Lay My Hat

In another topic (about OD bookings) I notice a couple of you saying you don't update your calendars.

Is this a deliberate ploy to get more enquiries you might be able to shift to a free date, or is it because you just have too many calendars spread about, to maintain?

I am a 'religious' updater and wonder if I am going about this in the wrong way? I recently managed to shift apparently 'immoveable' dates with some Dutch people (who admittedly, had been before) because they hadn't looked at the calendar. Perhaps if they had looked and seen it booked they would have moved on and I wouldn't have had the opportunity to convert to an alternative date.

When I am looking myself for somewhere to stay, and with specific dates, I feel a bit irritated when I email an enquiry with apparently free dates only to find it is booked and then realise they are not 'bothering' to update. That has been my line of thinking up to now. Should I play this a different way? I am on HL so I don't think I appear if the searcher puts in dates which are already filled on my calendar, thus reducing exposure.

You might find this thread a useful read. Like so many topics, there's no right or wrong way!
viewtopic.php?t=10051&highlight=update+ ... r+calendar

I update my main listing sites but don't bother with non-performing freebies.

When I said I don't update, what I should have said is that I don't use the calendars on OD (so they don't show at all on the listing). Instead I say "Because we're so flexible on dates and have a separate chambre d'hôtes suite as well, we generally don't use availability calendars - just drop us a quick email enquiry; we'll respond within a couple of hours (often within minutes!)".

Yes, we do get enquiries for periods already booked. But I do respond to them all and see it as a bit of free marketing. It takes a bit of time, and often that's the end of that, but a surprising number of people do come back to me saying that they'd like to come and they'll book earlier next time! I also only list our barn on OD, and if that's booked I can always suggest our chambre d'hôtes suite to them if that's not.

The other thing I find is that it's not just us who are flexible on days and dates - potential guests are too. But I have a feeling that if we used the calendars most people would just move on to the next place if they saw us booked, whereas by engaging them in a relationship through an availability enquiry they get interested and look for other ways/times to come.

What underlies all that of course is that we don't have fixed arrival/departure days and we have a minimum stay of just 2 nights. It might not work the same way with fixed days.

Thank you for that link. I didn't find that topic in a search so I am sorry I have repeated the question.

I have decided to stick with updating, as I always do (unless I forget...).