Strange bookings for 2015 particularly June

[French Cricket]

FC do most of your bookings fly? I'm wondering whether the cost of the ferries is putting people off coming to France. 95% of my guests take the ferry and it is more and more expensive.

Well, it's a bit odd, LV ... in previous years nearly all of our guests have flown, but this year it's 50/50 flying and driving. I've no idea why as I'd have thought for 2 people it's much cheaper to fly and hire, and there are loads of flights to Toulouse. We have four bookings with dogs this summer, so they obviously have no choice.

The whole 'season' thing is a bit different in the Pyrenees - May, June, September and October are the best months for walking and they're the months that always book first. July and August do go, but often a bit later - it can be a bit too hot for walking then, although people do do it.

[elena]

Strange...June and early July have been unusually difficult for us to sell this year and we still have quite a bit of availability over our 7 gites including 5 cancelled weeks which I doubt very much we will sell...

We have always been busy and over the past 8 years have had a good 30% or so of our bookings from OD. Very slow now and not sure if the recent changes have got anything to do with it.

On the other hand our new property is fully booked from May to mid Sept (apart from one peak July week ) all from OD

We have a good mix of people flying and driving so just can't understand it all....

Elena
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[la vache!]

FC, yes, I'm surprised you have a lot of people driving, for UK couples (without dogs) I'd have thought the majority would fly to your place. You do have a very good USP with the walking.
Maybe the damage has been done with the exchange rate and even though it is cheaper to visit France now for British people, it has been horribly expensive for the last 6 years and maybe they've found other places to go.
Elena, I had a booking this weekend for my last available week in early July, so there are still people looking, bookings are far more last minute than in the past.

[Normandie]

I'm wondering whether the cost of the ferries is putting people off coming to France. 95% of my guests take the ferry and it is more and more expensive.

The ferries seem particularly expensive this year. I've had quite a few guests already who would normally go BF Portsmouth-Caen or Cherbourg who've saved £200+ by going Eurotunnel. Even with tolls of 25 euros and extra fuel of (say) 60 euros plus a 4.5 hour drive, it's still a significant saving.

[AngloDutch]

We found the same, Normandie. Have just booked the last week of July for our family holiday near Auch and have been thinking about driving to Brittany/Normandy and catching the ferry to either Poole or Portsmouth. But even the shorter crossings from Caen or Le Havre to Portsmouth are so expensive. I know we have probably left it too late this year, so maybe BF has upped the rates, as their ships become booked to capacity. And we're not even looking at services with cabins either!

Don't really want to travel all the way back towards Calais and Dunkirk as we'd be almost home!

So, looks like we'll stay put for the second week in France. Now, back to searching for a villa, gite, house, bungalow, hut (have ticked them all over at OD and HA) with a private pool (at daughters' request!) I think we should have booked earlier for the first week of August!

[French Cricket]

I have one week at the end of July as a result of a late cancellation that nobody seems to want! It's got to be a teacher, really - most of our guests avoid school holidays like the plague

Yippee - it's just gone ... and to a teacher . Onwards and upwards to 2016 and our new 'format'!

[Frenchlady]

June is dire with our B&B too - and the gites we look after. Most of them have stood empty and only just have guests arriving. Such a shame with this beautiful weather and long light evenings. The best month to be here. Our local French Hotel had nobody in last Fri and they have 12 rooms to fill. The local canoe guy said one of the lovely riverside villages was completely empty of cars at 8 pm one night and one restaurant closed. Where is everyone? I do think that the older people who really had a love of France have become too old to travel and the younger ones seem to want all inclusive, cheap, sunny places where they do not have to shop or clean. Just my thoughts but will we really know why?? Even the long distance travellers seem to be missing. Had no enquiries from America this year but plenty of Kiwis.