Is everyone madly busy with enquiries except me?

[Topcat]

Do you think more people are buying their own (taking themselves out of the rental market) and then offering their own properties for rent (adding to the properties on offer) thus giving a double whammy to the rental market?

I would be a case in point, there. This will be the last year I rent from anybody else, and now I have a property to rent out.

I wonder if hotel bookings are down as well.

Pauline

[Hells Bells]

I will go back to being a holidaymaker, once our income from the apartment is more certain, much as I love the place, I love visiting other places too. But perhaps you have a point.

[Alan Knighting]

Do you think more people are buying their own (taking themselves out of the rental market) and then offering their own properties for rent (adding to the properties on offer) thus giving a double whammy to the rental market?

The published figures show that France had 78 million foreign visitors in 2006 making it the most visited country in the world. Apparently, that is an increase of 2.7% on 2005. Around three quarters of those visitors came from other European countries. The obvious conclusion to draw from those figures is that it’s not a shortage of visitors which is depressing enquiries for self-catering accommodation.

I think there could be quite a lot in what you say. Looking at my own records I find that, over the last seven years, at least 20 of my guests have bought properties in my immediate area and at least half of them rent out their properties. Obviously they are no longer potential guests of mine and equally obviously they are competing directly with me. If other owners have had a similar experience then there could be an over-supply.

Your posting has forced to re-examine what I said earlier this morning and I find I can not compare 2006 & 2007 with previous years.

In 2006 one of my properties were occupied from March to August and the other from March to October, both on longish term lets. My bookings calendar showed this so the only enquiries I got through Listing Sites were from people who had not looked at my bookings calendar.

For 2007 my larger property is again booked longish term, this time for the whole year and my bookings calendar shows this.

My larger property sleeps 6 and is traditionally booked by families much earlier in the year than is my smaller property which only sleeps 2. My smaller property is now booked for the whole of August and I have firmish enquiries for June and July.

There are three worrying features. The first is that my bookings are from regular visitors; the second is that I am still getting very few enquiries from “new� people and the third is that very few of those “new� people are coming through my Listing Sites – they are mostly “word of mouth� recommendations.

Fluffy

[Hells Bells]

Alan, in my short time as an owner, one of my guests is now a neighbour, and one in the process of buying. So not only a lost customer, but also I have losttheir friends they would recommend me to.
Funny thing, we have lots of friends who ski, and not one of them has shown any interest in visiting.

[Mouse]

I wonder if hotel bookings are down as well.

In some areas I can confirm that they are Pauliner

Alan - is your 2 person property normally harder to rent than your larger one? I mean is that market smaller do you think & thats why you're receiving less enquiries?

Mouse
x

[Alan Knighting]

Alan, in my short time as an owner, one of my guests is now a neighbour, and one in the process of buying. So not only a lost customer, but also I have lost their friends they would recommend me to.
Funny thing, we have lots of friends who ski, and not one of them has shown any interest in visiting.

Helen,

How right you are.

My law firm, of which I was Managing Partner, had 285 employees and in seven years I have had one enquiry which came to nothing. For over 20 years Joan worked in production for TTTV, Yorkshire TV and Granada TV and was therefore very well known. Our properties have been on the Granada TV Intranet for seven years and we’ve had one holiday booking from TV, and that from a Director.

We have a beautiful Golf Course round here. I arranged a special discount on green fees for my guests. I was Northumberland County Champion so I knew a lot of golfers and a lot more golfers knew me. Net result? Not one single enquiry from a golfer.

Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had lots of booking from Legal people, from TV people and from golfing people but they were all friends. One can but try!

Fluffy

[debk]

I have so many other things I should be doing... ... but, inspired by Vrooje, I took a look, too.

Here is a comparison of inquiries in 2006 and 2007 for our four Lisbon properties.



Fortunately, we did recover somewhat this month and we're now only slightly under normal income/occupancy. Most of the recovery is due to the fact that, by having more availability, I can accept random longer lets that I have turned away in the past.

It's very interesting to see this same effect playing out around Europe. Food for thought, no doubt about it!

Off to do a check-in. Tchau,
debk