Stuff we did this week…

Web projects have a habit of taking far longer that you’d like, then they happen all at once. This has been a great week for getting some improvements nailed down. Here’s what we added:

Join us on Facebook!

We made enquiry data public – owners have to rely on their own enquiries or (worse) tittle tattle to figure out what’s really happening in the market. We decided to break the secret code of holiday rental websites by releasing our enquiry statistics. Public, live, honest and great for helping you target your campaigns – bookmark this page!

We got cuddly and social - we’re finally on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus! It’s taken us a while to figure out how we wanted to approach social networking without being one of the lame sites who start a page, do three posts then disappear. We’re keen to “do social” in an honest, sustainable, chatty way so please come and say hi.

Car hire: Sorry it took 10 years! - about a zillion car hire firms have asked to partner with us over the years. Most had either patchy coverage or poor technology and we never found anyone we could heartily recommend. That all changed with this Car Trawler engine; it works beautifully on site and is producing some genuinely good deals. Apologies for the delay!

We’re plugging a competitor. Surely not?!

We think you’ll like this deal with HomeAway for $75 off their US listing fees. To grab the discount, follow this special link and enter the code FEB75 when you pay.

Before you think we’ve gone nuts, there’s a few good reasons we mentioned it:

1. There’s no need to whisper, we know most owners advertise on multiple rental sites.
2. HomeAway.com has great US coverage. They offer a way to expand your audience beyond Europe.
3. Our competitors charge twice what we do! We figure owners need all the help they can get.
4. If you insist on using another site (smirks), at least this will save you some cash and get us a small commission. Nice.

Get in quick – the offer expires 29th February!

The banned Ryanair ad

Other news this week

Illegal holiday homes to be regulated within three months – the Junta in Andalucia is taking their first step to clearing up the confusing mess that characterises Spanish property law. They’re hoping the regulation of 250,000 illegal homes will be complete by May (via The Olive Press)

Spain’s credit rating cut again by Moody’s – the Eurozone car crash continues and Spain is suffering badly. There’s no denying our favourite holiday destination is going to have a very tough few years ahead (via ThinkSpain)

Ryanair ad banned for being ‘sexist’ – the firm we all love to hate before grumbling and flying with anyway has got into hot water by using their famous air crew calendar girls in an advertising campaign. Luckily the ban created some nice cheap publicity (via TravelMole)