Just had a booking cancelled because i don't have a car charging point.
Guests booked three weeks ago and have now cancelled.
Before cancelling the booking they did phone me and ask if i had one. I said no, because i don't have one! They asked if i would have one fitted before they arrive as they believed that i should now have one as standard. I replied and said that even if i did have one they wouldn't be able to use it because an extension lead would have to be 50yrds long and would have run along two public footpaths and cross two others before reaching the nearest roadside and you can't do that, it would be dangerous to do so!
They replied and said "No worries we can do that, we have several extension leads we can bring with us" Errr No!
One: they booked having not checked that they can get a vehicle to the cottage. My listing with cottages.com and my own website clearly says that parking is roadside and 50yrds away.
Two: they booked having not checked that i have a charging point, they assumed that there would be one.
I did point out to them that there are charging points at two locations and both are within 10mins. They didn't want to know.
Car Chargers - Again
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akwe-xavante
- Posts: 306
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
- Location: East Yorkshire
I was just going to say you might want to locate your nearest point for them, then read the bottom paragraph.
They must accept that we are not Holiday Inn and it will be a while before these things become mainstream. I believe we will have to be offering some type of solution by 2-3years time.
I wouldn't consider an electric car at the moment because the price is too high, the range is too low. Quite how that would work in france I am not sure, we are on a 9kw supply and I wouldn't want to have to increase it just for the odd electric car.
They must accept that we are not Holiday Inn and it will be a while before these things become mainstream. I believe we will have to be offering some type of solution by 2-3years time.
I wouldn't consider an electric car at the moment because the price is too high, the range is too low. Quite how that would work in france I am not sure, we are on a 9kw supply and I wouldn't want to have to increase it just for the odd electric car.
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Yes, I love being told what I should/should not be doing.
I recently queried the taxe de sejour amount we were being charged. The tourist office explained how they arrive at the figure.
The tourist office then carefully explained that it is not us that pays the taxe de sejour but the renter and that we should adjust our prices, upwards, to reflect this.
I know that we pay the taxe de sejour separately on bills when we stay in hotels but I don't believe our (mainly) English customers would want to pay this way and would view it as an 'extra'. Any sort of 'extras' affect bookings. If we raise our prices we are going to look expensive and, potentially, lose business.
But, the tourist office obviously know best!!
I recently queried the taxe de sejour amount we were being charged. The tourist office explained how they arrive at the figure.
The tourist office then carefully explained that it is not us that pays the taxe de sejour but the renter and that we should adjust our prices, upwards, to reflect this.
I know that we pay the taxe de sejour separately on bills when we stay in hotels but I don't believe our (mainly) English customers would want to pay this way and would view it as an 'extra'. Any sort of 'extras' affect bookings. If we raise our prices we are going to look expensive and, potentially, lose business.
But, the tourist office obviously know best!!
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Ecosse
- Posts: 812
- Joined: Thu May 29, 2014 10:40 pm
- Location: Saint Gervais les Bains, France
- Contact:
You might be pleasantly surprised to find it's not such an issue any more. I shared your concern until I started speaking to our British guests and not one of them have batted an eyelid at the extra charge. Only once did some (French!) query why we didn't include it in the room/rental price, but once we explained it wasn't a fair way to do it like that (children don't pay in our commune so including it would effectively be making them pay) they went away happy.GillianF wrote:
I know that we pay the taxe de sejour separately on bills when we stay in hotels but I don't believe our (mainly) English customers would want to pay this way and would view it as an 'extra'. Any sort of 'extras' affect bookings. If we raise our prices we are going to look expensive and, potentially, lose business.
When you go on holiday you would not expect the owner of your holiday accommodation to pay for your car's diesel or petrol so why do owners of electric cars think the holiday home owner should pay for the electricity for their car? Now if you didn't have a charging point nearby, that might be a different matter but with one 10mins down the road there is no issue.
Do people know how easy it is to find charging points throughout the UK? In our area of France they can be found in all towns and larger villages and there is one 5kms from us ... which is where I would direct guests with electric cars.
we were only discussing this last week and I am going to add info on our website about local charging points and may add a question on our booking form asking if guests are arriving in an electric car - that way I can tell them where they can charge and will hopefully pre-empt this sort of issue happening to me.
Do people know how easy it is to find charging points throughout the UK? In our area of France they can be found in all towns and larger villages and there is one 5kms from us ... which is where I would direct guests with electric cars.
we were only discussing this last week and I am going to add info on our website about local charging points and may add a question on our booking form asking if guests are arriving in an electric car - that way I can tell them where they can charge and will hopefully pre-empt this sort of issue happening to me.
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oasiscouple
- Posts: 456
- Joined: Wed Oct 31, 2012 11:55 am
- Location: Port Leucate, France
- Contact:
[quote="Rosie"]When you go on holiday you would not expect the owner of your holiday accommodation to pay for your car's diesel or petrol so why do owners of electric cars think the holiday home owner should pay for the electricity for their car? Now if you didn't have a charging point nearby, that might be a different matter but with one 10mins down the road there is no issue.
quote]
I am curious to know how long it takes to charge up an electric car and what level of power is required. We have never been asked for one and the nearest point is 7km away in the nearby town. If you have to leave your car charging for several hours, this obviously would not be practical.
Also, presumably if you use a public charging point, you have to pay soemething, or is it free?
quote]
I am curious to know how long it takes to charge up an electric car and what level of power is required. We have never been asked for one and the nearest point is 7km away in the nearby town. If you have to leave your car charging for several hours, this obviously would not be practical.
Also, presumably if you use a public charging point, you have to pay soemething, or is it free?
Honi soit qui peu y boit
Info here - https://pod-point.com/landing-pages/how ... ectric-car
Time to charge an electric car can take as little as 30 minutes or up to 12 hours. The time it takes to charge depends on the size of the battery and the speed of the charging point.
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akwe-xavante
- Posts: 306
- Joined: Wed Jul 01, 2015 3:19 pm
- Location: East Yorkshire
A little more about what happened......
The phone call took me by surprise at the time and was very brief too, the guests made sure of that.
The booking was for Spring half term 2018 and i was surprised it was booked so early at the time the booking was made.
Having pondered over what has happened i'm wondering if they had decided to cancel the booking anyway for some other unknown reason and were worried that in doing so for minor excuse would mean they would lose out financially in the process.
So i'm wondering if they were trying to find another reason for cancelling and in the process of doing so get all there money back.
I'm just trying to work out why!?
I'm not worried at all because the spring half term doesn't usually get booked until the new year anyway and theres plenty of time for it to be rebooked by others.
Someone's asked "How long does it take to charge an electric car" I've googled it and find that it varies enormously from as little as 30mins to many hours and as much as 12hrs for some vehicles depending on allsorts of variables.
After the event of the phone call, i've decided that the guests excuse for cancelling was an unessesary one and possible a lie, but i may be wrong. I'll never know. It may be that they had a conventional vehicle at the time of booking and they now have or are getting an electric car before half term and they panicked when they thought about how to charge it at my cottage. Sounds feasable.
The phone call took me by surprise at the time and was very brief too, the guests made sure of that.
The booking was for Spring half term 2018 and i was surprised it was booked so early at the time the booking was made.
Having pondered over what has happened i'm wondering if they had decided to cancel the booking anyway for some other unknown reason and were worried that in doing so for minor excuse would mean they would lose out financially in the process.
So i'm wondering if they were trying to find another reason for cancelling and in the process of doing so get all there money back.
I'm just trying to work out why!?
I'm not worried at all because the spring half term doesn't usually get booked until the new year anyway and theres plenty of time for it to be rebooked by others.
Someone's asked "How long does it take to charge an electric car" I've googled it and find that it varies enormously from as little as 30mins to many hours and as much as 12hrs for some vehicles depending on allsorts of variables.
After the event of the phone call, i've decided that the guests excuse for cancelling was an unessesary one and possible a lie, but i may be wrong. I'll never know. It may be that they had a conventional vehicle at the time of booking and they now have or are getting an electric car before half term and they panicked when they thought about how to charge it at my cottage. Sounds feasable.
Yes, I was inclined to think your guests cancelled for a reason other than the one they gave you.
Did you refund their money? Our Ts&Cs would not have entitled them to a refund of a deposit paid.
And, on the subject of the taxe de sejour. We used to fill out a form every year with the number of guests, number of children (exempt from the taxe), number of nights and then pay the rate for the guests x nights x taxe. It was considerably less than I am being asked to pay now and took account of a bad year etc. Our accommodation generally attracts families where there would be children not eligible to pay the taxe but the new system takes no account of this.
I am going to pay the bill (of course) and it won't break the bank but I am going to point out that in a poor year when we struggled to get five weeks booked putting up our prices/charging more could have meant an even worse year.
Our local tourist office has absolutely no clue about our business or clientele and doesn't provide anything in the way of support or information to owners of tourist accommodation.
Did you refund their money? Our Ts&Cs would not have entitled them to a refund of a deposit paid.
And, on the subject of the taxe de sejour. We used to fill out a form every year with the number of guests, number of children (exempt from the taxe), number of nights and then pay the rate for the guests x nights x taxe. It was considerably less than I am being asked to pay now and took account of a bad year etc. Our accommodation generally attracts families where there would be children not eligible to pay the taxe but the new system takes no account of this.
I am going to pay the bill (of course) and it won't break the bank but I am going to point out that in a poor year when we struggled to get five weeks booked putting up our prices/charging more could have meant an even worse year.
Our local tourist office has absolutely no clue about our business or clientele and doesn't provide anything in the way of support or information to owners of tourist accommodation.
You really mean The French have absolutely no clue.........GillianF wrote: Our local tourist office has absolutely no clue about our business or clientele and doesn't provide anything in the way of support or information to owners of tourist accommodation.
Why are the visitors to france dropping off and what are the French doing about it?
Sorry massive thread creep.
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