purelyfrance

Rubber Slippers in Italy

The most pleasurable thing about holiday accommodation are the ‘guests’.  Many come and go and your memory of them fades over time.(particularly with a memory like mine)   Others arrive as strangers and leave as friends.  After an idle hour or so over a glass (or two) of wine you find you share common values and views of the world.  In those two hours you are unable to ‘fix’ all the problems in the world but it is fun discussing them. A few guests even return the following year. And then there is a small number who you seem to be so in ’sync’ with, that you find yourselves maintaining an ongoing contact from afar.

One such couple who fall in to this latter category for us are Dario and Rowena Castelli. They live in Dario’s home country of Italy, (you wouldn’t guess would you) just north east of Milan near the southern tip of Lake Como. (I could kill them for that) You know the standard image of Italian men right; dark, tall, suave, macho, ice cool looks, boss of the family, etc etc.  Well Dario by comparison is a teddy bear; laid back, gentle, smile on his face, easy paced, considerate and an all round good guy.

As for Rowena, well,  she talks like an Italian, and throws her hands around like an Italian but she hardly looks Italian at all. The fact that she is Hawaiian may have something to do with all that. What is she doing in Italy married to Dario?  That’s Rowena’s story to tell. But Rowena could be the poster girl for Hawaiian tourism. As well as being cute looking, she has that smiley, enthusiastic, eternally optimistic attitude that seems to be imbedded within many ‘island’ people. As Dario will attest, Rowena is fun to be around.

Rowena has been clever enough to create her own stimulating blog.  http://www.rubbahslippahsinitaly.blogspot.com/  If you are keen on Italian food/cooking you share a passion with Rowena and on her Blog you will find all sorts of enticing recipes and dishes.  They are accompanied with great photo illustrations too. And in between recipes there are many interesting stories of life in Italy, sprinkled of course with much Hawaiian humour. If you need to give your day a lift or to lighten it for 5 minutes, you may find a visit to Rowena’s Blog will do just that.

A Bientot,

Bruce.

Property search - cutting through the morass

I use the word ‘morass’ as a polite term for ‘les conneries’ which in itself is a polite word for ‘merde’. (I think!)

How to find and select your dream French property, without being driven to drink? (that can come later)  By now you will have chosen which area of France appeals to you most, and if you have been diligent you will have nutted out a property spec. (see previous Post)

Our next step was to undertake some research via the internet. There are obvious advantages in this; it is relatively quick; uncostly; gives you an independant ‘feel’ for what is on the market within your budget; you can do it wearing your slippers; and you can find property sites in english if you have a need for that.  We ended up with a list of 24 properties that we thought would be worth inspecting. Location ranged from Chablis in the far north of Burgundy to the area around Cluny in the south.

The major downside of being guided by the property descriptions are the descriptions themselves.  As most people are aware, a special University exists from where real estate agents worldwide graduate with a P.h.d. in the ’science’ of writing property descriptions. These descriptions of course bear no relation whatsoever to reality.  ‘Charming’ usually means the property needs total renovation; ‘panoramic views’ equals the house has no endearing features; ‘good development opportunity’ will normally require huge amounts of capital and 3 years of your life. I am sure you are all adept at interpreting such descriptions.

So, armed with our internet list we set out to view the properties in person.  I must say we generally found all the ‘immobiliers’ to be helpful, patient and reasonably efficient.  Like anywhere in the world they were keen to ‘make a sale’.  A number of them continued to feed us information on further properties after we had returned home.

Of the properties themselves, as you could expect they were a real mixed bag. Some we crossed off the list as soon as we walked through the front gate, others were discarded when we could see how much renovation was required. We saw one pristine property with a number of outstanding features and at an excellent price but its isolated location made us nervous. It stayed on our list but was eliminated later on.

In spite of all this analysis and research, ironically we literally tripped over the property we bought.  We were rushing to a rendezvous with an immobilier in Beaune. As we passed another immobilière, (haven’t quite worked out what there are most of in France, boulangeries, coiffures or immobilieres) Anne caught sight of some photos in their front window. A visit was hastily arranged for the next day and voila, it was one of those scenarios where we knew immediately this was the property for us.

Our search was relatively painless, it only involved three weekends. So our homework, analysis and research all played an important part in narrowing down our search. However, as you read in the final outcome, nothing beats being on the spot, wearing out your shoe leather and keeping your eyes and ears open.

This is a story for those of you who love a bargain, who thrive on the adrenalin of competing in shop ‘Sales’ and the satisfaction of ‘winning’ a product at a hugely discounted price. I am a veteran of Selfridge’s winter sales, usually amongst the first 20 to enter the doors but all that was rather sedate compared to this French experience.

I am on the hunt for a new dishwasher (le lave-vaisselle, curiously masculine) for one of our rental Apartments.

First the publicité arrives via la boite a lettres, from Carrefour  hypermarché in Chalon-sur-Saone Sud. And there it is! A dishwasher marked down from 599 euros to 359. Is that a deal or what? Hmmm, better read the fine print. Yes, it looks the goods but there are only 30 of them. This calls for some serious strategic planning. What’s the start date?  Tuesday the 11^th. (fortunately today’s date is only the 4th) What time do the doors open? 0830.

What’s the competition?  Out of 60 million people in France, how many need a new dishwasher?  Chalon-sur-Saone  has a population of 77,498 plus surrounding towns/villages, let’s assume 100,000.  If we say 0.5% of those are hunting for a new dishwasher, it is 500 too many. Better get there early.

0600, Tuesday 11^th. The alarm goes off. Get up, get coffee, have shower. Anne is away in the Netherlands so is being spared all this preparation.

0700, Go through the checklist. Jacket, scarf, gloves, chest protector, elbow guards, running shoes,  cheque book, publicité avec photo of lave-vaiselle, newspaper.

0715. Under cover of darkness, move on out of Chaudenay. Crikey, it looks like the whole Saone et Loire department has been mobilised, les voitures (cars) everywhere.  How many are heading for Chalon Sud?

0750. Arrive Carrefour car park. Terrain looks good, perhaps a dozen cars, one with a trailer.

0752. Get to the Mall front doors. First dilemma, there are two sets of doors on an angle facing each other. About 8 competitors at one set, about 12 at the other. Survey the scene. There is an interior corrugated security shutter about 15 metres away, once that is opened, which set of external doors will the Security guy open first, to his left or to his right. Logic tells you left, but this is France, I choose the right.

0755. Install myself in the second row, centrally, this holds double advantage you don’t get shuffled to the outsides and the doors open from the centre ensuring you are part of the first surge.

 0805. Crowd is building, around 30 in front of each set of doors.  Subtly survey those around me. Some hardened professional bargain hunters. This is going to be a serious assault exercise. A couple directly in front of me in the first row, chatting away in Italian, they like their pasta, should be able to easily sprint around them. Though they do have a chariot, (trolley) so elbow pads may come into use.

0813. Crowd has built to 60-80 at each door. No jostling as yet. But what is this. An aggressive young couple are edging themselves forward on my right trying to out flank my position. I causally remove my newspaper from my back pocket, deliberately open it up wide, while at the same time, I subtlely spread my legs astride, flexing my knee, hip and shoulder to the right. The young couple get the message. Do not invade my space.

0819. The crowd is now around 300-400. And are getting restless. Tensions are rising, nervous looks at watches are increasing. I run through my routine for the tenth time. a) get to the white ware section  b) focus on mind picture of lave-vaisselle  c) ‘tag it’  d) get sales assistant.

0826. A noise erupts behind me, probably some altercation. Don’t be distracted, remain calm, stay focussed. Then I hear someone say, ‘les portes ils ont ouvertes là-bas’. (the doors have been opened over there) What the hell, oh, cat-a bloody-strophe, doors have been opened 50 metres away further down the mall. Just like in Rugby, blimming French never do what you expect them to do.

But we are not deterred, we who were a member of the all conquering Renwick 6^th grade Rugby team, and Marlborough College intermediate athletics champion.  I hurl myself forward, running, sprinting, head held high, eyes like bullets, arms pumping, thighs thrusting, through one gap, side stepping left, side stepping right, through another gap, fend off one chariot, in through the doors, scorching past the children’s merry go round, dodge another chariot, accelerating down past the long line of check out counters to arrive at the entrance to Carrefour hypermarche. I stand in front of another big corrugated but open weave security shutter. And, I am in the front row.

0828. I stop wheezing from my sprint, eyes get back into focus.  15 metres in front of me I can see the lave-vaiselle, its gleaming white front, its bright rouge et jaune sale sticker, so tantalisingly close.  Two Security officers come out, positioning themselves between the shutter and the mob. They tell everyone to retreat one metre. Most do, but then surge forward again as soon as they pass down the line.

0829. The Security guards remain between the animals and the zoo. The security shutter starts to ascend. Conversely a strange quiet descends over the crowd, not a muscle moves.

0830. Its GO!! The 15 metres are covered in 0.01274 seconds. I am first there, I practically put my arms right around it. A Sales assistant looks at me quizzically and suggests I take one of the 30 stickers attached to the side of the appliance (which is how you ‘claim’ it) and to follow him. I did. Mission accomplished!

 Setting prices - difficult but tres important! (Part 1)

One of the most perplexing issues when you first create holiday accommodation, is how much do you charge?  From our experience and observation we feel that around 75% of privately owned properties could attract more income. In essence many people are under pricing their accommodation!!  Yes, we have also seen some who are a bit steep with their prices but they are very much the minority.

So on what do you base your prices?  We suspect most people do what we did and check out a few like-for-like properties in the surrounding area. Then based on what you have seen you set your prices, possibly slightly lower because you are the ‘new kid on the block’ and yes you may be about to activate a website, and advertise in an internet directory,but who knows how much business that is going to bring in? That was certainly our scenario. In retrospect, after our first season we figured our prices were about 100 francs per night too low.  That could have earned us another 20% of income.

So how does one avoid that?  We think one of the first things to decide is what your product is going to consist of, what sort of market will it appeal to, and then price it accordingly. That was something we did not devote enough thought to. We decided we wanted a B n B of ‘quality,’ good quality furnishings, beds and linen, towels, an extensive breakfast, rooms serviced every day with fresh bathroom linen supplied daily. We installed extras, like hair dryers, supplied make up removal pads and ear buds.

 We created a summer kitchen attached to our rooftop terrasse where complimentary tea/coffee was available around the clock. We ensured our computer was available without charge for internet access and made bicycles available also without charge. But then what did we do, we charged ‘middle of the road’ rates instead of placing a value on all those extras for our guests. So, it is important to ensure you match your rates to the standard of accommodation, and the services and facilities you are going to provide.

Another conundrum is that a price in one market can be very reasonable, e.g. the UK, but may seem costly in another market where the currency is not as strong against the Euro.  That influenced us a bit originally, as we were expecting, and we did get a good number of guests from Australia and New Zealand where the national currencies are not overly strong. But we can’t see any way around that, it is a consequence of the ‘World’ being able to access your product (which is great!) and we feel that it is more important to ensure you are offering value for money.

 Seasonal Rates

We often see owners ‘depriving’ themselves of income by applying too many seasonal rates. It is common to have the high season listed as July/August, with a lower rate for the months either side. We have consistently experienced strong demand (both B n B and self-catering) for June and September so we leave the rate at the same level.  Demand for these months come from Americans, Canadians, Australians and New Zealanders. These people are ’savvy’ travellers who know that in general Europe is too hot and too congested in July/August, so plan their travel accordingly. British visitors too will travel in those months for the same reasons, particularly those who are not tied to school holidays.

We have been suprised to see the growing trend in Americans seeking self-catering accommodation, they make up 22% of our bookings so far this season.

We leave the same rate in place even for April and May. Yes, the demand may not be quite as strong but by accepting ‘broken’ weeks in our apartments we still manage to  have good utilisation. These months are helped by Easter, (sometimes) the UK bank holiday weekends and holidays in Switzerland.  In addition, here in Burgundy, the wine industry also contributes to demand outside of the July/August months.

When setting your rates for a new season it pays to reconsider your seasons based on what happened the prevous year but also by looking ahead. For example for 2007, it would be reasonable to expect increased demand in October due to this years Rugby World Cup.

 Children.

Another area where ‘soft’ pricing can occur is with children. But you are quite entitled to charge extra for children as you do for extra adults. Most airlines charge 75% of the adult fare for children, train services at least 50%. Children use a bed and create laundry, use water and electricity. By their very nature they can sometimes cause additional cleaning and/or minor maintenance.

We enjoy having children on our property on a reasonably regular basis but I must admit our own pricing approach for children is a bit of a moving feast. We deliberately don’t state it on our website so it can remain flexible. We tend to weigh up how many children there are, what age they are, length of stay, time of year and then determine the cost accordingly. We rarely charge for babies, even though we do host many of them.

As a general observation, it is very easy to become too price sensitive.  Remember that accommodation is only one segment of cost for your guests. They will have airfares or ferry crossings, often other accommodation, petrol and various other costs. Certainly for those guests who arrive from ‘long haul’ destinations their accommodation costs are a much lower portion of their overall costs, so price is often not the motivator behind their decision making.

This was brought into stark reality late last year when a client was telling me he paid 285 euros for a bottle of Chassagne-Montrachet chardonnay and it was of such good quality he bought three! One bottle was more than he paid us for his 4 night stay!!

One situation where we do discount our rates is for any two week booking.  We provide a 10% discount off the second week.  We don’t get many of them and of course you want to ‘nail’ the booking. In many cases it is probably not neccessary but of course it does create a positive impact with the guests.

At whatever level you set your rates, we repeat, ensure you are providing ‘value for money’. More than anything else, ’value for money’ will generate referrals and repeat business.

Due to the length of this Post I have decided to break it into two, Part 2 will follow in the next few days.

A Bientot,

Bruce.

 When we first went to French lessons in France, we soon learnt the words ’simple’ and ‘logic’ belonged on another planet. We were chock full of confidence, or was that hope?! Ringing in our ears were the comments from all our friends back ‘home’, you will be speaking it fluently in 3 months. Yea, and Elvis is still alive too.

Whenever we asked a question of our tutor, her immediate response was, well il y a trois possibilities. (there are three options)  Well, we said just the most correct option will do, merci.  No, no she would respond, it all depends on who is talking to whom, what is the situation and what is the context. There is the ‘classic’ expression, the ‘academic’ and the ‘familiar’. Oh, we would  say and slink back behind our text books.

It dawned on us that neither our ears nor our mouths were in ‘French’ mode. Listening to one audio tape, I thought the conversation was about someone called Thomas. (Tom-ah) Turns out it was about someone’s stomach.(l’estomac)  I also thought I said ‘le cou’ (neck) but how it sounded was ‘le cul’ (a coarse term for your bottom!)  As for being able to discern the difference between ‘dessus’ and ‘dessous’, forget it, that took a couple of weeks on its own. From another tape we were asked to write down how many times we heard a particular sound. Anne’s total was zero, while I hadn’t realised the tape had even started. Oh dear!!  Our tutor was very patient!!

When you don’t have the pronunciation down pat so many words can sound very similar. Take words like le vent (wind) vente  (sale) vingt (twenty) and le vin (wine).  I was trying to explain to our Tutor about the ratio of sheep to people in New Zealand (for some obscure reason) which at the time was 20:1.  While I thought I was saying ‘vingt’ Chantal heard the word as ‘vente’ which made her believe that all New Zealanders had a quota of sheep to sell!!  I had this vision of all these street stalls scattered across the countryside!!

As we look back on those early days in France it is hard to imagine we were so ignorant, but at the time we were!  No doubt many of the French had a good laugh at our expense but you would never know it. They are very good at restraining themselves when you are strangling their poetic language. They do at least credit you for trying to speak French and once you get to know each other they will often correct you in a helpful manner. I am sure some enterprising person could easily write an entertaining book of ‘faux pas’ statements made by foreigners!!

A Bientot,

Bruce.