Not enough bookings. Should I lower my prices?

[Sara]

I am just starting out in the rental market so let me give you a bit of background about our property so that you can all wisely advise me on how to get more bookings!

We have bought a villa in the Peloponnese, Greece. It is in a great spot for both the beach and cultural trips but isn't one of the holiday "hot" spots in Greece. I've been advertising on a few sites since mid-DEcember and have 6 weeks booked. I have to get about 12 weeks to cover my mortgage/maintenance, etc for the year. The villa is still not finished and so the photos do not do it justice at all. We doctored a couple of shots so that it appears that we have a garden and a pool - it's just a cement hole filled with rain water in reality! When putting pricing together I looked at pricing of villas in the rest of the Peloponnese and have come in just under them. However, I have now looked at other parts of Greece and the islands and prices seem to be lower there by a good 10-15%. I haven't had an enquiry for a week and am beginning to panic. Do you think I should lower my prices now or hold on a bit longer? I'm concerned that those who have booked may see the reduction in price and be a bit put out! Should I wait for enquiries and offer a discount at that time ?

Any opinions would be greatly appreciated.

Sara

[Guest3]

Hi Sara

If you have already undercut the prices of the rest of the villas in your area then I would be inclined to leave your prices as they are. The other option is to advertise 'special discounts' with the listing sites that you are with to get rid of unbooked weeks. That way guests who have already booked during the same period will not feel 'put out'. I often advertise special offers with generous discounts to get rid of unwanted weeks (with good results). I'd rather have the villa occupied than empty.

Will the pool and garden area be finished by the time your first guests arrive?

[Elizabeth]

Hi Sara,

I have sympathy with your predicament as we are currently in a similar position. We are in the process of restoring a cottage in the Cotswolds but are unable to market it as the only photos we have are of the outside..the inside still looks like a disaster zone with half a kitchen, painting going on everywhere and a grotty bathroom which we haven't even touched yet. It is impossible to market effectively, especially as we are doing quite a lot of the work ourselves and so have no definite finish date as we don't know how long it will take us. I know what it will look like in my mind but that is no help to potential renters!

I had a look at your website and it looks like the villa is going to be great. Fantastic views...I was quite tempted myself but unfortunately I have a cottage to restore! The only comment I will make is that it said 4 bedrooms and each sleeps two people but at the top of the page you say it sleeps 10. I am probably missing something as I only scanned it but it did confuse me somewhat. The price seems reasonable to me for a large villa with pool. Maybe you could make some comments about these prices being special introductory prices for the first year only. People like to think they are getting a bargain. Also, you only give a price range and do not specify for each period. Hence someone booking in May for example does not know how much they would have to pay without contacting you...in my experience people like to know exactly how much they will have to pay before contacting you. Some pictures of the local attractions may help.
Hope this is some help, it is just what struck me when reading your website. Good luck with the bookings.

[enid]

This will be our third season - but when I started advertising the first gite wasn't finished - we finished one of the bedrooms completely and one side of the salon and I used those photos with lots of the outside and the region. We did make 10 weeks of bookings even though we didn't start advertising until February - so don't give up yet.

[Hells Bells]

I set up my website over 6 months ago when our property was only half-built. I put in lots of pics of the area, and a progress report. It is now complete, although there are still other unfinished chalets around us, and so far all my peak weeks are booked until mid-March (it's in a ski resort). Not too bad for a newly-finished property. I'm concerned about the pricing thing too, the developer said they should be higher to reflect the quality of the apartment, but I've had a couple of enquirers say it is too expensive. I'm thinking of reducing the prices a little, but marketing it for couples, and charging extra for more guests.

[vrooje]

Helen,

If you're booked for peak weeks, I wouldn't lower your prices. There will always be inquirers who think a property is too expensive!

[Hells Bells]

Yep, all my peak Winter weeks are booked, so I guess the pricing of those isn't a problem.
Helen

[Sara]

Girls, thanks for your comments. I'm feeling much better today as I got a week booked in June. I still have 4 weeks of the peak season to fill but will hang on a bit before I drop pricing. I have put detailed pricing now for each month to see if that helps.

Thanks Sara

[tansy]

also perhaps - I haven't looked at your site - I'm only going on what other folk have said who have property on Greek islands... be clear about how you get there, flights and flying dolphins etc.... make it easy for them... for me it is just a ferry trip and 35 minutes up the road...easy!

You will fill peak season...it's the off season the tricky times... but good luck!

[giofed]

It's been a week, not too much, and I would try doing it myself. Why don't you try google adwords? If you want to get good results you need to spend some money at the beginning, but then you can drop it as soon as you breack even. You could pay your clicks a couple of euros per click, but the return would be pretty good, I think since you would appear in first. Then, do not worry about the pool and so on. Do you have an idea of what it will look like? Then search for some VERY similar and stick it in...and do not worry about competition, people click on yours and if they like it they do not shop around much, if they don't like it, they won't come back. Easy? Not, but it will be fine. Good luck.
PS: try http://craigslist.org free posts almost all over the globe.

Giofed

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