converting enquiries

[wrighty]

Hello all,
A few months ago i placed an add on the subito.it site with the intention of trying to attract renters from northern italy. I have had quite a good response but as yet no takers, i have checked the price of the competition and i dont think it's a price issue, any advice would be welcome

[Titti]

Hi Wrighty with Italians this is completely normal. They ask 100 places at eventually book another one.

[lushsandwich]

hi wrighty
we live in abruzzo.
checked out the site ,seems very busy,do you have to keep updating your ad to be at the top?
our lingua not so good so wont be advertising yet.
struggling to get enquiries full stop,so cant help.
see my post on knowital.com
supposedly good but expensive
just thought id say hi,and if come across a good site will let you know
sandwich

[anmo51]

Hello,
I am italian and unfortunately I have to agree with what Titti said.
Italian are the worst, they make milions of enquiries and they do not even bother to send an answer.
That is the reason why I choose to avoid them like pest!!!
The only italians I accept are Red Cross, being one of them I made a deal.
Foreigners are better. Although there is a web site, that works wonderfully for the Italian market : that it is:www.casa-in-toscana.it ( it is not only for Tuscany) , you publish your add and you buy a coupon for 20/40 answer. You can choose when to use your coupons. It works.

Ciao
Anna

[Tizfata]

Hi Simon.
On subito.it I had some enquiries I managed to transform into bookings BUT you have to pay to update the ad OR cancel it, then post it again.
At the very beginning I remember it was quite easy to have it on top of the first page, then they introduced a price for that. I did not act wisely (I put too many adverts forgetting to erase the old ones) so they BANNED me from the site. It became for me impossible to publish an ad as the system wuold know my number was on their black list. I still advertise with them but I had the change telephone number & e-mail address. Not easy!
Should you need any help with your Italian ad, please feel free to PM me.
My advice is not to discriminate Italians. Some of them are far better than some of the foreigner guests from hell I had. I have some returning guests, mostly on New Year's Eve and Primo Maggio (when I do not expect to have non-Italian guests), that are lovely.
Have a nice weekend!
Tiziana

[anmo51]

Well ,I do not agree completely with Tiziana, my experience with my country folks have been horrid, ( escluding Red Cross and friends from Padua), maybe she has been luckier than me.

[pambon]

Well ,I do not agree completely with Tiziana, my experience with my country folks have been horrid, ( escluding Red Cross and friends from Padua), maybe she has been luckier than me.

Yes, I keep well away from southern Italians and many other renters here (both Sicilians and Italians) feel like I do!

I wonder if Tiziana has rented to Sicilians - both those living in Sicily and those living in the north...?

They are lovely people in their own homes but not in other people's homes.........

[Tizfata]

Pam, the most horrid guests I ever had were a large Belgian family. I had maybe less than 10% Italian guests. As everybody knows, foreigners tend to book WELL in advance, so there is a very little left when Italians start thinking about holidays. But on New Years' Eve, Easter break, Primo Maggio, I only had Italian guests. What should I do? Be open and not rent them? Stay closed for 8 months? I had a lovely family from Sardinia, 4 couples from Ciociaria, a group of young people from Leghorn, the most friendly 4 person family from Bari, a lot from the Milan-Brescia-Bergamo area... I would rent again to all of them, maybe think twice about a smoking group (but it is my fault I didn't tell them not to smoke).
IMHO, my advice to Simon is just to try. I guess he will start to learn to know his potential guests from phone calls and emails and be able to choose what is good for him and what is not. I wish Simon could say "I can afford to ignore some guests". Well, I can not ignore them! And, at the end of the day, I would not.
Just my opinion...

[anmo51]

Well nobody can afford to refuse booking, expecially on this period ( we say...con questi chiari di luna!!!),and Tiziana is right italians tend to book at the last possible moment...
I have my "dose" of italians too, but as I already wrote ,I can chose them, and if I cannot chose , I rather rent three days to foreigners. Never, ever had a single problems with them, sometime they are noisy, but I try to controll things with nice words and many smiles...

[pambon]

Tiziana, sei stata fortunata! I've only had 2 Italian families, one from Brescia and one from Como and both were super perfect I've had quite a few enquiries, for periods already booked unfortunately, from northern Italians which I would've happily accepted had I been able, but if I have a whiff of a southerner then I'd think twice.....if I hear their accent on the phone my alarm bells ring and when they email me I can usually understand from the way they express themselves in writing and also their name......

Mi dispiace, I've had too many problems in the past to willingly accept them now - you've been lucky and I've been unlucky; that's life or 'c'est la vie' as my sister-in-law in Geneva would say

[wrighty]

Thanks for all the responses, with regards to the subito site, i have had the add on for around 6 months and i,ve not paid a bean, i have had to renew the advert but it's just a case of pressing a couple of buttons to confirm that nothing has changed. I will check the other sites mentioned.

Cheers

[Tizfata]

Pam, the night broght me 2 memories:
1) A thirtysomething guy asking for a room, because he was due to start working in Florence (!) and wanted to commute (not the easiest thing to do on daily basis)
-We only rent apartments and the rate for that is XX euro
-But I don't have a lot of money
-(It was not a lot of money, as my low season rate are LOW) OK, I am not a charity.
2) A firefighter from Sicily stating what he is doing for a living (like the Nigerian spam!) on the first line of the letter, like he was looking for a discount because he's a firefighter and his wife loved Tuscany SO MUCH
-(I am sorry I can't find the email, but what I wrote was:) I love Sicily, too, I am glad your wife has a great taste, I am happy to hear you are a firefighter, so the tariff for you is XX euro (same if you are a miner, a teacher or a worker).
I just received a letter form a young woman. She was here on my first New Year's Eve, recommended us to her parents and they spent the Easter 2009 here, and she wants to come back for Primo Maggio .
I do like Mondays like this

[pambon]

Tiziana, I think the English saying of 'bees around the honeypot' may apply to you!

I have just had, within the last 24 hours, 2 polite and simple enquiries from Italian families of 4 (northerners!!) for August when I'm already booked

[Jenroy]

We have just taken a booking from a Northern Italian for the last 2 weeks in August and have been apprehensive about the booking. All correspondence has been very polite and they even emailed to check that the bank transfer was successful.

I will still keep my fingers crossed though until after they have stayed.

[pambon]

They sound fine by me; can usually tell immediatedly by their correspondence Jenroy and from what you say you don't need to worry! If they haven't nit-picked and have been polite and done everything requested by you without a quibble you can be sure they are just fine.

The southerners (I've had) are difficult from the first moment.

Stai tranquillo!!