Bookings keep coming!

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
ianthy
Posts: 522
Joined: Sun Mar 12, 2006 9:07 pm
Location: Bologna, Italy

Post by ianthy »

For our Italian Villa we have decided to close for the 2021 Summer season. Its too uncertain, we have already moved some bookings twice.
Martha
Posts: 2289
Joined: Sun Apr 16, 2006 7:01 pm
Location: Chamonix

Post by Martha »

We spent May and June, and October and November 2020 redoing our roofs which were in a desperate state.

Between the roofs, in August and September, we trialled living in our big chalet (sleeps 10) as it was clearly going to be impossible to rent and clean, and renting out our little one which normally we live in (sleeps 2-4 and we can add the mazot for an extra two). It rented very well so we decided to try it for the winter season.

It's been a huge success and we've been pretty much back to back since lockdown ended in mid December. Earlier on we had some Dutch, Italian and Swiss guests but since mid-Jan it's been all French and we are booked pretty solid until mid-April.

Obviously it costs less than half the price of the big one but it's also an awful lot less work, rents for far more weeks and much cheaper to run. So it's keeping us just about afloat.

It is a very lovely place and of course it is exactly what people want at the moment...small and self-contained. I think it's the only individual small chalet available in Chamonix with both hot tub and sauna. There aren't many small chalets full stop. Nevertheless we've been really surprised by just how well it's done. We will see if this continues or not.

It's helped that the winter has been very good, lots of snow and sun, and there seems to have been a lot of press in the French papers about what a good time people are having without the lifts, photos of happy sledgers and snowshoers.

I guess though in winter it is a nice option to come to the mountains and people feel very keen to be outside having been cooped up so much.

I just opened late April and May today on AirBnB (it's been almost all AirBnB, again new for us) so we'll see if it continues or if people decide they want something else in the spring. Fingers crossed. I know we've been lucky.
Chalet la Foret, Chamonix
volcano
Posts: 84
Joined: Mon Mar 04, 2013 10:24 am
Location: Lanzarote

Post by volcano »

You could get jealous and congratulations to everyone who made it. Here it is totally dead, total standstill for 12 months.
And the prospects aren't much better either.
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