More bookings because of credit crunch?

[water rat]

We are having our best year yet ,  it seems some clients are deciding to do a long weekend away in the countryside in a B&B rather than the big holiday abroad or 2 weeks in a gite.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[Quillan]

We are way down south and although served by 4 airports which covers most of the UK there are less Brits reserving places. Thank goodness we don't rely on them. We are getting quite a few Scots but then that's to be expected as their is now a flight in to Carcassonne from Edinburgh and so with cheap flights they come to have a look at a place they have not visited before.

What we have found is a dramatic increase in French bookings which has more than covered the ones we have lost from the Brits. We have one or two days where we are not full i.e. one room empty. This weekend we have turned away about six couples (Internet, phone and walk in) so far and we have not been able suggest other CDH's as they are full as well.

To be honest whenever its looked like a good year its turned out bad and when its looked a bad year its been brilliant. I personally always say its not over till the last guest goes at the end of the year and you tot up your takings. Only then will you really know if its a good year (supposing you have other years figures to compare against).

One thing I have noticed is that many are going Demi Pension. We had 6 last night, 4 for the rest of the last week, 8 tonight (our max capacity), 8 tomorrow, 8 on Monday and back to 4 per night next week. Only one British couple, the rest are French. I imagine that when the other couple next week see the menus go up and the people eating in they will probably join as well, they normally do.

Anyway I glad you are doing well and wish you a good season. Back to work now[;-)] .

 

[betoulle]

Having a very strange year this year, amazingly our larger gite is now almost fully booked (just 3 wks remaining) from 20th May till 2nd October & our smaller gite has the usual number of bookings to be expected by this time of year with just 6 wks left to fill from mid-May to end of Sept, but for the B&B it is extremely quiet.  We have several regular guests returning throughout the year, but with the exception of a wedding party & a few French business travellers we have had not one single new enquiry for the B&B since last autumn......from any nationality....At first I thought it was because we do not offer table d'hote (we have so many great restaurants nearby) but our ex-President of GdF for the region has a 4epi chambre d'hote/gite business in our village offering table d'hote & with the exception of the same wedding party this last w/end she has not one single booking for either chambres/gites for2009.....   We are 3 epis so cheaper than her, have reduced our prices a little & are offering 7 nts for the price of 6 etc, but no interest at all.  As well as GdF we advertise with several well-known chambre d'hote sites as well as the usual holiday listing companies. Similar number of hits on our website to most other years........  Last year was our best ever with the B&B fully booked from mid-June to late-September which was an unexpected surprise & fortunately we have many of the same returning this year as well as our regular French families + a few UK house renovators.  Our new enquiries this year have all been for gites & we have been offering special 'deals' in small gite for househunters etc at a much cheaper rate than B&B for this time of year, which has proved popular & I must admit it is a lot less work.  I have no idea what has changed, we have good access for airports being close to Limoges, Angouleme & Poitiers for Uk visitors, are between the A10 & A20 for european visitors en route to the coast....but many of our French enquiries do not start to come in till late May.  Our French friends tell us that many French have had a winter holiday this year due to the exceptional snow conditions & are waiting for the long-term forecast to decide if,where & when to go in France, so fingers crossed.  As to gite enquiries from UK, we have had far less than usual, but less time-wasters, so a good conversion rate, but whereas this time last year I had approx 50 Uk enquirers who I had been unable to accomodate, this year I have had just 15 - maybe more are looking at the availability calenders on our various listings, or those who contact us are serious about booking.  However, we have no availabilty calenders for the B&B, so where are they all????? Have had not one single walk-in this year, which is very unusual

[Quillan]

We did 5 nights for the price of 4 including demi pension at the beginning of the year and only one couple took up the offer. We have always given a discount for 7 nights or more. Your right in what you say about the French in that normally they don't appear to start looking till the middle of May. Perhaps I have done well because all the books say we get 300 days of sunshine every year (yeah right) and people are booking because they think it will be sunny and hot here which to be fair from June onwards it normally is.

Our best for walk ins was the first year, they were queuing at the gate and we thought if it was like this every year we would be rolling in money. Sadly not so, the following year we got hardly any and the last few years about 10 each year. Perhaps some French will just take off and try their luck as they go. Every year when people say its going to be bad it always seems to come right somehow.

I was reading another forum a few weeks back where a couple of owners right up north were very worried as they had virtually no bookings at all. Perhaps they were just trying to make the others feel sorry for them or perhaps they don't know how to 'sell' their CDH properly. Being registered with either GDF or Clevacances definitely helps I think, the French like it because they know what to expect quality wise.

I don't know about TDH and if it does have an effect on bookings but we are full again tonight and its all TDH. I went on a course over the winter and now I understand the secrets of cooking on a budget I have discovered there's quite a bit of money to be made although its hard work and not for the feint hearted.

[water rat]

We are right in the centre of Fance ,Indre, Creuse,Cher border which has never been popular as a holiday spot for Brits,just a stop on the way south,but always with Parisians as a short break and not too far from the city.

Now the credit crunch has driven away Brit house hunters, the french are coming to look for their maison secondaire, mainly Parisians ,but to my surprise,also those in the south who are looking to escape the tourists, heat etc and find a bit of "green".

Everyone is always surprised how beautiful this region is ,but the tourist infrastructure is dismal. The "Maison de Jaques Tati" has opened at Sainte Sévère and we are full up this week_end for the celebrations and have turned away many others who have nowhere else to stay.. It looks like it's going to be v popular, but would you believe the Tourist office has had to close due to lack of finance. So after they've visited Tati, there's one restaurant bar which is only open at midi and they won't be able to find any info on the area.We are trying our best to improve this ,but it's an uphill struggle if no_one else is enthusiastic.A couple of CdH's have closed and returned to the UK. 

We hav'nt bothered with the british market for years and advertise soley with GdF.

Although this all sounds a bit negative ,things are looking good for us,we're sticking in there!!