Availability 31st July-14th August

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Tizfata
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Availability 31st July-14th August

Post by Tizfata »

Misdriven by enthusiasm, I thought I had those 2 weeks booked, but they are not. :oops:
Advice is strongly needed.
Thanks in advance
PS: I have vacant weeks/ads on:
Homelidays (got an enquiry for one week but the guy booked somewhere else)
Holiday-rentals (got an enquiry for 1 week 2 adults + 4 teenagers = no, thanks)
Holidaylettings (got an enquiry "are you ready to accept 1000 euro instead of 1355", "no I am not ready")
Subito (an enquiry asking for the price)
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Vera
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Post by Vera »

I would take the 1,000 if the rest of the booking suited me, number of people etc.
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

With only 4 days to go, and you're not ready to accept a late deal ??????.

Vera is spot on; mind you, I may have been tempted to reply "I will accept €1100" just on principle, but why lose everything at this late stage ?
** Richard
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Musetta
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Post by Musetta »

me too. I would tell them you would be happy to give them a last-minute discount....I do agree you could probably bargain with them though and get a teeny bit more ;-) - say that, unfortunately, due to your high operating costs, you can only discount down to 1100. Also, what's the problem with 4 teenagers? (as long as you sleep 6, of course! can't remember) The majority of my US bookings are from parents with teenagers! They are great -they stay out shopping all day or sunbathing on the deck or in the garden and are never even in the house....two parents and teens, IMHO, treat the home better than more than one family - even two couples...seems like there is more a sense of responsibility when it's one family (even if all the teens don't belong to them - I sometimes get a friend or boyfriend in the mix) and, I really hate to say this, but Mom is used to picking up after her little piggies. sad. but true.
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Tizfata
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Post by Tizfata »

Thank you for your suggestions (I will be happy to welcome more).
Vera & Richard: The reason is that a +25% discount is too much! I have 3 other apartments with the same features and I won't be very happy if those who paid months ago the full price knew about it. Then the "if you give peanuts you get monkeys" speech...
Musetta: I LOVE families but the apartment has only 2 bedrooms (1 has bunkbeds) (and 1 bathroom!) and even if the living room is quite large, I felt I pushed me and the apartment to the limit...
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Vera
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Post by Vera »

I never like advertising large reductions when people have paid the full price. But this is different, you have last minute availability and they have 1000 euros or whatever, the 2 should get together.
Marks
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Post by Marks »

But offering a discount now is no different to buying, say, a TV this week for €750 only to find that next week the price is €550 as the store tries to shift the last couple. You won't ask for your money back nor would you be entitled to it.

Take the €1000.
Some guests just need a sympathetic pat. On the head. With a hammer.
olive
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Post by olive »

Offering a discount now IS different to buying, say, a TV this week for €750 only to find that next week the price is €550.
Tizfata risks creating unhappiness and ill-will for her other visitors - who may well find out about the reduced price and, rightly or wrongly, feel poorly done by.
This is one of the reasons I don't discount. (Also, I don't like monkeys.)
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Post by e-richard »

Have you ever asked the person sitting next to you on any plane journey what they paid for their ticket ?

You are in identical seats going from and to the same place, but depending on when you booked, you'll have paid a completely different price.
** Richard
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olive
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Post by olive »

I don't stay 1 or 2 weeks on a plane.
I don't have a personal relationship with the owner of the plane.
I don't look forward to my plane trip for most of the year.
I don't pin a photo of the plane on my kitchen wall to help me through the long winter months.
I don't form an attachment in my memory to the plane, thinking back to the happy hours I spent there.

We received a notice last night of a review of our property to be published on HR . If I substitute "plane" for the name of our property & make other appropriate changes, does the review still work? Here it is:

"We're experienced travellers, and we've become used to discounting the claims made (and photographs shown) for planes around the world.
We had to discard our cynicism as soon as we were welcomed to the Airbus 300. It was everything that was promised and more.
The plane was genuinely enchanting and immaculately prepared for us. We particularly liked the central aisle (a great place to chat on your way to the w.c.), the private tv screen (complete with concealed ledge to keep your drinks cool), and the stroll to the drinks dispensor - and, yes, a proper glass of beer.

It's a great plane for looking out of the window, too, if you can bear to tear yourself away from the view of the central aisle and the charming nearby travellers.

We were a mixed group: me (mid-50s); my mother (aged 76 and sprightly enough to handle the aisle); my fourteen-year-old daughter; and my beautiful Australian wife (age withheld, because I'm not entirely stupid). Not an automatic recipe for harmony or shared interests on a long plane trip.
But we all adored flying in this plane and in particular our row of seats at D11-D14.
Thanks to Richard for providing us with such a perfect place to fly."


I don't know what Richard would make of this review but I love it. The original is beautifully written and even made me laugh.

Come on - who writes reviews like this about their seat at D14?
Marks
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Post by Marks »

Well we will have to differ. I offer a product, one I am not emotionally tied to, and if I sell most of them (ie weeks) but can't shift 2 key ones at the full price then I'll take a discount. My view is I'd rather have the place occupied at a reasonable rate rather than have it empty sticking to a principle that I can't upset my previous/future guests if they see a reduced price advertised. I think the vast majority of people accept and understand the realities of sales and marketing.
Some guests just need a sympathetic pat. On the head. With a hammer.
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Giddy Goat
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Post by Giddy Goat »

:lol: :lol: :lol: You have had fun writing this Olive!

Understand the point you're making but I doubt that the risk of other guests finding out that someone else benefited from a lower rate is high - unless they are staying in identical gites at the same time and it comes out in conversation.

Even then, they live in the real world, and know that when something hasn't sold, or has been sold and then returned, it makes good business sense to re-market it at a discount or suffer it sitting on the shelf and gathering dust.

I guess for me the key issue is how cheeky the person is when asking for the discount. I haven't had this often but it does seem to be on the increase, and I did turn away someone whose tone I simply didn't like for a slot I find harder to sell and therefore look upon as a bonus when it does.

Could I have used the money - of course! But a goat has her pride. I wouldn't have liked the "are you ready to" opening gambit from Tizfata's enquirer, and agree with Musetta's advised response.

Edit: was writing this at the same time as you were posting Mark - glad to see we agree - except that in our case, we have just one property and we are emotionally tied to it.
Nostalgia isn't what it used to be
olive
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Post by olive »

Sigh....Marks, the subject of owner attachment didn't enter my post, which was entirely concerned with the holiday-maker's emotional attachment. (Keeping on this subject, the sister of an April visitor rang to book in July, saying that her sister was "nearly in tears" when she remembered the view from our property. Not my tears, the visitor's.)

Marks & GG: Tizfata and I rent properties next to each other and in our case it is far from unlikely that the guests would meet up for drinks, chats, comparisons, grumbles about "unfair" comparisons.....
We like to avoid the grumbles, even if it means less money.
olive
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Post by olive »

GG. I didn't write the review. I just changed a few nouns ( "stairs" to "aisle" etc) - and kept all the adjectives and verbs (note to any doctor reading this: don't fret, "adjective" and "verbs" are archaic notions that are disapearing faster than a summer cold).
e-richard
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Post by e-richard »

In discussions such as this where there is no obvious referable right or wrong answer, emotion will always win over logic.

I put my hand up as a loser (of this argument), and will leave others to make up their own minds.
** Richard
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They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
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