Lay My Hat

anyone else in SWFrance (we are in Charente) in total despair this year - no new enquiries now since March for our gites - have been upgrading guests from our Gitefor2 into family gite & luckily have 12 weeks of regulars for family gite, but as it stands have filled 18wks in family gite(inc upgrades) & 5wks in Gitefor2. Last booking for Gitefor2 was received in February. This is our 14th year & for a good 10yrs we achieved 20-24wks/gite/yr & high occupancy in B&B (100% June-Sept). Our B&B has died, mainly because so many gites now offering short 1/2 night stays on bookingdotcom for very low cost + number of B&Bs is now into 100s..... have slashed prices, we are on a multitude of websites, number2 B&B for our region on TA now for over 4yrs, but it is like we have disappeared from view - any ideas??? Or are we just feeling the airbnb effect & will just have to accept that our business is dead.

We are also in the Charente and since 1997 our first year of gite renting we have always had the approximate same number of weeks booked and this year is about the same, but bookings came later. People are looking for more quality in their accommodation and we have to keep the places up to scratch and not let things slide.

we work damn hard to keep everything up to scratch & top spec - no extra costs etc, biggest pool in region, tennis court etc - redecorate every year & have always had a high level of repeat bookings. Have dropped prices, offered discounts, not sure where to go now - this is our website - all suggestions welcome, unsure what more people could want www.manoir-la-betoulle.com

It is a pain.
Just had a look at your wonderful property on the website. Must say it looks fantastic.
Also looked at Booking listings in the area. Came across you listing there too.
It would be very hard to increase your point score it would be quite hard to improve on anything.

petitbois wrote:we work damn hard to keep everything up to scratch & top spec - no extra costs etc, biggest pool in region, tennis court etc - redecorate every year & have always had a high level of repeat bookings. Have dropped prices, offered discounts, not sure where to go now - this is our website - all suggestions welcome, unsure what more people could want www.manoir-la-betoulle.com

I can see from your website you have maintained an excellent property and cannot see where you can improve. Your pricing looks reasonable as well. We are satisfied with about 14 weeks per year so maybe your 24 is about as much as the Charente will give you. Bon Courage !

It is not you, we are having exactly the same problem and have also been doing this for 14 years. Gites that we look after for owners have also struggled to fill early months and are not starting with bookings until this weekend - never had that before. Every year is getting harder with changes in advertising, world events etc. Just have to hang in there and hope it gets better. I really don't think discounting is the answer. We put an offer on for April and May but did not help. So sad when the weather is so good in June and the rooms are sitting empty. Hope your season improves soon.

We've been renting for 20 odd years and it comes and goes. In the past 'bad' years have been due to exchange rates, cheap all inclusive holidays in the USA and political events in the UK or here causing uncertainty. Sometimes, there is no logic!

We've only got six weeks booked this year and no enquiries since March. Last year there was a flurry of bookings after the referendum and we thought there would be renewed interest this year after the election but it is still so unsettled it hasn't happened yet. Brexit is not helping either.

Take into account exchange rate, ferry costs, fuel costs, terrorism and that France is no longer 'cheap' as it used to be and it all adds up against us.

Undoubtedly, Air BnB and programmes on TV showing nightmare holidays and bad publicity about scams etc. have an effect too.

There may yet be a late 'surge' as the 'Sod It' factor comes into play. However, I'd be laughing if I had your level of bookings!

Sorry can't offer any advise !

I think that we are all in the same boat ! 20 years ago we were the only rental accommodation in our little village ! Now there about 10 ! There are literaly thousands and thousands of rental properties in the Poitou Charentes region of France now and we have found that how ever hard we try and how much we offer with our beautiful watermill accommodation it does'nt realy make any difference to bookings !

Bon courage !

Just to jump on the bandwagon and re-iterate what everyone else has said, this year is particularly bad due to the reasons given by the others, what we're not sure of is this an anomoly or is this the way of the future. I am pretty sure that the next couple of years are going to be tough due to Brexit (for us in particularly as most of our guests are from the UK), but what the long term view is is anyones guess.
As Monty Python said "always look on the bright side of life...."

And Just out of interest on the cheznous website alone there are 6 pages of special offers for July 2017 and nearly the same fpr August in the Poitou Charentes region !!

25 Years ago it would be nearly impossible to find a vacent rental property at this time of the year for July & August.

And people are still pouring over from the U.K to set up Gites & B&B! The French are now doing it on a big scale after the success of "Bienvenue Chez Nous" on French TV ! The mind boggles !

July has been very difficult to get bookings since they changed the U.K school holidays a few years ago.

yes, just done a search on HFD for our vacant weeks in Gitefor2 in August - 93 other properties with availability - as you say 10-15yrs ago we would all be sold out for months by now in Charente region.

Not sure whether to be comforted that we're all in the same boat or just sink into the depths of despair...

We too have been renting here for 11 years and although early July has always been more difficult to fill we have always managed it in the end.....

This year however has been a challenge to say the least...offering discounts hasn't helped so far and we are resigned to the fact that this may well be our worst year since we started...lots of factors I think ranging from politics to OD -out of 7 gites to let we have 3 gites booked this week and only one for the next two weeks then still got a fair amount of availability until mid July with one gite empty until 28th July ....soul destroying.

Incidentally we also have a 5 bedroomed villa with private pool ( www.dordogne-holiday-villa.co.uk ) in the next village just 3 kms away and this has been our best season (only our 3rd mind you) it being fully booked inc Christmas from May until Oct (just one Sept week left) Maybe that sector of the market is less affected.



Elena
www.lescrouquets.net

think you are right there - all my friends with large gites for extended families are fully booked & have been since New Year - bearing in mind that grandparents do a lot of child care these days & are more active into their 70s, it seems that the smaller gites for couples or family of 4/5 are no longer in favour, or just too many of us now.....Also there are more gites with private pools - no-one wants to share facilities - we also have 4 B&B suites & apart from regulars & occasional 1 nighter we are currently at around a third of our normal occupancy.....many gites locally have advertised on airbnb/bookingdotcom that they will accept 1/2 night stays - much cheaper than B&B rates. The times are a'changin' sadly. Glad we are near the end of our time, not just starting out.

Just out of curiosity but not intending letting at these prices I put some special half price offers about for our remaining July/August weeks and nearly 2 weeks now have not had one single reply !

same here, have slashed prices, had 2 enquiries saying too expensive, would we reduce by half again.....everyone wants a deal - have special offers on bookingdotcom for B&B also, in last month received just 2 x 1night bookings, still no new bookings for gites...have given up on this year....usually by now am receiving at least 1 enquiry/day & at least 1 B&B booking/day. Have just disconnected CC machine as have nothing for this week, a large French group who have paid in advance for the coming weekend, after that next B&B guests are due 21st July - I should be busy, busy by now - nothing...