Bookings in the winter?

Up, down, could be better? How to get more bookings is our number one obsession. Talk shop here.
Jan L
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Location: Dordogne

Bookings in the winter?

Post by Jan L »

Hello,

I don't know if this is the right place for this question but here goes. I have a house (4 bed sleeps 10) with a pool in the Dordogne region, south west of France. I get enough bookings in the summer season, but pretyy much nothing from October to May. I get many, many enquiries for the same few weeks in July and AUgust. I guess the pool is not much use out of season, but the house is lovely and perhaps I could get some group bookings?

Does anyone have any advice for how to get some bookings in the dead season?

Thanks in advance!
Peter
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Post by Peter »

Hi Jan

We've all got the same problem I'm afraid. One thing you can do is try and find any websites specialising in finding customers who are looking for the precise things or activities (historic sites, golf etc) which your area has to offer.
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Welcome to the forum, Jan and Peter! Image

This is really the Holy Grail of rentals, how to get bookings in the winter. For someone in your position it is not easy because you cater to families who want a pool in the summer.

However, it is not impossible to attract a different sort of crowd in the off-season. As Peter mentions, you could target special interest bookings.

You could look at what your part of the world offers as a year-round attraction - gastronomy, historic sites, wine trail, art trail. Things like this are no worse in the low season than in high season, in fact they are better because there are fewer tourists around.

And you have to cater to a different type of group because it is outside of school holidays. So couples who have no parenting responsibilities. And you need more than one couple because you have 4 bedrooms. Where would you find such groups of couples? How about a society or association dedicated to their hobby - gastronomic club, wine appreciation society, water colour group, etc.

You could market yourself specifically to them, and here perhaps the off-line world comes into play. If you're aiming at water colourists for instance, you could place a classified ad in a painting magazine. I may be wrong but I think that market is much more likely to read a magazine ad than anything on the internet. (It's an age thing!)

Something else to bear in mind: in marketing a rental property I would invariably advise - sell the location first, and then the property. Because that is the order in which people make a holiday decision.
Paolo
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Christine Kenyon
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Post by Christine Kenyon »

Hello. We have a similar problem - particularly in January in the UK!

However, we can be busy over the winter school holidays. I don't know if you have many visitors from the UK, but we tend to get a lot of enquiries from families for the October school holiday (called half term) which is usually the last week in October and from groups for Christmas and New Year. The other busier periods are the February school holiday (approximately the second week in February) and the Easter holidays.

If you could find a way of targetting the UK market for these dates, you may have some success. Particularly if you can take into account what previous replies have said about activities in October and February for families and for groups over the New Year.

Good luck.

Christine
Jan L
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Joined: Sat Sep 18, 2004 9:46 pm
Location: Dordogne

Post by Jan L »

Thank you guys for taking the time to answer and thankyou for the good suggestions. It seems I have to do a bit of thinkgin now!
johntaylor
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Post by johntaylor »

Perhaps you could think about down sizing during winter period. We have the same problem in Spain, because during the off season period fewer larger groups take holidays together. Can you let part of your property only?
Gilly

Winter bookings

Post by Gilly »

Hi there those of you in warm climes.
We live in South Shropshire near the border with Wales and have the opposite problem ie; most of our bookings are short breaks between September and April. We aim our apartments at DINK's (double income no kids), and because of where we are our guests are usually walkers or cyclists travelling out of school term times. The problem we have found in the short time we have been running accommodation (2 years), is that we struggle with bookings for July and August. We have decided to place the apartments with a cottage agency in the hope that their wider advertising will bring in the bookings of a week or longer.
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John Borg
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Bookings in winter

Post by John Borg »

I suppose this all depends on location. Having a property in Malta, this is actually an advantage as a major selling point is winter sunshine. Obviously, I target guests from colder climates. In a reverse situation, I myself look for more scenic destinations in the off season and I suppose locations with a scenic theme would apeal to people coming from warm climates.I, for example would look for places like the lake district, not in summer, because I cannot get away during the "busy season, but in March, April, October, November etc.
In fact, I browsed through the website belonging to Ms. Kenyon and my wife and I have already pictured ourselves in such beautiful surroundings! Just have to find the time! A good point raised was "the size of the property". A big property is more difficult to rent out in the off-season as it would not be the ideal time for "group holidays".
Malta – always in the sunshine!
Beach House, Bolinas, CA
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think carefully about winter bookings.

Post by Beach House, Bolinas, CA »

I've learned to shut it down for winter. In my area, the Pacific Coast of California, one hour from San Francisco, the winter isn't worth booking. For one thing, everyone expects a discount when infact I have higher costs in the winter (more wood used, more electircity and heat used, more wear and tear on the house because winter guests tended to stay inside most of the time). I've just found it's better to have a march thru november season and use the rest of the months for creating a marketing campaign. :lol:
"life's a beach.......house"
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

My geography is not all it should be, but if you go an hour west of San Francisco, aren't you going to be somewhere in the Pacific? :)

I like your signature by the way - cool!
Paolo
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A-two
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Location: USA

Bookings in winter

Post by A-two »

Hi,
I just joined! To rent or not to rent over the winter is the big issue for us at the moment, so I'm really pleased to see this discussion.

We're on beautiful Long Island, New York. The demand in winter has been for a whole season rental, rather than weekly, but the rent has to drop to the same level or cheaper than properties normally available year round - it works out that 1 weeks rent in July/ August buys roughly 2 months in the winter. So this year, we decided to try renting just the holidays - Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, and would close it down at least for Jan and Feb - but we haven't had a single inquiry.

The reasoning was that we would not have the extra wear and tear on the house, appliances and furniture, or burst pipes, all of which we suffered last year when it was rented to Realtor friends of ours while they were building their own house. We figured that we spent almost as much on keeping the place going for them as they paid us in rent, and in redecorating after they left, which was only normal wear and tear, not damage. Add to that our time involved (even though we love what we do), and it just didn't add up, so this year we turned down an offer to rent for the whole winter to another couple.

Now I'm looking at an empty calendar and wondering what I missed. Should I be doing a special page on the website with winter wonderland photos, advertising on special winter holiday websites, or running an Ebay auction? Or should I just forget the rest of this year, turn off the cable, phone etc. and concentrate on attracting visitors for next March/ April, which is also slow?
Last edited by A-two on Sun Mar 01, 2009 7:52 am, edited 1 time in total.
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altyfc
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Post by altyfc »

Do you take short breaks out of season?

With the self-catering business I used to be involved in, it was Saturday to Saturday during the main season but change-over days were Mondays and Fridays out of season. That way, people could stay either Monday to Friday, Friday to Monday, Monday to Monday or Friday to Friday. We found this worked really well, and occupancy was actually quite high in the winter months. October had the busiest week of the year (due to October half term admittedly), November and December had a huge number of short breaks, and quick pre-Xmas breaks. January was admittedly a little quiet (although very busy administratively, with new bookings for the year), and February was exceptional with Feb half term, Valentines, etc. The other advantage of having just two days for change-over was staffing. Cleaning staff didn't have to come in every day, just two days each week.

Aaron
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paolo
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Post by paolo »

Welcome, Joanna!

I would recommend a winter wonderland page on your site. Last January my brother visited my area with his super-fancy digital camera and I asked him to take some pics of typical tourist spots. The weather was good, and I think the results are great.

Here for instance is a picture of the Popes' Palace in Avignon:

Image

In the summer this square is packed with people, if you took a picture then, it wouldn't look very appealing. However, in the middle of winter the place is still very beautiful, and completely empty. I think my winter pics are atmospheric and romantic - just right to appeal to the sort of couples that go travelling in the off-season.

I have called the page of pics 'What's it like in winter?' (you can see it here: http://www.provence-rentals.org/winter.htm). I don't know what effect it has had on bookings because you can't quantify it, but this year I have bookings throughout November and December, which is unusual.

The money isn't great in winter, and I include heating and utilities, but it is still almost double the long-term rental rate. If I were in your situation and making less than the going rate for long-term rental, I would probably shut up shop except for the holidays.
Paolo
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A-two
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Joined: Mon Oct 25, 2004 10:05 am
Location: USA

winter rentals

Post by A-two »

Thanks Paolo! I'm working in that right away.
Joanna[/img]
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tansy
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Post by tansy »

Winter - it is a nightmare...I have just done a search for Christmas - we have no bookings...out of 2039 properties available in France 1349 ARE available for Christmas....I'm swaying between do we don't we re-open - I agree the cost of having folk in the property in winter isactually is false economy...I'd rather charge more in the winter....but here we are ....when I see other houses rented out I think why isn't it me!!
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