Lay My Hat

Good for them. They're a "pay fee for listing" business, aren't they? Rather than charging commission per booking I mean. If so I can see they would have a more ethical approach to both customers and owners because they aren't biased towards doing anything that delivers them commissions pe...

So we're kinda wondering if we should just arrange booking windows in such a way that I can drive three hours there, three hours back , and do the changeover / laundry myself (£30 fuel in total), or organise just the laundry / changeover companies ourselves. Cripes!! What if you have a car breakdow...

I would not want this booking in the main because if you have other guests staying, you cannot demand that they operate as a nut-free zone, if you see what I mean. If someone comes down to breakfast having had a packet of nuts or a nut cereal bar and coughs... air-born nut particles. Is this really ...

It happens that the guests who gave the guided tour were British but they spoke a bit of French. Or the other way round. The second lot of viewers encountered French guests who referred them straight to the caretakers who refused (rightly) to take them round the occupied cottage. The caretakers off...

My caretakers check because we have French and British tv and we make sure it is switched to French for French and Belgian guests and make an assumption of British tv default for all other nationalities. It hadn't occurred to me that it also checks that no one has actually damaged the tv during thei...

A friend of mine has a chambre d'hote further south and she has said that she thinks the fashion for reviews is on the way out. She reckons guests are no less pleased with her property because she regularly gets gifts and recently got a 50 eu tip from guests who stayed 2 nights but her reivews have ...

That means that if someone has friends and family to stay during July and August, you are penalised for doing so. It's one more example of France being dictatorial. They don't try and get everyone to register, far too difficult. Plays into France's everyone cheats mentality too. Must be full if its ...

It's true that in effect it is an extra night because no one can stay in the room or property on the night before but I usually reason that if its a stay of only a few nights (say 1-4 or 5 nights and I was not likely to get a booking for the previous night) I'd charge half the extra night's fee. But...

Debbuk, like the others I think it's what insurance is for. I read an old post a while ago pointing out that we supply accommodation and insurance companies don't provide accommodation but do sell holiday insurance but an offer of a discount at a future time would be kind. I didn't want to close out...

Using one of the online translators, you could compose a brief welcome and how the house works sheet in French. Keep the sentences very simple and at the end, translate it back into English using the same software to see if it still makes sense. If you're in a holiday area you may find some informat...

We have had this a few times in the last 20 years, nothing but sightseers, other gite owners wanting to have a look at the competition or just time wasters! Never turned into a booking, needless to say nobody set's foot on the property since ! Oh now that makes sense. I think you've may have enable...

That sounds good, Dusty. I was getting myself into far too much detail trying to avoid putting paying guests off - didn't want them to think "does she mean me?" but that's just me being over-complicated (in English and in French!) and something as brief and to the point as your suggestion ...

This month, I've had two sets of people turn up "on spec" at the cottage while holidaymakers have been in residence asking to see round with a view to booking for themselves or family next year. :shock: You know the sort of thing I'm sure. I'm don't live nearby and our caretakers are withi...

Never heard of it before this thread. Looks very interesting so thank you for posting info.

This leaves me wondering why we should even try to be flexible as it invariably involves us working darn hard in 35 degree temps.( Holiday cottage here not b&b but at our caretaker / cleaner's request we stopped offering earlier checkin times because you couldn't forecast what time previous gue...