How many of your guests are from outside your country?

[kevsboredagain]

Half of mine come from France for both properties, a few from Netherlands and other countries up there, Switzerland or Germany and the rest from the UK.

I guess a mixed bag overall.

[PW in Polemi]

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?

I suspect that the vast majority of us advertise in English on English language sites, so therefore I would expect the vast majority of bookings to come from people whose first language is English ...

[FelicityA]

The trouble is that for those of us in the UK, some of the French sites I have looked at (and this may be also true of other countries) don't actually have a section for UK property at all, even though they include other countries besides France. We seem to be in an exclusion zone! My only source (in 'Google' French) is abritel.

[Marks]

UK - 75%
Scandinavia - 16%
Ireland - 2%
France - 3%
Other - 4% (mainly Germany, Belgium & Holland)
Spain - 0%

Data collected over the last 4 years.

[rosebud]

Apr 14 - Apr 15
37% from outside the UK
4 bookings from Australia, 3 from Germany, 2 from Sweden

From April 15
73% from outside the UK so far!
4 from Australia, 3 from UK, 2 from France, 1 from New Zealand, 1 from China (Macau)

UK residents are more likely to book in late autumn & winter. Overseas visitors more likely to book early for late spring & summer.

[matesalka]

I would stay about 50%. We funnily get quite a lot of people who live locally, who are moving house, need temporary accommodation, who have family visiting and don't have room to accommodate them. But we also get a lot of European visitors and guests form Australia, South Africa, USA

[Guest]

[Cas & Irene]

What would you do if, when your guests reached their agreed departure date, they turned round and said 'sorry our house purchase has been delayed and we are going to have to stay here until we get it sorted - oh and by the way we don't have any money to pay any more rent'.

Your luggage is already on the jetty, have a nice day!

.

[Bunny]

[quote="7 Aspire
What would you do if, when your guests reached their agreed departure date, they turned round and said 'sorry our house purchase has been delayed and we are going to have to stay here until we get it sorted - oh and by the way we don't have any money to pay any more rent'.

[/quote]

Aspire I've had several guests who are in between house moves stay for 3-4 weeks. When I get a potential enquiry for this sort of let I have a lot more dialogue with them beforehand. During their stay you get to know them a bit more than holiday guests and they tend to keep you informed of their house purchase progress, so I've never had any worries there. Also the sort of people who can afford to pay holiday rental prices long term are unlikely to be the sort of people who would suddenly declare that they have no money or refuse to move out. Not saying it wouldn't happen but that's been my experience. Sorry thread creeping again!

[CrabtreeBarnYorks]

We're in the Pennines in Yorkshire and most of our guests so far (given we're in month do not live in the UK but many of them are English living abroad and visiting family or friends at home. We've had people from US, France, Belgium, Canada and Australia. This is about 60% then 40% live in England/Scotland and have visited mostly to see friends and family up here plus 3 sets of people here on work. Just got a good 6 week booking this week from someone retiring and relocating back up here whilst they look for a house.

[CrabtreeBarnYorks]

just read all thread above, our 6 week let person has a contract and is paying up front!

[MaggieP]

Edinburgh-just for info the Swiss Germans love all things Scottish. They even hold bagpipe tattoos here-check out the major annual one in Basel.

In my own experience the Swiss spend most of their income on holidays rather than cars or houses and they have a very good income with a very strong Franc.

Only problem is the total population is only 7million but maybe some targeted marketing would be useful?

[Astorchamonix]

We have a place in the French Alps. We are in our first season. So far no enquiries from holiday lettings, about 10 bookings from air bnb (mix of English, Scandinavian, American, Canadians......no french!), American enquirers but no bookings from flipkey and a few more English from our agent. I am lost as to how to get the elusive french to book, I speak good French so don't have a problem responding to enquiries. We did list on a local French website and had a few enquires but no booking. A French fried suggested 'registering' the flat with the local tourist board (at a cost of course) to give it a star rating and then going down the tourist office route. I'm reluctant to spend money doing this unless anyone else has had success with this? We are on arbitel via the homeaway network. Has anyone got any suggestions? Also a lot of Swiss and Italians in chamonix but precious little enquires from these too!

[Hells Bells]

Have a look at France Voyage, Chalet Montagne and Pour les Vacances. I've had bookings from French and Belgians from all of these, and they cost a lot less to advertise on than most. Starting to get quite a few ex-pats from elsewhere in France now too.
There's also Chalets Direct for UK guests.

[rosebud]

From April this year (until Nov) 71% are from outside the UK (although some may have been from the UK originally)

I tend to have more UK visitors in late autumn & in winter.