Booking 8.8 > 9.8 > 9.9

In 2021 90% of Poggiosole's bookings came via the eponymous (and ubiquitous) online Dutch travel agency. In 2022 about half our reservations have come through Booking, the rest through our website. But this year's lower share of Booking-referred guests doesn't diminish the importance of Booking.com to Poggiosole. Many of our guests discover us there. And while it's true that, on subsequent visits, many reserve with us directly, discovery is absolutely crucial: absent Booking.com far fewer people would know we exist.

Booking charges handsomely for this matchmaking. All things considered, including "Genius discounts", the premium Booking effectively applies to our base rates (assuming we wish to net the same from a Booking-generated reservation as a direct one) ranges from 20 to 30%. Ouch.

OTOH that hefty premium pays for a very sophisticated presentation of lodging and holiday options, including, crucially, each property's review rating: an average of the numeric value (on a scale of 1-10) that guests assign to their overall experience throughout their stay. Typically these ratings range between 6 and 10. To help the discovery process, Booking assigns qualitative terms such as "Very good", "Excellent", and "Fabulous" to these values, but, as is often true, it's the numbers that do the talking.

When, in May 2021, I took over management and custodianship of Poggiosole from my parents, our review rating on Booking was in the high 8's: 8.8 or 8.9 as I recall, with our sub-score for cleanliness trailing in the low 8's. My goal then, with the pandemic still very much on everyone's mind, was to move our review rating to the mid-9's by the end of 2022. As a small vacation rental operating in a very crowded market (the Chianti fiorentino is packed with properties that resemble ours), I saw the path of guaranteeing continuity of interest and revenue as inseparable from the pursuit of quality, inside and outside Poggiosole's lodgings. And as any seasoned Booking user knows, the line separating the best from the rest is two to four tenths of a point above 9.

So last week, when our average review rating on Booking ticked from a more-than-I-had-wished-for 9.7 to a nosebleed-inducing 9.8, I took note. Fewer than 1% of Booking's listings in Tuscany rate that high. The question is no longer how to move higher but how to maintain such a lofty score. But before succumbing to performance anxiety, I'd like to take a moment to:

1) thank Booking.com,

2) and our guests,

3) and our cleaning crew, gardeners, stone masons, metal smiths, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, furniture refinishers and painters,

4) and our master olive pruner Vittorio,

5) and our olive harvest crew Abdu, Soubero and their posse,

6) and our groundskeeper and all-around handyman Vasile,

7) and our pool guy Antonio and our lighting designer Paolo,

8) and my eldest son Elio who has punched above his weight this summer weeding, whacking, hauling, sanding, lifting and sorting while repeatedly beating Vasile at chess.

A special acknowledgment to Poggiosole's prior owner Giuliano Vangucci. Mr Vangucci's deep feeling and passion for the property had him make significant and costly structural improvements to Poggiosole's colonica (main residence) especially. In memoriam.

Finally, a heartfelt salute to my mom and dad for their wherewithal and courage: for taking the plunge, each of them roughly age 70 back in 1998, on an old stone farmhouse, seven hectares of largely neglected land, 500 craggy olive trees and a dilapidated hayloft (our present-day fienile). As I recall saying to them as we sat pondering the purchase back then, "The question is whether or not to commit."

Commit they did, the rest of us following.

Update, August 2023: our rating on Booking has edged up to a dizzying 9.9. We can't promise it will remain that high, but we will continue to work in the same spirit that brought us here.

Update, December 2024: we are still at 9.9, though now with only 25 extant reviews versus almost 40 about a year ago, due to Booking's policy of letting older reviews expire and "fall off the back" of a three-year timespan. There have been changes. Our groundskeeper Vasile left us earlier this year, to return to his native Romania. My son Elio is less present at the farm with university studies and his own life to pursue. And Poggiosole has gotten more expensive. Fewer inquiries are coming from Booking now that we are pricier and also listed on Vrbo and Plum Guide. But, as of today, many more guests have arrived at our front gate through Booking.com than from all other platforms combined. We're grateful.