Lay My Hat

Had a spare hour or two and analysed the last year's enquiries and their source.
29% approached from my own site
19% Holidaylettings
16% Villa-Vacations
12% Ownersdirect
3% Costaholidays
21% Other sites (Villarenters, click4, tourist paradise, travel library).

As a result dropped costaholidays and took up a money back offer from H-R in December. Since when results have been:

20% Ownersdirect
20% H-R
20% my site
20% others
9% Holidaylettings
1% Villa-vacations.

So I probably won't make any changes. The one real disappointment is that nearly all bookings and enquiries have been from the UK. We are fluent in German and googling in that language seems to indicate a site called fewo might be worth a try.

Cheers

Tudor
www.frigiliana-apartment.com

Tudor,

I too keep records of what generated each and every enquiry and booking. Over the last seven years there have been obvious trends. The results from newspaper and brochure advertising have been diminishing and the results from Internet based advertising has been increasing. Therefore the balance has slowly shifted towards the Internet.

But this year is completely bizarre. Between my two cottages I have 60 weeks booked out of a total available of 104 weeks – yes, my cottages are suitable for summer and/or winter occupation. Strangely my smaller cottage (for two people) is still available from the beginning of August to the end of the year. Only 6 of those 60 weeks came from newspaper, brochure and Internet marketing and the rest came from the personal efforts of myself and Joan.

What would an expert analyst make of that, other than to suggest that next year will be different? Don’t tell me “I am lucky� – marketing experts and statisticians don’t believe in luck.

The answers may be “interesting� from a statically point of view but we don’t mind if the bookings come from the UK or from Outer Mongolia. As they say “a booking is a booking is a booking�.

Alan

Alan,
May I ask if your 60 weeks are all holiday lets or have you any long term lets?

ashtondav wrote: The one real disappointment is that nearly all bookings and enquiries have been from the UK. We are fluent in German and googling in that language seems to indicate a site called fewo might be worth a try.

Cheers

Tudor
www.frigiliana-apartment.com

Not sure about Germans, but both Homelidays and Abritel are good for attracting French visitors.. Homelidays is also good for Italians and Nordic renters.

Regards,

Kevin

Alan

I would say "personal effort" is the best kind of marketing.

Down here in the Costa del Sol I usually manage 25 to 30 weeks a year (1 apartment). December, January, February I let by the month at a rate equivalent to 2 weeks rent, plus electricity. Before doing that I realised i was only getting 2 weeks of bookings per month anyway, and with the changeovers, cleaning costs, p&p for keys etc, i was getting less than now. And I would rather have the place occupied and heated than have it stand empty. Also long winter lets are less hassle anyway 'cos they tend to be pleasant older couples who keep it spick and span and don't spill suntan cream all over the place!

Kevin, i'll try some of those sites. Thanks!

Susan wrote:Alan,
May I ask if your 60 weeks are all holiday lets or have you any long term lets?

Of course you may, and I will answer.

The minority are holiday lets, for the usual week or two. The remainder are for longer, much longer. Technically they are short lets because they are for less than a year.

Naturally they are on different conditions from holiday lets. The weekly rental is lower but I don't pay the outgoings and Joan doesn't do the cleaning or the laundry.

Financially it’s slightly better than holiday lets and there’s less hassle.

Alan

ashtondav

Sometimes i sits and thinks - and sometimes i just sits

That’s exactly what Joan and I were doing (just sitting) until this year when enquiries from Rental Sites became rather thin on the ground.

We could have sat back and blamed the Rental Sites for a poor performance or we could have sat and thought about what to do. We chose the latter, we did something about it and we achieved something.

We have achieved a slightly better result and with much less hassle. OK, we thought we came to France to do holiday rentals. OK, now we are doing something a little different. Does it matter? Not really, in fact not at all! In the final analysis we wanted to generate an additional income and we are doing just that.

Who knows? Next year we may be back on stream with holiday lettings. In the meantime, a slight change of focus has done the trick. Who knows? We may never go back to holiday lettings.

Alan

Well done Alan - 60 weeks is excellent, whatever the length of let! As you pointed out, there is a lot less work with the longer lets - our gites have been full for a couple of weeks and it will continue henceforth - Saturdays are no longer a day of rest (or getting my own housework/shopping/bike rides done). Not to mention the laundry that follows on...

Susan,

Not to mention the laundry that follows on...

Never forget the fluffy towels.

Alan

Dear Fluffy,
I hate to disappoint you, but mine are line dried and consequently not that fluffy - my poor guests! However, as I think Paolo once commented, the stiffer they are, the more absorbant they are . I have to make use of all the wind we get here in Brittany somehow and it is never so hot that the towels end up as stiff as surfboards (well, I hope not anyway!)