Lack of enquiries

[Frenchlady]

Is anyone else in France finding that enquiries are very slow and viewings are well down on their websites. Last year was not good and this year seems to be going the same way. Of course there could be 1000 reasons why but none of them help bringing in the business. We are still on page 1 of B&B google searches for Dordogne but that is not helping either. Hope it improves soon, although I have a feeling all those good years have gone. We also look after gites for property owners and they all seem l to be struggling to fill weeks too. Our French neighbour who mainly lets to French has also been moaning, so it seems the French are not booking either.

[bornintheuk]

last year was our worst in 18 yrs of gite renting, but this year has seen an improvement. Peak season easy to let, the rest is difficult.
Family holidays are limited in the UK by the governments approach to fines for out of school term non-attendance so only to be expected for that market.
Sorry cant comment on B&B but maybe "Dordogneshire" has had its day ?

[JanB]

You are far from alone. Usually, January is by far the busiest month for bookings but this year I could almost hear the silence. It didn't really pick up until about three weeks ago and I have taken several bookings now, which is good news.

What has changed is where those bookings are coming from. Far more direct bookings, and it is quite nice being back to the old days of actually having a call or email and being able to chat to them.

Also, I have noticed quite a few holiday lets appearing in my area which were quite obviously long term lets (judging by plain and low grade purely functional interiors) and they have decided to jump on the band wagon. This does not help our market where most of us are striving for quality - who wants to go back to the 1970s with dodgy holiday lets?

All is changing. We all need to find ways of embracing new portals and ways to market. Certainly never dull!

[kevsboredagain]

I'm lucky in that I get 2 seasons in France. Winter has been fantastic with close to 100%. Summer is completely DEAD and the worst I've had for years. Perhaps it will pick up with last minute bookings.

[Dusty]

We are finding things really quiet as well. 1 enquiry from HL and one from OD so far this month and page views on OD down from 263 last March to 94 so far this March, ok I know we just over half way but things don't seem to be good.

[Hells Bells]

I'm lucky in that I get 2 seasons in France. Winter has been fantastic with close to 100%. Summer is completely DEAD and the worst I've had for years. Perhaps it will pick up with last minute bookings.

I also have two season, winter has been OK, although I ended up with the current two weeks empty. However I am amazed that bookings are so good for the summer for the second year in a row. Repeat guests for 3 weeks in September is an added bonus.

[Casscat]

When I bought my property I kind of assumed that I would get quite a long rentals season out of it, but I have found that in fact it is only really the summer months that are of interest to visitors. My summer is booked out - which is great - but I had hoped for more off-season rentals. For this I think I need to gain access to the Scandinavian market as I hear that they love to winter in Andalusia. So much warmer than Norway

[Cas & Irene]

Number of bookings made in the last Q 2014 for 2015 were +100% but the first 2 months of 2015 were -30%.

Average we are now approx. 25% better than 2014 on the same time.
Enquiries and bookings are very slow now. This week looks better, maybe it starts now?
.

[chipiechoo]

Dead in the water right now. In fact 2015 viewings are way down on last year, as are enquiries and needless to say bookings.
Having said that we are more or less full for all the high season but all these bookings came late 2014. Only one booking taken so far this year and two enquiries. But, I can remember moaning at about this same time last year about the lack of bookings and we ended up with our best year ever in 2014, that was after 7 years of being in this fickle business.
Have now stopped worrying and don't buy featured adverts as they don't work. In the end it is was it is and hopefully 2015 will end up being an excellent year for us all here in France, with luck SOON.

[SandyBeaches]

Also, I have noticed quite a few holiday lets appearing in my area which were quite obviously long term lets (judging by plain and low grade purely functional interiors) and they have decided to jump on the band wagon. This does not help our market where most of us are striving for quality - who wants to go back to the 1970s with dodgy holiday lets?

I have noticed the same in our area of Norfolk. People who have obviously seen that others are having success and trying to emulate it, perhaps not realising how much hard work and time it takes to build the business. I know of two properties that started doing holiday lettings 6-12 months ago and have already given up.

Our bookings are doing OK but we're in the UK and dog friendly so we get a lot of repeats (40% of bookings this year) for our smaller place from people who are happy to drive 2-3 hours max with Fido.

[Cassis]

To be brutally honest, I've never found there to be any correlation between how well or badly bookings are going for us here compared to what other people on LMH say they are doing. Even other B&Bs in W & NW France, never mind holiday rentals or other regions or countries.

[Hells Bells]

I think I would agree with you there. I used to get over-anxious in the early days when everyone was booked, and I wasn't. Then it changed to worrying about the summer season bookings coming in late. As the recession hit, my ski season bookings slowed down, they always got there in the end, but not with the certainty of before. It was always an entirely different experience to others on LMH whatever happened.

[aussiefrog]

I'm experiencing the same thing. Bookings were hot in 2014 for 2015, some guests booking high season weeks 10 and even 12 months in advance for 2015.

Since the beginning of his year, however, through the normally high booking period of Jan and Feb, enquiries/bookings are way down. Fortunately we have about 80% of high season already booked. I've put the lack of enquiries down to the OD bad publicity. I'm also on CN and same scenario there, although CN usually doesn't perform as well as OD.

DH reminds me that I stress out at this time every year and usually things come good after Easter. I'm hoping that especially with the pound so much stronger to the Euro, things will improve around early April and Brits will start booking again for France.

[barbersdrove]

I looked at the wall calendar at the start of Jan and thought there is not much on it, maybe 8 - 10 bookings and decided it was going to be a bad year.

Then I thought back to our very first year. We opened in March with no bookings on the calendar but still had a very good year.

So...... I told myself, "don't panic! don't panic! Mrs Mannering"

We seem to be getting many more last minute bookings but good value ones.

[bornintheuk]

Just shows the variations in this fickle business we find ourselves in even in the same regions of the same country.