Lay My Hat

'What dates do you have available? Thanks #name'

We repond to such inquires with a "thank-you but we really need a more specific timeframe..."

I just reply with 'the calendar is fully up to date'.

I've had telephone enquiries where they just say "I'm phoning about your holiday cottage; could you tell me a bit more about it?"

Where do you start? What they usually mean is "is it available on x date and how much?"

Or I get "can you tell me if your cottage is available?" I'm sure they think they don't need to give specific dates because it will be fully available anyway. They sound genuinely shocked when I then say their dates are already booked.

For a 2 bedroom apartment that is fully booked:

Travel dates
Arrival 01 August 2015 - We are flexible on the arrival date
Departure 07 August 2015 - We are flexible on the departure date

People in party
Adults 10
Children 3
Infants 0

My best ever was:

"Hi, can you please give me your best price? A discount of 30% would be good for us"

I replied with a very polite answer and a discount, but not 30%(they only wanted three nights) and never heard from them again - I wasn't surprised but would love to have known where they ended up staying....... somewhere less than lovely, I hope!

Marks wrote:For a 2 bedroom apartment that is fully booked:
People in party
Adults 10
Children 3
Infants 0

Marks, I have had this a few times via PIMS. The box to enter the number of guests is prefilled with a 0. Sometimes the guests type in the number 1,2 or 3 and the 0 remains, making the guest number 10,20 or 30.

Therefore, if I have availability, I respond as if the number was 1,2 or 3 etc. As you don't have availability it doesn't matter anyway, but I suspect your enquirer might be a single parent with 3 kids. On the other hand, as it's you, it may well be 10 adults!

JanB wrote:"Hi, can you please give me your best price? A discount of 30% would be good for us"

Reply:

My best price is [fill in the list price here]. A discount of 30% would be bad for us.

Nemo wrote:

Marks wrote:For a 2 bedroom apartment that is fully booked:
People in party
Adults 10
Children 3
Infants 0

Marks, I have had this a few times via PIMS. The box to enter the number of guests is prefilled with a 0. Sometimes the guests type in the number 1,2 or 3 and the 0 remains, making the guest number 10,20 or 30.

Therefore, if I have availability, I respond as if the number was 1,2 or 3 etc. As you don't have availability it doesn't matter anyway, but I suspect your enquirer might be a single parent with 3 kids. On the other hand, as it's you, it may well be 10 adults!

This is from Spain Holiday where enquirers have to select the number of adults/children by clicking on the number that they want, they cannot overwrite the field.

The enquirer was Spanish, notorious over occupiers

Here's my latest, copied exactly as it was sent to me today from my eBay listing for March:

we are looking after our granddaughter x 2 for a week from 2nd of April she loves swimming age 3 all of us are looking for a bit of sunshine looking at your listing with the heated pool i think this will fit our requirements can you help us with a transfer from the airport we will be flying from Newcastle have not looked at flight costs just yet as this is school holidays

Sam V wrote:.....we will be flying from Newcastle have not looked at flight costs just yet as this is school holidays

And when we do we will realise flights are too expensive so we won't bother or will ask you for a discount....

Marks wrote:

Sam V wrote:.....we will be flying from Newcastle have not looked at flight costs just yet as this is school holidays

And when we do we will realise flights are too expensive so we won't bother or will ask you for a discount....

Definitely one for the time wasters pile I think, Sam.

Sam V wrote:Here's my latest, copied exactly as it was sent to me today from my eBay listing for March:

we are looking after our granddaughter x 2 for a week from 2nd of April she loves swimming age 3 all of us are looking for a bit of sunshine looking at your listing with the heated pool i think this will fit our requirements can you help us with a transfer from the airport we will be flying from Newcastle have not looked at flight costs just yet as this is school holidays

Why don't you nip over on the 'plane with them & carry their bags too?

kyreniagirl wrote:

Sam V wrote:Here's my latest, copied exactly as it was sent to me today from my eBay listing for March:

we are looking after our granddaughter x 2 for a week from 2nd of April she loves swimming age 3 all of us are looking for a bit of sunshine looking at your listing with the heated pool i think this will fit our requirements can you help us with a transfer from the airport we will be flying from Newcastle have not looked at flight costs just yet as this is school holidays

Why don't you nip over on the 'plane with them & carry their bags too?

Oh yes, they'll need someone to carry the bags to the taxis waiting right outside the terminal building. Simples.

I'll add to the list the one I got from HL - simply "5 people and dates, requesting to book". No message at all. I wonder how many people she fired that off to because she hasn't booked with me!