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14/04/2008, 11:50 Sprogster Joined on 23/08/2004 Var & C.I. Posts 324 Re: Gite Bookings!! Another consideration I forgot to mention, is what happens next year to air fares, especially amongst the low cost carriers. There is an expectation that the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet will have to substantively increase their fares next year, because their fuel cost hedging runs out in the Autumn. Both airlines as a result are predicting a substantive reduction in profits in 2009 and their shares prices have fallen accordingly. Meanwhile in the USA, low cost carriers are falling like nine pins!    Report

14/04/2008, 12:03 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,874 Re: Gite Bookings!! Do Gite bookers really fly to their destination ? It's ferry fares I'd be watching. I think I would also put lots of cheap or free things to do, places to go on my web site, and start targeting my marketing to other Eurozone countries... Of course its all very well in theory, but the truth is I don't have a Gite www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

14/04/2008, 12:15 cooperlola Joined on 05/05/2006 72 - Sarthe - home of les 24 heures du Mans Posts 6,408 Re: Gite Bookings!! R/H has a point.  The Dutch economy is really strong at the moment (oddly, one of the few Eurozone countries where that is the case) - maybe time to start targetting them? Healthcare Issues Site    Report

14/04/2008, 12:22 Russethouse Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 9,874 Re: Gite Bookings!! And lots of Dutch people speak English (thank goodness !) www.quimperclub.org 99    Report

14/04/2008, 12:42 bigears Joined on 16/07/2007 Posts 175 Re: Gite Bookings!! hi The dutch are canny people, they like bargains.    Report

14/04/2008, 13:13 Clair Joined on 23/08/2004 ------- Forum Moderator ------- Lot (46) Posts 6,860 Re: Gite Bookings!! Who doesn't? I've had a call for a potential booking w/c 26th April. After enquiring about the rental cost, the caller asked if this was my "best price"! I aked her what she had in mind and she suggested a 25% drop... Clair, a Real Virtual French Person Ma Plus Belle Histoire d'Amour    Report

14/04/2008, 13:20 Quillan Joined on 23/08/2004 Forum Moderator Posts 3,644 Re: Gite Bookings!! The thing I discovered about advertising to the Dutch is that there are quite a few websites but unfortunately they seem to want descriptions etc in Dutch, this can be helpful for the Dutch (or should I say Flemish) speaking Belgium's as well. Fortunately my neighbours are Dutch and I have been able to get them to translate the important parts of my website for me. Tthe Dutch can speak reasonable English (as RH said) and also look on English speaking websites which makes it important to have the Dutch language equivalent of Gites (well self catering to be more exact) as part of your keywords on your website and register with google.nl so they can find you. More recently there seems to be an upturn in bookings (for our B&B) but it's still not as good as last year. Looking through my statistics at when people actually book the English don't always do so a year in advance (actually it appears to be a very small percentage), they can be between 9, 6 and 3 months. The French often leave it till almost the last minute, like weeks, but then a small few do book 6 to 9 months in advance. It's really hard to put a fixed time but needless to say there is still plenty of time for anyone to book. Actually I would love to get hold of some gite statistics (all we have is data taken from forums) as we are adding three to our portfolio for next year. As I said before the true figures will only come to light at the end of the year when you get the old calculator out and tot it all up and compare it against previous years. With regards to predicting the future I watched News Night last Friday when they asked three experts about how far house prices in the UK will fall, number 1 said 5%, number 2 said between 10 and 15% and finally, number 3 said 30 to 40%. To my mind there's a big difference between 5 and 40% so it shows that even the 'experts' don't really have much of a clue. I'm also reminded of the inaccurate reports about the 'health crisis' for Brits in France. So I wont worry too much about next year for a while. One advantage of gites, as already mentined, is that you rent them as long term rentals to both English and French alike. This is something us poor old CDH/B&B owners of course can't do. Anyway, good luck. http://www.chambresdhote.com    Report

14/04/2008, 13:38 Ian Joined on 04/07/2007 Posts 388 Re: Gite Bookings!! After a bit of rapport building and establishing my potential customer status (!) I nearly always ask for a discount: houses, cars, holidays, shops, haircuts, tailors ...you name it including gites!  (I'm not Dutch!) Holiday and Property Guide for Nice and the Cote d'Azur    Report

14/04/2008, 17:40 The Riff-Raff Element Joined on 23/08/2004 South Vendée - The Particularly Nice Bit Posts 1,598 Re: Gite Bookings!! Another consideration I forgot to mention, is what happens next year to air fares, especially amongst the low cost carriers. There is an expectation that the likes of Ryanair and Easyjet will have to substantively increase their fares next year, because their fuel cost hedging runs out in the Autumn. Both airlines as a result are predicting a substantive reduction in profits in 2009 and their shares prices have fallen accordingly. Meanwhile in the USA, low cost carriers are falling like nine pins! Rumour in the oil industry has it that certain European based low-costs are having constraints placed upon them as to the terms of credit they can obtain when buying jet fuel. No-one wants to be too exposed to what is being perceived as increased-risk customers. This impacts the airlines' cash flow adversely, so it is likely that they will have to raise prices soon whatever their hedging situation, just to put some more cash in the bank. Is there any good news at the moment? Jon Doust-e hameh kas doust-e hich-kas neest    Report

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France Forum » Owning/Running ... » Gite Owners » Re: Gite Bookings!!

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