Requests to Reduce Price

[Jacqueline]

I am with holiday lettings and late deals do not seem to work for me,i get lots of hits and very few enquiries but no bookings.
I must be doing something wrong i think ?
Jacqueline

[greenbarn]

A year in and I'm still naively hand-crafting email replies to enquiries, answering specific points etc etc, in the strange belief that they will actually reply. It sort of restores my sunny faith in human nature when someone actually replies saying thanks, but they've found somewhere else or whatever.

There again, how many of us follow up on similar things? I asked a couple of listing sites for their rates and they responded. I fell about laughing and binned it. Guilty as charged, then....

[Maurmc]

I am with holiday lettings and late deals do not seem to work for me,i get lots of hits and very few enquiries but no bookings.
I must be doing something wrong i think ?
Jacqueline

Jacqueline, I think it's more a case of having to kiss a lot of frogs before you meet your prince

[andilubio]

Just got in an enquire asking for the best price i can give them...and then says my budget is XX...When that is more than 50% less than what I´m charging that month.

People like this kill me...

[brenda]

I am obviously in the minority here but I am happy to give a discount for a late booking rather than have empty rooms.

[andilubio]

I am obviously in the minority here but I am happy to give a discount for a late booking rather than have empty rooms.

it all depends on what are the expenses of having the house ready for the guest´s.

its not the same a 650m2 9 bedroom house than a 120m2 2 bedroom aparment...

[yourlamanga]

I've just been turned down by a French lady who said that my apartment is outwith her means (prices clearly stated on the site she enquired from and I gave her a small discount at the outset as the booking was for three weeks) and although she didn't ask for a discount she did ask if I had a less luxurious apartment I could rent to her (I only have the one apartment). Have referred her to my agent but also reminded her of the plus points of our apartment which she may take into consideration, will wait and see.

[dublin13]

we had an enquiry for 1 of our villas for y weeks in august. Gave them 600 pounds off. they came back and said seemed very expensive so we wrote back and explained about high season etc and asked them what they thought a reasonable price would be. Not had any reply. Getting fed up with low budgeters expecting us to reduce. If you cant afford it book an apartment, town house or lower your expectations. Our discount seekwer

[Richard51]

Same here. We had an enquiry from someone wanting to book the house for a long weekend that straddled both peak Easter weeks...but wanted a discount on our weekly rate! We offered to let them have the cleaning included (because it was a late booking) but no other reduction on the rate for a full week. We never heard back from them and, TBH, I was relieved. After I sent the email I thought that the fact that they didn't want to clean after themselves may well have suggested that they were likely to be more messy...and if they think the price, linen, cleaning is negotiable what other house rules are they likely to ignore? Visions of blocked septic tanks etc come to mind...

[Richard51]

Update

We heard back from them today (see post on bookings forum). The wanted to pay a third now by Paypal (less than one week before their arrival date) and the balance including security deposit by cheque on arrival. They just got a very polite 'no thanks'. Total cheek.