New start after covid-19 world wide shot down

[Wescot-Villas0]

How you guys are managing this new season after all this nightmare, prices, marketing, and all related to bring more guest to your listings?

regards,

hi from Roatan island, Caribbean 

[Debra300]

@Fred13,

I remember the USSR (and not just because of the Beatles song).  I found this definition online, "The outdated term "second world" included countries that were once controlled by the Soviet Union. Second world countries were centrally planned economies and one-party states. Notably, the use of the term "second world" to refer to Soviet countries largely fell out of use in the early 1990s, shortly after the end of the Cold War."

[Fred13]

Ah, that is interesting. I always wondered.

[Huma0]

I host long-term guests, so my experience may be different to others'.

I have no expectations for business to really pick up again for some time to come, even though I have been getting plenty of enquiries for September and, recently, one for October/November. They are not really transpiring into bookings because they all want extra discounts on a rate that is already low, in addition to other demands I'm not going to agree to. Many of them seem like potentially problematic guests.

I reckon if I was willing to bend over backwards and take anyone at any price, I would fill my rooms in no time, but I wasn't doing that before and I'm not going to start now, even though I could do with the money. If anything, I'm being even more selective. I want guests with some common sense and who respect my rules. Those people are more likely to respect COVID restrictions, take precautions etc.

For the next few months, I expect to get an occasional booking (probably more from locals) every now and then and will just have to wait it out. In the meantime, there are plenty of improvements I could make to the house.

[Ann783]

After a Spring of almost 800 deaths  a day in New York State…. and a lot of suffering… we flattened the curve.  I actually allowed our guests in May to cancel with full refunds.  Things are picking up, but most of our guests are from  New York, New Jersey or Connecticut - other northeastern states that had a rough go in the Spring but now have low Covid infection rates.  We decided to go with the enhanced cleaning protocol and allow 48 hours between stays.  For the summer we required a one week rental and for the fall we went from 2 nights to 3 nights. 

[Fred13]

@Ann783 Wish you two the best in these very tricky times. I feel we are walking through a landmine and we getting shot at from all directions to make things that much more 'interesting'. (rolls eyes)

[Gregory87]

So pleased to hear about the improvement in conditions in NY, @Ann783.  Here in MN, @Wescot-Villas0 , we too have generally gotten a handle on COVID. We didn't rent the listing during most of March, April, and May.  When we came back "online", it was quite interesting to look at our competitors.  Many properties had stopped renting (and still haven't restarted; some have disappeared completely) while a few never stopped.  Rates are down from last year (summer is usually a high season), but we're staying competitive with those listings still operating.  

We too have implemented enhanced cleaning protocols (just haven't completed the quiz for the badge) and wait 48-72 hours between stays.  Also increased the cleaning fee a bit.  The protocols are promoted in our listing and guests seem to appreciate it!  Bookings have been surprisingly constant since we resumed service.  Only 1 week left with openings in Sept. right now.  Guests have come from far and near (CA, IA, FL, and even locals) for stays ranging from 2 days to 3 weeks.  

Curious to see how things go in the fall as people return to work and school.  Holiday bookings will also get underway soon.  It will be interesting to see what the plans are for family gatherings.

[Debra300]

@Gregory87,

That's wonderful that you're staying booked.  I think that you may still have a good number of guests in October, because many families are not planning to send their children back to in-person classes for a period of time, and will look to take off-season trips or provide the kids field-trip type learning experiences.

[Emily352]

This is more like a diary of frustration. When the tourists have disappeared in Milan and the present we think we know has started showing some small cracks, the most reasonable thing seemed to me not to make one single bet: everything can happen in the movie of my life, and I don't know what's coming next.

If I’m going down, then I might as well do this my own way. I retargeted my sales campaign, throwing away (for how long?) the dear, old fashioned tourist rental, grabbing the lifesaver of long-term leases not for tourists.

It’s a whole other story and not for an issue tied to legal regulations. In Milan, the type of guest has changed. I saw creatures never seen before: seasonal workers, university students, people waiting to renovate their house, demographers with horn glasses, IT consultants, new, irreplaceable stickers in the great album of Hospitality.

The less demanding monthly rentals have proved successful so far. This type of rental allows me to move forward even in the event of an extension of COVID-19 and recession.

And in this scenario, I'm Mr. Newton under the tree. I wait for the falling of an apple onto my head. In the meantime, invisible and cautious, I lurk on virtual and cork boards. I got in touch with banks and big companies. I’m only in it to make myself known and see a piece of the sky again.

I do like the Central Arctic Inuit. I catch my seals and my caribou on the foggy banks of canals called “Navigli”.

I’m standing there, camped on the Western bank of Buenos Aires Avenue, just offshore from Brera Delta, paddling with my kayak on the west side of Cathedral Square, ready to throw the bait to catch not a carp or a chub, but a worker without swim bladders with a fixed-term contract or two college students without gills who, in a slap of foam, I take them out of the water with my fishing net.

This is set to stay this way, as long as small, ever more intense, tremulous waves will announce the reappearance of tourists in Milan.

Over there where the good winds of Porta Ticinese blow, I will walk, without intercessors and intermediaries, with muscle energy in the light from the red eye of the sun, and my left hand will ask "What happened to COVID-19?" and my right hand will answer "The goodwill in the world has driven it away." Alleluja.