Lay My Hat Forum

[scaliwells]

This year we are doing well for whole house rental, but the B&B side of things, although enquiries are picking up, not getting many bookings.

My best site is visitfrance (VF), then OD, then chambresd'hotesfrance (only 10€).
Then a lot of french booking come direct thru 'googling' or word of mouth.

Other sites I am with produce very little or nothing -
Gite de France
Chez nous
theholidaylet.co.uk
Homelidays
HolidayRentals (not renewed)
stugsidan.se
fritiden.se
local tourist offices

I have tried a few other free ones but I never can do the link (mega probs).
I don't mind paying for sites, if they produce revenue, but I think some are marketing mostly to house rental rather than B&B. Any you can recommend? Is sawdays helping anyone?
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www.boussais.com (english version)
www.boussais.webs.com (version francaise)

[Nessie]

Bookings currently are not as good as last year for us.

The best site by far for us this year has been Abritel

Last year Homelidays was the main site but this year it is very poor , only have one booking from the site so far, not even getting enquiries from them , which is not a good sign.

all guests this year are from the euro zone. Finding guests are also not flexiable this year with dates. revious years the main of the summer enquiries have been for a min of one week but this year its 4 or 5 days

This time last year we were fully booked for July and August apart from 3 or 4 days , but currently July i still have at least one room free for the whole of the month and in places still have the 3
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Nessie

[pete]

half our referals to our site are from google, the rest come from homelidays, gdf, chambredhotes.org and charmetraditions, and the odd other free one, 95% of enquiries are direct from our site, and the rest via phone,

does this help ?

we have had at least one room booked every weekend since easter, and some of the weekends we have been full, but we are failing over the summer hols, ie 2nd 2 weeks of july and august, we have very large gaps - any suggestions about filling these greatly appreciated,

pete
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http://www.grandcoudray.com
http://www.grandcoudray.org - french version

[Brenda]

We are having to fight for every booking this year.

Homelidays have been our main site for the past 2 years - but very disappointing this year with only 3 enquiries and 2 bookings from them.

OD also very poor this year - will not renew when the ad expires next month.

Most of our bookings have come from free ads recently.
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Lake view B+B in Andalucia
www.bandblakevinuela.com
www.spain-holiday.com/rentals/accommodations/properties/5555/La+Vinuela/6/Malaga/0/Andalucia/La+Vinuela.html
www.ownersdirect.co.uk/spain/S3364.htm

[Giddy Goat]

One year on, and what are your findings folks?

My reason for asking is that a friend with a super B&B in Bavaria has been relying on word of mouth and passing traffic up until recently.

She has decided to be a bit more serious about the business, now has a website, and has signed up on a US site for B&Bs - however she would love to attract more visitors from the UK so I was wondering if you would recommend any others to her. She is German, her husband is English.

Thanks!
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GG
Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker (Ogden Nash)

accredited owners
Twit

[pete]

GG all our UK guests have come from

1 our own site,
2 stopover connections (because we are in the centre of france)
3 and one whos name at this moment escapes me but belongs to cassis
4 Your holiday matters
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http://www.grandcoudray.com
http://www.grandcoudray.org - french version

[Giddy Goat]

[Bruce]

We've had loads of French bookings from Pour les Vacances (we only joined two weeks ago, and 24 hours later we had two bookings)
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www.3placedesarbres.com - vegetarian chambres d'hôtes in Limousin, France