Looking good

[lecastelJon at Le Castel, www.le-castel-normandy.com]

We have just opened a small chateau guest house near Coutances in Normandy...and it is going brilliantly.

We bought Le Castel last August and started taking guests in February. Bookings have been better than we ever hoped for in our first year, but we have had some lucky breaks with TV and newspaper coverage in the UK.

May and June were particularly good, but until a week ago August was looking pretty thin. Fortunately bookings are now coming in. September is already looking good and we appear to be attracting an out of season market.

We will shortly be adding a second income stream - llama trekking! It is hugely popular in the UK and we are hoping these curious creatures will prove a big hit in Normandy too.

I have just left my job as Travel Editor of the News of the World, so I have a few unfair advantages when it comes to setting up a B&B. We have also had some lucky breaks - last month we had the TV chef John Burton Race here doing a cookery demo for seven UK magazine journalists. And in the run up to the French referendum we had a film crew from Sky and Channel 5 News staying. They then decided to do broadcasts from our terrace.

Running a B&B is every bit as hard work as I anticipated but I am loving it. Just need a rotary iron to make the tedious ironing easier!

 

[CD]

I don't mean to be unkind, but do you realise that your posting comes across, well, rather as bragging? 

There are lots of people who aren't doing quite as well as you, but then again, they don't have your contacts do they.

This just struck me as a rather odd first posting.

But maybe I'm just an ole meanie!  

[Dick Smith]

Good luck to you, Jon, and don't mind the nay sayers!

[lecastelJon at Le Castel, www.le-castel-normandy.com]

Sorry - didn't mean to brag. I meant this posting to be a reply to the one where people were asking about how things were going. However, being no good with new websites I ended up creating a new topic!

[Fmn]

Hi Jon

It didn't sound like bragging - just enthusiastic, and there are no unfair advantages in the B&B business.  You may have the contacts but if you didn't use them and offer a good service it would have got you nowhere.  We did B&B for 16 years in the Uk and still do it here - this is our first year - and I love it. Just remember at the end of September to look over your old posting of today to remind yourself when you're exhausted how good it can be!!  By the way - if you find a rotary iron that actually gets the creases out of cotton sheets - let me know. It'll be a first!!

Fran

www.gasconyretreat.com

 

[Coco]

Sorry - didn't mean to brag. I meant this posting to be a reply to the one where people were asking about how things were going. However, being no good with new websites I ended up creating a new topic!Jon at Le Castel, www.le-castel-normandy.com

OK, I suppose by your second posting you've just about reprieved yourself but I'm afraid I'm cynical enough to still remain sceptical about your reasons for posting.  It smacked to me of a bit more free advertising.  I've worked for a group of ex-Times and Telegraph journalists who all knew very well how to get the most out of free advertising, in exactly this way, and although they all left their newspapers back in the mid-90's, in the early days of the WWW, they were pretty hot on use of the internet, websites etc, even back then.  Do you really expect us to believe in your position as travel editor of the NOTW you didn't know how to post?  I don't think so!!!

BTW  if you're that successful can you pass some my way, the rest of us in this part of Normandy are doing OKish this summer, but are clearly nowhere near as successful as you.