Lay My Hat

Glad to hear that Sam V. In spite of the "Walking Dead"

For our villa in Italy, I think I am in the slightly ahead against the same time last year. Our bookings normally come in during March and April. very few enquiries from Brits this year. I have also changed our listings to Euros.

this is our 14th season in SW France & all I have booked are UKregulars - 11wks in family gite with 3 wks in July & 3wks in August still available. No bookings at all for our small Gitefor2 - had 2wks of regulars who have had to cancel as husband has just suffered a stroke. No new enquiries for gites since July 2016. Have never had a year like this one for lack of english speaking enquiries. French,Dutch & Belgians always wait till around May to think about holidays so hopefully will still fill up - like others I am normally turning them away as UK guests book earlier. A handful of regular bookings for B&B & just 2 new bookings via bdotcom - normally by this time I have had a lot of French & Dutch bookings, but now I ask for CC details with CVc code, no bookings but equally no cancellations or constant chasing for deposits that never arrive. My colleagues with small gites are all in same boat, those with large gites taking up to 20 guests are all fully booked June-September, so I guess the large groups are still booking & they tend to book early due to the numbers. We reckon the smaller families & couples are probably waiting for the results of Dutch & French elections. For UK guests with Brexit some may be worried about anything which could affect their trips to France - who knows, but very worrying.

We are looking about the same as last year, a few odd days available June-Sept but no big slots, plenty of enquiries coming in but struggling to fit them in. About 40% UK guests and the rest from all over Europe. Out of main season seems to be a lot of US and Canadian visitors.

Going very good for my villa in Umbria. Since I put it online in July 2016, not a single booking from UK guests: lots of Germans, some Dutch, Belgians, French and Swiss. Italians are mostly booking for weekends in low season.

Many more booking to date than same time last year.....Our guests are usually 70% English...this year it seems that we are attracting more Germans and folks from North America...

well down last year, seems the same so far for 2017 with repeat customers saving the day. This is going to be our last year renting to give us a break from all the work. Couple this with trying to find people willing to do change overs and we cannot be bothered to carry on.

I hardly deal with UK guests, but as a comparison, after a slow start, the summer bookings are coming in thick and fast and we have about the same amount booked now as in previous years, so I would say the French are booking as normal. I'm only one place, but if others are finding the same, you could use us as a 'control' - i.e. that any fluctuations in the UK market aren't reflected across Europe.

We had 20 weeks of bookings in 2015, down to 13 weeks in 2016, but have not had a single enquiry through our HL/TA listing since last August (despite the fact that we are in the top 40 in the Travellor Review listing of the 8400 or so TA properties in Occitanie). Fortunately we are getting some word-of-mouth bookings - but not getting anything from TA/HL for seven months is worrying.

I should mention that normally our bookings come from the UK, Northern Europe, or North America - never from France.

All UK guests, this is going to be our 4th year.
We have filled most peak weeks before the end of the year before, and have a few left to fill, but up on last year and the year before.
Brittany
Use chez nous, HFD & our own site
www.lederan.com

15th year here in spanish mainland and this year is poor. I m more flexible with changeovers and upgraded villa. I blame ha and its fee, new guests seem confused. If i relied on lets as sole sourse of income i d have to get a job but i do other things so not bothered.

As mouse said, last year got off to slow start and turned out one of the best. I think people have little confidence, jobs, brexit, terrorism, scams, but still want their summer holiday so book later.

We have a lot of longer bookings in the 2 bed gîtes. In one we have 4 months of longer bookings and 2 1/2 in the other one. Otherwise not much yet. Last year we ended up pretty full from last minute short bookings from booking.com.

6 bed beach house has had August booked for over a year, now has bookings for 3 weeks in April, 2 weekends in May, nothing in June and 2 1/2 weeks in July. First time I've done a short booking in early July but it's a week that rarely lets.

Hello Wally - it's lovely to hear from you!

One week left here now - a Monday to Monday week in August. Getting loads of enquiries from French guests (just from France Voyage and a FB French dog friendly group) ... but they all seem completely baffled by the idea of arriving on a Monday . Bless.

Way too quiet for us

Much the same as last year...