Doing my bit to try and get those out of season bookings!

[Windy]

I think Charles is being pretty up front and he is sharing information here and on his web site. There is a line but I'm not sure he's crossed it yet. (Except in the grammar area of course)

[Mouse]

Me too. I have found his posts and sharing of information relevant to anyone thinking of, or currently renting, cottages.
As someone contemplating buying a rental place in the UK I found the information on his website very interesting and I was grateful for his link.

Mouse
x

[Fraise]

Yes, I agree. The sceptic in me can't avoid waiting for the "sell" to get greater but it would be refreshing to be proved wrong !The line may be close, but possibly not crossed yet

[paolo]

I don't disagree that an agency's input can be very interesting for us, and it seems that Charles knows his stuff and is willing to share knowledge, that is all good. But this thread was rather hijacked. I should probably have contacted him by PM but I was in a hurry this morning, so apologies for the heavy-handed moderation.

[charles cawley]

Thank you for all of this.

I did get a bit carried away. I have put a link to Lay My Hat on the information page you refer to and will feature it in our newletters to homeowners.

On the bookings front, we have seen a change, as you would expect, from high demand just following the bank holiday falling away to now.

Off season bookings have benefited, I am told, thanks to the increase in minimum UK holiday entitlement. (Self employed people dream of such holidays) This could be part of the reason for an apparent increase in people new to UK cottage rentals. The trend to short notice bookings has not changed.

[davhill]

I'm thinking in the same vein as the OP. So....gone live today on H-R.

I got a deal, sort of. In the end, it's 15 months for the price of 12. The ad looks OK and will go to the top tomorrow (so I'm told) when I update availablity.

So, rubbing the hands here and waiting for the flood (maybe the wrong word for round here) of bookings. Need bods in the beds!

[kendalcottages]

Kendal Cottages - your place looks amazing - what a wonderful job you have done with the web site! I am interested to know how you keep you herb garden going? I was dismayed to find mine was a bit of a barren wasteland when we went up to the cottage last week. It seems it's too much trouble for guests to occasionally poor a glass water over the poor things, despite polite little reminders to please water the plants!

Sorry, waterwitch... I somehow missed the responses to this thread. Looking back, it was around the time I went on holiday, so that's possibly why.

Thank you for the kind words about our place. I do want to get in and take new pictures but, to be honest, I've not had much opportunity as yet, because we've been full almost non-stop which is great considering we're still in year one.

As for herbs, we are finding that most aren't doing too well. We have a bay tree which is fairly robust and a large rosemary which is fairly hardy. Beyond that we have small pots for things like thyme, parsley, sage, etc. We do provide a small watering can but the balcony can be a bit of a suntrap (south-west facing) and we're finding that we're having to replace them a bit more frequently than we would like. Starting to wonder whether it's worth the trouble but we'll see it out for a bit longer and see if we can hit on some herbs that seem to be forgiving if they only get watered once a week.

davhill... how are you finding it? Has Cumbria Tourism been delivering for you? I deliberated quite a bit with them and refrained from joining in the end, at least for the time being.

As for out of season bookings, I've no previous years to compare with, of course, but I can't really complain. The first weekend break we have available isn't until 10th December now. The midweeks aren't doing quite as well but they're still not bad...

[davhill]

Hi,

Can't say CT's doing too badly. I can look at KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), which show 436 web/kiosk page views in July and 4760 of the same in August. The counters will update very shortly.

So far, five of our six bookings have come via CT, but we have only had the Google website and maps entry, until the H-R Ad.

I'll give a cautious recommendation to CT. The staff are certainly helpful and everything is handled pretty professionally. We're locked into our deal with them but their 10% booking fee comes in soon. We'll have to see how things are when we have to accept this (or not) next July.

Meanwhile, we'll see how H-R + CT works out. I've had an unrelated enquiry for one night this weekend but that may come to nothing.

It's a matter of crossing those things that can be crossed!

[Tizfata]

The first weekend break we have available isn't until 10th December now. The midweeks aren't doing quite as well but they're still not bad...

That is impressive, KC!!!
Very well done!

[Giddy Goat]

Can't comment on out of season bookings as my property's in France, so although the thread is interesting, I have zero'd in on the TC about affect/effect. Please forgive me: I'm also a member of Pedants'RUs.

This whole thing has had a radical affect on me.

I agree with Windy. So I think it ought to be the noun "effect" here Charles: you're talking about the outcome ...

If, however, you had used it as a verb, the sentence might have read "This whole thing has affected me radically - I would even go so far as to say that the effect on my life has been disastrous. I need help to effect a change."

Can anyone correct me if I'm wrong?

I need a coffee. (Exits, affecting embarrassment at interrupting a thread)

[barbersdrove]

Life's too short!

[Giddy Goat]

Even if you have a cream cake a day BD?