Villa owners, are you getting many bookings for 2015 season

[brian j p]

Very quite   for the 2015 season so far,   had a few enquiries   but it is very  much quieter in terms of enquiries   than  at same time in 2014 .  how are  others  finding it   in terms of enquiries or bookings so  far for the 2015 season

Linkback: https://www.enjoykalkan.com/forum/index.php?topic=12555.0

[felicity]

VERY slow - a few enquiries but nothing turning to bookings... 

[hobbo]

I've got a 10 day gap in May and 14 days left in June, apart from that fully booked until early Oct. I'm already getting enquires for 2016 but no bookings as yet. 4 bed villa sleeps 8+

[msr]

We are fully booked from mid May until mid October. These were all early bookings before December and two are repeat guests. We have a 3 bedroom villa on Patara Prince.

[MartynE]

Apartments, as usual, about 2/3 full but that's mainly from repeat bookings that came in during September and October when people returned from their 2014 holiday. I'm always a bit nervous at getting so many repeat bookings because we don't really know how that affects new enquiries! Are we not receiving new enquiries because those weeks are already booked, or are there no "new" people looking generally?

Anyway actual new enquiries are definitely much slower this year than last year at the same time. Villa bookings are much slower this year, but that's expected as the cheaper apartments always get booked much more quickly than the villas.

We've seen this before though... it's a cyclical thing...generally when it's slow in January, it goes crazy in March and April!

[MartynE]

Footnote - just got our first AirBnB booking. Anyone else had any success with them?

[TCTRAVELLER]

Getting concerned! It's our 5th season renting our villa out in Kalkan and by now have usually received 4-6 bookings for the summer but this year .... nil & zilch!! Have had 15/16 enquiries and our prices are just slightly higher than 2010 so what do we have to do to get any bookings? We advertise with holiday lettings (wish we hadn't of renewed last November  as not happy with the control freak attitude of HL) we have 27 TA reviews all positive and nearly all 5/5. What do we have to do to get bookings this year ..... give it away or is the Euro exchange rate hurting us? 

[felicity]

You are not alone - lots of enquiries - just 1 booking....

[clashgour]

We have now got 6 weeks of bookings (normally at least 10 weeks by now) but it is all going very, very slowly.  Is it fewer people planning holidays, the cost of flights to Dalaman or does the general Middle East situation put more people off the idea of Turkey?  My guess is that people's bank accounts are sadly depleted and holidays are a long way down the list of family priorities.

[brian j p]

Similar to others ,  about a dozen+  enquiries but no bookings  so far,  we  usually have  a  few bookings  confirmed by mid Feb,   albeit  we only have a small villa  that  normally achieves about 6- 8 weeks rental  per season max.

[turkeyfan]

We're a 2 bedroom duplex and had half a dozen enquiries which resulted in 2 bookings - but one is a returning guest (for the 3rd time) so very slow for us too.

We've taken our listing off HL because it was complete waste of money - not one booking in a year. We're using OD and our own website but we've decided not to actively market to rent it out this year as we're too busy.  As long as we cover our maintenance costs, anything else is a bonus but really glad that there isn't a mortgage on it and we need rental income to pay it.

[kalkan4eva]

As serial renters, we tend to stick to the same place - particularly if we get a good deal and we are happy with the level of service. We did look at a few new places this year, but decided to go back to our usual haunt. According to Mark Carney we've never had it so good - well not since 2006 anyway and certainly we've noticed the difference with cheaper petrol and food prices (more for the K4E bag fund ) but not so much so that I would splash out on a larger place for just BH and I.
Those who aren't as booked up as you normally are, a bit of market research with previous guests might help? You will have had a degree of personal contact with these people anyway so if they can offer you some honest feedback it might help going forward. Just a suggestion.

[chickengeorge]

We use Owners Direct and have 8 bookings and about 5 weeks left in total. One of the enquiries we had decided not to go ahead due to the increasing hostilities in the area(Syria and Iraq). Even though we all know this is a long way from our location people will be put off if they hear Turkey in the news too often.

[Anne]

Maybe it is also to do with over supply. When we first started renting our villa in 2004 there were only 2 4 bed villas to rent in the old town around us, now there are at least 13.  People have a lot more choice.

[Haybo]

As a 'consumer' i will just let you know my thoughts!  We are returning to Kalkan for our 3rd year and booked the accomodation before we left last year!

In my view, the accomodation costs are very reasonable when you think about the location, what there is to do, restaurants, etc.  the stumbling block is, in my opinion, the cost of flights.  We, like many other families can't afford to buy the flights as soon as they are available and to be fair, in the summer months there aren't too many bargains to be had.  I am looking at a bill of between £1700 and £2000 to get four of us out to Dalaman, plus the cost of the transfers. Then on top of it feeding ourselves for two weeks. 

Its easy to see why, to those that haven't fallen under the KK spell, that two weeks all inclusive in Spain suddenly looks appealing - and more cost effective.

I have had friends who booked and then cancelled a trip to Kalkan when they realised they had those additional costs...plus they got bent out of shape about arriving into resort so late that they lost a day of holiday.  I wasnt able to convince them that they get it back at the end, but I tried!

I do hope that bookings improve for you all.

[DRBD]

Going off the subject just a tad....There have been reports in the Turkish newspapers as recently as this week about the Turkish Government having a big crack on down all foreign property owners who let out for 'summer homes' & avoiding paying tax on their income. It seems this is in progress now & they are looking toward  2018 to have this completed.

[pw]

As a 'consumer' i will just let you know my thoughts!  We are returning to Kalkan for our 3rd year and booked the accomodation before we left last year!

In my view, the accomodation costs are very reasonable when you think about the location, what there is to do, restaurants, etc.  the stumbling block is, in my opinion, the cost of flights.  We, like many other families can't afford to buy the flights as soon as they are available and to be fair, in the summer months there aren't too many bargains to be had.  I am looking at a bill of between £1700 and £2000 to get four of us out to Dalaman, plus the cost of the transfers. Then on top of it feeding ourselves for two weeks. 

Its easy to see why, to those that haven't fallen under the KK spell, that two weeks all inclusive in Spain suddenly looks appealing - and more cost effective.

I have had friends who booked and then cancelled a trip to Kalkan when they realised they had those additional costs...plus they got bent out of shape about arriving into resort so late that they lost a day of holiday.  I wasnt able to convince them that they get it back at the end, but I tried!

I do hope that bookings improve for you all.

The cost of flights in/out of Dalaman are extortionate this year. Jet2 from Leeds Bradford for 2nd half of sept are currently over £300 pp return (they peaked at over £400 and continue to fluctuate).
By contrast returns to Antalya are nearer £200. To me this makes no sense unless either (or both) the airline and airport realise what a good thing they're onto and are exploiting the law of supply and demand..

Will have to bite the bullet shortly but it sticks in my craw!

pw

[Haybo]

I'm with you...gonna have to just do it! Just following on from my last posting....there are advantages to the cost of flights and location of airport in relation to KK.  for one, it deters hen and stag type groups!

I have looked at various itterations of the journey, flying from anywhere in England to Dalaman, antalya, istanbul, internal flights, coaches from istanbul.......and it just doesnt work out!  East mids to dalaman it will be!

[Babs]

Even when you factor in the extortionate price of flights to Dalaman in peak season Kalkan is still a more reasonable option than many other places and is certainly more reasonable if you match the standard of accommodation etc. But perhaps people are being slightly put off by the peak season flight prices. We are travelling just before May half term and by moving our dates forward by one day at either end of the holiday so we return on the Friday of half term we saved over £1000 on 4 flights. The hike in prices is dreadful. I am so glad we now have the flexibility of being able to travel during term time.

[Tomcat]

We're finding it very slow so far with a big drop in enquiries and hits on our advert with OD when comparing with the same time last year.  In fact it's so bad even the scam enquiries have dried up.