Holiday bookings down considerably

RelievedSheff

thegreenone said:

With mortgage deals expiring and rates doubled, I think holidays will be off the cards for lots of people this year.

You might think that but the reality seems to suggest otherwise!

RelievedSheff

jonnydeppiwish! said:

RelievedSheff said:

We have just returned home from a 9 night trip to Norfolk and Suffolk with our motorhome and there was certainly no signs of staying at home and not spending. 

Everywhere we visited was busy and thriving. Sites were busy, pubs and restaurants were busy.

If people are cutting back we certainly didn't see any evidence of it!

Some people definitely still have money to spend. It would interesting to see what the percentage of 🇬🇧 was struggling with bills v those who have cash to spend.

From what we have seen I really do think that the media is over hyping (not like them at all) the percentage of people who are struggling. 

They are trying to talk down the economy.

Pennylane

DiamondLil said:

@Pennylane - whereabouts in the country is your holiday let ?

We've been searching for B&B and/or holiday lets in the UK and can't find anywhere not fully booked.

North Norfolk.  

jonnydeppiwish!

DiamondLil said:

@Pennylane - whereabouts in the country is your holiday let ?

We've been searching for B&B and/or holiday lets in the UK and can't find anywhere not fully booked.

Not sure you’ve looked properly- 328 currently available for the end of this month/beginning of next

tightauldgit

Pennylane said:

This is our third year doing holiday lets on a small property we used to rent long term.  The first two years were excellent and just about fully booked from April to Nov.  Obviously due to covid not many people were going abroad.  I’ve been in touch with our agency and they say our bookings are a lot better than other similar properties in our area. We have received a Customers Choice Award and have excellent reviews. 

We are tied in to their contract but it seems such a shame for it to stand empty.  After Tues we don’t have a booking until end of August. I guess we may get some last minute bookings but I just wondered whether other people on here were in the same position.

If you started doing these lets during and immediately post COVID then it might simply be that lets are returning to their normal pre-COVID levels that you hadn't previously experienced. Might be worth getting some more input on what 'normal' really looks like for lets to see whether this is a temporary lull or a regression to the mean. 

For me I can't think of anything worse than holidaying in the UK, it's bad enough living here the other weeks of the year, so I'm not your target market but if you have a good product and the pricing is right then you're largely at the whims of the market. The other thing to bear in mind is that if others are experiencing the same thing they may be offering discounts or dropping prices to fill empty slots. 

p00hsticks

GDB2222 said:

Pennylane said:

ts247 said:

There was a huge demand for uk holiday let accommodation after the lockdowns while travel abroad was still restricted.  Due to this the prices became inflated.  In the time since there has been more holiday accommodation made available (lots like yourself switching from long term to holiday lets and lots buying second homes) and travel has opened up, so there is more competition from these other options.  Mostly the price of holiday accommodation has not changed to reflect these changes, with owners/agencies still expecting the sort of rent they were getting at the peak of demand for uk holiday lets.  Of the lets I know of (looking Easter to october), one fully booked with week stays has an unbeatable view, so will always be in demand, one is super flexible with a minimum 2 nights and is chock with short stays, the rest have patchy occupancy and empty augusts.  If you’ve not got a USP (like breathtaking view), look at stay restrictions (are you limiting to 7 nights only?) and reduce price.  Good luck ☀️

We are very flexible.we will do 3 nights+ breaks. We have people in right now for 4 nights.  We got the agency to look at our bookings and they say our pricing is fine, we are flexible and we are getting more bookings than similar properties in the area.

I do agree that holidays abroad are often cheaper. We do AI from our local airport (which is always far more expensive) and we still get a great deal.  However, we mainly get retired couples staying here, many of whom may no longer be able to get insurance to travel abroad.  We also get a lot of people who bring their dog.

We have also had people who are having new kitchens fitted in their own homes or new flooring laid throughout and just want somewhere to relax away from workmen for a week.  

Thanks for all your helpful comments.

  
 The only caveat I would add is that you mentioned that you mostly let to elderly people. They don’t have much incentive to pay premium prices for the peak summer season. 

Yes, I think you have a good point there. 
We don't have children so if going on holiday in this country we would go before late July or in September - far cheaper and much less busy. 

And, when I was employed, easier to get time off when it didn't clash with parents needing time off with kids home for the holidays 

MobileSaver

thegreenone said:

With mortgage deals expiring and rates doubled, I think holidays will be off the cards for lots of people this year.

The other side of the coin is that the worst may now be coming to an end for other monthly bills.

Since the beginning of the year my electric bill has been over £1,100 a month... a combination of a smart meter being installed (meaning we have been much more conscious about turning off unnecessary appliances and lights) and this month's energy price drop has resulted in my monthly bill more than halving to £500 a month. I'm sure many people will be experiencing similar price drops moving forward even if not perhaps quite so dramatic.

Noneforit999

Its probably a combination of people having less disposable income (for obvious reasons) and holidays abroad being comparable cost wise.

We booked a week in Greece for £1500 last month for three of us including transfers and it was all inclusive.

A week in an AirBnb in Cornwall is probably not far off the cost when you include the travel there and back, spending money on food/drink etc. 

We have had many UK holidays but cost wise its not always significantly cheaper than a week in the sun.

There is probably a myriad of reasons the average family are holidaying less in the UK but money is probably top of the list.

We recently bought a van and converted it ourselves to a campervan so we can have lots of cheaper UK holidays. I can't stomach spending £200+ per night to stay in some of the popular UK hotspots so we will now be camping at less than a 1/4 of that per night. 

silvercar

I'm on some electric vehicle facebook groups and there are people desperately looking for holiday rentals in the UK where they can also charge their car. They would be happy to pay for electric used. It relieves range anxiety if they know that they can do days out and the journey home without having to worry about finding charging points. 
A proper charger would cost you in the region of £1k, but even advertising that you are happy for people to charge using a normal 3 pin plug could boost bookings.

caprikid1

I think one problem is that most holiday cottage companies charge a high fee. They know that after 3 years you have built up the contacts and repeat customers and find it easier to manage yourself. That forces your prices up.

Once you are out of contract with the agent and can manage it yourself, you can get more margin and reduce your price.

Alternatively when the three years is up put it back to a long term rental to help out the locals in their desire to stay where they were born as opposed to having to move out due to the community devastation that is holiday lets.

You have got a distorted view of the holiday cottage market due to Covid and as many are stating we just cannot be bothered to pay that much for a holiday cottage when you can rent something fabulous in Spain with flights for the same.