Bookings Shuddering Halt

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apexblue
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Bookings Shuddering Halt

Post by apexblue »

How are all you UK'ers doing for bookings?

Ours seems to have come to a halt at 20 August and the dreaded bank holiday week.

Hope it is like last year and people are booking at the last minute.
It is better to remain quiet and have one think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....

The biggest mistake we make in life is thinking we have time.
kg1
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Post by kg1 »

Hi. We too have the BH holiday still to be booked, but that's not unusual for us. Have 1 week remaining in Sep & 1 week booked in Oct. The October enquiries seem to have dried up as it's usually pretty well booked up by now, usually Xmas is booked too, I don't think this weather is helping either!!!!!!
Essar
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UK Bookings

Post by Essar »

Hello ApexBlue

Maybe it's the weather, not too good this year.

Everyone (who's everyone?) says that staycations are up this year and next will be better!

This is are fourth season with one property in Bournemouth and apart from the very first year (wrong agent) has been very good, including this year - we're booked until 17th Sept and have several enquiries active. Our new property "launched" on the 13th May, our first booking was the 28th May and its now booked up until 3rd Sept with 4 other bookings in late Sept and 1 in Oct. The enquiries have reduced now that we're filling up but they have not dried up, so I'm optimistic for this year.

My calendars are:
http://www.seven-bluewater.co.uk/self_c ... lendar.htm
http://www.one-one80.co.uk/holiday_lett ... bility.htm

I advertise only with HL and have very good enquiries, my HR 45-day trial expired last Monday and I have not re-newed it inspite of being offered 20% for two properties. The enquiries in comparison to HL were poor in total - I also became extremely irritated at the constant twice daily phone calls and 11 emails since it expired.

I wouldn'y worry just yet - only after USA defaults on its debt and the Euro zone goes pop - oh hell!
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
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kendalcottages
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Post by kendalcottages »

Not enough years under our belt to identify any trends yet, but we still have 19th-26th Aug and 26th Aug to 3rd Sep yet to book.

We took a provisional booking for the former this week, but disappointingly it was cancelled next day.

The latter of the two weeks never went last year but hoping that won't happen this time around.

I'm getting lots of enquiries for short breaks at the end of August, but holding fire for now and hoping something will come up.

The rest of Sep, Oct and Nov are all looking pretty good.
Kendal Holiday Cottages Ltd., Kendal, Cumbria - between the Lake District & the Yorkshire Dales.
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Sue Dyer
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Post by Sue Dyer »

I'm okay for August but my June/July were the worst in 10 years. I did manage to shift all of July thanks to facebook, tweeting and posting special offers everywhere. July ususally books out by February.

It is sod's law as I'm unemployed, no one wants me fantastic admin skills so we've been rather relying on the cottage income. :x
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

Ours have also more or less dried up. August is Okish but end July and one week in second half empty. From 2.9. nothing except one long weekend in October. I think I am going to take up HL's £99 offer.
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Jimbo
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Post by Jimbo »

Don't despair just yet. September was looking a bit of a desert but enquiries have recently started trickling in again - a couple have converted.

Jim
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

We are doing fine in Bavaria, very busy with autumn enquiries and bookings. Just a dearth in the UK!
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apexblue
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Post by apexblue »

How did you get a free trial with H-R and HL for £99?
It is better to remain quiet and have one think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....

The biggest mistake we make in life is thinking we have time.
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Big Sis..
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Post by Big Sis.. »

editted.....
Ow sorry Apex just realised you were asking about the UK rentals :oops:
Last edited by Big Sis.. on Thu Jul 21, 2011 8:41 am, edited 1 time in total.
Margaret
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Post by Margaret »

I had an email from HL - we had not renewed for Bavaria or UK.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Our 3-bed hasn't been doing quite as well as our two 2-beds. All of them still have that dreaded bank holiday week to go - why is that being difficult??

Apart from that, the 2-bed that we let on short breaks has two breaks available end July and mid August otherwise full Jul/Aug. The other 2-bed we've just let part of this week as a short break - enquiry came in on Sunday! Apart from Aug BH week that one's full to end Sept.
The 3-bed has the week of 14th August to shift, and had a couple of empty weeks in July :cry:

September about 3/4 let, October thin, November very thin. Not too worried about October/November at this stage though - it's more of an impulse "let's get away for a few days' walking" market up here.

It's definitely hard work. We're just at the end of our third year so our repeat business, although very encouraging, isn't as good as it's going to be, and with the economic turmoil that kicked off round about the time we started we've yet to have a "typical" year to use as a baseline.
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

Just to add to my previous, we've currently got a couple staying for 2 weeks who booked it about ten days beforehand, so things could've looked a lot leaner. We offer a last minute (ie less than 2 weeks to go) discount, but we're not going stupid on pricing.

Had an enquiry this am for next week - we're full :roll:
waterwitch
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Post by waterwitch »

Slowest year ever - it's been a hard slog and a lot of time and effort invested to fill the calender. Bookings used to fly in for our Conwy cottage with very little effort but times have changed.

September/October is now starting to look busy but tend to find bookings for later summer don't start coming in until the school holidays start anyway.
Nuthatch
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Post by Nuthatch »

We're having a weird year too, although in a different way. We were fully booked to early November by the end of April (although an October weekend has since requested a cancellation) but we're finding that we're not getting "usual" guests. We're not really sure what "usual" guests are, having only completed 2 years, but this year we're getting lots of Dutch (July bookings are all Dutch) plus German, American and Aussie bookings, plus we're getting a significant number of bookings from people who need to be in the area for a local event - christening, wedding, birthday etc. I think we only have 1 UK family booked in during the school holidays.
Our policy is to only take weekly bookings from Easter - September (until 4 weeks before, when we'll take weekends if there's still availability) and it does mean that we have to hold our nerve in January if we get a weekend request for the summer. It does seem that our guests tend to want either full weeks or weekends, and very rarely a mid-week booking.
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