Holiday-rentals french site?

OTA = Online Travel Agency, which means those sites that sell the booking and take the payment for you.
memes
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Holiday-rentals french site?

Post by memes »

Its time for me to renew with H-R. Having said yes I'd try the french site for free this year I find its now £68 plus vat to carry on next year taking my costs (with 2 units ) up to about £300 next year . Has anyone had much luck with the French site - I have had one enqury (which after much chat and holding the reservation for a week fell through) so I'm not too impressed and thinking of dumping it.
H-R has been pretty quiet this year too - 80% of my bookings are coming through Owners Direct now but I'm loath to cancel H-R altogether. Just wish I could push my June weeks - fab weather and flights at c£40 return to Pescara - its maddening that there just does not seem to be the demand in Italy outside schools hols. If anyone has any great ideas about attracting 'grey panthers' I would love to hear em..Couldn't see much that would help on the Saga site..
Cheers

M
A-two
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Post by A-two »

M,
Your place looks beautiful, and I would book it in a heartbeat for a break next week if only I could get way! I just looked at your rates and your availability calendar and sense the problem could be with the June rates, rather than in the listing sites you're using. I could be wrong.

I think most here have to work really hard to achieve any bookings outside school holidays and the real skill is finding the successful formula for the shoulder season where you don't want to give it away, you want to maintain a reasonable rent level because the weather is gorgeous and it has everything going for it. Why don't the smart people book those weeks? Well, sometimes they do, but there are a number of factors involved. For a start there are not so many people looking, so they can be more fussy and you have to be really sure that the small things aren't putting them off.

Fairly recently, I found that interest dropped off after I raised the level of my security deposit, so I reduced it again and the inquiries started again. Coincidence? I may never know, as there is no formula, no book to which I can refer. It's for each of us to work out by trial and error on our own what works for us. Every place is unique.

In struggling to do that, the most important factor to bear in mind is of course the price, which is not related to what we know someone has already paid, rather it's related to what the market can bear at that moment in time. And the market is constantly changing, as all things do.

It's also important to react quickly to any negatives and to change something to see if that works better. If you don't change anything, then don't expect anything to improve!

The problem may not be price related, it may be something else, only you can work that out. But I would say that if it's retirees on a fixed income that you're trying to attract, then a small drop in rates for early/ mid June might make all the difference. There are also quite a few families with children under 5. They too are not tied to the school year and looking for the cheaper rates in the off season. Or you could try offering a "low occupancy discount" for 2 occupants and advertise it on a seniors websites, I think one was mentioned here. There are limitless possibilities.

What I do know is that if the French H-R site hasn't worked for you, then it would be throwing good money away to renew it unless you are also willing to make other changes that might make the difference.

All of the above means to say that I suspect that it is not your choice of listing sites that is at fault, rather it's what you're offering them, otherwise you would have received some inquiries and bookings through one of them for the June time period already, and you haven't.

Just my 2 cents, and I wish you lots of luck!
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Memes,
I've had a disappointing year with HR too, but there have been a few out of season bookings, so I will stick with them. Regarding the French site, I've had nothing so wouldn't pay for that add on. I get a lot of bookings from other French sites I advertise on - but they are specifically for France (except Abritel, which is very good, but expensive and no discount for more than one unit). I've just done a search on google.fr for 'locations Italie' and it is Abritel and Homelidays which come top (both are a similar price). Perhaps if you do a more specific search for your area if you are in a well known poplular area (I don't really know Italy) it may give you some other options.
Good luck!
memes
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Post by memes »

Many thanks for both those replies - I have had a good look at other places near us and we seem to be in the same price range but funnily enough they don't appear to be booked in June either. So am going to go with your suggestion and drop my June prices and see if anything picks up. We've had lots of good work done to the house this year - new additional bathroom, new floor tiles, kitchen equip all updated, new furniture and massive amounts of painting so I'm really proud of it now. Part of my enjoyment of the house is to imagine other people having a great time there so I hate having it empty.
Will let you know if it makes a difference.
Cheers
M
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enid
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Post by enid »

we have a break in bookings for June too - I'll try a price reduction too I think - it's a shame as June is glorious here and the cherries are out!!!
memes
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Post by memes »

Have just dropped my prices on OD and HR by £300 for the big house and £100 for the little house. Fingers x'd for us all..
M
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

I too was panicking because I still had two weeks left in June and was thinking of dropping my prices.

Then on Sunday I had two enquiries, one for the 10th and one for the 17th, within a couple of hours of each other, so I am now fully booked right through to Sept.

Thinking back over previous years, I remember that the "shoulder months" (June and Sept) generally did not sell well in advance, I think people do tend to book at the last minute in the off-season.

Hope this gives you hope!
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Alan Knighting
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Post by Alan Knighting »

Thinking back over previous years, I remember that the "shoulder months" (June and Sept) generally did not sell well in advance, I think people do tend to book at the last minute in the off-season.
I recently quizzed one of my rental sites about this and their reply confirmed what you are saying – my shoulder months’ enquiries and bookings come shortly before the event.

This year has been a very strange one for me. Very early I got a sprinkling of holiday bookings followed by a booking for my larger property from the beginning of April until the end of the year and a booking for my smaller property from the beginning of April until the end of July. Naturally these bookings show on my availability calendar. I guess that’s why I have had very few further enquiries; it seems people do look at availability calendars after all.

I attract relatively few French bookings but I got one yesterday, by telephone. Not an enquiry, few questions asked, an immediate booking. Oh, if only they were all like that.

Alan
memes
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Post by memes »

Well I dropped the prices by £300 for one house £100 for the other and £500 if they take both - I think £1500 for a place that will sleep 16 comfortably is a bit of a bargain. Flights with Ryanair are as low as £50 return on Saturdays in the middle of the month and still no one is biting. I can only come to the conclusion that there is no demand at the moment - other places are more expensive than me and empty as well. The school hols have sold out (went months ago apart from one week). I need a nice big article on Le Marche in this weekends press!

Have sent husband off on a 1/2 day google adwords course today (he managed to get his work to pay for it tee) - I'm trying it but it seems difficult to get click throughs - have been on a week with a £60 per month budget plan - had 3 clicks only! I may be doing something wrong - its bastard hard to get your head round. At least its only cost us about £1 but again seems to indicate zilch demand.

Hmm I wonder how much an ad in the Sunday Times is - has anyone tried it recently?

Its maddening to have lovely houses empty in fab weather!

M
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

Memes, I've just had a look at your website for the first time - WOW! Your place looks fantastic!!! It must be so maddening for you that people aren't biting - I can't see anything wrong with your website, and your photos are of particularly good quality.

I don't know what to suggest (I don't know the Italian market). The only thing I can think of, is that I have found that most of our off-season enquiries and bookings come from smaller groups (2 - 4 people). I don't think people tend to go away in large groups in the off season, and may not even look at your advert because they will think that the house is too large (and therefore expensive?) for them :(

I have a similar dilemma. Our house can sleep up to 8 (including children), but most of our bookings are for single families. These people will usually be looking for a house for 4-5 people. If I want to be top of the searches within the listing sites for people looking for a property sleeping 4-5, it would probably be better for me to say that the house only sleeps 6. But then I would never be found by the occasional people who do actually want a house sleeping 8. :?
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enid
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Post by enid »

This numbers thing is a problem for me too. We have two gites and are just finishing ( must be done for July 1st when it's booked!° an annexe to the second gite. This will give more flmexible accommodation as the gite can be booked for 4 without the annexe and 8 with. We have another gite that can sleep 4 - so do I say I have a property that sleep 2 - 12 and risk putting off smaller groups? - I need a bnox with space to explain but they don't give you that.
Guest3
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Post by Guest3 »

Its maddening to have lovely houses empty in fab weather!
Memes your houses are indeed lovely! Do you advertise on any rental listing sites? If so, why don't you put 'a special offer' for the weeks you can't get rid of....and also display the same offer on your website. Whenever we have had the odd week/s that we can't shift, listing a special offer on the rental listing sites and displaying the offer on our homepage has normally done the trick.
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

I think if you have more than one unit and one sleeps 4, the other 8, you don't have a problem if you advertise them seperately. If I have a booking in the small house, I don't show this on the availability so that if I get another enquiry for 4 people I can rent them a larger property at the same rate (that's why I am just about full in June).
I think with most rental sites, your property will show on a search if it sleeps the same number of people requested on the search or more. You then just need to make it clear on the site and the homepage of your website that it is possible to have a rental rate per person out of peak season.
These are some statistics I received from a rental listing site on what people searched for on their site regarding the number of people:
4-6 guests: 40%
1-3 guests: 34%
7-8 guests: 11%
9-10 guests: 6%
11-12 guests: 4%
13-18 guests: 3%
19-25 guests: 1%
25+ guests: 1%

As you can see, 4-6 is the most common. This particular site wouldn't take me on as I have a house that sleeps 12 and they say it is too difficult to rent out!
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enid
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Post by enid »

Memes - loved your site too :)
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Post by Guest3 »

This particular site wouldn't take me on as I have a house that sleeps 12 and they say it is too difficult to rent out!
Susan I can't believe they turned you down because of that. Also, how did they evaluate that? :? If anything a property that can accommodate 2/3 families comfortably is much sought after in any location!
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