2007 prices

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Fi
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2007 prices

Post by Fi »

Hello

Just been asked for availability for next year - great. I will charge them at this year's prices as they are early bookers but set me wondering about 2007 prices.

Is their a general percentage increase that most people use or how does everyone work out what to charge ?

Thanks for your help

Fiona
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KathyG
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Post by KathyG »

Sorry to hijack this thread but it's sort of connected. Do you charge them a deposit as soon as they confirm or wait until 8 weeks or so before their booking?

Kathy
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oskar
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Post by oskar »

Kathy

Charge a deposit as soon as they want to book.

Fi

You cannot generalise about price increases. If you booked up every week this year very easily, you can maybe afford to put up your prices a bit comparing them first to those of the competition. If you struggled for bookings, don´t put them up unless you know definitely that there was another reason why.
A-two
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Post by A-two »

There are advance rent deposits and there are security or damage deposits. Do not confuse the two. We don't accept damage deposits until they make their final advance payment. However, I have already taken advance rent deposits for 11 or so weeks in 2007. This is not refundable unless the place is re-rented for the same rate or higher rate, otherwise the difference is forfeit. A damage deposit would be refundable because they have not been there to make any damage. That's the difference. I hope I'm explaining myself clearly.
la vache!
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Post by la vache! »

Regarding prices - I often give people who book one year ahead this years prices - partly as a goodwill gesture and partly because I haven't yet decided on the increase! For really expensive bookings I also accept a smaller than 25% deposit as very often people have just paid for this year's holiday and they really appreciate this too.
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Sue Dyer
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Post by Sue Dyer »

We've been discussing "price elasticity", how far we can go before we start losing bookings. I've totally booked out all season, probably due to the renovations and addition of log fire etc. A few folk say we are too cheap as we provide lots of extras too. We're trying to tread the fine line between getting a decent price the place is worth or it standing empty.

I have bookings for next year too, I've done them at this years prices. I think hub was thinking of 5% increase for next year. We see what that looks like and round up or down to a sensible figure. Be interested in what everyone else is doing.
Stu
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Post by Stu »

We've been told we're too cheap here by quite a few of our guests recently. I'm not sure that we are 'too' cheap. Cheaper than lots of our competition maybe, but we sort of inherited the pricing from the previous owner who had this place more as a hobby than anything. It's interesting to look at the search strings when receiving enquiries. Quite often the first keyword is 'cheap' followed by 'pool'. So, knowing what people want in our area it's easy to then look at others' prices and see what the differences are both in terms of pricing and what's being offered.
To cut a long story short, we're doing the same as many. Offering an incentive of this years prices for those booking this year for next, and raising our '07 prices by between 10 & 20%.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

We have left our prices at last years rates for our Winter booking until September. I have reduced this Sumemr prices a little already,and have booked August, so will leave those alone. I am thinking of 5%, especially as the pool will be ready.
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vrooje
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Post by vrooje »

We booked pretty quickly this year, so we're raising our prices again for next year, and we'll see how it goes. The few people who have already booked 2007 are doing so at 2006 prices.

We've also increased the initial deposit from 15 to 25 percent, and made the final payment due 8 weeks before rather than four. Our damage deposit is staying the same.

That's just what is working for us -- I agree with oskar that it depends on your particular market.
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Ju
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Post by Ju »

We are going up by about 7% in the peak season and about 4% in the others. People booking early get this years prices.

I could really do with putting the prices up further, but having even one empty peak season week over the three properties would cancel out any benefit. We are going to increase slowly, a bit above inflation each year. The trouble with being near the top end of the market is knowing what the market will stand in terms of prices.

Ju
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

Ju, you could still put your prices up, then discount any free weeks at the last minute. Believe me, people are still desperate to find something now for August, so you will never have any void periods in the peak season (unless due to some other factor such as war, famine, pestilence and then prices don't even come in to the equation :? ).

I don't know why we holiday home owners think that it is so important to get all our weeks booked so early in the year or even the year before. We started off at the beginning of January with zero bookings for 2006 but have ended up with only 4 empty weeks since 4th February.
Fraise
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Post by Fraise »

I agree with you Catherine- it gets a bit boring after a while when people try to book early in the year for the summer but the weeks they want are long gone, I quite like having a few weeks left, it makes reading and responding to e-mails more interesting. I've got the first week in Sept free, and the last, any takers ?? :lol:
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Normandy Cow
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Post by Normandy Cow »

I've also got 2 weeks available in September, but like last year I am confident that they will get booked in August by late bookers who didn't get around to getting away during the school holidays and then book at the last minute. (Like we used to do, in those heady days "B.C."! :wink:)
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AndyLucia
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Post by AndyLucia »

CatherineS wrote:Believe me, people are still desperate to find something now for August,
I spent most of yesterday trying to juggle availabilities to fit in several enquiries coming through for the end of July and in to August. We're actually pretty grateful now that some special offers we put on to Holiday Rentals weren't taken up (slight panic move at a quiet time) as we're booking out everything we have and that the agency we work with in Spain can find!! You've got to admire the optimism of the person looking for a months booking starting at the end of July!!
AndyLucia
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Mouse
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Post by Mouse »

Last year was our 1st season renting the villa out - we didn't manage to get it onto a rental website until April and we ended up fully booked all summer. In fact we only stayed with owners direct and didn't need to sign up with others.

We found that in the main people started to look for accomodation about 6/7 wks before their holiday. So September started to get booked around now.

This year we were booked up by October 05...and it has been a bit boring not dealing with any enquiries (apart from the ones not looking at the calendar). And we are already getting enquiries for summer 2007.

Mouse
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