Lay My Hat

I have now shut as a B&B as all my bookings last year came via 1 OTA, it was not great - for six weeks from the beginning of May to the end of June last year I had no bookings. All the guests bar two sets were from Continental Europe. I think there are various factors which have compounded the s...

As you know I am parting company with booking. The other day I was working on my google business profile and low and behold when I clicked on some of the photos in private browser mode, some of my photos that I had taken for my booking listing, came up with a link to booking's website and other b&am...

I wish you all well with booking and I have no doubt that they will fill your rooms. However, I have parted company with them because I feel they have a stranglehold on the market. They will always want free cancellation for their guest, even if the guest is sitting in the car outside the house - a ...

If you want to fill your rooms quickly then booking dot com will do that for a fee of 15-25% of the rate you put the room on for depending on how much commission you are prepared to pay for exposure on their site.

Glad I could help and ask if you get stuck. If there is one plugin to put on your site it's Wordfence as it protects your site from hackers and other nasties out there. I found out about it on this forum. I would also compress images - clever app called Compress which takes the size of a 12mb image ...

I am not an expert but if you can build your site yourself, you will know how it works, have more control and be able to amend and change without having to wait for a web designer, who maybe more interested in the design, look and feel of your site rather than the purpose it is intended for. However...

A lot of wise words have been expressed all of which I agree with. Please think of the bigger picture and by that I mean you may have fallen in love with your chosen area, but will guests pay to come to stay with you in that area? How are you going to promote your property - it is a lot harder than ...

Voted No. Agree with others.

I am going to echo CarolineH's comments as I am based in Normandy. Last year the total number of UK based people who stayed here was 5: 1 couple, another couple and her father. I have had no bookings from the UK for 2017.

Yes, with Yorkshire Tea brewing inside

I think that scenarios such as these will occur more and more in the future as lines between B&Bs and hotels blur. I believe this is down to the OTAs and one in particular in the way they insist each listing looks the same to the viewer of the webpage. I am with you on this; guests seldom realis...

Or HA!

That is very kind of you KathyG but not even 25% would entice me back to OD.

Penny and Brad No you are not stupid and everyone needs a dream. My experience would have been vastly improved if I had found this forum at the planning stage as you have. Just be careful and spend time doing research. You may find that a small B&B with your IT work might be an option to look at...

Hi Penny and Brad The advice given above is something that you should take on board as it comes from experience. People watch the TV and see the prices of property and think "oh I can do that renovation" and to be honest do not go there unless you have a contact book full of reliable, Fren...