So that was January was it?

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
rosebud
Posts: 625
Joined: Wed Mar 14, 2012 5:24 pm
Location: Steyning, West Sussex

Post by rosebud »

28 weeks & 4 days booked for the remainder of the year.
23 weeks 2 days this time last year.

More & more bookings from Spring onwards are from outside the UK

OD viewings down but they are still the listing site that brings the most bookings.

Can't remember the last time I had a 'What is your best price' enquiry so things must be looking up! :)
SandyBeaches
Posts: 1071
Joined: Tue May 01, 2012 8:35 am
Location: Norfolk Coast

Post by SandyBeaches »

rosebud wrote:Can't remember the last time I had a 'What is your best price' enquiry so things must be looking up! :)
Same here. I was just saying that to someone yesterday.
la vache!
Posts: 11065
Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 7:22 pm

Post by la vache! »

rosebud wrote: Can't remember the last time I had a 'What is your best price' enquiry so things must be looking up! :)
Had one only yesterday, I'm afraid, but it was an enquiry from France, not the UK :lol: - still not out of the crisis here!
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charles cawley
Posts: 1205
Joined: Tue Sep 21, 2010 1:53 pm
Location: Herefordshire, Shropshire, Borders

Post by charles cawley »

I have found, as an agent, that guests using the automated system and the vast majority asking for manual payments 100%. But we do, sometimes, get guests who will not use a card to pay, do not have e-mail and will only book using the 'the full old fashioned'. Of these, most are excellent but a few can be the source of some upset.

It is, fortunately, very rare that we experience 'the cheque is in the post' concerns but it does give us a little experience of what go it alone owners must go through. Agents do make mistakes and we are not perfect. In the balance of things, my impression is that the approach of no 'provisional bookings except in exceptional circumstances' coupled with a similar rule towards deviations from advertised rates does work.

This is, of course, much easier for an agent to say because we stand to lose much less but, over many cottages, it can add up. The danger we face is upsetting owners with many fruitless enquiries. One of the main things they appreciate is that any booking we get is almost 100% going to happen, cutting out the emotional upset and uncertainty of some other approaches.

Discounting has been rife since the bad UK weather of 2012/13 followed by Christmas floods and, then, the cherry on the cake has been recent hyperbole from the Weather Forecasters with such phrases as 'Weather bomb'. It was with some relief that 'Snowmageddon' backfired when US weather forecasters emptied New York for seven inches followed by the ridicule of 'Nomageddon'.

Seven inches may have brought the UK to a halt but it is a sprinkling for that part of the USA. Meanwhile, some of the more extreme climate change people do not help with remarks such as 'as yet, there have been no major floods this year'.
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Dusty
Posts: 356
Joined: Wed Dec 19, 2012 3:32 pm
Location: St Cernin de Labarde, Dordogne
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Post by Dusty »

An interesting set of responses demonstrating a good deal of variety across the market, with no clear outcome or lessons to learn. We are doing ok as far as bookings are concerned but still have some availability, hopefully February will see an increase in interest and we can fill in our blank spots.
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