Agencies - again!!

Here is an example of the way the travel companies treat small hotels.  We made a contract for next summer with AGENCY no. 1 (let’s not mention names) in the middle of October.  For the past few years they have ‘summoned’ us to their office to do the deed; this year they asked us to e-mail prices for next summer.  I sent through the prices we had already signed with another company, higher in every month than last year’s prices but with a peak rate (for just 6 weeks from mid-July through to the end of August) of only £30 for an apartment.  Probably because for the last few years we have agreed to very small increases in mid-summer and kept rates the same for low season, he was surprised and rang Cem to ask if we were making improvements to the hotel. Cem pointed out that we have already done quite a lot over the last two years WITHOUT noticeably increasing prices and eventually he sent the contract through for us to sign.

So imagine my surprise when I went to check their site the other day and read “We are no longer selling under this name” – or words to that effect.  Nobody had told us and when we called the agency who represent them here, they acted as though nobody had told them either.  They promised they would look into it and call back.  As they didn’t, I e-mailed asking whether we are still working together or not and have been sent a mail saying they will be in touch ‘shortly’ – which in Turkey could mean anything really.  So, after 6 years of working together, that’s how much they value our association.

very unusual - fog in Fethiye!

Meanwhile the Agency no. 2 – a new one for us – are not exactly excelling themselves.  The sales manager said he was choosing a small group of hotels from Calis and we would be the only apartment in our category.  However, when I went on to check their site, I found more than 30 hotels listed for Calis, some of which I know they can’t possibly be working with because they have been closed for more than a year (one was even knocked down last month; it has – after I pointed this out – been taken off the site!)  Amongst those 30 hotels was Poppy featured?..No!  I e-mailed to ask what was going on and was told that they had only got our contract late in October – despite the fact that we signed it in the middle of September.  Then someone e-mailed me to say we were now on the system.  I went on to see and found that you could indeed find Poppy apartments – if you did a search for Poppy apartments.  We still do not appear on the list of hotels for Calis, meaning basically that people who already know about us can find us on the site – but nobody else!

another amazing Calis sunset

Finally, we Agency no. 3 are once again behind with payments.  They have so far only paid for  May and June’s guests.  When I e-mailed last week asking for a date for the next payment I got the standard response saying they are checking my invoice – presumable July’s invoice which they have now had for 4 months.  I am actually beginning to worry that we might not get this money.  We took two hits a few years ago when first Vision Holidays and then Goldtrail went bankrupt and we really struggled for a bit.

At the end of the season I was feeling hopeful for next year, with the new contract and the number of happy guests we had this summer who said they will be back.  Now with these problems, combined with the political situation all over Europe and the Middle East, I could get quite depressed.  However I am trying to stay positive!  In that spirit, please check out our new web site at www.poppyapartments.com and here is a gorgeous video promoting Turkey.  It starts and finishes at the top of Babadag Mountain.  It would have been nice to have a few shots of Fethiye – maybe Paspator (the Old Town) or the harbour front – but you will see Oludeniz, Saklikent, Patara beach and Kas, as well as some beautiful bays that could be anywhere along the coast…

STOP PRESS:  OMG!  The Thomas Cook site has ‘morphed’ into Booking.com.  I have no idea what is going on and can’t decide if it is a good thing or not.  We are on there as we were already working with Booking.com  Watch this space….!