I will make some enquiries and come back to you.

Sarah

Hi madabouttravel ... as the T&Cs of the Private Rentals section indicate, the free advertising facility is available to our established members with a proven and ongoing record of providing regular and useful advice in our holiday forums. Unfortunately we regularly have to remove adverts from new members who do not yet fit that criteria, or from anyone who appears to be using Holidaytruths solely or primarily as a means of free advertising.

Our records show that you first posted an advert as a new member in January 2006, but then never used your account again to provide any advice or input on the forums. That advert was removed. You then logged on to that account briefly again on 11 January this year, before creating your new account that same day and posting another advert for the property two weeks later. That advert along with your original account were removed.

When you have perhaps been with us for a period of months with significant input of useful advice and information on the holiday forums over that period, we will be happy to reconsider an advert from you.

David

Thanks for explaining. It didn't say anywhere how long you had to be a member for or how many posts you needed to make. The advert's not really that important. The forum is very interesting to read and be a part of.

There is no minimum number of posts specified, because some property owners would then start posting loads of trivia across the forums in order to reach that post count. As soon as the advert was accepted, they would then disappear and never post again. For that reason, acceptance of an advert is based on both the quantity and quality of posts over a period of time, as well as continued regular support of the site after the advert has been posted. Unfortunately it was a case of a significant number of property owners spoiling things for all by trivial posting sprees, ficticious reviews and recommendations for their own properties, touting for business in the holiday forums, etc., and so we had to tighten up the conditions of posting in the Private Rentals section of the site.

David

Hello again. Can you please tell me what I have to do to be able to send private messages? It says I'm not authorised to do so, but I have to PM admin to authorise my signature. Are these things also related to how long you've been a forum member? Thanks.

I'm not sure re your pms but authorising a signature is along similar lines to the private rental ad. You would need to be a member for a while before you can ask. I'm afraid as you only joined 3 weeks it is unlikely to be authorised. As David says, we have had some people in the past who join solely to advertise their business so we have had to put up safeguards.They have a big posting spree and then try to put an ad in. We found that once the ad went in the posting stopped or slumped. In the case of a signature we found that threads would be added to just to advertise. We like folks to join just because they want to participate in the forums. You seem to be enjoying doing that so I hope you will continue. Ads and signatures are really given as a recognition for being a helpful and interested member of longstanding. (even then, we wont give an ad to someone who is running a property renting business- it is purely for members' holiday homes)

Thank you Fiona. Yes. I'm enjoying reading the forums. It's a bit addictive though! Can't help checking for new posts in those I'm interested in.