Bookings for 2006.. How's it going?

[la vache!]

Hi Moose,
you must be the very delighted woman that French Entrée told me about that had filled her new gite with bookings from them when I told her I wasn't renewing!
I have been full in peak since early January and not one booking came from them.
I'm glad the advertising is working for you, as you said, it's a bit of a lottery which sites work for any particular property.

[Hells Bells]

my website is doing the 'biz' at the moment. Two bookings today via the online booking service. I am now full up to the 26th March (apart from our midweek trip), I just need some Summer bookings for those keen on rafting and mountain-biking now.

[moose]

Hi Susan - you sure she didn't just call me delightful!!!! Actually I've had alot more from FC than FEB but as they've worked between them for little outlay I can't complain!

I have to say I think the pool makes the difference in this area as there don't seem to be too many about.

[Hells Bells]

I've had an enquiry for Christmas week, which I've had to turn down, as hubby hasn't heard from his boss if he can have
holidays then or not,l guess the boss thinks there's no hurry as it's ages away.

[Normandy Cow]

there's no hurry as it's ages away.

Absolutely! You'll have no problems filling that week so I wouldn't lose any sleep over it!

Going back to the original question about how bookings are going for 2006, I posted on this thread at the very beginning of January when I had just one week booked so far for 2006. At the time I told people not to panic if they were reading about others who were already fully booked for the summer, as I said that bookings would pick up in January...

The house has now been occupied since 4th Feb and I now have 22 weeks booked so far.

I hope I don't come across as bragging, I am just trying to illustrate to people that they should hold their nerve and not panic if it seems that they have loads of availability. EVEN NOW IT IS STILL EARLY DAYS! In the past couple of weeks I have met 3 different families who only now have just started to look for self-catering accommodation for the summer holidays...

[Nightowl]

I was getting a bit panicky early Feb as last year I'd had a lot of enquiries. By end Feb last year we were fully booked for summer but nothing for September and just friends for October. This year things have been quite promising. We have had enquiries for Feb, March, April and all summer ... and bookings for Feb, April, June, July, Aug and Sept/October whilst still having abouit 4 summer weeks free. We did put the price up for the summer but are getting a decent level of enquiries so we feel the price is right and we will get all the peak weeks booked. To be honest we are having trouble deciding when we can go ourselves.... I'm very happy with how things are panning out as in our area summer weeks can be booked several times over (last year we got enquiries in early aug for late aug dates) so Im sure that will go, and if we get one or two May ones to fill those gaps I will be a very happy bunny. And I'm pretty hopeful I will.....

[moose]

[quote="CatherineS
The house has now been occupied since 4th Feb and I now have 22 weeks booked so far.

quote]

That's impressive Catherine - does that include a longer let or are those all one or two week bookings?

[Teresa]

I don't often post things in this website but I have availed myself of all the free websites mentioned. I thought that more is better but I'm beggining to lose hope. I am on about 20 sites and have my own, but things are really slow. I even did a recky on last years performance to see how it compared and I am down on a couple of bookings and quite a few enquiries. I have only 11 weeks booked between 3 gites - not good. Paranoia really hit and I did some test enquiries to make sure I was getting the e-mails through and have now subscribed to readnotify to make sure my replies get there too. Last year some did go awal. Is anyone out there concerned about the possibility of travel panic due to the bird flu situation in France. It didn't seem that bad until the turkey farm got hit, now on another webiste I visit, people are writing that in the UK, chickens are being abandoned and one lady poultry keeper is inundated with people bringing her their birds to look after.

I don't think I'd feel so bad if I was at least getting lots of enquiries but it's so depressing when out of 12 e-mails, 11 are spam and 1 is telling me that some rubbish website subscription has expired.
Out of last years bookings the best results came from holidaylets.net and then visitfrance. Right now all I can do is keep everything crossable, crossed.

[Normandy Cow]

That's impressive Catherine - does that include a longer let or are those all one or two week bookings?

They are all one or two week bookings (mostly one week). Within that I have included the three weeks that we shall be staying at the house during the school holidays (at Easter, Half term, and one week in the summer), but I don't think that is "cheating" because I know that I would have no problems whatsoever in letting those weeks if we weren't there.

I think that we are very lucky with our position, in that we are just 2 hours from Calais and our house is just as nice to stay in the winter as in high summer, so we get a lot of people popping over for a week to get away from city life. Also, we have been very lucky in having been accepted by Alstair Sawday - that has definitely boosted our enquiries.

Teresa,
I'm sorry to hear that you are so down. I don't really know what to say to offer you encouragement. I've looked at your website and it looks very nice, so I can't see why people aren't biting. I don't know your area at all, it is not one that I instantly recognise as being touristy. I don't know whether this has any bearing? You say you are on VisitFrance. Do you update your ad to the top of the listing once a day, and do you use their Spring Breaks and Special Offers? I religiously update my ad every day and use the offers pages too, and I think that really helps. All I can say is don't worry, I usually find that I may not get any enquiries for a few days, and then like busses 2 or 3 come along at once.
Courage!

[gh]

Hi Teressa,
You have certainly done loads of renovation, bet the previous owners wouldn't recognize it now!
Have you thought about a pool, maybe because your not quite close enough (60mls) from the beach a pool may entice more bookings and you can up the rental to pay for it. By the looks of what you have done before you could fit it yourself, we done ours and can achieve £950 per week high season.
If you would like info pm, not to difficult and took 2 wks for our first dip.

Know the area well and La Baule is a beautiful town and seaside location well worth a visit.

Regards

[Teresa]

Thanks for the words of comfort, I am hanging on in there, not that I have any choice. Logically, it should pick up as it did the previous year. Unfortunately I can't afford a pool, not even an above ground variety. I did think once of making a natural swimming area but I can't even afford that. The guests I had last year loved their holiday with us and said they were happy without a pool. We are well served with swimming facilities here, a lake with child safe beach area is 10 mins away, an indoor pool 5 mins away and a lovely outdoor pool by the Nantes Brest canal is only 15 mins away. In order to create more outdoor space for guests, I am in the process of turning half my field into a grassed area for games or just chilling out. My partner is extending his cottage, Coeur de Chene by rebuilding the lean to and creating a larger dining area - at the moment it's a table in the kitchen corner and a bit of a squeeze for 5. That should be ready for occupation again by June. So it's not like we're not doing anything proactive to ensure people have a great time. I've always thought this area is great for tourism as we have such diversity in every direction you care to drive in, historic cities of Rennes, Angers, Nantes, Vannes and the Golf de Morbihan, beaches, Ok not on the doorstep but a great day out and of course vineyards and the Loire. My goodness I'd like a holiday here myself! Good luck to everyone else in the same tub.

[la vache!]

Hi Teresa,
I'm sorry things aren't going brilliantly, but there don't lose faith! I think your cottages look very pretty. However, I don't think the homepage of your website sells the property very well as there is too little information on it. I don't think your area is especially well known, so maybe a map to show the location would help, plus more info on how many the cottages sleep, descriptions of the location (rural, village etc.) - a photo of something of interest in the area perhaps, a photo of the lake may help. Is it a good walking area for example? How far away is the coast? At the moment it doesn't really grab the attention and do the cottages justice!

[cromercrabholiday]

Coeur de Chene

Heart of oak - is this pushing it in France, since it was written in the 18th century when they were the enemy? The last verse is:

We'll still make them fear, and we'll still make them flee,
And drub 'em on shore, as we've drubb'd 'em at sea;
Then cheer up, my lads! with one heart let us sing:
Our soldiers, our sailors, our statesmen and Queen.

What did we do before Google?

John

[Teresa]

Hi susan
You're quite right, there no mention of how many each place sleeps, amazing how you sometimes can't see the wood for the trees - I always mention that when entering the gites on other websites. I'll get that sorted asap. On the other front though - area and location, they are pretty well covered - click on the how to find us button and there's a map, and it never ceases to amaze me how many people enquire and haven't a clue where they're enquiring for. I had a long winded phone call from Canada - they wanted somewhere as a base for visiting Paris and the Normandy beaches! Don't people have atlases any more? When I look for a holiday home, I do it with a map of the country I'm visiting in my hand. Maybe I'm just odd.
Coeur de Chene - I named the cottage that because it belongs to my partner who was born and bred in Bosham near Portsmouth, spent time on a fishing trawler, is very British (although loving France now), and the cottage's skeleton (heart) is made of oak. We've not had any adverse reaction to this name from the locals so far.

[la vache!]

Hi teresa,
you are right, they are covered on other pages, it's just so important that there is a good 'summary' of everything on the homepage - if people don't like this, they won't look any further. I think a few more photos and a little more general info would grab people's attention more!