Lay My Hat

Mine are terrible this year.

I'm normally booked up by now but I only have 2 weeks 3 days in the diary

Kes99 wrote:Mine are terrible this year.

I'm normally booked up by now but I only have 2 weeks 3 days in the diary

Serious commiserations. I am OK for 2018, but it could be the same for me next year who knows, I am that jumpy about it.

Where are you in the world? How and with whom do you advertise?

Fully booked until mid september plus the odd bookings for the low season and New Year. I am quite satisfied.

dreadful - no new bookings via air & bdotcon since last autumn. Since October no B&B guests except for a regular French family at Easter & just 1 wk of UK regulars in one of our gites. Confirmd self catering from end of May: 10wks(mainly regulars) in our family gite & 8 wks in our little gitefor2. B&B is just regulars for rest of the year........ This is worse than the year we opened 2004 - had gite bookings in place & no advertsing for B&B, but we were up & running in the May & have not looked back till last year which was disastrous & this year looks like a catastrophe

We are 1 week down on our usual weeks which sounds good but our bookings this year have been significantly boosted by repeat clients and 2 referrals. Just as well as out of all the sites we're with only one has produced bookings....3 weeks. They gave us 4 last year. All the rest are from my own efforts.

I am so pleased to be getting out of this game....and sincerely hope we sell before next summer. I have worried constantly the past 3 yrs about having a poor season so I'm very sorry to hear you're finding it tougher.

A friend who's rented longer than us, and is also selling, has gone with booking. com for this year and has managed to sell August, some of July and some of September. So I may try them next year as this year is a fluke with so many repeats and referrals.

Mousie
x

April, May, June, July this year are best ever (in 7 years)

Not booked from mid August for 3 weeks.. Normally snapped up by end of Jan..

First season for us, started taking bookings at the end of December, opened our doors 1st March, 100 nights booked so far. Only the first 10 days of August booked, but I'm right up in the north Highlands and the Scottish schools go back much earlier thanks to the 4-term system.

Mouse wrote:I am so pleased to be getting out of this game....

Ditto, but ironically this year (our last) did okay without any OTA bookings & once we'd decided to quit, a far lower level of input than I'd have usually made. We are still getting occasional enquiries for odd weeks via our own site or SM which I intend to keep live just in case but in any other year I'd say it was modestly successful and mostly independent.
Now we just have to get through it without any disasters & put a lid on it. Game over.

Our bookings in Cornwall will probably end up slightly down on last year due to March/April and down to the snow I think.

It seems like it's the overseas properties that are struggling. Is this the Euro that has affected it? I thought European holidays may struggle for a bit but was told that people are still flying in Europe as much as ever.

We price in pounds so the rate doesn't effect our clients. Ibiza has never been more popular but. ....that has brought the world and his wife in to the rental villa business as agents. There are a hell of a lot now trying to earn a buck . Add to that all the different OTA sites people can use..... and it just spreads potential clients far and wide.
Also, as an island, everyone is now renting their villa, even though 90% of them are illegal, because the money is so good and it's easier than renting year round.

Finally, this island is on a VIP crusade. It's changed immensely in the last 5 yrs. I could go on a rant, but I won't. However it is pricing out normal families that we would usually attract. I don't know where it will end but I'm pleased to have made the decision to get out now (fingers crossed).

Mouse.
x

up to December we had more bookings than we ever had at that time then it died completely and has been a struggle ever since.
I missed 4 weeks in March April. but it has now picked up???? have available 1 week June, 1 week July 3 weeks Sept 1 week Oct November full which is unusual.

I did switch to Euros and put my prices up 5% which I can now discount to try to fill those last weeks. I should pan out $$ wise with 2017 season which we sold 33 out of 34 weeks.

Basically I have no idea what is going on with the market. I have never worked so hard at filling our weeks, I am spending 3-4 hours a day, literally, on our website and SEO at least 65% of our sales is our own website but is all that time worth it?

The news in Portugal is that 2018 is 10% down on 2017 so maybe this is what I should be expecting.

2015 was our best year since we opened in 2010...booking down last year by 5% and so far this year by about 20%...

Mouse, sorry to hear that you are selling up. Here on the mainland lets are pretty constant, you could let every week of the year but for 6 months you would be losing money.

I got a bit fed up with lets after 15 years so decided to scale back, upgraded the villa and start enjoying it. I am priced in gbp too so had no option to up the rates.

Also ha, it still delivers for me but if you dont adapt and fight it, it willdrive you mad.

So having prepared myself for a nice cosy retirement i now find i am doing more, done a few 3 day lets which are priced as a week, and have done about the same weeks let but at increased prices.

I think theres been a bit of a shakeout here, my neighbour does next to nothing as has no air con, i just upgraded all my ac for the price of a 10 day july let.

We relied on a few platforms like Much Better Adventures, but have since dropped the ski chalet side of it and concentrating on small adventure breaks.
Still not Booking.com, not sure if we want to but since Xmas and NYE is still not booked yet (usually booked 12months in advance) we may have too.

Also, there appears to be alot more incubator / scammy holiday property "Add your property now" websites, sign-up and hear nothing for over a year! ... or, they all operate under the same umbrella, with some sites only dealing with one or two countries exclusively, hence Home Away, Homelidays, VRBO.

AlpineHerosChalet wrote:We relied on a few platforms like Much Better Adventures, but have since dropped the ski chalet side of it and concentrating on small adventure breaks.
Still not Booking.com, not sure if we want to but since Xmas and NYE is still not booked yet (usually booked 12months in advance) we may have too.

Also, there appears to be alot more incubator / scammy holiday property "Add your property now" websites, sign-up and hear nothing for over a year! ... or, they all operate under the same umbrella, with some sites only dealing with one or two countries exclusively, hence Home Away, Homelidays, VRBO.

Based on Alexa Rankings, Top 2018 rental sites:

The Most Popular Holiday Rental Websites | 2018
(Website/Global Alexa Ranking September 2018)

Booking.com 87
Airbnb 292
VRBO 2381 (US - HomeAway Group)
Couchsurfing 3531
HomeAway 5650
Fewo-Direkt 13428 (DE - HomeAway Group)
Abritel 15813 (FR - HomeAway Group)
HomeAway.co.uk 18501 (UK - HomeAway Group)
FlipKey 53042 (US - TripAdvisor Group)
Homelidays 54718 (FR - HomeAway Group)
Rentalia 55569
Holiday Lettings 55883 (UK - TripAdvisor Group)
Luxury Retreats 60028 (Airbnb)
Top Rural 61099 (ES - HomeAway Group)
Homestay 62222