Changeover day

[Bellywobble]

I'm wondering which day is best for changeovers?
I'm on the Costa Del Sol, where there are plenty of flights coming in all the time, but am wondering if holidaymakers prefer to travel during the week when it is a little cheaper, or if it tends not to matter and is just the owners personal preference.

[e-richard]

Good question Kayley. I have often considered changeover on a Tuesday, for example, when the flights can be so much cheaper and the airport less crowded.

However a consideration that was pointed out to me was that for a 1 week, Tues-Tues holiday for example, your guests would have to take 6 days leave from work (assuming both travel days are full holiday days), whereas a Saturday to Satrurday only requires 5 working days leave.

I still don't know the answer, so hopefully others will add more thoughts. Inevitably there will be regional differences as well as size of property issues (one family/two families etc).

[oskar]

In today´s crowded market, I think you have to be flexible with your changeover day to maximise bookings, unless you have something rather special and have no problems renting every week.

Generally though, your main changeover day should be the day you get most enquiries for!

[Alan Knighting]

Kayley,

I think it very much depends which part of the season you are talking about. If it's mid or high season I think you must choose one fixed day for your hand-over days. Otherwise, you are in great danger of losing a lot of rental income.

If you choose Saturday and you are busy, you will have a continuity of bookings and a continuity of income. In the middle of that time, if you take a Tuesday to Tuesday booking, you have used up two weeks for the price of one. In other words you have lost a week's income. In those circumstances, flexibility leads to a minimisation of bookings and rental income.

Out of season, when bookings are not continuous, it matters much less and you can be more flexible.

Alan

[Fraise]

I agree with this.In summer I do Sat- Sat,altho I think Sunday -Sunday would work just as well? From mid October- April I take what I can get!!! I did have a mid week in May last year but it did cost me the loss of a 2 week booking-never again!!!

[cromercrabholiday]

Saturday to Saturday works better than Sunday as cleaners are happier to work then and if you need to replace anything you've got a better chance of buying it.

John

[alexia s.]

It's also cheaper to pay a cleaner on a Saturday - you have to pay about double rates in France on a Sunday.

[Bellywobble]

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately I am the cleaner! Still at least at the weekend my husband is around to help with the windows, terrace, BBQ, pool....I'm going to stick with a Saturday!

[Christine Kenyon]

Interesting question . The vast majority of our customers arrive by car (99%) so flights don't come into. We have two cottages (and as of April a B&B) so the main question for us is cleaning ~ yep, we are Mrs Mop! In the past we have had one cottage that was a Saturday to Saturday and one that was a Friday to Friday so that we could ensure that each cottage was cleaned properly.

Our circumstances have changed (long story that I won't go into), but we now have two cottages with a Saturday change over. As a result we will only take two night booking for our B&B (Friday and Saturday) ~ we can't face two cottages and 3 B&B rooms. And our guests wouldn't like the end result!

But we have just booked a self catering property in Northern Tenerife for a March holiday and love the fact that we can we can book 9 nights - Sunday to Tuesday.

Morale of the story : it depends on your market and the time of year. (We would love a 9 night booking in the Lake District in March!)

[cromercrabholiday]

We would love a 9 night booking in the Lake District in March!

We could do you nine days in March in North Norfolk - friendly village, time warp back at least 50 years, little traffic and a real Victorian cast-iron pier a mile or so away.

John

[Christine Kenyon]

John - thank you! I love your description (just surprised you didn't mention the new fire which has featured in another thread ). We've booked for Tenerife now, but won't forget Norfolk for another time. I have many happy memories of childhood holidays on the Broads.