PROPERTY OWNERS FAQ PAGE

Questions: About us

• Why are you better than your competition?  

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  Firstly because we drive more international web users to our site than anybody else - type your keywords on Google.com and we will most probably appear on page 1 --, 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.

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• How can I contact you?  

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  You can contact us by email support@holiday-velvet.com, phone +44 (0)208 123 5035 or Skype: HolidayVelvet. Here is our Contact Us page.

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• How soon do you respond to emails?  

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  80% of the time we respond within 3 hours - the other 20% within 24 hours (weekdays).

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• How long have you been in business?  

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  Holiday-Velvet.com has been live since January 2006 but the idea was formed in June 2005.

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• What do you do with my personal information, like my email address?  

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  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.

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• How do you advertise Holiday Velvet?  

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  Successfully! We have a dedicated team of web advertisers that have managed to take us up the search engine ladder. We also do print advertising in different travel magazines. We have a facebook group page and are active on Twitter. We send out a monthly newsletter to our customer base filled with your deals (members get included today!). We actively target travel agents to use our portofolio of properties. We lobby travel journalists to write about us. and and and...

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• Who is liable if there is a dispute with my customer?  

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  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 read our Terms & Conditions carefully.

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• Do you act as agents for properties belonging to other people?  

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  Currently (January 2009) we provide certain property owners in Rome, Venice, the Amalfi Coast, Florence, Barcelona, Ibiza, Paris, the Provence, London, Prague, Berlin, New York, San Francisco, Phuket & Koh-Samui, with Velvet Support, meaning we take care of answering requests for them ensuring 24 hour reply to enquiries and a high-level of personal service. If you are interested in getting Velvet Support for your property please email James or phone +44 (0)208 123 5035

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Questions: About costs

• What does it cost to list my property on your website?  

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  We charge Euro 80 (approx. £70) to advertise one property for one year. Two properties cost Euro 120 and ten cost Euro 250 for one year.

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• Do I have to pay you a commission?  

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  No, you pay us a yearly fee to be included on our website. Property owners can advertise multiple properties, one, two or 10. To register follow this link.

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• How can I pay?  

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  Payment is made online through our partners PayPal. All you need is a credit card.

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• Do you store my credit card information?  

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  No, we do not even receive your credit card details. All online transactions are performed through the secure portal at PayPal.

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• How can I cancel my advertisement?  

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  Send us an email at support@holiday-velvet.com. Please include your username, the email address you registered with and one of the property names in your account. We will cancel your advertisement and send you a confirmation email.

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• Do you offer refunds if I cancel my advertisement before my year subscription is over?  

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  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.

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Questions: About creating your advertisement

• What do I get with my advert?  

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  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, link to a map, an availability calendar, and an online booking form which, when filled out by potential customers, will be sent straight to your email address.

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• What do I need in order to place an advert?  

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  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.

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• How do I list my advert?  

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  Start by create a user account and then follow the easy step-by-step process of creating your advertisement.

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• How do I update my advert?  

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  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.

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• What do I do if I need help creating my advert?  

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  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 email support@holiday-velvet.com.

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• How will potential customers contact me?  

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  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.

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• Do my picture have to be a certain format before I can upload them?  

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  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.

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• Why can I upload 6 pictures and not more?  

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  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.

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• Do you provide an online calendar tool?  

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  Yes, we have our own custom designed availability calendar but you can also link to your own calendar, on Homeawayconnect.com for example.

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• The area where my property is located does not appear on the dropdown list. Can you add it?  

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  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.

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• Can I mention my website address in the copy?  

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  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.

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Questions: About Troubleshooting

• I registered but I never got a confirmation email from you!  

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  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.

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• I don't manage to upload my pictures! Can you do it for me free of charge?  

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  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.

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• I thought I saved my advert but when I go back it's all gone!  

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  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.

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• Your phone number seems unobtainable, why?  

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  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.

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• I want to change my property name but can't figure out how to!  

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  Please email support@holiday-velvet.com and we will do it for you. If your advert has been live for over 2 months we don't recommend changing the name: changing the name also changes your advert's URL and Google most probably cached and ranked your URL. It will take approx. another 2 months for Google to cache your page again... .

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• I have listed my advert under the wrong destination! How can I change it?  

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  Please email support@holiday-velvet.com and we will do it for you.

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• I want to add more properties to my account, is that possible?  

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  In most cases yes! Please email support@holiday-velvet.com.

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