Spooked by June and July booking fix values

[charles cawley]

Over the last week, we have received a couple of 'out of area' owner calls asking if we could handle their booking business. Both were with Holiday Lettings.

I had, of course, to say 'no' but took the opportunity to ask what prompted their calls. Both had, it seemed, been spooked by a significant fall off in the value of booking fixes made over the last six weeks or so. In terms of actual stays, we are recording high figures for every month, including a very healthy July. But the advance bookings for August onwards, except for 2016 bookings which are strong, appear less buoyant.

Patterns are changing. I said to both that they should hold firm and not panic. All the other figures look good and it's very likely that this year's short notice bookings will be the most significant they have ever been.

For all this, before we did some number crunching, it did look a little disturbing. This is a very complicated but never dull business.