Booking Dilemma

[Hells Bells]

We are going to stay in our apartment for New Year, and were planning to depart on Sun 7th Jan. I have had an enquiry for 6th-13th, from a previous guest. I would normally have said 'no problem' , left a day early and changed the ferry crossing, but the 6th January is my son's birthday, and we had planned to ski (or even dog-sled) on that day, have a celebratory dinner, then leave the next morning. I could (but it may not be possible), move out and stay in a hotel for the night, but it would still mean packing up on the 6th, rather than skiing for the day. I think I should refuse the booking, but as they are also bringing friends, and want to book another apartment , they would lose the booking too.

[KathyG]

Hi Helen,

Dilemma indeed!

What about treating the 5th as your son's birthday, do everything you were going to do a day earlier instead? As it'll be your last day, it'll still be the finale to your holiday!

Anyone got any other suggestions?

Kathy

[Rocket Rab]

Hi Helen,

I suppose it depends how important that booking is to you...and indeed celebrating your son's birthday on THE day itself.

Kathy has come up with a pretty good compromise, though. Well worth considering (and the money from the booking would allow you to splash out on something extra special for your son...bribery? Moi?)

[Martha]

hmm tricky one!

how old is your son?

[Martha]

what I was wondering, is if there's any activity you could do that involved an overnight stay somewhere? e.g.dog sledding up to a mountain refuge for fondue and sleepover?

and also, if he's old enough for bribery

[Hells Bells]

Firebug, he will be 17. Having spoke to our friend this evening on Skype, there is a possible solution that could be good for all concerned. Apparently our previous guests have booked the larger apartment upstairs for themselves and some other friends, which is now not big enough for the whole party,as two or three others have decided to join them. The original party have already booked their flights hence the fixed dates, but the additional ones have not. So we are going to offer them the apartment for 6 or 7 nights from the 7th. I have already shortened our stay to keep my Mum-in-law happy, and would not want to leave earlier because it wouldn't be worth the hassle of the long drive down. I am sure the week will be booked by someone else. By the time I cover the extra cost of the hotel/activity on the 6th (and we would still have to move out, cutting out our time for skiing) it wouldn't really be worth it, as it's a low season week.

[Martha]

17 - wow!

Hopefully that will work out for you

[Hells Bells]

Yes, they grew up too fast, the elder one was 18 last month. I suppose that's why it is so important to me, we won't be celebrating many more birthdays like this with him. He'll be doing his own thing. They have usually returned to school by then,so it's a rare treat to be able to still be on holiday.

[Partridge]

If you're sure you will still get the week booked then that's ok. We had a similar dilema at the end of August, real last minute, like 5 days before. I really had to think on my feet as they wanted two weeks and we could only do 6 days but our friend downstairs could do the second week for them. We ended up staying with different friends up the coast the night we arrived, then drove down to the apt, our guests moved downstairs and our friends stayed with us one night before they flew home. Quite a hassle but we both got a weeks booking that we would not have done otherwise.