Saturday, January 12, 2008

Supply and Demand

Market theory states that prices will go up when supply contracts and reverse when the opposite is true. I'm happy to say that I've rented out my villa for 8 weeks at mostly full rate and I've removed my standard discounted ratecard from my website so that I can charge the agents a few percent more to absorb their commissions.

So far I have some upscale clientele who think that the rates are really cheap, a few friends of friends who think that it's fair but pricey and total strangers who want to pay less per person than what a backpacker pays at a campground. My tactic has been to stick to referrals only and even at that, upscale only. I figure that I'll get less business but more upscale repeat business and my team can spend more time making fewer people more happy.

Lets see how this goes - Hilton strategy versus HoJo.

Speaking of market forces, read this.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

don't go and get all Donald on us. the world has enough of those types. sounds like you will have success because the product you offer is good but also more discreet. that gives people the allure of something special and in this case it speaks the truth. the pictures say it all.

sanj said...

I'm not sure what that means ("Donald"). You can be sure I won't get a comb-over or be a tacky old twat but you're smoking something fierce if you think I'm not going to try to build a quality brand and replicate it on whatever scale I can get away with. I don't see anything wrong with giving people stuff they love at a great price if I love it too.

Given the opportunity wouldn't you?