changeover days

[mitsi]

I would be interested to know opinions on changeover days for gites. Currently we use Saturday like most people. However my sister was trying to book her flights to come here in August. If she travelled on the saturday it would cost £230 each to fly to Bordeaux, by changing to Tuesday it was £33! With such a huge difference it made me realise just how expensive it can be and by altering the day could make a difference to families.
It's too late for us this year, but I am considering changing the day for next year. Any thoughts?

[Hells Bells]

Summer isn't my peak time,I have an apartment in a ski village, so we have offered flexible arrival . We have a 2 week booking Thurs-Thurs, but all my other enquiries for that time were only for one week, so I haven't lost out at all.

[Ju]

There are three problems with a peak time changeover day mid-week.

1) You have to keep it as the same day all season otherwise you end up having the gite empty for days.

2) A mid-week arrival means that people have to take more time off work. Most people are restricted to their 4 or 5 weeks per year and are reluctant to loose any days.

3) If people want to stay one week with you and one week somewhere else they will have to find somewhere with the same changeover date.

I suppose it depends on the demographics of your guests. The vast majority of ours drive, and the ferry prices are not as variable.

Ju

[Hells Bells]

I don't offer this in the school holidays during the Winter though, but i do have a Sunday changeover as that's when most of the charter flights arrive at the nearesy airport, and the budget airlines tend to be a bit cheaper.

[Orion]

This is our first season. We advertised on Holiday Rentals in April and were very pleased and more than a little surprised to have the 8 weeks peak period booked up within 3 weeks. We are not sure how we managed that! We picked Friday as a changeover day, as amongst other things, it allowed us to put our children into the children's holiday club that runs throughout the summer holidays. Thus, so far we are entirely happy with Fridays.

[KathyG]

We're in Brittany and have made our changeover day a Tuesday as that's the cheapest pricing for the ferries. This is our first year renting and so far most people have been pleased although every single one enquired about dates starting on a Saturday - no-one seems to read any details on websites! We also lost one booking as Ju said because they were staying somewhere else for the first week which ended on a Saturday so I really don't know what we'll do next year. Our changeover people also don't want to take another house on on a Saturday.

I don't suppose this post helps you much though does it!!

Having said that, all those that have booked have appreciated cheaper crossings........

Kathy

[Nightowl]

I try and be flexible - I have all sorts of changeover days - often there is a gap of one or two days between... but although from a business angle this might not be a great idea to have any peak days spare, I have got a lot more bookings than last year and it does help my caretaker a bit to have some leeway. Fridays and Sundays have been popular this year and flexibility has allowed me to book 10 day breaks ending or starting midweek which have fitted in with other bookings OK. I have found that most people seem to look at my availability and fit around that - If I have a start date on a Wednesday people seem to be interested in it and it seems to work OK.

[Hells Bells]

I found that last season, that people booked depending on my availability. That is the beauty of budget airlines, daily flights rather than weekly charters. I have also managed to persuade a couple of people to alter their travel plans slightly to fill the space. I know Mel likes it when there's a day between changeovers, as she's less rushed.