what bookings, even enquiries would be welcome!

[CostaBlanca]

Hi,

Ok, I have been sitting back, not overly worried when everybody else has been revealing how well their bookings are going. It is now nearly mid February and things are a bit worrysome.
I am referring to my friend´s finca (villa) which she has finally decided to rent out for the summer instead of selling. I have registered with OA since early January and received just 1 enquiry. It is also registered with 2 other paid rental sites.
Maybe people coming to the Costas prefer new modern houses?

Last year (in March) she told me that she she would like me to rent it for her for summer 06. I still managed to get most of the summer rented even at that late stage. I am still optimistic that I will still get bookings for this year but no doubt that I will have to discount.

My New Year´s resolution of getting my own website went out the window.

Sorry moan over, Saturday night and all that!!

Saludos,
Maria

[A-two]

Maria,
Saludos and welcome to LMH. There are a numbers of factors that can negatively impact your inquiries, and some of them are outside your control. I think an older place can be very appealing, more appealing to some people, so I am certain that is not the answer.

It's difficult to know what's normal for your area in terms of the number of inquiries you receive until you have been doing it for a year or so. What's normal for me is not going to apply to you, and you may be worrying unnecessarily. Maybe nobody books in your area until March, I don't know. But I do agree that one inquiry in a whole month is not good.

To make a start, you need to provide us with a www link to one of your listing site ads in your signature, or in a post. Nobody can give advice if they can't see what you're doing.

Trial and error using a process of elimination is one way.
Maybe it is something to do with the way you are presenting the property. You may have to change a few things in the ad and see what makes a difference. Dropping the price may be the answer or may not be the answer. If the price is too low, people worry there is something wrong with the place. Maybe you need more photos. Maybe you need to add some guest reviews from last year. I haven't a clue. We are blind.

I suggest you post your ad details in the "Website Review" section and ask for some honest comments. Then at least you'll have an idea of how appealing your ads are, and hopefully you'll get some useful tips. Sometimes small things can be off-putting and when you're very close to something, it's hard to see it as others see it. A few reviews are invaluable.

A personal website is also great idea and hopefully you'll get chance to start one soon. It's quite possible that's the problem, or at least a large part of it. Of all the successful people I know here, very few don't have a personal website and those are folks who mostly have repeat guests, not looking for many new people. (OK Ros, prove me wrong, but we are not all blessed with a personality to make up for 10 personal websites!)

Your inbox may be flooding with inquiries as I write, and all the worry will have been for nothing. I hope so, and wish you lots of luck!

[CostaBlanca]

It's difficult to know what's normal for your area in terms of the number of inquiries you receive until you have been doing it for a year or so. What's normal for me is not going to apply to you, and you may be worrying unnecessarily. Maybe nobody books in your area until March, I don't know. But I do agree that one inquiry in a whole month is not good.!

Many thanks for your comments. I have been renting out my own villa for the past 5 years now quite successfully. However, year on year, enquiries are later and slower at least for me but I still get booked up. 4 + bedrooms (as mine is) are probably easier to rent in our area as it is predominantly family vacations.

To make a start, you need to provide us with a www link to one of your listing site ads in your signature, or in a post. Nobody can give advice if they can't see what you're doing.

Trial and error using a process of elimination is one way.
Maybe it is something to do with the way you are presenting the property. You may have to change a few things in the ad and see what makes a difference. Dropping the price may be the answer or may not be the answer. If the price is too low, people worry there is something wrong with the place. Maybe you need more photos. Maybe you need to add some guest reviews from last year. I haven't a clue. We are blind.

I suggest you post your ad details in the "Website Review" section and ask for some honest comments. Then at least you'll have an idea of how appealing your ads are, and hopefully you'll get some useful tips.
Your inbox may be flooding with inquiries as I write, and all the worry will have been for nothing. I hope so, and wish you lots of luck

I have been rather slow in linking my website listings as I don´t think that they would compare well with the wonderful properties that most of you have.

I will start a new topic in website review as you suggest. I await the time when my inbox may be "flooding with enquiries".

Thanks again,

Maria

[enid]

Maria - this is only our 4th season and I still feel nervous when I here the comments on here talking about how July and August are in the bag so let's look at May etc etc. I have had 3 cancellations this year which really knocked me back - now have had 2 replacement bookings but I still have spaces. Alan Knighting always says that we can't really judge until the end of the year and he's right in that - I have more than reached my objective for the last 3 years and it really is too early to call. Good luck

[Clexane]

Maria,

I think most people (at least in France) are suffering a slower than normal year. Last year was a record for French tourism but I think we may be suffering from post world cup withdrawal this year. I think the numbers will come but the advanced bookings may not be there as much as last year as many people booked early to get accomodation in a world cup year.

I wouldn't worry to much for another few months. The other strategy of course is to try and target locals from the same country.

[CostaBlanca]

Enid/Clexane,

Thanks for your support. I was a bit down last night when I posted but I know that there is still time to get lots of bookings (fingers crossed ).

Villa holidays were always the norm in this area for the past 30 years as there were no hotels and few apartments. The villa holiday business was hugely successful especially for big agencies. However, in the last 5 years, we have had severe water shortages (at least that problem is sorted), a nasty heat wave (2003) and last but not least a major building boom which has resulted in a significant increase in the number of properties being available. Infrastructure has not kept pace with the building boom. Parking in town or beach area can be impossible during July/August, etc.

Mentioning the World Cup, it has reminded me of the Americas Cup which takes place this year in Valencia. Maybe I should mention it - I am not sure if fans would stay 100klms away from the staging of the event.

[Mouse]

Hi Maria

good to see you back on the LMH board

I have a little experience with finca's that may be interesting. Last year I ended up looking for a place on the island nr Sant Josep in august for some people who'd been let down by the state of the property they'd rented.

The only one I found was a finca. I was surprised it was free in august & in chatting to the owner he said he felt that many people don't like finca's because they're dark inside...so he always had difficulty renting it out. He reckoned people these days wanted more modern facilities and infinity pools .

I then sent the people round to view it & they commented on the darkness as well....however it was very nice outside (as they often are) & clean so they took it.

If its one of the old, dark finca's it may be putting people off?

If you pm me I'll give you a link to his villa on OD & you can take a look if its similar in design to your friends

I'd take a chance on the Americas Cup promotion...as people may go for a two centre holiday and its going to be very expensive to stay in Valencia when its on. Plus you are also half way to Alicante - which is going to be the only route in to Valencia for a lot of people unless Valencia is suddenly going to be inundated with flights

Mouse (with her fingers crossed that bookings improve for you both)
x

[Alan Knighting]

Joanna,

Of all the successful people I know here, very few don't have a personal website and those are folks who mostly have repeat guests, not looking for many new people.

As you well know, I am one of those people but even I am wondering about the almost complete absence of enquiries this year. I am starting to think a complete make-over of my Listing Sites is called for and I am starting to think that a Personal Web Site could be a necessity.

Enid,

Alan Knighting always says that we can't really judge until the end of the year and he's right in that - I have more than reached my objective for the last 3 years and it really is too early to call.

I still do but I could easily have “egg on my face� at the end of the year if nothing happens during the year. Judging one’s performance at the end of the year is all very well but, what if there is nothing to judge? The next couple of months will be crucial. They will be “boom or bust� time.

Fluffy

[Lesblancs]

Dear Maria,

Last year was our first rental year, after spending a goodly amount of time renovating Les Blancs.

We raced to meet the deadline for Owners in France, joined a few freebies and got our first website (how I renovated Les Blancs) up and running. We then sat by the computer waiting for the enquiries to pour in. And waited & waited.

We got our first booking at the end of Jan 2006 for a week in August. Our first ever booking. Our T&C says min 2 weeks in Aug - but what the hell!

Then Veronica found LMH, and all of a sudden a very steep learning curve.

But still no bookings! From memory we didn't get our second booking until May - for a lovely German family for 2 weeks in July. We ended up with 8 weeks in total in 2006.

And all the time I kept reading that 'x, y, & z' had booked millions of weeks for 2006, 2007 & even 2008. So be it, they had lovely properties & had being doing it professionaly for years. Did I envy them, cos I did - but such is life!

So for 2007 - still not much going on. 4.5 weeks booked - but most of the summer holidays available. No problems there! A lot more enquiries, plus more from the non UK. Les Blancs is featuring much better on the search engines - although Google is still hard work, so all in all, things are looking OK.

Am I happy? Of course not. Why am I not fully booked for 2007, plus most of 2008? Why haven't I got 5 returning bookings? What have I done wrong, and what can I do better? And so on!

But Maria, in my humble opinion, that is what it's like for the 'little people'. & lets face it, you are unlikely to become rich from renting

Robert

[la vache!]

I think most people (at least in France) are suffering a slower than normal year. Last year was a record for French tourism but I think we may be suffering from post world cup withdrawal this year. I think the numbers will come but the advanced bookings may not be there as much as last year as many people booked early to get accomodation in a world cup year.

It would be wonderful to be able to predict the trend of bookings. It is obviously different in different areas, but without wishing to annoy people who don't have many bookings, personally I haven't noticed slow bookings for this year, it is the opposite for me and some other gite owners I know in Brittany. There isn't the competition here that there are in more popular areas of France. I'm also wondering if the heat in the summer and the effect of the sun is making more people book in 'cooler' climates. We had comments from a few people with young children last year that the temperature here in Brittany was plenty warm enough for them - any hotter and they couldn't go outside in the daytime, which was what they wanted to do on holiday.

[debk]

Hey, gang -

We get most of our inquiries in Feb and March so I never pay much attention to late year postings about already filling the following summer. (Actually, those posts always make me wonder whether someone should be seriously raising their prices. Then I remember that different markets have different booking trends, different booking objectives... )

Last month, we were right at plan for the end of January, which is to say, bookings at about 5-15% for all the properties. However February has not yet picked up like I would have expected.

Perhaps this will be a slow year? Or perhaps it will be a normal year with people booking later? No idea yet. But it's interesting to hear twitches of "perhaps it is slow" from people like Alan, etal, who seem to book in my same timeframe.

There's no doubt that the number of rental properties in Lisbon has skyrocketed. A few are truly lovely (and quite cheap) but most are "more of the same" and not necessarily what I would consider competing for our target market.

I did just get a last-minute 5 week booking for an opera singer and she's been a lot of fun. If Lisbon does the whole Ring she swears she'll be back this time each year for a few years...

Nonetheless, I can now say that our year-to-date bookings are lower than normal.

It will be interesting to review this thread in December, eh?

Chin up!
debk

[Bellywobble]

I'm getting plenty of shoulder bookings, but not a single enquiry for July or August. If I remember correctly though, last year we didn't start to fill up until after easter.
Les Blancs, your place looks lovely. I'm sure your bookings will come in soon.

[Fraise]

Fascinating how we are in different parts of the world, different properties,different markets and of course different booking patterns ( if there really is such a thing!). It's only Feb though so too soon to worry for the majority of us I should think.Mmm.. the snow has all melted and the sun is shining,aren't we lucky

[Mouse]

I think Susan is right; different areas attract different types of holidaysmakers and they also have different booking patterns. Add to this that things (trends?) change over time.

Most of us probably bought in the area we're in because we fell in love with it...not because it had hords of tourists visiting and there was a gap in the market, which, if we were looking to set up a business or make serious money, would have been the first thing we looked at!

Just a thought....how many of us knew how big the market was until we tested? (or did you do lots of research prior to buying?).
When we bought our place we knew only this...that this area of the island was more successful for rental bookings because of its proximity to Ibiza Town & beaches. I had no idea if 4 bed nr the village was what people were after, if it was 5 beds with a sea view I was totally kanackered

Luckily we've done OK & filled 16 wks for 2 yrs, but we worked on a breakeven of 10 weeks booked (to hit our target of paying the mortgage off in 5yrs).
But if market forces change - I can't just up our property and move it somewhere else...I am left to fight for a larger chunk of the smaller numbers of renters.
This is possibly our biggest problem as rental owners...that the popularity of our chosen area is out of our hands, along with increasing competition like Maria is experiencing, when you are moving towards supply outstripping demand.

We can cope with the small changes the market is demanding (in our case teak furniture instead of plastic, budda statues in the garden, WiFi etc ) and hope the big issues never hit our market.

Mouse (in a thoughtful mood)
X

[Hells Bells]

I'm also wondering if the heat in the summer and the effect of the sun is making more people book in 'cooler' climates. We had comments from a few people with young children last year that the temperature here in Brittany was plenty warm enough for them - any hotter and they couldn't go outside in the daytime, which was what they wanted to do on holiday

You may be right. We had a booking from a young family last summer for just that reason, the mountains were cooler than the beach, and they wanted to spend their holidays outdoors. As they were from central London, I assume it was an essential part of their holiday to be in the fresh air.