Foreign Perspectives

Actually, it’s not the last week of the holidays but the French don’t go on holiday in the last week so it’s the last week that they are on holiday.

Traffic isn’t quite the word we’re looking for either, as in many places the motorways are pretty much carparks rather than places where traffic actually moves. Many people think that they can avoid the snarlups by simply leaving the motorway when the traffic gets too heavy but, as you can see, a LOT of people think the same thing so you can look forward to tailbacks at every motorway exit.

But you’re thinking “ah, I’ll use my in car navigator and avoid the queues”. Well, no, that doesn’t work either as when the price of Tom Tom and the like dropped last year, loads of people bought them and you’ll see massive tail-backs on the recommended routes. They’re actually worse than the motorways as the navigation units tend to direct you along B roads which elsewhere would be fine but in France these are often quite windy roads and, in many cases, they’re just not up to coping with the traffic volume that the navigation units are now directing down them.

Your best plan is to find somewhere nice for today and tomorrow and stay there. Not only will this avoid needless aggravation on the roads but you’ll also miss out on the incredibly aggressive driving that this generates and indeed the corresponding jump in road accidents.

Last year we thought the bookings were pretty late – just a few days ahead in many cases – but it’s much, much worse this year. In fact it’s increasingly common that people will book and come not only the same day but even as little as a few hours later.

Now, I can understand people booking in the morning and arriving later that day. After all, peoples’ plans change. But whereas in years gone by you’d have had driveby bookings in fairly large numbers at times, nowadays it seems as though that driveby market has moved online.

That means that we in turn need to tighten up our systems as we used to assume that the bookings for the day were in when we checked our e-mail in the mornings but it’s no longer unknown that we’ll get someone turn up after 10pm with a booking form that we’ve not yet seen because we’ve not picked up our e-mail since teatime.

I’m sure too that it can be a little confusing when a driveby does knock at the door and you have to check the computer first to see if you still have room for them.

One of the things that make it hard to satisfy people is that often the view that two people will have of the very same room can be completely different.

For instance, yesterday one couple checked out saying that the room was dreadful, it was noisy and the bed was so bad that they didn’t get to sleep all night.

This morning, another couple checked out of the same room saying that everything was absolutely perfect.

In another room, we have a bed which we’re planning on replacing once we get ourselves sorted out with a new car yet a number of people have said that it’s the best bed they’ve ever slept in.

One really big advantage of using a database driven approach to the Whole Earth Guide is that I get considerable development leverage from the existing B&B and self-catering listings sites. For instance, using the existing code base let me get the guide operational in a couple of days and there are already improvements visible on the listings sites courtesy of features that were needed for the guide.

Then there’s the global aspect of the guide site which will be leading to the listings sites supporting other countries before anyone applies for a listing. Already, Holland is an available option simply because of the Amsterdam article from the guide and Turkey will be following shortly.

In due course, there’ll even be an SEO advantage as it shouldn’t be that difficult cross-linking the trio of sites and that’ll let me start to use the website recommendations that I’ve been collecting from the properties listed on the accommodation sites over the last couple of years.

Finally, once I get the guide site operational, it’ll be easy to incorporate the information within it in other sites or create a new version targetted at other markets.

You always get a lot of peculiar phone calls around this time of year.

“I just booked a room on your website. Can you tell me if it has a bathroom?”. Well, no we couldn’t because they had quite literally just booked the room and it can take a few hours before we get the confirmation email or fax….. about 70% of the French who book online make phone calls within 5 minutes of making the booking to confirm that we’ve received it.

“I’m on your website right now. It says that there’s a room available. I want a room with a bathroom.”. Yes, it’s EUR 57. “No, it isn’t it says that it’s EUR 49”. That’s for the room with a shared bathroom, the room you want is EUR 57. “Can’t I have it for EUR 49?”. Well, no, but you can have the room with a shared bathroom for EUR 49. “But, I want an ensuite room”. Yes, that’s EUR 57….. We get a LOT of conversations like that one!

“I’m on your website right now. Can I book over the phone?” Yes, I just need a credit card and expiry date. “I’m paying by Cheques Vacances”. That’s OK, I still need a credit card number to guarantee the room. “I’m paying by Cheques Vacances I don’t need to give you a credit card number.” Yes, you do, we need it to guarantee the room…. after 10 mins of this he cancelled the booking that he hadn’t made.

“We’re here for the room.” Have you a reservation? “No, but we checked online a few days ago and you had rooms available today.” Yes, but we’re full today. Did you make a reservation?…. Surprisingly we’ve been getting a number of people lately who’ve just checked availability a few days earlier and assume that we won’t get bookings after they check.

A new development this year is that people are starting to book online whilst they’re on the way. Then they phone to check that we’ve received the reservation about a minute after they logout. Very confusing as the latest lot arrived about 10 minutes later.