Another idea for getting winter bookings in properties configured for summer:
A Lay My Hat reader said she had a lovely house in the southwest of France, in historic country, lots of great restaurants all around, and she wanted to get some bookings in the off season.
I asked her of she had any skills she could pass on like teaching French, any passions like painting. It turned out she was a Bridge fanatic (the card game, not the river-crossing device). So she came up with the idea of advertising in the official Bridge magazine for a week of Bridge in the Dordogne, with breaks for dinner at a range of nearby restaurants.
A sort of gastro-bridge holiday. Could equally be a gastro-learn-french holiday, vineyards-and-truffles, chateau-painting, etc. You could supply the teaching aspect or outsource it. With the Bridge idea, she was just going to supply two tables and some cards, and let them get on with it.
Have you got any lateral thoughts for off-season bookings?
Targeting specialist bookings in the low season
Targeting specialist bookings in the low season
Paolo
Lay My Hat
Lay My Hat
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DivineMrsM
- Posts: 155
- Joined: Tue Dec 07, 2004 2:16 pm
- Location: The Dordogne and London
My sister (whose house this is) has good connections with mountain biking in the UK. She runs an annual 24hr event called Mountain Mayhem.
Apparently, where they are (the Dronne valley in the Dordogne) has some of the best mountain biking in Europe. We plan to make more of this by offering mountain biking holidays in the low season. She will probably provide basic meals (lasagne, continental breakfast, packed lunches etc) for a fee. It's a large house so it would lend itself well to this kind of thing.
Not for everyone I know, but I thought it worth mentioning
Apparently, where they are (the Dronne valley in the Dordogne) has some of the best mountain biking in Europe. We plan to make more of this by offering mountain biking holidays in the low season. She will probably provide basic meals (lasagne, continental breakfast, packed lunches etc) for a fee. It's a large house so it would lend itself well to this kind of thing.
Not for everyone I know, but I thought it worth mentioning
Lynne
for Metropolitan Retreat in London https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6712284
and
Le Cheval Blanc in France https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6714302
for Metropolitan Retreat in London https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6712284
and
Le Cheval Blanc in France https://www.airbnb.co.uk/rooms/6714302
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Christine Kenyon
- Posts: 623
- Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 10:58 am
- Location: Glenridding, Ullswater Valley, Lake District, UK
- Contact:
Expanding on the theme of off-season bookings, we have discovered an unusual source of bookings for our cottage in Troutbeck Bridge, near Windermere.
If anyone wishes to get married in the picturesque church at Troutbeck (and it would seem plenty do), the local vicar insists that they spend a week in the parish before the wedding. So far we have had three weeks of bookings from this source!
The moral of the story is something like: go to church over Christmas and get to know your local vicar!!
Christine
www.troutbeckcottage.co.uk
If anyone wishes to get married in the picturesque church at Troutbeck (and it would seem plenty do), the local vicar insists that they spend a week in the parish before the wedding. So far we have had three weeks of bookings from this source!
The moral of the story is something like: go to church over Christmas and get to know your local vicar!!
Christine
www.troutbeckcottage.co.uk