How many of your guests are from outside your country?

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edinburgh
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How many of your guests are from outside your country?

Post by edinburgh »

Surprisingly, just under half of my bookings so far are from people who live elsewhere in Scotland. This really surprises me. I honestly expected a vast majority from England.

The largest percentage of my guests are from Scotland, followed by France, then Australia (!!), and THEN England!

Any surprising stats for your properties?
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GRL
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Post by GRL »

Hardly any on ours are from France although we are increasing the amount of advertising we are doing on French sites to see if we can remedy that. Without looking at the figures I know the UK is first probably followed by Ireland and then a fairly equal spread of everywhere else from Australia to Peru via Azerbaijan, although with the latter, they were actually English but working out there.
tavi
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Post by tavi »

I have lots of lovely Portuguese guests (many of whom repeat or recommend) during the high season - our area is very much in demand for July and August amongst the city folk.

However they do love to book late and this year in one of my apartments I'm almost already fully booked to British guests...even in high season which is unusual since I only sleep two.
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edinburgh
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Post by edinburgh »

Interesting :-)

Now, given the number of English-speaking French guests I get, I wonder if I would do even better amongst the French, if I produced a website entirely in French?

The big downside is, I don't speak a lick of French - so perhaps this might be a bad idea?
other
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Post by other »

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Last edited by other on Wed Apr 22, 2015 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
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barbersdrove
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Post by barbersdrove »

our visitor profile seems to change every year! I think i've got a handle on it and where to focus my marketing then it changes. This year we have had a lot of holidaymakers and workers. The workers are usually in groups of 3 and doing manual work in the area. I think this is due to 2 things.

Firstly we changed to mon and fri changeover days at the start of last year and made the price for the mon to fri bit lower then the weekend bit but the same over all when added together (if you get my meaning)

Secondly, and I've no evidence for this as I've had no communication from them but I did email a contractors accommodation agency early last year to ask if I could be put on their data base.

No acknowledgement of this or request for further info but if it is due to them then that is the cheapest marketing I have done and the best in terms of return on your money :D
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Bunny
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Post by Bunny »

Edinburgh, I've not had a single French guest in 9 years. Mine are mainly UK followed by Ireland, Holland, Germany.
FelicityA
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Post by FelicityA »

I am not good at targeting the French either. Only one last year and one future booking for this year - through the Homeaway site abritel ( I don't have an upgrade and it is just a classic listing - my ad just gets exposure, I am not sure how much, on all their sites). And I have a French son in law so I should be better at this. The French make such nice guests, in my limited experience, leaving it all beautifully! I got a few when I was on HL.

I get very few British guests - only two last year between March and November + two for the Christmas and New Year weeks. But I only do full Saturday to Saturday weeks for the vast majority of the year ( and we close for most of February and all of November) so that is a factor, I am sure.

This year, looking at my bookings,18 from March to November, covering 28 weeks, 21 weeks are down to Australians, Canadians and Americans, 4 British and 3 from Europe. In addition another two week booking from English living in Singapore for the whole period over Christmas and New Year. Hurray, no changeover in the middle of Christmas! This booking was a big surprise. My first ever enquiry from a free listing ( I think I have been there for about 3 years!) on holidaylettings4you, and, for my two most expensive weeks of the year! It was worth all that judicious re-editing and calendar updating after all!

The majority of these weeks have come through my own site - either returns or having found me on Trip Advisor and googled I think. Only two through Owner's Direct which is my target listing for the British market. I might get more if I was back on HL I suppose.
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pambon
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Post by pambon »

Almost 99.99% from the UK, the rest USA/Ireland.
Goscar
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Post by Goscar »

Our guests are almost entirely from south east England and the Midlands. This having been said, the one interesting trend that has emerged over the past few years has been for expats to visit UK and treat their family and friends to a week's holiday. We have had expats renting the house from as far afield as the US, Qatar and Japan. It sometimes works the other way with the older generation inviting their family to return for a week or two from the likes of France, Italy, Australia and NZ.
Last edited by Goscar on Sun Feb 08, 2015 12:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
marsh frog
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Post by marsh frog »

Mainly UK then Netherlands,Belgium, Germany but only a fairly small percentage are from outside the UK
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Post by AndrewH »

99% of our guests are from the UK. They pay in Sterling and we like it that way. The odd 1% over the years have been from South Africa, Germany and Holland. Our villa is in Greece, but we have never received a booking from a Greek guest.
PS. I have just remembered that this summer we have a week's booking from Iran!
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Cas & Irene
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Post by Cas & Irene »

Approx. 99.9% of the bookings are not Spanish , last year we had 2 Spanish bookings over total of 122.
It´s very rear if we get Spanish guests, had a few times Italian guests and once from Portugal.

Only with business bookings for the CCIB (Conference Centre) we get some more bookings from Italy and Portugal. They book only B&B for the close distance to the CCIB and the friendly price, hotels double their prices with important conferences and we keep the same rates.

In 2013 we had many Scandinavians and last year Germans, but generally the most of our guests are from the UK.
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aasta
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Post by aasta »

2014: 55% england and Scotland, 35 % German, than some Australians, USA and Holland...6 people from Portugal for the entire year!!!
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edinburgh
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Post by edinburgh »

Interesting statistics so far!

I wonder if the English and Scot just travel more (and stay in self-catering!), or whether we are all missing a trick in attracting non-British guests?
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