Is it too late for my summer bookings?

[cromercrabholiday]

We've had two weeks in July booked in the last week. We are having a good year and we wonder whether it is:

- worries about security in foreign parts
- the hassle of airports and flights
- guilt at all the carbon use of foreign travel
- global warming that will make topless sunbathing possible in North Norfolk

Whatever it is, it's very welcome!

John

[gpck]

We've had two weeks in July booked in the last week. We are having a good year and we wonder whether it is:

- worries about security in foreign parts
- the hassle of airports and flights
- guilt at all the carbon use of foreign travel
- global warming that will make topless sunbathing possible in North Norfolk

Whatever it is, it's very welcome!

John

Perhaps it's people 'going back to their roots'??? I remember our family holidays when I was a kid - a week in a caravan at Hunstanton or Heacham - perhaps the delights of Norfolk are now back in fashion...

[Partridge]

Perhaps it's people 'going back to their roots'???

Hope not, somehow a week camping at Camber Sands doesn't seem that appealing anymore and there's no way I'd win Miss Princess of the week again at my age

[Mouse]

Oh and what about the knobbly knees contest!

Seriously tho' I'm also concerned to read that things seem to be slow...but I can definately confirm its slow elsewhere - the hoteliers in the biggest resort on the Costa Blanca were a very large % down on the summer bookings at the end of Jan.

Perhaps the British economy with the recent interest hikes is to blame? If you read the business pages the retail sector is well down...and thats usually a sign that people are being cautious with their money.
Maybe this year, in some sectors, holidays will be more a 'last minute' affair when people can see how their finances are going?

One key thing - its seems to be everyone in the area suffering slower bookings, so its not something you're doing wrong individually (which is heartening)

Mouse
x

[gpck]

Oh and what about the knobbly knees contest!

Seriously tho' I'm also concerned to read that things seem to be slow...but I can definately confirm its slow elsewhere - the hoteliers in the biggest resort on the Costa Blanca were a very large % down on the summer bookings at the end of Jan.

Perhaps the British economy with the recent interest hikes is to blame? If you read the business pages the retail sector is well down...and thats usually a sign that people are being cautious with their money.
Maybe this year, in some sectors, holidays will be more a 'last minute' affair when people can see how their finances are going?

One key thing - its seems to be everyone in the area suffering slower bookings, so its not something you're doing wrong individually (which is heartening)

Mouse
x

We can confirm the retail sector is struggling - our turnover has dropped by almost half in the last three years, although there are signs of things picking up this year... (need a crossed fingers emoticon... ).

Our rental business is more geared to the US market, and with their interest rates being even higher than ours, we can only hope that they will continue to travel to Florida for their holidays. I presume that there are fewer Americans visiting Europe because of the weakness of the Dollar at the moment...?

[Sarah]

We've had two weeks in July booked in the last week. We are having a good year and we wonder whether it is:

- worries about security in foreign parts
- the hassle of airports and flights
- guilt at all the carbon use of foreign travel
- global warming that will make topless sunbathing possible in North Norfolk

Whatever it is, it's very welcome!

John

We're having a good year too. We had lots of very early bookings this year, in fact all of August, most of September 2007 and a scattering of other odd weeks were booked by the end of September 2006. In previous years, nothing has really happened before Christmas on the bookings front (this perhaps explains why we have no French bookings this year - we were booked up before the French started looking at holidays).

I've thought about it lots and wondered along similar lines. Most of our guests come by car - we're perhaps one of the nearest places from the UK that you can pretty much guarantee summer sunshine. I did wonder whether people were being put off flying by the recent terrorist threats and were thus going to places they can drive to.

Who knows.

[mon269]

One key thing - its seems to be everyone in the area suffering slower bookings, so its not something you're doing wrong individually (which is heartening)

Well.. if it was something a was doing wrong individually maybe I could do something about it. This way it's completely out of my reach and all I can do is sit and wait.

[Alan Knighting]

Sarah,

I did wonder whether people were being put off flying by the recent terrorist threats and were thus going to places they can drive to.

You might be right about flying and the theoretical terrorist threats involved but we're mainly talking about how Europeans, not Americans, react to these things.

Maybe the Basque separatists are thinking about high jacking a Ryan flight, although I doubt it. The last terrorist in our neck of the woods was the Black Prince and that was quite a while ago.

We’re not far from you and many of our guests also arrive by car and they’ve all had to face the stream of North Africans going in the other direction but, are they a terrorist threat? I really don’t think so.

Did any of those who have bought into global warming and carbon emissions watch Channel 4 last night? If any did, what do they think? New thread in the Café perhaps?

Fluffy

[Mouse]

Well.. if it was something a was doing wrong individually maybe I could do something about it. This way it's completely out of my reach and all I can do is sit and wait.

thats a fair point mon269 - I hadn't thought of it from that point of view.

If the market is there, but just smaller then the only answer I can think of is more marketing & more creative marketing. Can you 'niche' market in anyway? Can you contact previous enquirers with a tempter? Do you have a USP (unique selling point) you can clearly highlight? Can you offer a discount on second weeks (to encourage longer stays)?

Where do you historically get your enquiries from? Could you give your advertising there a freshen up?
Can you advertise in new ways? Specific publications (for niche markets), city papers (for weekenders), try finding an agent that has an established network and client data base they could emailshot? etc etc

Sorry if you've considered all these not understanding your market I might be going over old ground

Hope enquiries start up for you again soon

Mouse (trying to help)
X

[Sarah]

Sarah,

I did wonder whether people were being put off flying by the recent terrorist threats and were thus going to places they can drive to.

You might be right about flying and the theoretical terrorist threats involved but we're mainly talking about how Europeans, not Americans, react to these things.

Maybe the Basque separatists are thinking about high jacking a Ryan flight, although I doubt it. The last terrorist in our neck of the woods was the Black Prince and that was quite a while ago.

We’re not far from you and many of our guests also arrive by car and they’ve all had to face the stream of North Africans going in the other direction but, are they a terrorist threat? I really don’t think so.

Did any of those who have bought into global warming and carbon emissions watch Channel 4 last night? If any did, what do they think? New thread in the Café perhaps?

Fluffy

Alan

Perhaps I didn't explain myself very clearly. I don't mean that people aren't coming to France because of fear of terrorists, I was thinking that perhaps they are.

I was referring to Brits, not Americans and the chaos at British airports last year due to the alleged terrorist plot to blow up planes. Not only did it make airports a very unpleasent place to be (particularly with young children), I'm sure it made some people quite anxious about flying. I thought that this may explain the very early bookings we got for 2007, people who may normally go on holiday to a destination that was too far to drive decided to drive to the nearest sunny spot.

This doesn't seem to be the general trend though, so I'm probably wrong.

[Hells Bells]

Sarah, you may be right. We had guests caught up in delays last August, and we let them stay an extra couple of days. They had an awful time, but fortunately had booked for 2 weeks.

[Big Sis..]

They had an awful time, but fortunately had booked for 2 weeks.

Sorry Fraise Im sure it reads differently than you meant

[mon269]

Thanks Mouse that looks like a cat! I will go through your suggestions and see what I can do.

As I see it, the 2 most important things (can you have 2 most important things?) are “If the market is there� and “where do you historically get your enquiries from?�. Being a newbie in this, I’ve got very little historical data to rely on. What I mean is, and hence my original question, when should I expect to start getting my summer bookings? I know is a difficult question to answer but I could not help wondering.

Looking around our area, we are doing very well so far, but I am difficult to please and well is not good enough. I don’t want to be happy just because I am doing better than the rest.

I will follow your advice and keep you posted.

[enid]

It could also be the great summer that the UK had last year - folks had already booked their holds then but perhaps think well with weather like that we may as well stay at home.

Who knows - but this business has up and down years. We are on target at the moment - need a few more bookings but not panicking yet

[Big Sis..]

Hi Mon...

I do feel a bit awkward as i have had my best ever year of bookings and pretty much booked from mid March-mid Sep..and have been for a while ,
weve got an odd week here and there though..
I know that others are suffering though as ive passed quite a few bookings on...and everybody else has said what you are saying...so I spose I will thank my lucky stars..

The only things I can put it down to is the fact Im on a lot of websites[paid] So you do have to put the investment in,
and we have the capacity for large groups,
it definitely is mostly both houses booked together that gets the bookings...
I get people ringing to book etc then ask me where we are .
.so they must have looked for the large capacity and then wondered where it is.
Of course we have returners as well which is nice....