Simply Owners reviews

'We have never used Air BnB for our client bookings. Not only are their guest fees too high, but so are their host fees. All costs have to be transferred onto a guest somehow as they are a cost of sale. Airbnb are going to price themselves out of the market if owners can offer direct booking prices which are so much lower'.

Just as an aside we don't advertise with them also because their refund policy is onerous on hosts. We have a big property and there is almost no way we could relet the house if a client cancels 30 days before they were due to arrive. ours is a destination house sleeping 14 guests. These kind of bookings are often made months in advance and last minute cancellations would be catastrophic for us.

Best wishes,
Susannah Churcher

Simply Owners has doubled our direct bookings When we first started our villa rental, our plan was to rely mainly on OTAs managed by our villa manager. Our villa manager always does an excellent job with regards to bookings, and the feedback from our guests confirms that this extends to on-site support too, which is always quoted as being outstanding. However, listing on Simply Owners has opened up a whole new market for us and completely changed how our bookings come in. Since joining Simply Owners, our direct bookings have doubled. Today, around 60% of all our bookings are direct, with half of those coming through Simply Owners. The beauty of direct bookings is that we can offer guests better prices without the added OTA mark-ups. That said, we still value OTAs for their global reach, heavy advertising spend, and flexible cancellation policies. Being listed on both platforms means guests can choose whichever option feels right for them. One of the biggest advantages for guests booking via Simply Owners is the Payment Protection policy. Through this, it gives guests the confidence to book directly with a holiday homeowner who they’ve never met in person. Behind the scenes, Simply Owners has also been a pleasure to work with. The property management system is straightforward, and their customer support is outstanding; always polite, helpful, and quick to respond. For us, the results speak for themselves. If you’re thinking about encouraging more direct bookings, we’d 100% recommend it. And if you’re wondering where to start, look no further than Simply Owners

We live in a secret part of Warwickshire, just a mile or so off the historic Fosse Way, in our home on our smallholding, which we've lived in for over 30 years now. Our place is surrounded by beautiful countryside, footpaths and farm life, (in our case sheep, ponies, bees) There is a barn conversion in our front garden, far enough away from our home to be private yet close enough if help is ever needed, which we designed from a tumbledown barn for my mum and dad some 15 years ago.
 We love our home, its seclusion and peacefulness yet accessibility for visitors to tour around the area is priceless. When my mum passed 3 years ago, the only option to be able to stay here was to open our doors. We started full of trepidation butlet’s face it, needed the income so we opened the doors to our self-catering visitors. This was a big scary step for us but a good decision too. It has allowed us to remain in our own home and also to share the warmth that the cottage imbues – its history, its comfort and its soul – with our guests.
 The cottage has embraced its new lease of life and ever since its conversion for mum and dad has felt welcoming, comforting and in the epic words of one guest review “It wraps you up and gives you a warm hug” every time you step over the threshold. And as a huge bonus we have made so many new friends along the way!
 Not knowing much about on-line marketing and feeling quite vulnerable, we started off by signing with a large agency to feel our way into the industry. This inevitably had its ups and downs…although occupancy remained high, between 60-70%, in the first couple of years, back-to-back short breaks at heavily discounted rates were not a great introduction to self-catering life when we are doing all the changeover and maintenance work ourselves as well as running the smallholding. Hard work for two aging pensioners!
 By the end of the second season we made the decision to hand in our notice to fly solo. The need for a flexible approach to bookings, and higher income per booking, was becoming paramount to our health and sanity! We had already generated a healthy level of repeat business so felt more confident in our ability to market ourselves and increase our repeat and referral business.
 The combination of signing up with Simply Owners, advertising in WI Life and improving our Facebook profile to target our older, retired market has really paid off. We can safely say that in 2025 over 80% of our bookings have been direct and next year that figure will be 100%. A complete turnaround from 0% in 2022, growing to around 30% in 2023 and just over 50% in 2024. This, combined with many more week-long stays and less short breaks with higher changeover costs, has significantly increased our income per booking and given us the flexibility to leave an extra day between bookings to ease changeovers as well.
 So, thank you Simply Owners! You have given us the support and security we needed to go it alone and have generated valuable business, around 20% this year, to help keep our heads above water, grow our own identity and enable us to stay here in our secret part of Warwickshire.
 I hope that you like this,
 With best wishes,
 Berni Newcombe

Simply Owners. My Story. It all started many years ago, when my husband and I bought a large dilapidated house in Ramsgate. We converted it into two apartments, the top 3 floors becoming our home, and the lower 2 floors becoming a holiday let. I was pregnant with my daughter when our first visitors came to stay, and she celebrated her 50th birthday this year! She does most of the hard work of the changeovers now, I’m glad to say. Over the years we bought and sold various other properties, in Ramsgate and Broadstairs, up to 6 at one time, but now have reduced it to just one nice house in Broadstairs, quite enough to worry about at my age! I advertised in the local guide, and in Visit Britain publications, amongst others, long before the internet became the best method, and have always taken direct bookings, apart from a trial with an OTA a few years ago to try to attract more bookings, which did not suit me at all! I missed the personal contact with enquirers, and soon realised that the agents do not care at all that you might be saddled with bookings earning you very little, as long as they earned some commission. We have made many friends amongst our visitors, with a lot of them coming to stay with us year after year. Next week we have a German family coming to stay, for example, the lead member of whom was 13 when he came with his parents in 1979. And there is the family who came for Folk Week again this year for the 20th time, or the people staying at the moment, here now for their 15th visit. We love to built up a relationship with them, and hear all their family news and so on. We know some of their likes and dislikes, too, and special requirements, so that it is all more personal, and we hope, welcoming. The people in these examples, and many more, realise the benefits of booking direct with owners, rather that the impersonality of using an agent. So much better to communicate direct with the owner than through an agent who does not care in the same way. And of course, it is better for us, too, as we know what to expect from people who have 

visited before. Every year we seem to add another 2 or 3 “new” visitors who want to come again, through sites like Simply Owners, which is lovely. Penny Martin St Christophers, Broadstairs

As former fans of Owners Direct, we were sad when it changed direction, so were very happy that Tim Parkes started Simply Owners. We signed up at the very beginning and we're still here!  

A combination of a Simply Owners listing, a pin in the Google map, and a notice on the gate is all we require. Every new enquiry comes via Simply Owners, but 80% of our guests are regulars; some have been coming to the cottage for many years.  

We like the relationship we build with our guests. Dealing directly with them give us so much more flexibility. If there is no one in the cottage either side of a planned stay, we can allow early check in, or late check out. Occasionally, guests need to modify their dates because of some unexpected event; try doing that through one of the big platforms. We, on the other hand, can usually sort it with a phone call or a couple of emails. We recently surveyed our regulars about our arrangements and costs for cleaning; the feedback has been invaluable. 

Here is our story – The story of McArthur Manor

Imagine  Escape to the Chateau,  but in Scotland. That’s been our journey since 2017, when my wife Cynthia and I, along with our close friend Andy, set out to take a hotel in need of care and reimagine it as something truly special.

The foundations were solid: a historic building already set up as a hotel. But instead of serving independent travellers, we saw the potential to create a haven for groups, families, friends, and couples, seeking meaningful time together. Over the years, we’ve added facilities, refined our operations, and adapted every detail to suit the needs of large groups celebrating life’s milestones.

Renovation has become part of the Manor’s rhythm. When there are gaps between bookings, we’re not resting, we’re tuning and upgrading, always learning from the feedback of our guests. The positive comments encourage us, and constructive criticism helps us get even better. Step by step, McArthur Manor is becoming a finely tuned retreat built around togetherness and unforgettable experiences.

Today, around 80% of our trade comes directly from customers. We intentionally keep reliance on OTAs low, and our annual marketing budget is only a few thousand pounds. What truly grows our reach is the experience itself: word of mouth, glowing reviews, and returning guests.

McArthur Manor is more than just a luxury property. It’s a living project, shaped by care, attention, and the people who come through its doors. For us, it’s never been about running a venue. It’s about creating a place where people feel at home, connected, and part of something unique.

I own a large villa of 8 bedrooms, large garden and swimming pool in the Italian countryside and have been renting for 22 years.

Have direct bookings transformed my business? YES ! ! ! But in a slightly different way than I think this question was intended. 

I have been renting my Villa for two decades, having started out listing on the major websites well before they were taken over by management who abolished the subscriptions and imposed the new commission/centralized micro-managed model that we are all unfortunately familiar with. Simply Owners has “transformed” my business in the sense that I’ve been able to go back to the successful guest-focused hospitality business model that I started out with in 2003. I can now speak to my guests directly from the get-go: Simply Owners does not interpose themselves between me and a potential guest and, what’s more does not impose  their house, cancellation, booking and payment policies on me but lets me run my business the way I deem best.

For years after the demise of the old subscription model on vrbo/tripadvisor, I had to either accept OTA policies imposed on me by their corporate headquarters that I was not comfortable with or not list with them. These were policies that did not evenly serve the homeowner and the guest, but favored the guest – the real "client" of the OTAs. Then, as fees and rules mounted, it became more and more stressful to list with an OTA. I searched for a proper listing site like Simply Owners where I could simply pay them annually to advertise my villa and leave me to run my business without any interference. Finding Simply Owners and working with them is such a relief !  They do what they do best – run an excellent listing site – and leave me to do what I do best: run a hospitality business.

What’s more, I don't think the direct link is favored just by homeowners. Several guests that have come to me through Simply Owners have also seen me on vrbo [Simply Owners: I’m not sure if I’m allowed to use their name] but chose to book through Simply Owners because  they prefer to deal directly with the owner. They did not want to pay the fees that vrbo charges them and they didn’t want to be prevented from speaking directly – either via private email or the phone – to the owner prior to commitment.

Simply Owners allows me not to use OTAs at all. I maintain a listing on one of the OTAs, for historical purposes, but I have not booked through them for years. Putting aside the issue of being held arms’ length from my client, why would I pay their high booking and credit card fees, plus not get paid my deposit or rental monies until days after the guests have arrived or even left? Most guests book my house at least six months in advance, many a year or more. On vrbo, they pay the deposit to reserve the house right away and vrbo sits on the deposit and has the use of that money up until 3-5 days after the guest has checked in. Sometimes that is a year or more. That means that vrbo is using  my money and not only  not paying me interest for essentially borrowing my money, but deducting their fees when they finally belatedly pay it out! 

All my bookings come direct because I have a lot of word-of-mouth and repeat guests and specialized guests (weddings, yoga) who book as a result of my direct marketing. If I redacted from those guests the ones that I book through a listing site, Simply Owners provides 90% of those. 

Plus I’ve noticed in the last year that the higher quality and longer-term guests come through Simply Owners. Vrbo seems to attract the type of guest who wants to reserve far ahead (forcing the homeowner to block out the dates) so that they have the security of a booked date, but wants to retain the right to cancel without penalty almost right up to the last minute. Or, they want to reserve and book out dates while searching for “something better” or cheaper. And all the while you are holding those dates while bearing the risk that they may cancel. The OTAs, in my view, foster a culture of easy cancellation/no commitment. This shifts all the risk on the homeowner.

With Simply Owners, I have been able to book high quality guests who wanted my villa, were willing to commit seriously by putting down a non-refundable deposit (which is what I require) and then came, had a great time, and spread the word to others. That’s a good guest!