Rentals

[9yearsinkalkan]

In addition to the above comments we have seen a downturn in bookings so far this year. We only advertise on Owners Direct however ( and this will be reviewed later in the year as we are now finding that their new policy of ' Service Fees ' to travellers is confusing our potential guests ). I'm likening the new fees to those of the airlines frustrating and numerous ' add ons ' when booking flights. We have all had to accept those so that we can get from A to B, but I am not sure holidaymakers should suffer further expense..

With no Facebook page or current up to date website at the present time......( all to be worked on shortly ) this would be another reason for our particular slowdown.

Actually I have been a member of the forum for many, many years but having forgotten my username and password, I thought I would start all over again......My username is already out of date though, as myself and wife bought in 2005 - 2006...........!!!

[Alex]

Can I ask what sort of discounts owners are applying to attract business?

[Cosetta]

We dropped our July & August price 45% off last year.

[felicity]

Up to 50% dependent on number of travellers!

[Anne]

I believe Martin E and Cosetta are right - summer school holidays are quiet, people are taking their children elsewhere.  As with most others owners, our repeat visitors, who know Kalkan, are OK and new visitors a bit thin on the ground.  We have just had our first guests return home, they were in Kalkan the same time last year and, yes, as normal, they had a great time  but their comment was interesting. 'Restaurants and bars are not doing themselves any favours by increasing their prices under the circumstances'  I find it bizarre that the reaction of many of the businesses in Kalkan is to increase prices in the face of falling sales.  Why would this not lead to people eating in more, or frequenting the cheaper restaurants or worse still not returning next year.  I once had the comment from one restaurant owner, when I asked why they increased prices when their place was empty - 'Do you want us to work for nothing'!!!!!!!! We Brits are discounting rental prices to encourage people to return but will be thwarted by the Turks if they  are putting up their prices for services in Kalkan.

www.towershouse-kalkan.com

[Kalkan regular]

The restaurants that do this will die. The word goes round and they just won't get the custom. Neither will the tactic of over advertising through social media or pressurising people as they pass. Kalkan has a massive choice and they use this tactic at their peril.

[chickengeorge]

I agree that restaurants have not been helping themselves in recent years by clearly taking advantage of the exchange rate to make more money. One owner even admitted that he wanted the exchange rate to stay high as he makes more. I always work out prices based on when it was 2.5 to the £ (taking into account some inflation) and you can see that a steak is effectively £25. The change in the exchange should benefit the customer but clearly it's not. I said this to one of the new harbour restaurant owners the other day saying the food was expensive. He was surprised and for some reason thought we paid £25 for a burger in the UK!  More people need to tell them to stop ripping us off so the message gets around.

[brian j p]

Fully agree with comments re restaurants : Me and  OH   were out in early May  and we enjoy eating out  as much as possible owing to us being a single couple,   but it is so expensive  to do this so the only option is to eat in much more often .  When I say so expensive   I appreciate if you look at what it costs for a  3 course meal  with drinks  for 2 in a  nice UK restaurant ,  Kalkan is actually a fair bit cheaper  in many respects and you also have the views &  lovely staff  etc. However the whole point of Kalkan is eating out   and they need to drop the prices so visitors eat out  as much as possible rather than only being able to afford to a few times per week. My wife works in a café /restaurant  in a UK  University  and prices have gone up so much custom went down 40%  on what it used to be  in a short period  ,  Managements answer to this was  to raise prices   even more   to make up for the lost custom ,  you all guessed right =  absolute disaster as  customer numbers  is now down by 60%  and falling  , will they ever learn , the writing is on the wall for Kalkan if this continues.

[Blue Lizard]

We tend to eat in more if it means we can still go to Kalkan(this is year 29) quite simply we don't always feel like eating at traditional hours we tend to snack during the day and cook indoors as and when.A nice steak from Migros  or the butcher or a cooked chicken from "chicken man",bit of salad and the comfort of eating with air conditioning to me the whole point of renting a Villa/apt is to give you the freedom to do as you wish, a kitchen is for using..you wouldn't have a bed in your place and not sleep in it would you?(ahem! I guess some would! little tinkers!) Not everyones idea I know but it suits us(we both take turns cooking).Many Kalkan businesses have always had the ideal of fewer people lets make those that we have pay during quiet times this year will be no different..it has happened before..and lets not forget not only the negative press reports but last year half the population was given the screaming abdabs by the water system that will have put paid to some new comers not returning as several friends have told me(that will teach me to recommend!)We were looking at Croatia this year but like in other years we thought "maybe next year" Kalkan is a hard habit to give up! But we still love it, but maybe a day will come when we decide lets do Croatia and maybe find a new Kalkan?

[brian j p]

Further to my earlier post = last line  " the writing is on the wall for Kalkan if this continues."   I should have stated "Kalkan restaurateurs" as opposed to "Kalkan"  .  as appreciate ,  and  as BL  states  Kalkan is more than just the  restaurants   for sure. The only thing that would stop us visiting   is if we both end up in wheelchairs  in later life   as our place is  up in Kiziltas  close to the Mediteran   +80 steps  from road  to front door ,  but OMG   the views from up there   

[onelove]

To be fair Aubergine is making an effort.....food down by 30%, wine by at least 50% & only 9tl for an Effes.......result.....very busy every time we have gone down there. But, I have heard the the owner is getting a fair amount of stick from other restaurant owners. For the life of me rather than moan that a restaurant has dropped its prices why don't other's do it then maybe they would be busy as well....it's not rocket science is it ?

[Mags]

We too were surprised at how low Aubergine's process were this year. And no diminution in quality, either. We had 3 lunches there during our 3 weeks in May. It was buzzing - even at lunchtime, which is usually quiet in most places.

[Chris_S]

Just for a laugh - let's blame the EU!

Prices in the UK went up prior to the 1975 Vote due to probability of joining (and subsequently buried in the later increased costs on the EU after the event) and then went through the roof afterwards.  Just like petrol prices today - Up for 6 million reasons from low demand in Antarctica to the wind direction in Kazakhstan, and down sometime in the future when people realise and kick off about it.

Erdogan is trying to do deals with Brussels and maybe this is the same effect!

On the other hand, it's probably just greed, an assumption that regulars will just roll over and accept it (if you smile sweetly, and shrug your shoulders, and blame new rules/taxes, colour of the sky), and the costs of new {insert name of appliance/device/school/etc, etc) that have gone up.

To some extent it's a captive market.  We stopped using the principle harbour front places because of the ridiculous prices, and indifferent service and product quality.  New favourites, some of which change each year as we decide to 'try somewhere else that looks interesting', and make new favourites.

It's also called 'voting with your wallet'.

Kalkan has the magic, but it also has loads of places that aren't run by the Ponzis, Greens, Madoffs, Leesons, or have Panamanian bank accounts and Bahamanian companies.

[Anne]

Well just had a cancellation of 2 weeks in September 'due to the terrorist threat'  Guess we can't be the only one to have a cancellation so even fewer visitors.