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Has anybody else noticed the weird and wonderful times that people 'appear' to be 'looking' at your advert on Visit France webiste?

I seem to have views 3 and 4 times a day everyday (including Christmas Day!) yet I have only ever had 1 successful booking.  My house and advert aren't that bad surely!! 

I noticed for example that today somebody has viewed my page 3 times at 03.00, 06.00 and 09.00.

Am I being paranoid or is there some sort of system that can automatically make it look like we have tons of traffic?

I too am fed up with the calender updating thing.  It has become really tedious.  I have more things to do in life than to log on every day to change the 'bogus' booked dates!

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[quote]Has anybody else noticed the weird and wonderful times that people 'appear' to be 'looking' at your advert on Visit France webiste? I seem to have views 3 and 4 times a day everyday (including Christ...[/quote]

 I don't know.I've had loads of people "looking" at the site and although I've had lots of bookings/enquiries lately only one firm booking has come from that site so far,yet the statistics look excellent?   I think the jury is still out on this one.Other sites seem to have less traffic yet result in more firm bookings.Time will tell

 

 

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It does give actually give details of the IP addresses, although I have to say I have never studied them in any detail - as I say perhaps I'm being paranoid!  Its just that in all that time and out of all those views I have had 1 booking over the last 12 months, wheras I have very recently joined another advertiser and already had 2 bookings. 
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The guy from Visit France keeps on phoning me to see if i want to now subscribe.  I explained to him that although I get lots of enquiries, nobody has actually booked.  I became a little suspicious because after each phone call I get about 10 enquries.

I dont think I'll bother subscribing to them.

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[quote]It does give actually give details of the IP addresses, although I have to say I have never studied them in any detail - as I say perhaps I'm being paranoid! Its just that in all that time and out of...[/quote]

"recently joined another advertiser and had 2 bookings already"

Do tell, which advertiser ?

Also, anyone got any comments to make about the effectiveness of advertising with Living France.

Sabina

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[quote]The guy from Visit France keeps on phoning me to see if i want to now subscribe. I explained to him that although I get lots of enquiries, nobody has actually booked. I became a little suspicious be...[/quote]

Ooh, I had that too- a phone call followed by a flurry of enquiries- no bookings though!!They've all come from different site- various different sites!!

 

 

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[quote]"recently joined another advertiser and had 2 bookings already" Do tell, which advertiser ? Also, anyone got any comments to make about the effectiveness of advertising with Living France. Sabina[/quote]

I'm afraid that before we moved into our house we used to let it as a gite and although I placed a 3 month ad with LF I didn't get a single enquiry.
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Fully agree with Coco, most likely people from outside Europe.  We have US based friends who advertise their house in France on this site and get a lot of bookings from fellow Americans.

Coco: I remember seeing your ad in LF.  And if I remember rightly, there was only a fraction of the number of gite rentals advertised then that there are today on the same pages.

Margaret

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Thanks for the info on the website www.geobytes Dick -  it is actually quite interesting to put in the information and see what comes up!

I have noticed that on all of the IP addresses I have searched the ISProxy field comes up as False but I don't really know what this means.  I am a bit of a computer thickie I'm afraid when it comes to all the techy stuff.  Its just the word FALSE makes me even more suspicious. The explanation on the website of this field is as follows if anybody can put it into brief plain english (please):

Description of Subnet headers
The purpose of these fields is documented below.

  • Certainty; this field is used to list the certainty for the information contained in the Geobytes map in relation to the subnet being searched on and the city that it is related to. A lower certainty rating may indicate that the data gathered was inconclusive or that the particular subnet serves a greater geographical area.
  • IsProxyForwardedFor; this field is used to indicate that the connection is being made by a Proxy.
  • IsProxyNetwork; this field is used to indicate that the user is connecting via a ProxyNetwork. At this time the only ProxyNetworks listed are AOL or MSN TV.
  • IPAddress; this field is the IP address that GeoSelect will use to perform the resolution. It is useful to use this field to pass in a selected IP address for use with testing. 
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I’m afraid the IP address idea isn’t really a good one, here’s why. France, unlike other European Countries doesn’t always use static IP numbers. This means that depending on your ISP you may not have the same IP number two days running. The other problem is that if you get an answer like Tiscali or freeserver, you won’t be any the wiser as Tiscali and Free.fr offer free dialup connections to thousands of people in France. You can of course sign up with bogus details and get an email address, so you will never be sure if your enquirer is legitimate or an employee of whatever journal you are advertising with. I don’t have any intimate knowledge of the journals mentioned above and do not suggest that this is part of their practice, but it does happen.

 

The last two years have been something of a disaster for the French tourist industry, although there will always be the exception to disprove the rule. However, things are on the up and our American cousins are beginning to return to these shores. Barring another invasion of a Middle East country this year should see a return to the norm. The emergence of hundreds of new Gîte businesses in France is a major factor in the scarcity of bookings vis-à-vis enquiries (email me for a full list if you are interested or send an s.a.e ). Although this shouldn’t be a problem in July and August, it will certainly water down bookings out of season, which, as we all know, is the icing on the cake. We are in danger of falling into a situation where supply far out ways demand. When that happens people start to discount prices because they think they have to compete, and that, in my opinion, is a recipe for disaster.

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"We are in danger of falling into a situation where supply far out ways demand."

I think you will find in some areas this has already happened hence so many gite complex's up for sale. In Aude there are 55 beds for every person visiting during peak season (source Perspectives Magazine). I gather there are other areas that are the same or even worse. It's rather like website designers, read a book on the ferry and of they go, I reckon judging by the amount who advertise in all the mags and English papers in France that there must be a least 3 for every Brit owned Gite complex or B&B website.

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On the original point of how many 'views' to your property advert it could be that people clicking your property weren't interested in your property, your area or even France.

We have a home in Alpes-Martimes and have alway driven down in one day. We decided that on our next visit we would like to stop for a few days, maybe in a chambre d'hote around Burgundy. As I was updating my own advertisement on Visit France I thought I would see what was avaialble en route south. Very few ads actually took me to the area I was interested in. Although I left the site without sending any enquiries I know that I clicked on some ads that didn't match the description - some weren't even in France!

After looking from a searchers angle I then tried to find my property. Even though I had just finished updating my calendar I wasn't on the first page for my specific town search so I clicked next and it took me to a page covering all of france - mostly just text ads. The first text ad looked very much like my property description with my French town in the heading. Clicking the ad took me to ... a hotel in Derbyshire.

Sorry for long post but it seems probable that most of the views to our pages are people looking for something totally different, maybe they were looking for a hotel in Debyshire.

They have alway had a problem with some links but not on this scale before.
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Hi Quillan

I am afraid to admit that you are absolutely correct. Here in the Dordogne there are apparently as many Brits as in the whole of France put together. Obviously they are not all Gîte owners, but the ones who are selling up aren’t having too much trouble in finding buyers.

 

The thing that worries me is the age of Brits coming to settle in France. Like a lot of companies we get enquiries for long let’s while people look for properties. A few years ago the average age range was mid to late 50’s. People having taken early retirement looking for the usual house with barn to convert into a Gîte or BnB to supplement their pensions. Today the average age range is early to late 30’s usually with kids looking to make a life change. At the age of 30+ with a couple of kids, two Gîtes aren’t going to give you enough income to support yourself, unless you have another source of income. Unfortunately at this stage, it seems that every able bodied person moving her becomes a builder, working on the black. I know it isn’t really as

black a picture as I’ve painted here, but I’ve seen it so many times in the 12 years that I’ve lived here.

 

I’ve also seen the change in the attitude of locals here. What was once gratitude to ‘les étrangers’ for raising the property prices, is now turning to resentment because their children can’t afford a foothold on the property ladder.  The problem must lie with the country of origin of the émigrés who are coming here. It would seem that one of the major reasons for leaving is the amount of immigrants to those countries. And so the circle turns!!

 

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It seems to be horses for courses.  I'm still finding VF to be my best source of bookings.  Since the beginning of February I've had 8 enquiries, 3 of which have turned into firm bookings and 2 I have had to turn away because I'm already booked for the dates they requested.  Now French Connections the other year gave me one, one-night booking of 45 euros for a £117.50 outlay!!
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Hi Coco

 

You’ve hit the nail right on the head. I’ve been involved in the holiday rentals business in France for 12 years in one capacity or another and I still couldn’t tell you why one property gets bookings, whilst a similar property in the same area gets none. It must be down to user preference. French Connections and Chez Nous have always been good media in general to advertise with, but they too have anomalies. There was a famous example a few years ago where two English neighbours had Gîte conversions by the same builder in similar styles. They both advertised in Chez Nous with the same pricing structure. One received 16 weeks bookings, the other didn’t get one enquiry.

 

My advice to anyone advertising their holiday rentals property in whatever media, would be to take time and care on their descriptions, this is a very important part of their advertising and is second only to the quality of their photographs. Photographs are of prime importance, because this is what people see first. If they like the look of the property they will read the text, it’s as simple as that. Take time to dress the picture first. Remove any rubbish or unsightly items, if your external shot has an outside table and chairs, then put a bottle of wine or some flowers on it. It may sound over the top but I think you’ll find it’s worth it.

 

I’m sorry if I’ve strayed off of the path of this post, but hope you find the information useful.

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