank branches is now forcing people to online transactions, something that makes them much more vulnerable than ever before.

The younger generation have been bought up with it, so it is difficult for them to appreciate the problem.

[Gracie]

For me there's something special when the Boat Brochures come through your letter box, when i was a little girl we would spend hours sitting on the floor with our parents picking a Boat for the next years holiday and if we couldn't all agree there would be a vote, I do the same with my own family, just doesn't seem the same on a keyboard somehow. I also don't think you can beat a beautifully illustrated, proper book, just not the same reading on a tablet. How sad it would be if, when my children are my age books and brochures no longer existed.

Grace

[SPEEDTRIPLE]

I`m sure most on here have read some of my posts where i say i`m a ludite, and proud of it.  The big problem with everything being done on-line, is that there`s a stash of digital evidence of every single little dit, slash, letter hyphon, you name it it`s there, and no matter what you do, a very adept hacker can quite easily get into your system and change things, without you ever knowing. Despite all these so called impossible to break code words, passwords etc, someone somewhere will be able to get into your system, and you or i can do absolutely s.d all about it.

Iflatly refuse to do on-line banking, it is NEVER safe, and has been proven as so, i flatly refuse to be bullied into doing anything on-line, with the exception of buying a few CDs and DVDs. I never book holidays, or insure my car, or anything on-line.

What i do do, is to browse the internet and get all the relevant information i need for something, then i phone them up. Then, when they try to push me to buy it on-line, i tell them no, and if they are`nt interested in my custom, i`l go elsewhere. That`s when all of a sudden, they ARE interrested.  The internet should NEVER have ever been used for anything more than an information super highway.  It also makes people lazy, and it has been proved that most young people will suffer serious arthritis problems in the future because of the way they are constantly using their hands and fingers in an unhealthy way. I`ve always been a very scynical and suspiceous person regarding why authority or body that wants everybody doing everything on-line. It`s their way of keeping tabs on everything about you, just like CCTV.  As long as i can keep coming onto this forum, and keep in touch with family and friends viia faceache, that`s all i`l do on-line.

 

[Guest]

2 hours ago, SPEEDTRIPLE said:

......I flatly refuse to do on-line banking, it is NEVER safe, and has been proven as so.......

I'm afraid that statement is not completely true Neil.

What is true is that online banking is OFTEN unsafe, and has been proven so.

I've used online banking for 14 years, shifting money between accounts and paying bills etc., and never had a problem.

I readily agree though that it should only be attempted by people who are very familiar with computers, who can spot the numerous scams and aren't fooled by them.

I have in fact advised many of my "free support" friends to not touch it with a barge pole, because they could easily fall for a scam.

I completely agree that no-one should be forced into online banking, but I fear that it is unstoppable.

[Siddy]

"fall for a scam"

Ok your so called bank rings you (scam outfit) they ask a few question to make sure it you etc so if it's your bank or not it's normally 3 questions.

So a few years bank I was connecting a video call back to the states for a meeting and they were discussing security between them and public ( major store cards this was). So I said how about when you set your account up you have to give a password. They can't not see this password but you could ask them the 3 letter 5th number etc and they select this to give you the answer so you know it is your bank etc. pens went to paper but not seen it yet.

 

[Oddfellow]

20 hours ago, JawsOrca said:

I work in IT, I'm a software developer.. I read books made with paper (Belive it or not they still print IT training material!).. I read magazines printed on paper.. Computers/tablets/phones etc are usless for reading on... There is nothing nicer than printed material.. I will never change!! 

(Stop being lazy Hoseasons) 

Alan is right. IT Training is so much easier using a real book. I have shelves fill of IT books going back years and would not hesitate to buy more. 

However, the cost of producing them when demand is dropping, and surely the imbalance of the fleets makes this less and less important to the business at hand. It's not lazy, it's a business decision. 

[Guest]

3 minutes ago, FreedomBoatingHols said:

Alan is right. IT Training is so much easier using a real book. I have shelves fill of IT books going back years and would not hesitate to buy more. .......

It's funny, but I'd had the opposite experience with IT books...

Because they were mostly reference books, one tended to look up information in them, like a dictionary, rather than reading from cover to cover, (good thing too, since many contained over a thousand pages). Most were consequentially around two inches thick, so were quite unwieldy on the desk.

I came back from many a trade computer show with a bag full of expensive tomes, around £25 a book, (back in the 80's), most of which were thankfully paid for by my employer.

When the Internet arrived, with free instant access to the same detailed programming reference information, it was a huge time and space saver, where you can now simply Google something like "javascript browser sniffing", and get hundreds of hits on exactly what you're looking for rather than ploughing through a huge book. Better still, you also get valuable input from punters like yourself, trying to make sense of some of the more complex procedures.

I dumped all of my library of computer language manuals many years ago, after trying to sell them on Ebay, giving them to Schools, and even charity and secondhand bookshops.

 

[neilp1962]

You can't take a desktop pc into the loo for a sit & read, and I'd be scared of dropping a tablet or phone in the toilet. Holiday brochures were made for this purpose, they are unsurpassable.

See.....those fancy-dan marketeers need to get onto the street to see what the people really want