I would too. If you have more than one property, some manipulating of the calendar is usually necessary if you want to maximise bookings. Unless all three of mine are booked, they all show as available. If people then enquire for the booked cottage x, I say I've actually just taken a booking for x but y and z are available for the same price.Alan Knighting wrote: Should I change the calendar to “available� for a while just to see what happens?
Fluffy
Rush of last minute summer bookings
I couldn't agree more ! We don't even have an availability calendar on our website although we have to use the one on Cheznous (if you opt out then they claim your property won't show in date specific searches). The only time the calendar is usually correct is when everything is booked.La Vache wrote:If you have more than one property, some manipulating of the calendar is usually necessary if you want to maximise bookings. Unless all three of mine are booked, they all show as available. If people then enquire for the booked cottage x, I say I've actually just taken a booking for x but y and z are available for the same price.
Every enquiry received, regardless of availability, gives you access to a potential client for the future. If they are interested in your property this year then why not next year or the year after ? If they receive a friendly email back from you saying how sorry you are but hope they will remember you for the future, they are more likely to remember you and consider you next year. It also gives you a chance to build up a database of targeted email addresses whom you can include in an email shot later on. All enquiries are good !
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Hells Bells
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Giddy Goat
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There have been loads and loads of debates about this and I haven't the time today to search for them unfortunately, or I would. All I can say is that when I have had to disappoint people who enquire about dates already booked (I do keep the calendars up to date too, but the enquiries still come) I offer to contact them when I start taking bookings for the year following; despite most of them saying 'Yes please", I haven't had a single booking from doing so.J&J in Brittany wrote:It also gives you a chance to build up a database of targeted email addresses whom you can include in an email shot later on. All enquiries are good !
I would be keen to hear what your experience on this has been, J&J.
It's odd that people have been commenting about recent activity this week; I haven't had any enquiries for ages, as we only have a fortnight free in September - but received two this morning!
Last edited by Giddy Goat on Wed May 09, 2007 3:32 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
OK, I'm obviously in the minority here but I hate (sorry to be so strong!) websites without availability calendars or with out-of-date calendars. 
As a potential guest it is so very, very frustrating to have to email a bunch of different properties and wait for responses to trickle in, and then try to -- later, when I've time to get started again -- match them to the properties themselves. By the time I find out which properties are actually available, I often can't remember why I cared about them anyway... though I probably printed a page or two, it's not necessarily enough to remind me of everything ... so I have to re-start my search and look at everything that I now know is available and see which one I prefer. And hope that, by then, it is STILL available. No way to know without re-emailing...
So, instead, I eliminate properties without calendars. No calendar, no inquiry from us.
(Maybe this is a excellent screening mechanism: keeps the us's away!
)
Seriously, though, from a guest perspective... I hope people will consider maintaining up-to-date calendars. I think it's good for us, as an industry, to be as user-friendly as possible.
Slinking off soapbox...
debk
As a potential guest it is so very, very frustrating to have to email a bunch of different properties and wait for responses to trickle in, and then try to -- later, when I've time to get started again -- match them to the properties themselves. By the time I find out which properties are actually available, I often can't remember why I cared about them anyway... though I probably printed a page or two, it's not necessarily enough to remind me of everything ... so I have to re-start my search and look at everything that I now know is available and see which one I prefer. And hope that, by then, it is STILL available. No way to know without re-emailing...
So, instead, I eliminate properties without calendars. No calendar, no inquiry from us.
(Maybe this is a excellent screening mechanism: keeps the us's away!
)Seriously, though, from a guest perspective... I hope people will consider maintaining up-to-date calendars. I think it's good for us, as an industry, to be as user-friendly as possible.
Slinking off soapbox...
debk
Shove over Debs...is there room on the soapbox for me? 
'cos I totally agree.
I also don't like it when no calendar is shown (I don't bother even enquiring)...which is the main reason why I always show my availability.
but.....if the calendar is there, I look, I enquire - and am told within 24hrs that my chosen date has just been sold then I'd be ok about it....I might even ask if there are other dates free. I think there can be a clever way of managing clients expectations whilst also gaining a little bit of insight into what the enquiry level is like.
Mousie
x
'cos I totally agree. I also don't like it when no calendar is shown (I don't bother even enquiring)...which is the main reason why I always show my availability.
but.....if the calendar is there, I look, I enquire - and am told within 24hrs that my chosen date has just been sold then I'd be ok about it....I might even ask if there are other dates free. I think there can be a clever way of managing clients expectations whilst also gaining a little bit of insight into what the enquiry level is like.
Mousie
x
One martini, two martini, three martini floor!
yes, i would be ok with that, too. such is life! and if someone has several equal properties, i can understand "managing" availability across them all.but.....if the calendar is there, I look, I enquire - and am told within 24hrs that my chosen date has just been sold then I'd be ok about it
i mostly just wanted to throw in a bit of the 'frustrated potential guest' perspective... sorry for the momentary de-railment...
debk
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Alan Knighting
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Many thanks for all the responses.
At the moment I am not considering the merits of having availability calendars although I admit I prefer having them. I am wondering whether or not the availability calendar for my larger property showing “booked� for the whole year is impinging on enquiries for my smaller property. I am inclined, temporarily, to change the availability calendar for my larger property so that it shows plenty of availability just to test the results.
I feel quite confident that I can handle any resultant enquiries for my larger property which I can not accommodate; at the very least I will do my best to find them alternative accommodation in the immediate area – I do that as a matter of course.
Another approach would be to completely rebuild all my Listing Site entries to remove any mention of my larger property but that would be a major commitment of time.
I’m trying to get to the bottom of one simple question. After seven years of successful lettings why have enquiries almost dried up for 2007? The Listing Sites are the same and the property is the same, but better, so why have enquiries dried up? There are many possible answers and the availability calendar is just one of them.
Fluffy
At the moment I am not considering the merits of having availability calendars although I admit I prefer having them. I am wondering whether or not the availability calendar for my larger property showing “booked� for the whole year is impinging on enquiries for my smaller property. I am inclined, temporarily, to change the availability calendar for my larger property so that it shows plenty of availability just to test the results.
I feel quite confident that I can handle any resultant enquiries for my larger property which I can not accommodate; at the very least I will do my best to find them alternative accommodation in the immediate area – I do that as a matter of course.
Another approach would be to completely rebuild all my Listing Site entries to remove any mention of my larger property but that would be a major commitment of time.
I’m trying to get to the bottom of one simple question. After seven years of successful lettings why have enquiries almost dried up for 2007? The Listing Sites are the same and the property is the same, but better, so why have enquiries dried up? There are many possible answers and the availability calendar is just one of them.
Fluffy
Why can't you have an availability calendar for each property?
Sorry if that is a dumb Question.
I would not consider an ad without knowing it's availability, I am an 'I want it now' sort of person . Can't be bothered to email to find out availability.
Just clicked on your www Fluffy and I can't find an availability calendar.
Ruth
Sorry if that is a dumb Question.
I would not consider an ad without knowing it's availability, I am an 'I want it now' sort of person . Can't be bothered to email to find out availability.
Just clicked on your www Fluffy and I can't find an availability calendar.
Ruth
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Alan Knighting
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Don't look at that one. It is a very basic "personal" web site created simply to comply with the rules of an organisation which I am not supposed to mention here. Take my word for it; my Listing Sites include availability calendars.kipper889 wrote:Just clicked on your www Fluffy and I can't find an availability calendar.
Ruth
Some Listing Sites show them separately, others show them together.Why can't you have an availability calendar for each property?
I may be grasping at straws but I am trying to discover what makes 2007 so different for me.
Fluffy
I put availability on my site after once receiving an e mail from a very frustrated holiday searcher who was fed up with wasting so much time sending off enquiries for properties which turned out to be booked but had no availability calendar which made this obvious.
I do think it is different to 'manage' your availability if you have multi units and are willing to let the others which are available for the same conditions and price as the one already booked, though. That's what I do to maximise my bookings.
I do think it is different to 'manage' your availability if you have multi units and are willing to let the others which are available for the same conditions and price as the one already booked, though. That's what I do to maximise my bookings.
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Giddy Goat
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Yes, I can appreciate the difficulty in those circs too, and LV's seems like a pragmatic approach, even if it means making a small (potential) loss at times.
I agree with those who have said that as punters they would lose patience if they had to email each owner of an interesting looking property separately to check availability. There is just so much competition out there now that you can still find heaps of nice properties which do have calendars and keep them up to date, and simply give those without a wide berth. Fluffy, I don't know what the answer is in your case but it would be a worthwhile idea to do as you say perhaps - nothing ventured, nothing gained. However the listing sites you have used may have changed as people here have been noticing that certain sites have now outstripped others in respect of generating enquiries and bookings. Might it be time to think a little out of the box when a subscription is next up for renewal?
I agree with those who have said that as punters they would lose patience if they had to email each owner of an interesting looking property separately to check availability. There is just so much competition out there now that you can still find heaps of nice properties which do have calendars and keep them up to date, and simply give those without a wide berth. Fluffy, I don't know what the answer is in your case but it would be a worthwhile idea to do as you say perhaps - nothing ventured, nothing gained. However the listing sites you have used may have changed as people here have been noticing that certain sites have now outstripped others in respect of generating enquiries and bookings. Might it be time to think a little out of the box when a subscription is next up for renewal?
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
My 'manpulating' only works for unbooked cottages larger than the booked cottage if you see what I mean. If you have your biggest place booked, you can't really offer them smaller accommodation unless you manage to persuade them that they're better off not holidaying with their friends/family because after 2 weeks of putting up with OPC (other people's children), they'll probably never speak to each other again.
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Alan Knighting
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GG,
For me, the job of a Listing Site is the generation of enquiries; my job is converting enquiries into bookings. When I recently asked one of my Listing Sites if they had any idea why my enquiries had diminished all they offered was a word processed list of how to convert enquiries into bookings. I am pretentious enough to have replied that I am quite good at my job of converting enquiries into booking but they didn’t appear to be quite as good at their job because they were not producing enquiries. A deafening silence was the response. I thought that was under-whelmingly impressive.
Fluffy
Probably. Listing Sites seem to come and go in terms of success. Loyalty is all very well but if loyalty means paying money for nothing my loyalty goes out the window. For 2008 the whole lot of them might well go into the “poubelle�.Might it be time to think a little out of the box when a subscription is next up for renewal?
For me, the job of a Listing Site is the generation of enquiries; my job is converting enquiries into bookings. When I recently asked one of my Listing Sites if they had any idea why my enquiries had diminished all they offered was a word processed list of how to convert enquiries into bookings. I am pretentious enough to have replied that I am quite good at my job of converting enquiries into booking but they didn’t appear to be quite as good at their job because they were not producing enquiries. A deafening silence was the response. I thought that was under-whelmingly impressive.
Fluffy