Bookings

[Coco]

Is anyone else experiencing a lst minute rush from the UK?

I know that the nature of B&B is pretty last minute anyway, but in the previous two years I have found these last minute bookings to be from people touring round, or stopping en route somewhere else.  Any late 3 or 4 night bookings all previously came from French people, usually Parisians, deciding to get out of the city for a few days.

Towards the end of July I was looking at either an August of extremely hard work, ie lots of last minute one nighters, or a worrying time of being only about a quarter full.  This last week the booking enquiries have gone absolutely berserk - at least 8 a day, all asking for between 3 and 10 day stays!!!  I am now in a position (from a week ago of being only 25% full) to having tomorrow empty and the 12th empty (which for the sake of sanity I think I will block out anyway.  Other than that both rooms (plus kids add-on room) are full to the end of the month.  I then have a couple of free days at the beginning of September and am then full again for the second half of September.

I'm wondering what the reason is.  Purely out of curiosity.  Is it people trying to wait to get last minute cheaper ferry bookings?  I wonder whether the London bombings could even have something to do with it.  On the news the other day they said that in a survey done last week 1 in 3 people who said that previously they would have taken their kids on days out to London have decided not to.  I wonder if instead, as so many of our enquiries have been for about 3 days, whether people have decided to go away for a short break, rather than have several day trips to London.

Ay thoughts?

[mascamps.com]

Haven't noticed a big uptick from the UK myself.

The only recent "big" booking was a 10 day UK booking; most recent ones have been French. Well, apart from a few brits living in France (not a market I'd even considered!).

Don't rely on tomorrow and the 12th being empty. We've been getting a bit overfull just about every weekend since early July (managed to bring another room online but we're a bit short on towels and whatnot for it).

We usually get the bulk of our bookings about 2 weeks in advance so aren't quite into the booking window for September.

 

Arnold

 

[Quillan]

We seem to have had a load of Belgians this year but then we agressivly attacked the Belgian holiday village in Quillan pointing out that if they stay with us and paid 10€ per day to use their facilities they can say over 200€ per week. Not only that but they get a free breakfast (the Belgians love the word free) and they don't have to do anything other than walk to the table. Being child free has also made a big difference and helped bookings a lot.

[mascamps.com]

We've had quite a jump in Belgians too. Must be more around generally here this year as we've not really done anything special to get them. Quite chunky bookers too.

 

Arnold

 

[Miki]

[quote]We've had quite a jump in Belgians too. Must be more around generally here this year as we've not really done anything special to get them. Quite chunky bookers too. Arnold[/quote]

So have we but not so chunky, although the men were generally on the heavy side.

[Quillan]

Too true Miki but the women

 

[mascamps.com]

Is it just us, or are guests generally a lot larger than they used to be? Some of the guys turning up recently would almost fill our rooms if they lay down never mind the beds!

 

Arnold

[Miki]

Not too sure about the women Chris, they seem to come in all sizes, eat frites and smoke between courses but all in all, very nice peeps.

Arnold, have you thought of this ploy to earn a few more euros;

Charge your clients by the kilo !

Have a weighbridge just by the reception, get them to hop on and record their arrival weight, weigh them again on the way out, add the 2 figures, then work out their average weight during their stay with you and then charge them by the kilo ! There what a wheeze and legal as well, just tell them that you have had a survey done and you are simply charging them for wear and wear done by the "larger" clientele...

[mascamps.com]

Wish we'd taken the weighbridge idea up a month or two ago. We had one Welsh family with a combined weight enough to flatten the suspension of the car (net effect we'd to buy a new one) and their luggage almost wrecked the trailer too.

 

Arnold