The season isn't over

You might think that having closed the hotel for 2010, we are able to concentrate on getting bookings for next year. Unfortunately this is not quite the case as we are still struggling to get money from the agencies for this year’s guests.


Some of you will have heard me ranting about this before and I do apologize. But sometimes it gets so frustrating!

Firstly, many people are not aware that we have to wait until after they leave to get payment for their stay. This caused much aggro in July when Goldtrail Holidays went bust and guests were asked by hotels to pay for their stay. The guests were right in pointing out that they had already paid for their whole package; but the hotels were right too as they had not received any money from Goldtrail.

And when I say we get paid after guests have left, I am being generous. Our contract with one of the big companies says payment will be made thirty days after guests check-out but we are currently owed more than a third of the total money for this season. In order to receive this money, we have to keep pushing the local agent, who will use excuses like they are waiting for money to come from the UK.

Today, they made us mad by ‘billing’ us for their free rooms. These are rooms we agreed to allow them to use, free-of-charge, for a promotion. Having failed to use this opportunity, they are now trying to ‘reclaim’ money for a paying guest – money we haven’t even received yet!

One of the companies usually sends payment in the form of a cheque, post-dated for some time in the new year. This would be bad enough by itself, but they add insult to injury by leaving us to pay the postage on the cheque – an insignificant amount but still a pretty poor gesture.

What is the alternative? Working towards taking only direct bookings as we did in the first two years we had the hotel. We have started to get our website updated and will be looking for cost-effective ways to advertise. I used to put ads in all sorts of UK publications, from the Bolton Evening News to Private Eye magazine. These days, however, with so many people booking their holidays on the internet, I will look for other ways to attract new guests….

Countdown to Christmas

Now the bayram holiday is over I have realised there is only a month left until Christmas.  While I am not the sort of person who enjoys a UK-style long run-up to the festive season, with shop windows full of Christmas goods in November and a shopping-day countdown, there are some preparations that have to be made in advance.
So yesterday I went to the spice market in Fethiye and bought the nuts and dried fruit for the Christmas cake.  Making the cake is an important part of the Christmas tradition for me, even though I'm the only one in the house who really enjoys eating it.  The boys like helping to make it though - especially licking out the bowl (I know -they're not supposed to do this, raw eggs and all that).  The best thing about it for me is the smell of it cooking, which reminds me of childhood Christmases.
I also bought an advent calendar for Kaan; Emre, at 15, is far too cool for such things (unless they have chocolate in, of course).  The Card Shop in Fethiye had a good selection of calendars, as well as cards, wrap, tags and crackers, thanks to the enterprising English owner who drove a van-load of goodies over from the UK.  It made me recall previous years when such things were not available and celebrating Christmas here required a lot of imagination and some skill at crafting.
I have been known to make cards, tags, advent calendars, decorations and even a substitute Christmas tree from bean poles with the bean stalks - and even the odd bean - still attached!  These years I take advantage of the availability of some things, but making the cards with the boys has become one of out Christmas traditions.
This year we are using the picture below, which I took a couple of winters ago not far from Fethiye.  Yes, we do get to play in the snow here, though at the  moment the weather is still lovely and warm....


snow in the mountains near Fethiye



Happy holidays from Turkey

At Poppy we have been celebrating the holiday of Kurban Bayramı with the help of family and friends from Ankara.  The weather is still lovely - guests were all swimming in Oludeniz today.  Not me of course - I'm much too wimpy to swim after September!
Apart from the weather we have all entered winter mode...the boys are at school, I'm giving lessons and Cem is playing games on facebook!
I can't believe there's not much more than a month left until Christmas.  Once guests have all gone I will have to start thinking about that...