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Hello everyone,

As the season has slowed down to a very small trickle I was hoping to pick your nrains on where you advertise.  Does anyone advertise with Alistair Sawdays? Have you found them any good, and does anyone know the entry fee (if accepted of course).  Also I am currently torn between Gites de France and Clevacances, I am situated in the Cantal department in the Auvergne and have very little to compare them with as it a region relatively new to tourism.  Any feedback on advertising for 2007 would be great.

Cheers

www.la-fromental.com

 

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Hi Jo,

I did email them to which they replied fairly quickly pointing me to the owner's page to see the costs.  In fact the owner's page tells you why they charge and how to pay but not the amount, so I have emailed them once again about 10 days ago and i still await their response.

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When looking for B & Bs we use Sawday's quite a bit, in France and also in UK. One B & B we have visited a lot stopped using them because it was so expensive, even though the updates are every two years. Can't remember what the cost was last year, but sounded an awful lot to us. Having said that, an awful lot of people use Sawday if they want a guarantee of top notch quality ( depending on price, of course). We stay in v. posh ones near Nice & at Beaune, but lots of farms and fairly ordinary homes around the country which are on a more 'normal' level. We prefer to stay with French owners so we can chat in french. Haven't stayed with a lot of English B & B owners, but have for gites; 2 gites so far this year and about 14 B & Bs  for periods between 1 and 5 nights.

When our apartment is ready ''in the first quartile of 2008'', as they put it, we won't be staying at quite so many - the Gard will be our destination.

 

Jo

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We used Sawdays once to book a stay in a B&B apartment near Notre Dame in the centre of Paris.

The location was perfect and the accommodation was fine but the owner was never on site.

We collected the key from a surly bookshop owner across the road.

We had booked for and stayed a week but never once got croissants or even fresh bread for breakfast, just coffee and biscottes!

So disappointing...
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Sawday's is not a guarantee of quality or being a 'cut above' as Clair has pointed out.  In the past we've stayed in a couple and they were indistinguishable from any decently ranked B&B with the national bodies like GdF and Clévac.

They are expensive - they wanted a heck of a lot more than 200€ from us so we didn't bother.  From memory about 400€ but I couldn't swear to the exact amount.

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Come to think of it, it was probably more than two years ago that I had the figure of 200€!

I think I telephoned them.

Clients do have the perception that Sawday's listings are 'better', I do know one person who did very well from them (hers was a very lovely place). She was also with Karen Brown (who, at the time I enquired, did not charge but they did inspect thoroughly).

Wasn't Alistair Sawday on one of those 'people doing things in France' programmes, inspecting someone's establishment? I vaguely remember shouting at the telly...

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We were approach by them a few years ago after a guest recommended us to them primarily because they had nobody listed round here. I thought the cost was rather high (£400 comes to mind but I can't remember exactly) but when we were told that the inspector would have to come and stay the night and have a meal and would not expect to pay more than something like 40 Euros we thought better of it.

We use about twenty different sources for our bookings and keep good stats of who uses what source to see who we will advertise with next season. This year four will get the chop because they just did not perform and we only just got our money back. One of them in particular cost us a lot of money and we won't use them again.

When you look at places to advertise you can't always go on what others have done because the visibility of a company in one area may be excellent yet in another not so good. The best method we have found is to behave like a prospective guest and type the search string in to something like Google and see who comes up. The companies on the first page are definitely worth investing in.

To be honest looking at all our stats over the years by far the biggest source of bookings have come from our own website. This more than justifies the time (about a days work) spent every year 'tweaking' the website to maintain a good ranking.

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Hello,

I have just received the prices from them: 

1 bedroom/2 persons €240

2 bedrooms/4 persons €345

3 bedrooms/6 persons €530

4 bedrooms/8 persons €695

5 bedrooms/10 persons €845

6 bedrooms/12 persons €985

7 bedrooms/14 persons (with a suite) €1150

 

They don't publish until Feb 2009 next so I have plenty of time to consider it.  We are receiving a promising amount of bookings from our own site, which we too try to maintain frequently, and yes a lot of time boosting google ratings in the winter! Back tio the chalkboard!
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I have heard good things about a reservation service called Stopover Connections Ltd - http://www.stopoverconnections.com is their website. They don't charge an annual fee. They just take a commission for any bookings that you get through the website. Nothing to lose as far as I can see...? Unless I am missing something. May be worth dropping them a line.

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[quote user="Daisy-May"]

Hello,

I have just received the prices from them: 

1 bedroom/2 persons €240

2 bedrooms/4 persons €345

3 bedrooms/6 persons €530

4 bedrooms/8 persons €695

5 bedrooms/10 persons €845

6 bedrooms/12 persons €985

7 bedrooms/14 persons (with a suite) €1150

 

[/quote]

Well that's a laugh.  Don't they know the rules for French B&B - MAX 5 bedrooms!!!!

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I am in the Sawday's French Holiday Homes book (I am not a B&B, I am a gite owner - hope it's OK to post in your forum!).

Although I get most of my bookings from other sources, not from the Sawday's book or website, the advantage for us is that we can say that we have been recommended by Sawdays within our other advertising, which gives us one extra brownie point and hopefully makes us stand out amongst all the other gites being advertised. Also it gives people the comfort of knowing that our gite really does exist and that they are not going to arrive to find a non-existent gite.

It's not cheap, in fact it is our most expensive form of advertising, but I have just signed up for another two years (£481) and I am proud to have successfully gone through the inspection.

BTW - Alastair Sawday was featured on "The Hotel Inspector" which was on channel 4 this week - he was inspecting a B&B in Greenwich.

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  • 2 weeks later...
[quote user="Daisy-May"]

Hello,

I have just received the prices from them: 

1 bedroom/2 persons €240

2 bedrooms/4 persons €345

3 bedrooms/6 persons €530

4 bedrooms/8 persons €695

5 bedrooms/10 persons €845

6 bedrooms/12 persons €985

7 bedrooms/14 persons (with a suite) €1150

 

They don't publish until Feb 2009 next so I have plenty of time to consider it.  We are receiving a promising amount of bookings from our own site, which we too try to maintain frequently, and yes a lot of time boosting google ratings in the winter! Back tio the chalkboard!
[/quote]

They're having a laugh at those rates, aren't they?  695€ for 4 bedrooms!!!!  [:D] 

The price increments are weird - first room 240, the next one add 105,

then 185, 165, 150.  I get the sliding scale, but not the second room

increment.

Maybe if you're top end, over 100€ per room per night, and the rest of the B&B's marketing is hopeless, i.e. you'd be empty without the bookings from Sawdays,  it might make sense, but you need to get a lot of "new" bookings, i.e. they would have to fill a lot of rooms that would otherwise lie empty,  just to break even. 

Good luck with your website and all the best for 2008.

PS These sort of rates make more sense for gite owners (like Catherine) where you only need a few bookings to cover the costs and make a decent ROI.

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