Dear Alan
I am happy to give my permission for this e mail to be forwarded or publicised in regard to your appeal to have vs.com transferred to the public sector. I am happy to be contacted about my points.
As an accommodation provider, I feel that vs.com is only interested profits for its shareholders.
It has consistently failed to consult with or communicate its intentions to small accommodation providers like myself.
It fails our customers, the paying public by limiting choice and applying unacceptably high charges. It charges a commission which it calls a deposit.
Our guests think that this money comes to the establishment when in fact it is retained by vs.com. This is misleading to our customers and brings tourism Scotland into disrepute.
vs.com do not prominently display the contact details of our establishments on the first page of a search. This makes direct enquiries and having any specific questions answered very difficult and time consuming for potential guests. Guests should have a clear and easily facilitated choice as to whether they book through vs.com or direct with the establishment. The English Tourist Board prominently display the contact details of establishments alongside those of their booking hotline number. Whilst vs.com makes finding direct establishment contact details difficult and pushes its online and telephone booking service on enquirers, it fails to make this service available 24 hours a day 7 days a week. This makes the service pretty useless for customers who live in different timezones who have busy lives and who need a prompt response.
vs.com receives financial support from the public sector. This is a gross misuse of public funds given that even with its manipulative search tools to assist in maximising bookings for itself, it fails to make a profit. hours which makes booking a taxpayers money.
I wish you success with the campaign and agree that the Scottish Tourist Board Official booking agency should be in the Public sector and managed by people who know what they are doing and have a genuine interest in developing Scottish Tourism.
Yours sincerely
Dear Mr Keith
I wholeheartedly support your attempts to have vs.com converted to a public sector enterprise. From my experience, vs.com is purely a private company out to maximise profits for their shareholders. It shows little concern for the interests of its customers. It misleads customers as to the commissions it charges in that the non returnable deposit is retained by them and not passed on to the establishment at which they are staying. In my book, this is commission, not a 'deposit'.
vs.com do not prominently display the contact details of establishments which makes direct enquiries and having any specific questions answered very difficult and time consuming. The offices of vs.com are available limited hours which makes booking and asking questions difficult.
I understand that vs.com receives financial support from the public sector without which it would not make a profit. This is a gross misuse of taxpayers money.
I am therefore happy to give my permission for the contends of this e mail to be forwarded or publicised.
Yours sincerely
We have been critical of Visit Scotland's website for the last three years. It seems to us the site is designed to secure maximum revenue for the operators at the expense of both its customers i.e. tourists visiting Scotland and its subscribers who in the main are accommodation providers. The site is cumbersome and difficult to use, the number of clicks required to reach our entry and subsequent link to our website is twice as many as those required to access us via the British Tourist Authority site. The site is loaded to the advantage of accommodation providers willing to give Visit Scotland and hence their partners commission, in spite of the fact that all accommodation providers have to pay considerable fees to visit Scotland for local area representation, grading and classification and a web presence. Not withstanding this they also demand a booking fee from customers when reserving accommodation, nor as far as we are aware is there any process for accommodation providers claiming any of deposits or booking fees in the event of a no show. We think it would be revealing to see the accounts of Vsit Scotland and their partners to see exactly how much profit TVS are taking from this joint venture, how long the contract lasts, how the contract to TVS came to be awarded in the first place and the terms of any agreement. The last point we would make is that the visit site requires cookies to be enabled. Many people including ourselves block cookies for extra security, when using the site there is no mention of this unlike for instance www.ba.com We have raised this matter twice with Visit Scotland and have never had even the courtesy of an acknowledgement let alone a reply. We now are actively seeking alternative marketing methods and strategies to those offered by Vsit Scotland. One final point we would make is for more than the last 20 years we have been accommodation providers in several regions of Scotland initially with hotels (AA red star) and now in semi retirement we operate a five star B&B so we feel with our wide experience our views should be taken seriously.
Dear People,
I'd like to congratulate you for taking a stand against VS. They are at best, a waste of oxygen, and at worst parasites on the backs of hardworking small business.
We have gone to some lengths to put together a B&B that appeals to specific
audiences: children, food intolerances, and sports people. When we asked VS to help us to express our uniquenesses in their print and online resources, they refused, telling us that this was a matter for our own marketing.
Perhaps so, but we now find ourselves in direct competition with VS:
1. We advertise in competition with VS, because that's the only way we can express our USP.
2. We sell in competition: when we make a sale, we get all the money: when they make a sale they take 10% (which they, dishonestly, describe as a "deposit", to hide the fact that they've charged a commission as well as a booking fee too. That creates so much resentment among our customers!)
After spending more than £500 per year (in dribs and drabs) to be in the scheme, we expect a decent level or service. Actually, they send us very few referrals (not nearly enough to justify their fee!), and even the B&B Directory (a me-too private website) is giving us far more referrals than VS
(for a sub of £15 per year, no commission). Customers can’t find the TICs
in town (because they're built on low-rent, out of the way sites), and the level of local knowledge outside the TICs is non-existent. We're located right on the tourist route, and consequently we provide more referrals to other B&Bs in the area (for free, please note) than VS does - I'm sure the other local businesses will confirm that we're now the unofficial tourist office for the area.
VS is a service business - it has no product to sell - so how well does it serve? We discovered at the beginning of the year that our book entry had the wrong phone number in it - it had been changed silently by the designers. We have tried to resolve the problem, but now, as the season is closing, we have still had no meaningful response at all - not anything!
Now, we are VS's customer - we pay them £500 per year! - and we got completely ignored by them. If that's how they treat their paying customers, I can only imagine how badly they treat tourists (who don’t pay VS anything).
All we want now from VS is a properly representative stars system (which is prepared to recognise what we do well). Unfortunately, we can’t pick and choose like that, and we've got to buy the whole package or nothing at all.
Most of the package doesn’t work at all, and even the stars don’t work too
well (though, to be fair, that's improving). What we can pick and choose
over is the extra schemes (such as child-friendly and biker friendly). Know what - five years ago we were researching and developing exactly these products, and go no help at all. Now, VS has introduced the schemes (based, I add, on no real inside knowledge) and now wants to charge us £50 per year to show the sticker!
That's not all. What's worse, we've bought a brown tourist-board road sign (which was erected on road-safety grounds) and which we had to pay for, but which will be removed forthwith if we leave VS.
It's parasitic, it's protectionist, it's mercenary, it's dishonest, and it should be illegal. If they didn’t have our business by the short and curlies, we wouldn’t subscribe at all. There are businesses out there, operating out of one room, which are doing a better job than VS. VS should be exposed to the same competition that the other directories have to operate under (and which we have to operate under as well), and should live or die on their commercial value, not on their favoured jobs-for-the-boys status.
If I had my way, the local tourist offices would be owned by the local small businesses and run co-operatively. If they're there for our benefit (and if not ours, then whose?) then no other arrangement makes sense.
Regret that our comments have to remain anon since the grade classification inspectors are expected shortly and - working for VS - they may find our remarks unwelcome and introduce a bias accordingly in their grading. We were disgusted at the arbitrary manner by which South West members of the Scottish Tourist Board were thrust from the Regional organisation into a new authority about which very little was known. No canvas of members was taken. At the two meetings I attended at the time the feeling of protest was ignored, I can recall nobody speaking from the floor in favour of the transition. The platform speakers offered no specifics but were assuring of a great boost resulting for Scottish Tourism and security of jobs for staff presently employed. As a self-catering operator we were puzzled how the outline of intention could assist self-caterers. And our puzzle remains these several years later and is accepted by VS as a difficulty they have yet to overcome. The previous arrangement with the Tourist Board whereby enquiries received by them were simply put out for us to handle ourselves was happily effective. But the new VS is determined to be the manager of all bookings and wants to have tighter control of communication between ourselves and clients. However, since the inauguration of VS we have not received from VS even a single referral from a potential customer. We used to have many referrals from the Tourist Board previously. Do we have adequate information on the hierarchy of this VS control? Does VS make an operating profit? Who is running it? How much funding does it receive from Edinburgh and from Regional Councils? In the absence of independent financial analysis of these matters the suspicion remains - and is growing - that a gross mistake has been forced upon us, the operators within Scottish Tourism.
I support this campaign because as an accommodation provider I believe the tourist board is there to help me not attempt to divert business away from me and charge me 10% for the "privilege" of them placing a booking with me.
By not clearly displaying my contact details on the web site they are not acting on my behalf. The effect is to increase the cost of the holiday to the tourist who is being hoodwinked into thinking they are paying 10% deposit to the accommodation provider when in fact VS.com take the "deposit"
as a fee on top of the booking fee.
Good Luck with the campaign
I wish to add my support towards positive change for VisitScotland.com The current system is unworkable; no action appears to have been taken in response to numerous requests and suggestions from users; there is never any acknowledgement of such communication from anyone other than the excellent staff on the ‘front line’ who undoubtedly do their best to overcome serious shortcomings. The quality of service from VisitScotland.com is a blight on the tourism sector and has become a significant factor in preventing other quality initiatives from succeeding. It is now a real disincentive rather than the superb marketing operation it ought to be.
Gone are the days when you could call the local TI centre and know the staff by name - not only are you contacting a call centre but the staff are not interested in the accommodation you provide nor do they know where you are or how to pronounce the name of your property or the town/village that you live in. My unhappy experiences are to many to detail and go right to the top of the Visit Scotland admin team including the media department who hung up on me following their call to me requesting personal information which I was uncomfortable about giving - they were asking about my husbands business but wanted my name - since I wasn't related to his business and had other interests that I did not want influenced by the connection I felt that my name was not important and that his name should be the only one mentioned in the feature they were discussing - on explaining that the lady in question replied "Well if you are not prepared to co-operate I see no point in speaking to you" and at that hung up. Not very professional or efficient for a media department -
Further my mystery guest notified me that she was coming - raved about how nice comfortable and welcoming my accommodation was and then down graded me for not having an UNREQUIRED FIRE CERTIFICATE. No amount of explanation would be listened to and following a heated conversation with the head of the team he removed me from the grading scheme but did not return my fee nor did I receive my report in spite of many requests.
I feel Visit Scotland is not serving the community.
Blessings
Hi
I feel very strongly about the general incompetence of Visitscotland. We put our lodge on the market last year and thought the tourist board would be the logical place to start. Although the staff at Dumfries were very helpful, they were consistently let down by incompetence at the centre. Everything we tried failed. Failure to get on the web page for a long time. When we did get on bookings have been minimal because of difficulty in navigating the site. Initially Dumfries and Galloway did not get a mention on the home page. After a many failures we decided to get our bookings through cottageguide which is not only far cheaper but very efficient and provides us with bookings which the vastly more expensive visitscotland failed to do. We have now pulled out of visitscotland altogether. However, the incompetence continues. Last week we received a letter stating that if we didn't pay our fees we would be passed on to a debt collection agency. This is in spite of informing them as well as their grading people that we would not be rejoining. I then threatened them with my solicitor if such an event was to happen. I then received an e-mail apologising. I doubt very much if this will be than last I hear from them in an unwanted way.
Visitscotland desperately needs a complete overhaul and to be become more accountable to the people who are providing tourist services.
I continue to amazed how poor visitscotland is at attracting visitors to Scotland, and providing a service to accommodation providers. We have a 4 star guesthouse in Ayr, and helped pioneer the first attempt by VS at on-line booking, a few years ago. This was the worst on-line booking service I have ever seen, and was most "user-unfriendly". We use another booking engine with an independent agent, which has worked perfectly for several years. The amount of public money reportedly spent/wasted on developing the VS website is a scandal, and no doubt one of the reasons for accommodation providers having to pay so much to VS each year. I do accept considerable improvements have been made to the system now, and I am surprised we have not been encouraged to join the on-line booking. Having worked with VS in the past, I thought we would have been prime targets to join the system now. The Ayrshire and Arran guide is a good publication, and is the only reason we continue to be a member. I believe we do get a considerable number of bookings from this guide, and it should continue to be published. We get only a few enquiries/bookings from the local office, and of course the site of the office in Ayr is not exactly handy for tourists, being a small office with no convenient parking. The grading system continues to be unclear to visitors, with for example, a guesthouse in Ayr having 4 stars, but without en-suite in all rooms. I became disillusioned with VS and am now pleased that a strong co-ordinated body is attempting to lobby for change.
My Pet Hates
I have hated visitscotland.com since its inception. Their tactics are about how to make as much money for themselves and most certainly NOT about providing the tourist with what he wants. Having seen their tactics first hand when I visited a TIC in Blairgowrie about 2 years ago, I was shocked. Three men were enquiring about 'cheap' bed and breakfast. They were offered ONE place - the local hotel at £35 per person per night. Given that this was late September/early October, surely there were much cheaper B & Bs than that locally!
Another tactic which aggravates me is the fact that they charge the tourist for finding ME and then proceed to charge ME by taking a deposit from the tourist. If for any reason that the tourist does not show, then that deposit stays with the tourist board and I get absolutely nothing.
Then there is the tactic of buying rooms which obviously they will want to fill first before ever approaching ME
Then there is their vetting system. I have had the same lady for at least 10 years. She comes, spends 15 minutes with me and writes on her form that nothing has changed - same breakfast, same table setting. HELP - I think in 20 years she has stayed over once. She writes that the atmosphere in the hall is lovely but the atmosphere in the sitting room is not so nice. I always understood atmosphere to be created by the people. It was just her and me in both the hall and sitting room. IT IS ALL A HUGE BIG FIASCO WHICH, OF COURSE, COSTS ME MONEY
I also hate the way I have no contact with any guests who come to me through visitscotland. I cannot e-mail them to ask at what time they plan to arrive, nor can I wish them a safe journey or give them directions to my home. One guest was told to catch a number 16 bus from the centre of Edinburgh. HE WAS TRAVELLING BY CAR FROM THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND!! Why would he want to go into the centre of Edinburgh, park his car and catch a number 16 bus when he can park in my driveway?!!
It is my view that they plan to use and buy more and more bedrooms from hotels. Your little B & B will eventually go out of business and, as for the tourist, it will just be too bad. Then one must ask oneself the question, 'Will the tourist come to Scotland when there are no B & Bs left?' I know this may be some years down the line but it most certainly is heading that way. At the moment there are not enough hotels to cope with all the visitors who come to Scotland, so B & Bs are a necessary option. (Am I being too sceptical?)
Then there was the time they sent me a young man from Spain. Either he was an extremely good actor or he was disabled mentally. It must have been obvious to the girl who took the booking. Yet, I was given no warning. HE WAS A NIGHTMARE. I am a widow and it was just lucky that I had friends staying at the time who were able to support me and came with me when I drove him to the police station. Since the tourist board charges so much I am of the opinion that they should take responsibility when sending odd bods to B & Bs. These are the people they should be sending to hotels, where there is plenty of staff to cope. It's all about take, take, take your money. When i spoke to the girl who took the booking she admitted that she had had difficulty with him.
Hope the following makes some sense and is the sort of thing your after?
Please feel free to use if you think it appropriate.
I joined the Scottish Tourist Board (STB) Quality scheme over eleven years ago. The STB was a well recognised brand, synonymous with quality assurance and an eagerness to promote Scotland as a tourist destination to the benefit of visitors, the accommodation provider and of course Scotland. It has been a sad loss that the “brand “STB” is no longer in general use and replaced by an ill conceived & confusing “Visit Scotland “ (VS) brand. The VS “brand does not have the same sense of authority or quality as “The Scottish Tourist Board”
I had happily paid advertising and quality assurance premiums in the knowledge that the STB was marketing, on behalf of Scotland, its accommodation providers and the taxpayer.
It is not doubted that the STB did need increased funding and investment however the vehicle chosen to achieve this, the “PPP” has been less than successful especially for the Self Catering Sector(SCS). The composition of the PPP has already undergone major changes in its participation with the initial partner Schlumberger divesting its interest to another foreign company who again are only interested in producing short term returns for their shareholders and cannot have the long term interests of the Scottish Tourist Industry at heart.
I have found that there are serious shortfalls in the service offered to the SCS by VS.com. I presume that this is because the larger hotel & B&B sectors are more profitable for online bookings whilst the SCS has a more traditional ethos and does not lend itself easily or profitably to the marketing online concept of VS.com, and thus largely ignored.
VS.com and a separate VS (Scottish Tourist Board) is a situation that is incompatible with sound commercial marketing and incomprehensible to the taxpayer and the tourist, not to mention the accommodation provider. The VS marketing brand can only be successful as part of The Scottish Tourist Board in the public sector.
I have posted a comment to add to the discussion following the Scotsman article. In short, I find the VS.com website user unfriendly and in fact barely used by any of my guests. VS.com simply does not cater for the needs of small accommodation businesses where the proprietors are also the catering staff, housekeeping staff, receptionists, gardeners, maintenance workers etc etc - not to mention marketing staff! I have to wear all these hats at once - VS staff wear just the one each don't they?
Hi
We're not with VS - jumped from that ship LONG ago, and been with the AA ever since for our 'Quality Grading', why was that?: Cost, we found that to have a photograph, enough words to explain what we are (Rosette from WHICH? as one of Top 20 in GB & Ireland) non-smokers only etc in 'Freedom of The Highlands' it was working out at a ridiculous £600 - we only take two people for heavens sake!
Is it not true that Visit Scotland can only boast under 2,000 members? is that including 'attractions' etc? that is disgusting. In 2001 there were 1,057 members in the Highlands alone, and now? 759, someone needs a kick up the backside.
Way back in '96 my wife and I drove around Caithness and Sutherland and found over 400 B & B's that were NOT with the Tourist Board, 'cost!' was the oft quoted comment. What bright spark thought that continually increasing costs of joining would encourage membership?! We remember at that time asking for membership fees to be lowered to bring the 'lost ones' into the fold - of course fell on deaf ears, which is why membership is falling and folk are leaving in droves.
The days of 'brochures' are going/gone, it's the Internet now, and I won't go into vs.com, as not (thank goodness) involved but have been told by our own guests it's a convoluted process to actually get to be in touch DIRECT with the accommodation provider!
Nope we're quite happy thankyou to be with the AA, VS can continue with their policy of losing members and keeping their high costs (suppose they have to replace the lost members income)..
Sadly yours
Hi
We have a small apartment on the top floor of our house - two bedrooms overlooking a beach, showerroom and small but modern kitchen. It is let as self-catering b&b from 1 night to a month. Almost all of our visitors have been delighted at the flexibility of eating what they want, when they want it. Unless specifically agreed, we provide food in the fridge to the guest requirements.
Visit Scotland approached us for a classification award. A chap came for a short preliminary visit, and said, more or less, as we were neither self-catering nor bed&breakfast, we could only be a hostel! MacKay's agency are very happy with what we offer and have included us in their brochure. (I believe this is far more difficult than getting in the VS brochure) Visit Scotland are now threatening us with legal action as we refuse to pay their extortionate £170 for a service (ie classification) we have not received.
On another topic, Visit Scotland touted an 'Ancestral Tourism' seminar, for which I gave up a day, plus travel and £50+VAT fee, to be invited to give Visit Scotland my ideas, as (although it was not admitted in so many words) they did not have any! I have a Masters degree in Scottish History, 20 years as an amateur genealogist and a certificate in Scottish field archaelology. I do not know how to make these skills pay be in the tourist industry, hence the reason I agreed to pay them for their useless course.