Questions: About us

• Why are you better than your competition?
• How can I contact you?
• How soon do you respond to emails?
• How long have you been in business?
• What do you do with my personal information, like my email address?
• How do you advertise Holiday Velvet?
• What type of properties do you advertise?
• Who is liable if there is a dispute with my customer?
• Do you act as agents for properties belonging to other people?

Questions: About costs

• What does it cost to list my property on your website?
• Do I have to pay you a commission?
• What are your current promotions?
• How can I pay?
• Do you store my credit card information?
• How can I cancel my advertisement?
• Do you offer refunds if I cancel my advertisement before my year subscription is over?
• When does my first year of paid advertising begin?

Questions: About creating your advertisement

• What do I get with my advertisement?
• What do I need in order to place an advertisement?
• How do I list my advertisement?
• How can I update my advertisement?
• What do I do if I need help listing my advertisement?
• How will potential customers contact me?
• Do my pictures have to be in a certain format before I can upload them?
• Why can I upload 6 pictures and not more?
• Is there a limited number on words in the property description or area description?
• I am using a Mac, can I still create and update my property page?
• How can I become a top seller?
• Do you have your own availability calendar?
• The area where my property is located does not appear on the dropdown list. Can you add it?
• Can I mention my website address in the copy?
• Are clients going to make the reservation directly with us or through you?

Questions: About Troubleshooting

• I registered but I never got the confirmation email from you?
• I don't manage to upload my pictures! Can you do it for me free of charge?
• I thought I saved all my info correctly but now I go on the website and I cannot find my property page!
• Your phone number seems unobtainable. Why?
• I want to change my property name but I can't figure out how to do it!
• I have listed my site under the wrong destination. Can I change it?
• I want to add more properties to my account. How do I add blank slots?
• My validation code could not be recognised. What do I do?

ANSWERS....

What type of properties do you advertise? - On our site you can advertise hotels, b&bs, villas, and apartments. Once you have chosen your category you cannot change it yourself, you need to contact us and we will do it for you.

What does it cost to list my property on your website? - We charge Euro 240 (or approx. $290 or approx. £160) to advertise your property for 1 (one) year. Given that an average night costs is Euro 125, our fee amounts to 2 nights occupancy.

What do I get with my advertisement? - Your complete advertisement will be displayed together on 1 (one) page on the website most relevant to your location (e.g. Barcelona apartment will be featured on holiday-velvet.com/barcelona). If your accommodation is also relevant to other topics for which we have dedicated sites for (such as Beach, Skiing, Golf, Yoga, Retreat, Safari, Cooking, Surfing, Boutique Hotel) then your property will be listed on one or more of these sites (for a list of all our current sites please check http://www.holiday-velvet.com). Advertisements include information about what type of property you have, room information, a description of your property, a description of your area, amenities, activities, rates, an availability calendar, and an online booking form which, when filled out by potential customers, will be sent straight to your email address.

What are your current promotions? We offer 1 year free of charge if you are amongst the first 100 to advertise on any particular destination (for a list of the destinations check http://www.holiday-velvet.com).

Why are you better than your competition? Firstly because we drive more international web users to our site than anybody else - this is done through various marketing techniques --, secondly because we have the easiest site to use -- for both users and advertisers --, thirdly because we care about your advertisement and regularly perform quality control.

What do I need in order to place an advertisement? You need to have access to the Internet, have a property you would like to rent out, and an email address that you check frequently. That is the basics. In order to maximize your sales through our website you need: to take good & relevant pictures of your property, update your page frequently, advertise reasonable prices and write good English copy.

What do I do if I need help listing my advertisement? Our system was built with novice Internet users in mind and therefore it is extremely easy to use: all you need to do is fill in the advertisement form and upload your pictures. Should you want us to take over this process please go to our contact page, ask for Velvet Support and specify what kind of help you need.

How will potential customers contact me? At the bottom of your advertisement page there is an online form for your potential customers to fill in. Once the customer clicks on "Submit your Enquiry" the form will be sent to you via email. The only mandatory fields on the form are email address, telephone number and country so that you can contact your potential customer immediately.

How can I pay? Payment is made online through our partners PayPal. All you need is a credit card. Should you be one of our first 100 on any holiday-velvet site, WorldPay will store you credit card details and charge you our yearly fee after the 6 months you get free.

Do you store my credit card information? - No, we do not receive your credit card details. All online transactions are performed through the secure portal at PayPal.

How do I cancel my advertisement? - Send us an email at support@holiday-velvet.com. Please include your username (the email address you registered with) and your password in your email. We will cancel your advertisement and send you a confirmation email.

Do my pictures have to be in a certain format before I can upload them? - Yes. You can only upload pictures in the JPG/JPEG format. You will need to convert your pictures to the JPG/JPEG format before you can upload them. This is very easily done with image editors such as Macromedia Photoshop. Also note that your pictures will have these sizes: horizontal pictures 210 x 158 pixels; vertical pictures 210 x 280 pixels. After registration we provide detailed information to help you dealing with your pictures.

Why can I upload 6 pictures and not more? Because more images will slow down the loading of your page. Most Internet users are still connected to the Internet trough a 56K modem. The likelihood that these will not have the patience to wait for 15 pictures to load is very high. This is also the reason why we recommend you save and upload your pictures at the sizes detailed above.

How do I list my advertisement? - Start by create a user account and then follow the easy step-by-step process of creating your advertisement.

How can I update my advertisement? - You update your advertisement by signing in to our web site with your email address and password (click on Login at the top of any page), selecting your advertisement, and updating the information in your advertisement. The process of updating your advertisement is the same as when you first created your advertisement. There are no limits to how often or what kind of updates you can make.

Do you offer refunds if I cancel my advertisement before my year subscription is over? You can cancel your subscription within seven days of payment. Should you decide to cancel, we will credit your credit card back with the sum you paid and cancel your account with us. Should you have uploaded any information by then, this information will be deleted.

When does my first year of paid advertising begin? If you are amongst the lucky first 100 to join our destinations free for 1 year then your first year of paid advertising will begin after that 1 year. After one year we will send you an email with a link to the payment system. Should you join after 100 users have already advertised in the your destination then you paid advertising year starts immediately.

How can I become a top seller? You become a top seller if your property gets at least 15 positive reviews a year AND if your average number of requests per month amounts to at least 15.

Who is liable if there is a dispute with my customer? You alone are responsible for the advertisement on this site and the business it generates. Holiday Velvet is in no way liable for any disputes you may have. Please readour Terms & Conditions carefully.

How can I contact you? - The preferable means of contact with us is through email. You can email us at support@holiday-velvet.com. You can also mail correspondence to us at: HOLIDAY VELVET Ltd, 68 Thetford Road, New Malden KT3 5DT, Surrey UK - Phone: +44 208 123 5035

How soon do you respond to emails? - We respond to emails within 24 hours during week days.

How long have you been in business? - Holiday-Velvet.com has been live since January 2006 but the idea was formed in June 2005.

What do you do with my personal information, like my email address? - We dislike SPAM as much as you do. We will never sell, trade, or give your personal information to anyone. Period. Please read our Terms & Conditions for more information.

Do you have your own availability calendar? - Yes, we have our own custom designed availability calendar but you can also link to your own calendar, on Rentors.org for example.

How do you advertise your site? Successfully! We have a dedicated team of web advertisers that have managed to take us gradually up the search engine ladder. We may also, at future dates, advertise our site in different medias, including Travel Magazines. Look out for us!

I don't manage to upload my pictures! Can you do it for me free of charge? Sure! Just email your pictures to support@holiday-velvet.com and state the name of your property. Alternatively, if you have an existing website, you can email us the website address and as long as the website was NOT build in Flash then we can take the pictures from it.

I registered but I never got the confirmation email from you? This may be because our email ended up in your junk mail folder? Please check your junk mail folder and if it has NOT yet been 3 hours since you registered then just click on the link provided to validate your registration. If it has been over 3 hours then please re-register. If you have an AOL account the email may not have reached you at all. We have contacted the AOL postmaster many times to allow our emails to go through and still AOL customers are having problems. We recommend using an alternative email, e.g. a hotmail or yahoo account when registering.

I thought I saved all my info correctly but now I go on the website and I cannot find my property page! Why? You may have taken a long time to create the page and not asked the website to "remember you". When you login we recommend that advertisers tick the "remember me" button so that they don't get log out while creating their page. If you think this is not the reason why your page is not showing please contact support@holiday-velvet.com.

The area where my property is located does not appear on the dropdown list. Can you add it? Please email us at support@holiday-velvet.com requesting the addition of your area. NOTE however that the areas in each destination are carefully chosen by us as the most popular web searches. You may want to list your property under the closest area to you.

I am using a Mac, can I still create and update my property page? Yes, it is just a matter of using the correct browser. Safari is still a "young" browser and cannot support certain features of our database, including the very handy wysiwyg editor that helps you create formatted text. If you are working on Mac just use the Firefox browser, which can easily be downloaded here.

Can I mention my website address in the copy? No, not in the copy. However we have a "link exchange" feature, whereby you place a Holiday Velvet link or banner on your website and in exchange we allow you to advertise your website on Holiday Velvet.

Do I have to pay you a commission? No, you pay us a yearly fee to be included on our website; we call them Velvet Packs. A single Velvet Pack allows a paying subscriber to advertise one property for one year on Holiday Velvet. Property owners can advertise multiple properties by purchasing mutliple Velvet Packs: one, two or ten. To see a list of available Velvet Packs for purchase follow this link.

Are clients going to make the reservation directly with us or through you? Customer enquiries will instantly be sent to you via email to the email address you have provided on registration. We get a copy for quality control only. You have the sole responsability to reply to the inquiry. After registration we provide you with tips on how to best reply to inquiries and convert it into a sale.

Your phone number seems unobtainable. Why? We operate on Skype phones, meaning we receive your calls through the Internet. We deem this technology to be very reliable but it does happen that certain calls do not come through. Please try us again or use our contact page for other ways of communicating with us.

I want to change my property name but I can't figure out how to do it! Please contact us and we will do it for you.

I have listed my site under the wrong destination. Can I change it? Please contact us and we will do it for you.

I want to add more properties to my account. How do I add blank slots? Please contact us and we will together decide how to change your Holiday Velvet plan to meet your requirements.

Is there a limited number on words in the property description or area description? NO! Go ahead, write all that you have in mind. Remember to use keywords related to your location and property type to maximise the chances of being found in search engines.

My validation code could not be recognised. What do I do? If in the email we sent you the validation link appears on 2 lines then please select the entire length of the link and copy it into your web browser. If you have waited over 24 hours since you registered to click on the link then you will have to register again.

Do you act as letting agents for properties belonging to other people? Currently (March 2007) we provide certain property owners in Rome, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Barcelona & Orlando with Velvet Support, meaning we take care of answering requests for them insuring 24 hour reply to inquiries and a high-level of personal service. If you are interested in getting Velvet Support for your property please contact us.