Booking out your time.

[gh]

How do you feel about booking out 'your time' at your other/premier home.

We adore to take 'our time' at our second home. One of the many reasons we bought where we did, was the fact that we love the region, the area, the people and their customs.

Do you as owners, forsake income for the same reasons we do?

Going over next week for 'Beaujolais Nouveau' where we have declined a booking; as our hamlet has so many fantastic events happening, we could not be there.

Whats your experience? What bookings do you refuse, or book out, so that you could to partake in national customs and lose the income you were guaranteed?

[debk]

We book at least one week of holidays for our family every August, shutting down all the Lisbon properties and heading off to an oh-so-wonderful Annual Shellfish Festival down by our little island cottage.

It is the most-bookable week for VRs in the area of the cottage... but the Festival is also a major family "memory maker" which has value beyond lost bookings. (We do know it's a blessing and we are very grateful that, so far, we've been able to continue to do it.)

Boa viagem, johnel!
debk

[Normandy Cow]

I "book out" ALL half-terms and a week each at Easter, in August, and at New Year - i.e. My most bookable weeks, and so I am therefore definitely losing out financially because they are the weeks I could let many times over!

BUT - We couldn't possibly NOT go out to the house ourselves - it is where our hearts are.

Having said that, our children, 12 and 9, have recently started to moan - "Oh no, not FRANCE again?". They don't realise just how lucky they are, but there you go...

[vrooje]

It was a difficult year for my parents, as the US real estate market has started to turn downward (more like fall off a cliff), so this year they preferred to have the extra income from the house.

Next year, though, I'm hoping I can insist that they (perhaps we) partake!

The real trouble, for us, is that we have always been last-minute holiday planners. My mother was a flight attendant for more than 30 years, so we always flew stand-by, and therefore every vacation was spontaneous, created around which flights had the lightest loads. When the house is booked months in advance, you can't decide on Wednesday that you want to be in France by the week's end! So, now that Mom is retired, we are all having to adjust to the idea that we should know in the winter that we want to spend the second week of July at the house!

[Big Sis..]

Hi All,
I tend to go out half term times[not May though the flts are tooo expensive] Nor July & August.
Apart from being the best renting out times Its too busy and places are crowded.
Octobers good as well ...
Decembers nice[going on the 6th] as you get a bit of the Christmas feel usually go early Jan as well for the March of the Kings which is great.
Feb can be cold especially at night but its a good chance to get things done....as if the Suns shining I find it very hard to get motivated...

[Hells Bells]

We book our property for New Year, and last year at least, Easter,although next year, hubby and I will be going ourselves in March instead. We took an empty week in Summer and Autumn, but next year will be taking two weeks in July, when the Tour de France comes through the village, and it's Bastille Day. Our reason for buying was our skiing and mountain biking hobbies, so we try and enjoy it as much as we can. This will probably be our last year of family holidays anyway, as no 1 son will be off to university next year.

[CostaBlanca]

This will probably be our last year of family holidays anyway, as no 1 son will be off to university next year.

Maybe not, Helen. I had a family staying last year, who lived in Brussels. They had 3 kids attending uni, 2 in Hawaii(?) 1 in England. A holiday was the only occasion that they all got together under the 1 roof. Just you wait, No. 1 son will be hoping for an invite on future family vacations.