Do I hold the room?

[Coco]

I suppose I know the answer already but I feel a bit mean.

I took a telephone booking on 21st July from a Parisian lady who wanted a double room with a bed for a 3 year old for this Saturday.  She's going to a wedding in our local town and also asked for access by 11.30am to get ready.  I was in the middle of serving dinner and took the reservation, asking for a 25 euro deposit and asked for her email address to send her directions.

I sent her an email the next day confirming that I needed a 50% deposit to reserve the room and sent her directions.  I've never heard another thing and I now have another Frenchman who would like the room for 3 nights and is prepared to wait today to see if I can get in touch with her.  I've now sent her 5 emails and had no reply.  The trouble is, I'm concerned that perhaps I took the address down wrong, it was yoyobogo@.......  I've tried every permutation that I can think of and they all come back as address unknown except for that one, so it's obviously getting through somewhere!

I know I should let the room go - I suppose I'm only worrying because she has a 3 year old with her - if it was just two adults I'd say tough.

My husband says to give her til lunchtime today, let the other guy have the room and then just email her each day this week saying that we have relet the room.

The fact is, if she finds us she must have received the email so it's her own fault for not having responded but I still feel a bit mean.

What would you all do?  Or do I even need to ask?!!!

[Miki]

Quite right.......don't ask [;-)]

We always take the full amount in advance for one nighters, one nights payment for two nights ( always min one night payment) or 30% over 3 nights.

She may or may not be genuine but too many folks will hedge their best

and ring more than one, choose the one they prefer and not get back to

any others they have reserved with. We pay careful attention to

Italians and Spanish in that respect.

The Golden rule has to be, no deposit, no guarantee. Any people we take

on the same day of a reservation have to inform us of what time they

expect to arrive and if they then expect to be late, to inform us or

face the possibility of the room being relet.

There comes a time when one comes to realise that it is your house,

your livelihood, therefore it has to be run under your FAIR rules.

So...take the certainty, not the possibility, call him, give him the

room. If the others do turn up, explain and maybe help to get them a

room elsewhere.

Just one more point. There can be problems with the French giving you

their email address. We have found that a few do not realise that they

are not like postal codes where an error is easily spotted and La Poste

and the post will arrive. I truly believe that is also what some French

think about emails and the odd letter missing or put of place won't matter !!

So we  ask them to email us to confirm their telephone call and

their dates etc and that we will respond to that email. We also tell

those that are sending their cheque by post to write their email

address in their letter and we will confrim their booking and also send

them directions to find us in an attachment in our reply email.

[Coco]

I knew the answer already - as I said.  However, thanks for the confirmation Miki - just eases my conscience really.  But yes, we've experienced many of these in the past as well, which is why I have learnt my lesson (the hard way) and decided to let this one go.  I think last year I lost close to a thousand euros in bookings where people "forgot" to send the cheque then never turned up!  People who make a reservation and when you email to ask where the cheque has got to they say "oh, so sorry, did I forget to let you know, we found somewhere else"  And I have to admit, we've had three of those this season, all asking for 5 nights or more and all being Italian!  Interested to see that you take the full amount for one nighters - I think I'll start doing the same.  The only thing is, once you've got ALL their money you almost will them not to turn up for just one night![;-)]

Anyway, my friend near Saint Lo can take Mme Yoyobogo if she turns up, but being about 25km from the wedding I don't think she'll want it, so I've told my friend not to hold it specifically for her either.  But at least, as you've said, I've done my best to find her something else!

[Benjamin]

I have one or two weird email addresses but yoyobogo takes the biscuit. Are you sure it wasn't one of your local rivals having a leg pull?

Benjamin

[Just Katie]

Benjamin, I think SA is a little too smart for that.

By the way, as a guest, I would make sure that I had arranged the finances with you especially at such short notice.  If the room is no longer available what can Mme expect?

[Coco]

[quote user="Benjamin"]I have one or two weird email addresses but yoyobogo takes the biscuit. Are you sure it wasn't one of your local rivals having a leg pull?


Benjamin
[/quote]

I suppose what has given me such a dilemma about this one is the fact that she sounded so nice and so genuine on the phone but the email address is so ridiculous!  I often get my g's and j's muddled in French so I have sent emails to yoyobojo as well and they come back as undeliverable because the name is not known, so yoybogo is obviously a genuine address, even if she's not a genuine customer.

B&Bs round here are pretty scarce, so I don't think it was a rival!

[Coco]

Just as well I rebooked the room for 3 nights instead of the one original night - she never showed up!!!

Is anyone else like me at the moment, dreading answering the phone?  I've lost count with the number of requests for this weekend that I've had.  A friend of mine in her first season, lost her block booking of 4 rooms for this weekend last week.  I've managed to fill her place for her and she's now turning away god knows how many people as well.

They're still phoning at this time of day, en route from Belgium, literally begging for a space for the night.  I don't think our other guests would fancy sharing though!

Is anyone else also experiencing this last minute booking phenomenon?  In the last three days I have had innumerable requests, not for just one night but for 4,5 or 6 nights for next week and the week after!!!!  And that's Brits, so I don't know if the ferry companies are doing last minute deals or whether people just didn't think about booking in advance, or are perhaps hoping for last minute discounts - but they're out of luck here!

[Rob Roy]

Maybe with the security problems and possible delays people are changing to driving rather than flying?

[Cassis]

[quote user="St Amour"]

I don't know if .... people .... are perhaps hoping for last minute discounts - but they're out of luck here!

[/quote]

Not half!  We've been getting loads of last minute/week before enquiries as well - not a chance.  In fact I've been thnking that the odd room available for the odd night here and there this month should command a premium!

[Coco]

[quote user="Cassis"]
Not half!  We've been getting loads of last minute/week before enquiries as well - not a chance.  In fact I've been thnking that the odd room available for the odd night here and there this month should command a premium!
[/quote]

Don't think Cassis - do it!!  I was tempted the other night when I had a lady phone for our family suite and a double (which happened to be available due to a cancellation) at 9.30 for the next night.  Feeling knackered I wasn't too bothered (bad business I know) whether we let the rooms or not, as it was only a one-nighter, so I said yes, they were available at 110 euros and 60 euros (normally 95 and 55) and she snapped them up!!!

[Cassis]

Ah, snag is, we're with Gites de France s not sure if we can.  But mightily tempted!  [6]

[Miki]

We can't...unless you want to rush outside and change the prices, then

run inside and change the prices in the room. We also have the prices

by the acceuil as well.

We have just let the residents lounge, which has a comfy well sprung

sofa bed, as two Italians, pretty old and looking utterley exhausted

through looking for a room for over 5 hours today and G de Fr have

nothing in this region available. The hotels are full as well. We would

never normally do this but Tina took pity on their condition and now

they are eating and already, you can see the stress leaving there faces

but if they say merci buckets once more to me,  I shall scream !!

 Same thing every August (up until around the 21st) we get many

folks, mostly Italinas looking for rooms, why they think to leave Italy

without a booking is beyond me !

[Coco]

Does anyone remember me asking about commission from these agency places?  I took my first booking from them for tonight for 4 nights and following Miki's comments, refused to take the 10% reduction on our charge that they were expecting us to absorb by telling them that I don't need them in August, I can fill the rooms of my own accord.  Anyway, couldn't resist talking to the couple who have booked via them and asked, in these days of internet access why they did it.  Their reaction was: "because the agency will do the looking, at short notice, when we don't have the time."  However, I could see how taken aback he was when I pointed out that the agency are charging more in £s than we are in euros.  He has now declared that he won't use them again, but has also said that he feels if we are only charging 50 euros per night we are way too cheap.  I told him that because the French won't pay any more we are a bit stumped because we have our prices on our website and that really is the going rate around here with other French properties.  Simple solution, says he, don't publish your prices and go with market demand and nationalities, ie 45-50 euros for the French, 70 euros for the Brits and 80 for the Americans - everyone feels they've paid a fair price and you're quids in.  Because we're not with GDF and therefore don't have to publish our prices it is something we could do, but don't know that I'm that happy with it.  But there again, this guy is paying £55 for a double room tonight and our French guests are paying 50 euros.  He's not upset because he feels that it is still a far superior room (plus breakfast) than he would get in the UK for the same price (less breakfast).

[Miki]

Oh how tempting that is. We have said that, if and when pack up from

here, we would have just a couple of rooms, no meals and change the

rates to suit the demand BUT, that can mean problems with having a

website. Can't have different rates for different nationalities on a website[;-)]

A website is out in full view to the world (obviously !) how does one

get over that, unless of course you keep your prices off and if you are

like me, I don't enter shops that with hold prices (if you have to ask

you can't afford syndrome), you will carry on looking elsewhere.

I agree, many guests making reservations through agencies, will admit

that it was all so easy to have it done by someone else. We have had

one or two complaints over the years from guests, that they felt they

had been overcharged and one family even told us, we were out of order

by allowing the agent to charge so much on top and we should pay them

the difference (true !)....yeh right, they sit back, let an agent do

all the work, pay all the high costs of running his business, whilst

they get on with earning their crust and expect a booking agent to do

it for nothing !!

[Iceni]

Is there a French equivalent of "invitation to treat" or do published prices rule ?

John

not

[Cassis]

[quote user="St Amour"]Simple solution, says he, don't publish your

prices and go with market demand and nationalities, ie 45-50 euros for

the French, 70 euros for the Brits and 80 for the Americans - everyone

feels they've paid a fair price and you're quids in.  [/quote]

I think this guy may be the exception rather than the rule - I can't imagine too many people being happy at breakfast if they found they were paying more then the person opposite.

How about publishing 'Prices from x to y depending on how well you behave youself - confirmation on departure'? [;-)]

[Benjamin]

- I can't imagine too many people being happy at breakfast if they found they were paying more then the person opposite.

But people are quite happy to sit on aeroplanes knowing that, through booking circumstances, they are possibly paying a very different price to their neighbour.

Come on you B&B/CdH owners, mix it like Michael or (used to be) Stelios.

Benjamin

[Cassis]

No probs, Benjamin - if you come to stay we'll charge you double!

It does tend to be the Brits and the Americans who say that it's cheap here - never heard a French visitor say it.  Obviously because US and UK prices for the same sort of accommodation are so much higher.

We often get a tip from our US and GB visitors - but never from the French.  I say, 'Oh, really, that's not necessary', as I take it from them and stuff the money in the cash box.

[Benjamin]

A couple of friends of ours (both French) have camp sites on the coast here. They have a number of mobile homes for rent.

About five years ago they noticed that the English camping/mobile home companies had no difficulty in attracting holidaymakers in May June and September. OK, all of them were British with the occasional Dutch family.

So they got hold of some brochures and looked at the pricing structures applied by the English companies.

The result is that they now operate several pricing bands covering (and these are guesses on my part) May/June-low season, early July-shoulder, second week July to third week August-high season, to end August-shoulder and anything onwards-low season.

They now find that they get lots of French retired people early and late season with lots of French families for the Bank Holidays in May and June and together with a bit of internet advertising they are taking independent travelling British customers off the English companies all season long.

The additional overheads in May June and September are some wear and tear and a bit of water and electricity. Having covered that everything is else bunce. Times are a changing with the French and holidays, especially the retired ones.

Benjamin

Benjamin