Lay My Hat

With all said and done, how did this strange summer go? Did you get reasonable bookings? Any funny stories?

I was fully booked from April to the end of October , then COVID struck... As all my guests are from the UK or other parts of northern Europe it was just one cancellation after another , all fully refunded or transferred deposits over to next year, so all in all a dreadful year... Once Spain opened its provinces I opened up my cancelled weeks from July at heavily discounted prices, I've managed to pick up about six weeks from Spanish guests , As I don't speak much Spanish its been difficult communicating , but I've managed it with Google Translate … Just hope and pray that things get better next year, but I'm not that hopeful they will.

My over winter guests left in the middle of March and since then one booking from a Spanish family (20% discount, they went home to Malaga with the community vehicle gates fob). I have guests due 12/09 who will come provided their flights are not cancelled, then 19/10 and then 08/01. Most of my bookings have moved to 2021. In the new apartment, open for bookings from mid-March I have had one booking who stayed, others have moved to 2021. My 4 month over winter guests have today cancelled

I did have quite a few enquiries for both apartments from Spanish but pretty much every one wanted it on the cheap or wanted to over occupy and/or with 'well behaved' dogs

I lost all bookings over 30 properties at the beginning, then when things started to lift managed to re book all 30 properties at a vastly reduced price. Then lost most of them again! Mainly rented to Spanish and French for August. Main problem was then communal pools closing. Lost a 5 month booking over the winter in our apartment but managed to re book 3 of those months today. Bizarrely British guests still coming into our house for 5 months for mid October as long as borders stay open and flights not cancelled. We got stuck oursleves until July there and had already booked Ryanair flights for mid Sept for 3 weeks which are still going even though FCO says non essential travel. We will go providing they dont cancel!

We started 2020 with what looked like another great year with lots of bookings and then, yes, it felt like every day there was another cancellation. By about May we realised that there were a number of people who hadn't cancelled. Bookings picked up, lots of French, Dutch, Scandinavians and Germans. August was great - it almost felt like normal. Now? A slew of cancellations. Two lonely bookings at the end of the year for one of our apartments and unless things change for the better I wouldn't be surprised if they cancelled too so we have written of the rest of this year.

What has surprised me is the willingness of people to come but thwarted by restrictions. I had thought that a city break to Malaga wouldn't be that attractive at the moment but I was wrong. My prediction is that if there is a vaccine combined with other measures such as testing then things will bounce back (touching wood as I type).

We had 8 cancellations in our 2 rentals, 5 moved to next year, 2 claimed on their insurance and we refunded 1.

We lost 3 months totally at the beginning of lock down but then picked up French and Spanish last minute bookings, a lot with dogs.

As it stands our last booking for this year arrives today.

Overall we are about 40% down on our average nights booked which is a lot better than we expected around April time.
We have held prices and not offered discounts.

I did ok as cut my min stay to 2 nights, and increased my cleaning fee.

It's a villa with private pool so q safe, also once I started taking ha bookings I fitted their algorithm so got more.

This year was going to be my swansong, but i reckon I may do the same again again next year but with someone managing it.

Most guests just stayed round the pool, part day at beach, ate at the villa. V few restaurant visits.

We were fully booked for season. Then covid struck. A couple of brave returners managed to come. Many have now moved to next year. Once the calendar opened up again I was inundated with Requests from France and Spain. I was getting so many enquiries I decided to raise my prices.
I quickly filled al available slots. So feeling relieved.
Many new bookers want to return. I limited numbers at the villa. Normally I accept 6 but accepted mostly couples and groups of 4 which meant less overhead.
All thinks considered a good year.

Lost quite a few bookings so used the villa for my family for some of the time. My late bookings were annual regulars but alas one of them suffered from a break in whilst they were out one evening. Quite a bit of damage where a window reja was pulled out of the wall but luckily the people did not leave any cash or passports in the villa and all that was stolen was a bottle of whisky! Alas the insurance did not turn up to do the repairs as promised and the guests were left feeling very vulnerable and this rather spoiled their holiday as repairs were not completed until after they had left - as a result I felt the need to offer a refund on their second week. Then a water leak - somehow lost 39 M3 of water in one month - expensive! Not a good year...