V encouraging February, so far.

[charles cawley]

Just thought to mention, although it could be tempting fate, the value of bookings taken in February for this month and the rest of the year is, so far, close to double that of last year for the month to date. The reason, I think, is the failure of the weather in the UK to treat us with either endless rain or another dose of floods.

More enquiries are coming in for two night weekend breaks and these are causing issues. Demand is changing. People have seen through the go abroad arguments and UK cottages now represent great value. I do not believe the politicians saying the UK economy is 'growing'. People do not feel better off, but they are getting better at getting value for money.

A week for two near Hay on Wye for £220 in a good quality cottage? Yes, the weather is a huge question mark. But a whole week? The market for sleep 2s and 4s is, at last, improving

[apexblue]

More enquiries are coming in for two night weekend breaks and these are causing issues.

for you or the owners?

[charles cawley]

Both... but we are more aware of ours. Any turning away of business is to be avoided if possible. We know that owners must feel it is worth it. They have the final say on rates, changeover days and flexibility including, if they wish, 2 day bookings.

We, generally, do not like 2 day bookings unless owners say they want them. When people ask we always check with owners from principle even if they do not usually take 2 day bookings. They have the final say and have a right to know.

The cottage market in our area is very tough. It is said the rates for quality cottages are the best value in the UK meaning we have to work hard to keep owners happy. About half our business is non-exclusive and the rest only exclusive by owner choice, behaving like a legacy agency with this arrangement would be self-defeating.

[colinc1234]

Hello Charles,

Could you clarify what you mean by legacy agency please?
We have dual agency cottages - but way under half - however if we include ones where the owners have their own websites then that would push towards 50%

Thank you

Colin

[charles cawley]

Apologies.

Large agencies from the past.

Most smaller ones cannot afford to act in certain ways.

Edit. 20 Feb. Demand is still radically stronger in our area than it was this time last year.

[nuneatonmark]

I can echo Charles's comments, our bookings for this spring in our Cornish apartment, including a lot of short notice breaks, is up hugely on any of the 3 previous years we've been renting. We're on course for a record year.

[Dusty]

I wish I could say the same as Charles but Feb has been very disappointing. Only one enquiry which turned out to be a scam and viewing on OD down to 149 from 247 for Feb 2014. Lets hope things get better soon

[charles cawley]

Dusty. This may be a UK / Mainland Europe thing. The (illusory?) economic recovery here may not last.

This is the main reason why I feel things could be fragile. But other patterns such as, effectively, four years of no rate rises have created a competitive edge that was lacking until recently.

The change in demand has been radical in our area but uncertainty has not gone away. That is why we will be advising owners that, perhaps, small rate rises might be a good idea but, until we were it's not a flash in the pan, waiting is the best plan.

[colinc1234]

Hello Charles

We faced a similar surge in bookings January 2014.

Really strong.

But I couldn't tell for sure if it was Google sending more traffic or real demand going up. Probably a bit of both.

Our referrals from other websites grew but not as much as bookings.

Dual agency cottages - we didn't seem to get many more bookings from the other agents.

We could not pin down any particular key words which had jumped in Google. Some but not that many or that much.

I also wondered if it would even out by the end of the year ie same number of weeks booked but just front ended. We ended up ahead - that was for sure - but the % increase was definitely highest at the start of the year.

Glad to hear good news - positive vibes always welcome

Colin

[charles cawley]

Yes, our January 2014 was quite good but February '14 fell like a stone.

March, so far, is looking greatly improved but not quite as radical as February. We do have one or two dual agency holiday lets and we do not do well with these. Most of our work is split between listing sites, owner goodwill and owner's organic results and our input.

But, so far, momentum is continuing. The sun is out today and a good Spring could set up the whole year. My main worry is about the wider economy...

On the Google front we have given up trying to impress it. For ages we tried to get above a rank of 2 but found the time and effort was not worth the candle. Twitter is becoming very important for us... quite astonishingly so but it took 5 years to get close to 9,000 quality followers. Nearly all our overseas visitors are Twitter generated and this gives us a steer on the UK contribution.

It could be that as much as 20% of all revenue is now twitter generated. People have no idea how tough it is being a regional agent, and your patch looks even tougher than ours. But things are going the right way.

[Nemo]

My February also echoed you Charles. Twice the number of bookings as 2014, 50% more income with several last minute bookings accounting for the lower income figure. March so far is quiet, the same as last year.

[rosebud]

Very interesting to hear about your success with Twitter Charles ..

I get some favouriting & retweeting of my posts but nothing more - I will now look at Twitter more closely ....

[charles cawley]

Rosebud,

It is hugely time consuming and conversion is higher, the more choice you can offer. Our twitter followers would be much more valuable if we were larger but we are getting results, even so. Hootsuite or similar using programmed tweets mixed with a few live ones is a good plan.

With the programmed tweets keep, them pretty and amusing with about 25% offering useful free info or assisting others. Heavy, pushy selling means you will not keep followers and could lose them.

Soft sell sometimes with a little gentle humour, from time to time, is appreciated. Holidays or just seeing pretty places or ideas are what goes down well. It is critical not to copy the hard sell of some legacy agencies whilst offering a little more than dull stuff pushed out by others. Content is v important.

It took at least 3 years for Twitter to start getting decent results and we have a choice of 60 -70 cottages. But I do know some much smaller operations making it work. It is slow burn and an uncertain investment.

As followers grow in number (make sure to ditch spam followers) Paper.li can be very effective. But it will not work well if your twitter followers are not up to scratch.

We were lucky with twitter but the time investment was substantial.

[rosebud]

Thanks Charles for the helpful advice.

I am already doing programmed tweets. I will start adding some non programmed ones ....... & cross my fingers!

[HoneypotCottages]

Helpful as always Charles :0)