The rain has gone and it’s sun sun sun from now on – over 30°C degrees (86°F ) today. It makes doing the laundry much easier as things dry in just a couple of hours. Unfortunately it also makes doing the ironing harder as our press iron is in the room next to the boiler and it feels like taking a sauna. We had a mountain of laundry today as five rooms went home, so I have been doing a bit at a time and coming out for air!
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| boys and Grant couldn't wait for their dinner |
As we move into the busy season, we are having struggles on all sides with agencies. Still no money from the early bookings (due on 15 May). I have sent a mail to their central office saying that we won’t accept the discounted rate as they have broken the contract by not paying on time. No answer yet, but I am not expecting it to be an easy battle.
Another local agency who we have a contract with but who sent exactly NO rooms all last summer, suddenly sent a booking through for two rooms for a time when I cannot accommodate them. This is officially our mistake for not informing them to stop selling for this period, but working with several agencies who are all taking internet bookings (and sometimes cancellations) it is hard to keep them informed of the room availability day by day. I feel under attack as if I don’t want to stop selling early and be left with empty rooms, but if they suddenly take a booking for three rooms that we can’t squeeze in, their answer is always ‘it’s your mistake so you find alternative accommodation and pay the difference’.
We have also experienced a problem we have never had before – again I think resulting from web site sales by small and possibly not very Professional sites. The guests we were expecting on Saturday (booked in with us from 4 June) arrived in the early hours of Saturday morning (the night of 3 June). They had booked from 3 June – written on their booking slip – but the reservation we received was for 4 June. We actually didn’t have a room available and had to put them into the apartments opposite for one night – not a good start to their holiday, though they are settled in here now.
On top of this, we have been having a problem with water pressure which we had never experienced before. Various plumbers and central heating experts were called, all of whom tried something which seemed to fix the problem – until a day or two later when the pressure would drop again. Finally, the maddest repairman in town – who we have to keep fuelled with Efes – came and found the problem…a 2m piece of metal piping linking the boiler to the hot water system was so full of limescale that only a trickle was getting through.
Hooray – heaps of hot water again. Thankyou to our lovely guests who have been so understanding through this small drama. Hello to Richard and Jenny who went home on Sunday (back again in the summer) and Travis who had his 12th birthday here.
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| Kaan and friends playing together! |
