Lay My Hat

Hi I wondered how far ahead you set your bookings?.... and recieve them I have just had an enquiry through OD for Christmas 2017 yes I made a mistage of not having things up to date for then! I did get it sorted thank goodness and I never thought I would be as busy as I have been since I opened in July 2016. November/December is a little quiet at the moment and I had 4 days vacant since July which was great to get caught up with things that required "fixing" should I sort my bookings out for 2018??

Susan

I have updated prices until Christmas 2017, and will probably add 2018 prices early next year. About 18 months ahead feels right to me. I got caught out recently when someone sent me a booking request for Sept 2017 at my 'standard rate' as I hadn't yet set my prices, so I added them till Christmas. He got a bit stroppy when I adjusted the quote but he must have realised that what OD was quoting was stupidly low. He offered to meet me halfway but I am among the more reasonably priced for my area already so why would I cut prices so far ahead. I believe he only tried to book as the price was so low and he thought he would get a bargain - when I declined to budge on my revised price he cancelled the booking request.

I'm surprised people are looking for Christmas 2017 already but I guess for some types of property it is necessary. I have only just taken a booking for Christmas 2016!

I'm up to Jan 2018 at the moment.

I have 30 weeks booked for 2017 and 18 weeks booked for 2018 so far but had enquiries for 2019 but I'm not quoting that far ahead, who knows how the exchange rate will go

Sandra

All that sounds fantastic do you all have a lot of repeat bookings?

Our season typically runs from May - Oct when charter flights are running. We do list our place at out-of-season prices but nobody really wants to stay on a remote Greek island in the winter. We set our prices in about May/June for the following Summer and start taking bookings immediately. In several cases we have lists of names and dates reserved before we have set our prices so we contact those people first before opening online calendars. We won't set prices more than 18 months in advance and neither will we take deposits without an agreed price.

My advance bookings very so much!

May / June / July - around 9 months
August - usually a few 6 months out, then nothing, and the rest sold a month or so out
October/November/December/Jan/Feb - a month to a few weeks out.

Because I've got a city apartment, I think my bookings are more in line with local hotel bookings than a traditional holiday cottage.

Incidentally - in the unlikely event enquiries come for 2018, I'm not taking bookings beyond September 2017 at the moment, as I'd a little anxious what the economy holds for us. [/list]

I've been doing this 14 years and have always wondered why some in my area book up way ahead-they are already half full for next summer-while mine come later (Jan-April). I always seem to end up doing well, but I'm just curious as to why. I have wondered if the people who book far out tend to be returnees? We don't get a lot of that. And again, I don't know why as we have great reviews.

With regards returning guests - it may depend on a type of property, attracting a type of guest. 'Adventurous' types of guests, for example are less likely to return, even if they absolutely love your property. Me and Mr Sunbeam, for example, have stayed in many places we would love to return to, but too tempted to try something new. We have just one return guest, in two years of being open, but many who say they would love to come back. I wonder if others support this view.

I think you may be right .You actually just described me to a T. But why would certain properties attract that kind of person?

I have not had any returnees for next year at all (this year was my first year) whereas the lady up the road with a similar property has loads. The only thing I can think is that we don't have a balcony or outside space whereas most do in my village - perhaps people think they would like to try somewhere that does next time?

We have just completed our first year so whilst lots of guests left reviews saying they would be back, so far we haven't had any repeat bookings. Maybe guests will be back after trying elsewhere first? It is all a learning experience. I a thinking about sending a mailshot out to previous guests as this year we had no problems about the number of weeks booked but bookings sometimes came quite late. I did our 2017 calendar pricing about six months ago and will do the 2018 calendar shortly if school holiday dates are available. Good luck to everyone for next year!

I do wonder if places that are booked up way ahead of time perhaps have their prices too low? We had a good year for bookings but were not generally booked too far ahead of time.

Interesting to hear what works for others. For our smaller property we don't tend to get bookings that far ahead, I think we have a couple so far next year. We just took on the larger adjacent property this year and have sold much more. There are a lot less larger properties in our area so perhaps people looking for these know they have to book further ahead.

I think it also depends on the demographic, do older guests still prefer to use a catalogue rather than online and there for book earlier?

We saw quite an increase in Euro country guests this summer following the impact of Brexit on the currency exchange, it will be interesting to see if that continues into next year.

We are the same - I have no idea why we do not get repeat bookings or advance bookings when our reviews are fabulous. We have only one booking for 2017 at this point - though never seem to have any problems filling up at short notice/school holidays and always end up (have been operating for >3 years now) with a high occupancy rate. I am wondering if there is any inverse psychology going on and we should raise prices as we are cheaper than a lot of the competition. Seems illogical but it may work!