mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Here's our figures. Bear in mind that 2004 only started in April for us so the figures for then are a bit misleading I suspect and the 2005 percentages are percentages of a total getting on for three times the 2004 total.20042005advertising5.362.19B&B listing4.58Driveby19.23.47Don’t know2.230.37Existing18.852.01Friends0.452.19Hotel listing34.3859.6Passed on1.09Tourist board2.232.19Website18.322.3Interesting that both of us get very few bookings from B&B type listings. Also that our own websites are holding their own as the bookings and advertising have increased. More sharing options... Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 What I find interesting is that you get a lot of bookings via hotel websites. I thought I would try that but because we are a B&B or more to the point a CDH they won't take us (tried all the ones your on anyway). It would seem by your figures that the small hotel is the way to go as opposed to B&B to earn a liveable income if that’s want you need. It also seems that an offshoot of being a small hotel is that you attract a more diverse cross section of nationalities. I was rather surprised with my own figures that French Connections and Visit France have done so well (2,800€ and 2,400€ worth respectively) when the actual quantity if bookings has been so low (6 and 7) they seem to attract the long stay people. It also seems that their leads turn in to bookings at a far higher rate than others. When you think about the threads about these two at the beginning of the season and what we said about them I have to say now that I retract my comments as the figures prove that I for one was wrong. I was also very pleased with my repeat business growth which proves we must get something right. I also thought it rather amusing thinking of that French pratt that said in a post that no French person would set foot in my place after seeing my website, well it seems he was wrong as well. What I shall be interested to see is the effect of GDF and BNB France has next year but then as Miki told me way back the books take a while to get in to circulation so I should really reap the benefits better in 2007/8. Likewise these figures are interesting enough but then we can produce stats till the cows come home, it’s how you interpret them that counts. I suppose the real one I am interested in is the value of bookings against money spent on advertising. It would seem to me that paid for sites defiantly generate more bookings than we give them credit for and likewise free ones give little or nothing. Mind you as they are free it does not mean I will go round deleting myself from them but with being registered with 24 of them you would expect something. If I were asked to give a tip I would say definatly register with either GDF or Clevacances and BNB France and then any paid for website thats been around a long time and is active in your area. Personally I would also look at commision only websites as my second level with free websites as my lowest priority. I would also tell people that to have their own website is important. It does not have to be flash, mine isn't, but the most important thing is to get yourself within the first four pages on any search engine, preferably the first. Thats were the real skill is. We created ours four months before we even opened to give it time to work it's way up the listsings. A cr*p website at the top of the listings will bring more business than an expensive one that never gets seen or turns up on page 24. Well thats my thoughts anyway, probaly wrong, I suspect that some marketing whiz will tell me to get my head out my *rse and that I'm doing it all wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Ah, but if you call yourself a "guest house" they generally will take you. Perservere... we thought that as Expedia says quite clearly "30 room minimum" for a listing, we'd just forget about them initially but missed that in my second round marketing blitz and they took us on when we applied.One thing that skews us a bit more to hotel style bookings is that they are all guaranteed and therefore we need to keep more of an eye on the availability calendar with them which in turn may affect the level of bookings. They're incredibly variable though: we have had very few from laterooms like yourself yet ratestogo which is, seemingly, aimed at a similar marketplace did fairly well.Almost all the oddball nationalities are from one particular website which tends to attract quite a diverse group (although no French at all!) as it's syndicated in most european countries. I thought you were on them already as I think I mentioned it to you months ago.We're quite pleased with VF too. For us they have brought in a whole new market and paid for themselves on the first booking. I get the impression that people book more in advance with them and therefore we missed the boat largely this year. The threads at the beginning of the year were the reason why I went with them!I noticed from your stats that our second year repeat business is similar to your own second year so, in theory, we should get a lot more repeats next year. I was quite surprised to have had repeat bookings this year and hadn't really expected to have any for 3 or 4 years.I also thought it rather amusing thinking of that French pratt that said in a post that no French person would set foot in my place after seeing my website, well it seems he was wrong as well.Ah, but the French don't look at the internet (for the most part) so he might still be right I suppose the real one I am interested in is the value of bookings against money spent on advertising. It would seem to me that paid for sites defiantly generate more bookings than we give them credit for and likewise free ones give little or nothing. Mind you as they are free it does not mean I will go round deleting myself from them but with being registered with 24 of them you would expect something. Fully agree. We are mainly on commission based sites so only run up bills around 5€ a night but one bill has amounted to over 1000€ this year. We have had bookings only from two free sites: www.chambres-hotes.org (only one booking, but getting on for 1000€) and www.ourinns.org (no, really, at least two separate bookings). The free French language sites actually pick up more hits than most paid for sites which seems to be mainly due to a) the high charges on the paid-for ones (hence few entries on them) and b) the generally naff quality of them (so it's easy to do well). Net effect of this being that, much to my amazement, I'm told that some people got bookings via www.chambre-dhote.org just a few weeks after it went live. I think we're already on just about all the free websites around and most commission based ones too although the majority of those haven't paid off. It's so hard to say what site will do well too. I would have put money on expedia getting us bookings from the first week but three months later, nothing whereas two that looked so-so have done quite well all summer. To tell you the truth, I'm amazed at how (relatively) easy it appears to be to get quite a good entry from our own website. Oh, noticed that you've got google ads on your site. I was worried that people would arrive on my site then book elsewhere so I've just put them on the likes of the regional guide and transport pages. Also interested to see that our hits are recorded by google are a good deal higher than our normal stats report. Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Just having a look round for ideas on websites seeing as it's upgrade time... Have you guys noticed a tendency to do everything in graphics (even the text)?From what I've seen, it seems quite common in French B&B sites. Not only all graphics, but no keyword etc. entries so I guess that their pages are invisible to google et al. Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Miki Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 [quote]What I find interesting is that you get a lot of bookings via hotel websites. I thought I would try that but because we are a B&B or more to the point a CDH they won't take us (tried all the ones ...[/quote]Chris,I think you have listened to some other folk and learned very well and I doubt there is much more you need to know. Sure some will (like Mr France)take a pop but never, ever forget, the bottom line is what you are actually after, whether one is worried about that or not is another matter, if it is a good retrun on an outlay, then the BL is all important and your only true guide to whether you are doing things OK.(all other things being equal of course)You are very much like us, in the way we are paying for advertising, you might even be paying a little more (or slightly less even)but either way, you are investing in advertising for your business, which is the lifeblood of any tourist venture here, that requires a decent annual return on their investment (inc house and annual publicity)There (hopefully) does come a time, when one can start to reduce ones outlay to suit ones financial requirements. We stay with some sites and let others go, each year as we all know new sites ask us to "invest" I will look at those and if they look serious, well managed and look pretty good or indeed if they are free trials, then like others we will give them a go. I am shocked by quite a few B&B's around us that I know could with taking more money but will not spend time investing in a good website or have insufficient money invested in publicity in general. I guess it is tough if you don't have the money to invest though.I am shocked though, that you have found French Connections to be a good place to find guests, we have had a few friends leave them as their B&B's hardly got any calls at all and almost nil guests.This is the thing though, we all pay out and many duplicate dates are requested when one is full, so although one can possibly judge which advertising got the initial client (I am terrible, most of our clients have forgotten and my records of "who booked through who" are almost non existant, bar GdF which we have quite a good idea about, as those clients tend to know Gdf was how they found us), how does one know which other company (ies) would have filled all those dates and more for a cheaper outlay but the dates were full on many occasions ! A little far fetched perhaps but certainly warrants a closer inspection and Chris, you have been awarded that task Mind you it will need you to ask all those that want a room when you are full, to admit they would or wouldn't have taken the room if it had been empty, not quite as obvious as it sounds, as many of those are still searching around for price and just making initial enquiries ! ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "I am shocked though, that you have found French Connections to be a good place to find guests, we have had a few friends leave them as their B&B's hardly got any calls at all and almost nil guests."So am I as I was also one that jumped on the 'lets have a go at French Connections and Visit France" thread at the begining of the season. I guess the problem is I bang everything in to the booking software religiously making sure it's correct without actually remembering things untill I start rolling of the reports at the end of the year. Bit like I said that the Brits were only a small part of my trade, well I thought they were yet in fact they are the biggest once the numbers get crunched.I can tell you that we have refused 17 phonecall enquiries, how they got our number I don't know but it's either through the tourist office book or our website. I keep all the emails under a folder called Full and can report the following, 9 from my own website, 1 from Visit France and 2 From French Connections.I also have a folder called "Children and Dogs - No Thanks" and can report 22 "I'm sorry we are full for the dates you require". We started this because the ladies from GDF told us we can't refuse children and dogs (it's against the law?) but said just tell them you are full, who's to know. I worked it out that this has cost me around 4,000€ worth of business or perhaps more but I still won't take them. If somebody wants to give me 4k up front we will pass them on next year, as long as they live at least 50km away from us . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Miki Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "...I can tell you that we have refused 17 phonecall enquiries, how they got our number I don't know but it's either through the tourist office book or our website."Sorry Chris, you have lost me on that one, can you clarify it a bit please ?"...I also have a folder called "Children and Dogs - No Thanks" and can report 22 "I'm sorry we are full for the dates you require". We started this because the ladies from GDF told us we can't refuse children and dogs (it's against the law?) but said just tell them you are full, who's to know. I worked it out that this has cost me around 4,000€ worth of business or perhaps more but I still won't take them. If somebody wants to give me 4k up front we will pass them on next year, as long as they live at least 50km away from us"Your person was talking rubbish about dogs Chris, as the GdF guide books, both national amd regional, have a picture of a dog with a line through it, for all of us who do not accept animals inc dogs. Might have meant Sangliers perhaps Yes, my point earlier comes in to play here Chris, you turned down people and state you lost money but as I suspect, the rooms were perhaps taken up by some other person without kids or dogs ? Or are you talking turned away at the door on the day, in which case you get far, far more passing trade than we have ever had (bar the campsite). 4000€ of passing trade refused, and that does not not inc passing trade actually taken, means one hell of a business, who needs advertising iof that really is the case !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 We had 17 people call us on the telephone wanting a room. We are in a booklet that is sent or given out by the tourist office and it has our phone number in it. We also have metal signs around the area with our name and phone number on and of course our phone number is on our website. As you said it's difficult to ask where they got our phone number from so we just do a 'bar' count on the white board next to the phone. This year there were 17 such calls asking for a room and we had none spare, we were full. We also have the 12 email enquiries we turned away because we were full. This makes a total of 29 occasions we we full and turned people away.I suppose you are right, perhaps we could calculate it this way. If we said that as a average people wanted to book two nights (we have some who want one night and others ask for five or seven even) and I turned people away 29 times at an average of 50€ per room thats 2,900€ worth of business we could not have taken because we were full. Would that justify creating yet another room giving us 5 in total?If we applied the same calculation to people who emailed but had dogs or children that would have been 22 times 50€ and lets say an average of 2 nights thats 2,200€. So I clearly got my numbers wrong, sorry. Should let the old computer work it out in stead of trying to use the old brain. I don't know how many of these occasions we were really full anyway, lets say half so thats 1,100€ worth of business we refused because of dogs and/or children.Sorry I was thinking about something else when I made the earlier post and my mind was not on it. These I think are more realistic figures. Sorry again for any confusion.With reference to GDF, I thought it was rather weird because they have the pictures like babies, cots and animals with yes and no type tick box's so they seemed rather to have contradicted themselves. At the end of the day we just don't take them but rather than refuse we just say sorry mate, full.Investing in roadside panels I think is very important. We have five, very simple with a direction arrow and how far we are from the panel. We have not done anything special just cream with a blue border and blue lettering in the same font that we use on our website, business cards, invoices etc. Sort of a corporate image type thing. Some we see are so over the top with photo's, bright colours etc, etc. We have had quite a few people complement us on our clear and smart signs. It must work because in our first year we opened for seven months and took almost 8,000€ worth of business most of which was passing trade, we only had about ten reservations through the website and had no other advertising. Wouldn't mind that level of passing trade again I can tell you, happy days.We are actually on the same road as Arnold (we go past his place on our trips to Perpignan) which is the main route to Spain if you don't want to use the autoroute and are at a natural break point for people travelling back and forth. This, and people sent via estate agents, brings us in a lot of one nighters outside the season. All the other Brits round here won't take them for just one night because of the washing. We don't mind, it's bums in beds that count so long may the other Brits refuse.We have one B&B near us who impose the following rules, no one nighters, you are billed for a week - Saturday to Saturday, only take English people and are vegitarian only. Saw the lady in the local supermarket a week or two back, they have had a terrible year can't think why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Mind you it will need you to ask all those that want a room when you are full, to admit they would or wouldn't have taken the room if it had been empty, not quite as obvious as it sounds, as many of those are still searching around for price and just making initial enquiries ! !Very good point Miki. I normally clock up all that phone when we're full as "lost" bookings but thinking about it, the majority of these and indeed the drivebys are French and we tend to be priced a bit high for them so we'd not have got the bookings anyway, or at least not all of them. I don't formally write them down but we had one night of eight turned away and about enough single nights of one or two to bring the total up to something like a dozen or so. Of course, it takes a fair bit to fill us up as we can add another two or three to our normal room count if pushed.Chris: we'll take the kids off you but not the dogs Given the growth in your business, I'd add that 5th room if I were you. You'll need it next year or the year after.Next time you see your "veggie" B&B lady, don't forget to tell her (and indeed 'tothers) about ourinns We do get a reasonable number of people looking for a veggie B&B and only have two listed at the moment (none around here).Don't forget to drop in next time you're zooming past too! Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Prev 1 2 Next Page 2 of 2 Archived This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies. Go to topic listing All Activity Home Forums Owning/Running a Business B&B/Chambres d'Hôtes Owners Occupancy within months × Existing user? 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Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 What I find interesting is that you get a lot of bookings via hotel websites. I thought I would try that but because we are a B&B or more to the point a CDH they won't take us (tried all the ones your on anyway). It would seem by your figures that the small hotel is the way to go as opposed to B&B to earn a liveable income if that’s want you need. It also seems that an offshoot of being a small hotel is that you attract a more diverse cross section of nationalities. I was rather surprised with my own figures that French Connections and Visit France have done so well (2,800€ and 2,400€ worth respectively) when the actual quantity if bookings has been so low (6 and 7) they seem to attract the long stay people. It also seems that their leads turn in to bookings at a far higher rate than others. When you think about the threads about these two at the beginning of the season and what we said about them I have to say now that I retract my comments as the figures prove that I for one was wrong. I was also very pleased with my repeat business growth which proves we must get something right. I also thought it rather amusing thinking of that French pratt that said in a post that no French person would set foot in my place after seeing my website, well it seems he was wrong as well. What I shall be interested to see is the effect of GDF and BNB France has next year but then as Miki told me way back the books take a while to get in to circulation so I should really reap the benefits better in 2007/8. Likewise these figures are interesting enough but then we can produce stats till the cows come home, it’s how you interpret them that counts. I suppose the real one I am interested in is the value of bookings against money spent on advertising. It would seem to me that paid for sites defiantly generate more bookings than we give them credit for and likewise free ones give little or nothing. Mind you as they are free it does not mean I will go round deleting myself from them but with being registered with 24 of them you would expect something. If I were asked to give a tip I would say definatly register with either GDF or Clevacances and BNB France and then any paid for website thats been around a long time and is active in your area. Personally I would also look at commision only websites as my second level with free websites as my lowest priority. I would also tell people that to have their own website is important. It does not have to be flash, mine isn't, but the most important thing is to get yourself within the first four pages on any search engine, preferably the first. Thats were the real skill is. We created ours four months before we even opened to give it time to work it's way up the listsings. A cr*p website at the top of the listings will bring more business than an expensive one that never gets seen or turns up on page 24. Well thats my thoughts anyway, probaly wrong, I suspect that some marketing whiz will tell me to get my head out my *rse and that I'm doing it all wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Ah, but if you call yourself a "guest house" they generally will take you. Perservere... we thought that as Expedia says quite clearly "30 room minimum" for a listing, we'd just forget about them initially but missed that in my second round marketing blitz and they took us on when we applied.One thing that skews us a bit more to hotel style bookings is that they are all guaranteed and therefore we need to keep more of an eye on the availability calendar with them which in turn may affect the level of bookings. They're incredibly variable though: we have had very few from laterooms like yourself yet ratestogo which is, seemingly, aimed at a similar marketplace did fairly well.Almost all the oddball nationalities are from one particular website which tends to attract quite a diverse group (although no French at all!) as it's syndicated in most european countries. I thought you were on them already as I think I mentioned it to you months ago.We're quite pleased with VF too. For us they have brought in a whole new market and paid for themselves on the first booking. I get the impression that people book more in advance with them and therefore we missed the boat largely this year. The threads at the beginning of the year were the reason why I went with them!I noticed from your stats that our second year repeat business is similar to your own second year so, in theory, we should get a lot more repeats next year. I was quite surprised to have had repeat bookings this year and hadn't really expected to have any for 3 or 4 years.I also thought it rather amusing thinking of that French pratt that said in a post that no French person would set foot in my place after seeing my website, well it seems he was wrong as well.Ah, but the French don't look at the internet (for the most part) so he might still be right I suppose the real one I am interested in is the value of bookings against money spent on advertising. It would seem to me that paid for sites defiantly generate more bookings than we give them credit for and likewise free ones give little or nothing. Mind you as they are free it does not mean I will go round deleting myself from them but with being registered with 24 of them you would expect something. Fully agree. We are mainly on commission based sites so only run up bills around 5€ a night but one bill has amounted to over 1000€ this year. We have had bookings only from two free sites: www.chambres-hotes.org (only one booking, but getting on for 1000€) and www.ourinns.org (no, really, at least two separate bookings). The free French language sites actually pick up more hits than most paid for sites which seems to be mainly due to a) the high charges on the paid-for ones (hence few entries on them) and b) the generally naff quality of them (so it's easy to do well). Net effect of this being that, much to my amazement, I'm told that some people got bookings via www.chambre-dhote.org just a few weeks after it went live. I think we're already on just about all the free websites around and most commission based ones too although the majority of those haven't paid off. It's so hard to say what site will do well too. I would have put money on expedia getting us bookings from the first week but three months later, nothing whereas two that looked so-so have done quite well all summer. To tell you the truth, I'm amazed at how (relatively) easy it appears to be to get quite a good entry from our own website. Oh, noticed that you've got google ads on your site. I was worried that people would arrive on my site then book elsewhere so I've just put them on the likes of the regional guide and transport pages. Also interested to see that our hits are recorded by google are a good deal higher than our normal stats report. Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Just having a look round for ideas on websites seeing as it's upgrade time... Have you guys noticed a tendency to do everything in graphics (even the text)?From what I've seen, it seems quite common in French B&B sites. Not only all graphics, but no keyword etc. entries so I guess that their pages are invisible to google et al. Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 [quote]What I find interesting is that you get a lot of bookings via hotel websites. I thought I would try that but because we are a B&B or more to the point a CDH they won't take us (tried all the ones ...[/quote]Chris,I think you have listened to some other folk and learned very well and I doubt there is much more you need to know. Sure some will (like Mr France)take a pop but never, ever forget, the bottom line is what you are actually after, whether one is worried about that or not is another matter, if it is a good retrun on an outlay, then the BL is all important and your only true guide to whether you are doing things OK.(all other things being equal of course)You are very much like us, in the way we are paying for advertising, you might even be paying a little more (or slightly less even)but either way, you are investing in advertising for your business, which is the lifeblood of any tourist venture here, that requires a decent annual return on their investment (inc house and annual publicity)There (hopefully) does come a time, when one can start to reduce ones outlay to suit ones financial requirements. We stay with some sites and let others go, each year as we all know new sites ask us to "invest" I will look at those and if they look serious, well managed and look pretty good or indeed if they are free trials, then like others we will give them a go. I am shocked by quite a few B&B's around us that I know could with taking more money but will not spend time investing in a good website or have insufficient money invested in publicity in general. I guess it is tough if you don't have the money to invest though.I am shocked though, that you have found French Connections to be a good place to find guests, we have had a few friends leave them as their B&B's hardly got any calls at all and almost nil guests.This is the thing though, we all pay out and many duplicate dates are requested when one is full, so although one can possibly judge which advertising got the initial client (I am terrible, most of our clients have forgotten and my records of "who booked through who" are almost non existant, bar GdF which we have quite a good idea about, as those clients tend to know Gdf was how they found us), how does one know which other company (ies) would have filled all those dates and more for a cheaper outlay but the dates were full on many occasions ! A little far fetched perhaps but certainly warrants a closer inspection and Chris, you have been awarded that task Mind you it will need you to ask all those that want a room when you are full, to admit they would or wouldn't have taken the room if it had been empty, not quite as obvious as it sounds, as many of those are still searching around for price and just making initial enquiries ! ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "I am shocked though, that you have found French Connections to be a good place to find guests, we have had a few friends leave them as their B&B's hardly got any calls at all and almost nil guests."So am I as I was also one that jumped on the 'lets have a go at French Connections and Visit France" thread at the begining of the season. I guess the problem is I bang everything in to the booking software religiously making sure it's correct without actually remembering things untill I start rolling of the reports at the end of the year. Bit like I said that the Brits were only a small part of my trade, well I thought they were yet in fact they are the biggest once the numbers get crunched.I can tell you that we have refused 17 phonecall enquiries, how they got our number I don't know but it's either through the tourist office book or our website. I keep all the emails under a folder called Full and can report the following, 9 from my own website, 1 from Visit France and 2 From French Connections.I also have a folder called "Children and Dogs - No Thanks" and can report 22 "I'm sorry we are full for the dates you require". We started this because the ladies from GDF told us we can't refuse children and dogs (it's against the law?) but said just tell them you are full, who's to know. I worked it out that this has cost me around 4,000€ worth of business or perhaps more but I still won't take them. If somebody wants to give me 4k up front we will pass them on next year, as long as they live at least 50km away from us . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 "...I can tell you that we have refused 17 phonecall enquiries, how they got our number I don't know but it's either through the tourist office book or our website."Sorry Chris, you have lost me on that one, can you clarify it a bit please ?"...I also have a folder called "Children and Dogs - No Thanks" and can report 22 "I'm sorry we are full for the dates you require". We started this because the ladies from GDF told us we can't refuse children and dogs (it's against the law?) but said just tell them you are full, who's to know. I worked it out that this has cost me around 4,000€ worth of business or perhaps more but I still won't take them. If somebody wants to give me 4k up front we will pass them on next year, as long as they live at least 50km away from us"Your person was talking rubbish about dogs Chris, as the GdF guide books, both national amd regional, have a picture of a dog with a line through it, for all of us who do not accept animals inc dogs. Might have meant Sangliers perhaps Yes, my point earlier comes in to play here Chris, you turned down people and state you lost money but as I suspect, the rooms were perhaps taken up by some other person without kids or dogs ? Or are you talking turned away at the door on the day, in which case you get far, far more passing trade than we have ever had (bar the campsite). 4000€ of passing trade refused, and that does not not inc passing trade actually taken, means one hell of a business, who needs advertising iof that really is the case !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quillan Posted October 1, 2005 Share Posted October 1, 2005 We had 17 people call us on the telephone wanting a room. We are in a booklet that is sent or given out by the tourist office and it has our phone number in it. We also have metal signs around the area with our name and phone number on and of course our phone number is on our website. As you said it's difficult to ask where they got our phone number from so we just do a 'bar' count on the white board next to the phone. This year there were 17 such calls asking for a room and we had none spare, we were full. We also have the 12 email enquiries we turned away because we were full. This makes a total of 29 occasions we we full and turned people away.I suppose you are right, perhaps we could calculate it this way. If we said that as a average people wanted to book two nights (we have some who want one night and others ask for five or seven even) and I turned people away 29 times at an average of 50€ per room thats 2,900€ worth of business we could not have taken because we were full. Would that justify creating yet another room giving us 5 in total?If we applied the same calculation to people who emailed but had dogs or children that would have been 22 times 50€ and lets say an average of 2 nights thats 2,200€. So I clearly got my numbers wrong, sorry. Should let the old computer work it out in stead of trying to use the old brain. I don't know how many of these occasions we were really full anyway, lets say half so thats 1,100€ worth of business we refused because of dogs and/or children.Sorry I was thinking about something else when I made the earlier post and my mind was not on it. These I think are more realistic figures. Sorry again for any confusion.With reference to GDF, I thought it was rather weird because they have the pictures like babies, cots and animals with yes and no type tick box's so they seemed rather to have contradicted themselves. At the end of the day we just don't take them but rather than refuse we just say sorry mate, full.Investing in roadside panels I think is very important. We have five, very simple with a direction arrow and how far we are from the panel. We have not done anything special just cream with a blue border and blue lettering in the same font that we use on our website, business cards, invoices etc. Sort of a corporate image type thing. Some we see are so over the top with photo's, bright colours etc, etc. We have had quite a few people complement us on our clear and smart signs. It must work because in our first year we opened for seven months and took almost 8,000€ worth of business most of which was passing trade, we only had about ten reservations through the website and had no other advertising. Wouldn't mind that level of passing trade again I can tell you, happy days.We are actually on the same road as Arnold (we go past his place on our trips to Perpignan) which is the main route to Spain if you don't want to use the autoroute and are at a natural break point for people travelling back and forth. This, and people sent via estate agents, brings us in a lot of one nighters outside the season. All the other Brits round here won't take them for just one night because of the washing. We don't mind, it's bums in beds that count so long may the other Brits refuse.We have one B&B near us who impose the following rules, no one nighters, you are billed for a week - Saturday to Saturday, only take English people and are vegitarian only. Saw the lady in the local supermarket a week or two back, they have had a terrible year can't think why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mascamps.com Posted October 1, 2005 Author Share Posted October 1, 2005 Mind you it will need you to ask all those that want a room when you are full, to admit they would or wouldn't have taken the room if it had been empty, not quite as obvious as it sounds, as many of those are still searching around for price and just making initial enquiries ! !Very good point Miki. I normally clock up all that phone when we're full as "lost" bookings but thinking about it, the majority of these and indeed the drivebys are French and we tend to be priced a bit high for them so we'd not have got the bookings anyway, or at least not all of them. I don't formally write them down but we had one night of eight turned away and about enough single nights of one or two to bring the total up to something like a dozen or so. Of course, it takes a fair bit to fill us up as we can add another two or three to our normal room count if pushed.Chris: we'll take the kids off you but not the dogs Given the growth in your business, I'd add that 5th room if I were you. You'll need it next year or the year after.Next time you see your "veggie" B&B lady, don't forget to tell her (and indeed 'tothers) about ourinns We do get a reasonable number of people looking for a veggie B&B and only have two listed at the moment (none around here).Don't forget to drop in next time you're zooming past too! Arnold Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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