Describing a float week

[Pappy]

Hey Sam,
Just got done viewing a new ad. The property is a float unit. The seller has not used the fields where Gateway allows a description of weeks a unit floats. This will now require interested buyers to use the paid contact feature to find out what is for sale.
I know you put much thought into the ad input to allow sellers to receive valid offers rather than just the standard questions. The more info provided in the ad, the closer the contact is to being an offer. Perhaps the input fields were not adequate for this seller? Maybe some instructions on filling out ads would help? Can anything be done to get additional info in the ad already listed?

[GateKeeper]

Hey Pappy,
Thanks for the ongoing interest in the classifieds site. We're always willing and able to address these issues with a little input from our friends.
Anyone placing an ad on our classifieds site has full access to the ad information after placing the ad. In the "My Account" section, each ad is listed with relevant information about the status of the ad, the expiration date, etc. You will notice that the Resort Name in the ad is actually a "hyper-link" or URL. Clicking on the resort name in the ad manager form brings up the original ad where changes can be made to all the information in the ad.
I hope the person who has floating weeks will read this and find it easy enough to go in and correct this information. You make a good point about some "direction", it might be possible to make the field "required" if the selction for weeks = "float". This way it can't be avoided. What do you think?
Thanks for the good questions?

[Pappy]

Of course I don't know why that seller didn't use the field to describe the float period. It seems that you've provided a space that should cover most if not all. I would not like to see a "trap" in there forcing use of the float description field in the event that the field wasn't adequate to describe the float, but a reminder balloon might open explaining that better descriptions bring better offers. Maybe there could be a way for users to alert the site in the event that a float or any fact about a timeshare could not be adequately described on the ad input form.

[GateKeeper]

Hi Pappy,
We would never want to "trap" someone into entering information that is not relevant. I believe the right solution will be to simply put a warning message on the screen if they leave the field blank; this should get the message accross without being too imposing. Thanks again for the suggestion!