Lay My Hat

I actually took a booking due to coronavirus yesterday! They were booked for Lanzarote, but got cold feet and cancelled, and booked with me in Cornwall instead.

I mostly take direct bookings through my website, but find that at this time of year 2 nights is the norm (although I did get a 4 nighter recently). I usually have plenty of time in between to prepare for the next guest. In April to October however, I get back to back weekly bookings. It really depe...

I use it for one property and find it does most things I need and works well. The only thing I would like is the ability to take instalment payments by Stripe but it seems to struggle with this. Other than that I like the simple booking interface and find it adequate for my needs.

I strongly believe that those who do well with any one platform are those who historically have used that platform the most. It makes sense that a platform will 'push' properties that have shown loyalty and generated the most bookings for them. Once you start 'drifting away' by taking more bookings ...

Yes I saw this the other day too. I will be removing all my socked covers next time I'm there!

It really depends where you are and what others in your area are charging. Like Joanna, we charge a mid-season rate (about the same as for May and October half terms) in our Cornwall apartment. We usually advertise full weeks only for both Xmas and New Year but haven't yet achieved a full week booki...

Most of my bookings come from Facebook these days. However I am lucky that there is a very active facebook group for rentals in my area (Cornwall), with a very proactive admin team who are constantly driving membership up. I don't think I'd be anywhere near as successful with social media without th...

When I disposed of my Mum's holiday let I sold a lot of stuff on Facebook - local selling group and marketplace. Very easy - people just turn up and collect, although yes you do get the odd no-show. Mostly people want cheap prices, but to us it was worth it just to get rid of the stuff and not have ...

Bluebell 20% seems fair. I have recently offered the same due to building work next door affecting my guest's stay. Initially I was advised to refund in total all days that were affected, but the issue wouldn't have affected them 24 hours a day (nor yours, unless they planned to spend all day and ni...

I don't know the answer about booking engines, but if you prefer that guests phone anyway for last minute bookings why not just say this on your website, and take the whole booking over the phone?

Another vote for Out of Eden...I bought new towels from them last year and am very pleased with them. The quality is nice but they are light enough to wash and dry reasonably quickly. I chose a darker colour so they don't stain as much.

I don't accept dogs as we are a first floor apartment with no outside space, and also because I can't face the potential mess/hassle. A neighbouring property does accept them as they are ground floor with a garden. I am slightly cheaper than them, but we both book very well (popular beach location) ...

I have recently changed to no refund, after having suffered several cancellations just days before the two month non refundable window. I do state in my description that I will refund payments (minus an admin fee) as appropriate if I can re-let the week. My feeling is, if someone is put off by that ...

You should have filled in a direct debit mandate when you set up online payments - if you have, they will just take the payment back from your bank account. If this doesn't happen you will probably need to fill in a mandate now to allow for the refund. The service fee is supposed to be refunded to t...

Agree with Marks...unless the second enquiry came very shortly after the first (2 days at the most), I would not bother getting back to the first. Even if the second enquiry did come shortly after the first, I would only give the first until the end of the day to respond. They should be able to chec...