Lay My Hat

I think the point here is that regardless of the country. If people can drive to the rental property they are more likely to take liberties (extra beds, equipment, people, animals...et all)

I have had 2 or 3 Spanish families stay over the years without problem. However I do not encourage it, I far prefer people arriving by plane as they have a booked return, any car arrivals may just stay in at the end.

We have had several Spanish visitors - never had any issues at all - some of them are regular repeat bookings!!! Most of our guests seem to come from Belgium, Germany and Holland and most drive down - and that's never been an issue either!

Just an update.

Last week we got a Spanish enquiry/booking - for 5 couples in their 60s - booked by their son who is a fluent English speaker which made things much easier. We sent a contract in English which included how to pay - the full amount was due as the booking was for a few weeks away (we request payment in full 8 weeks before a stay).

In the email itself we highlighted some of the terms including the house, grounds and facilities only for use by those named and the house being left in a clean and tidy condition.

We received an email back saying his parents didn't agree to the terms, didn't want to pay in advance and didn't agree to a 4pm check-in.

So we lost the booking, but happy that we made the terms really clear, avoiding any misunderstanding.

So I think that there is a different expectation from some Spanish guests of what a self-catering rental is.

Glad that some LMHatters have hosted Spanish guests successfully and we hope that we can too.

Seems there are two kinds of Spanish guest.

So I think that there is a different expectation from some Spanish guests of what a self-catering rental is.

Have to ask how did you reach that conclusion? We often have phones calls to rent the whole property, but there is no way we are going to do that as the kitchen pots and pans are sacred relics. They are not to be used by anyone else.
There are properties around here that are listed as whole lets/self-catering. Spanish do understand the concept of the market you are aiming for.

PS It is understood that contract written in anything other than Spanish are not legally binding. You have trouble and you cannot do a thing about it the courts do not recognise the contract.

Hi casasantestovo, thanks for your reply.

We have reached the conclusion that generally Spanish guests have a different expectation from other nationalities because of the experiences I have outlined. We note what you say about the contract being in Spanish, even if agreed to in English - good point. In this case at least neither party entered into an arrangement that was going to disappoint - so emphasising specific terms - even on an informal basis - has proved invaluable.

We do hope to crack this though and attract Spanish guests who are happy to comply with our terms. There's definitely an off-season market to be tapped into.

How about advertising for example in ABB with capacity at just 8 or 10 so when they turn up with 12 everybody's happy.

We charge different rates depending on the number of guests so advertising a lesser number and having more turn up wouldn't work in our case. But thank you for the suggestion Costa-Brava.

As an update - we've had a very successful booking of Spanish guests. We made a small concession to payment - accepting a 25% deposit by bank transfer and the balance in cash on arrival, as it was short notice, in low season. Interestingly they asked before arriving if they had to bring their own linen - which of course they didn't.