Flaine - NEWSLETTER HOME-INTERNATIONAL

Your agency

RENTAL DEPARTMENT
Firstly, we would like to thank you for your continued trust and loyalty for the coming winter season.
With so many new initiatives in place – we feel sure that customer feedback will be positive and confirm our joint strategies.
Whilst summer rental activity is minimal, we would like to start with a quick overview of the summer season.
The Flaine Music Academy provided a steady rental opportunity, albeit at preferential rates, for the main resort of Flaine during the month of august – hopefully we will see an increase from the Academy in future years.
The Hameau had a good summer season despite a general downwards trend in summer mountain holidays. With huge competition in this area, Le Hameau continues to attract summer clients due to the exceptional location, competitive pricing and, our strong relationship with travel organisations (mainly Dutch and Belgian tour operators and travel agencies). A new package of golf and stay is to be launched to try and attract a different type of client for the summer season 2007.
Moving on to the winter season, we now have two months of reservations under our belt.
These have been generally positive (10% up on the same period last year) mainly due to our valued partnerships with international tour operators and travel agencies. Indeed, direct bookings are behind schedule – this is echoed throughout the resort with ski lessons and rental hire bookings also suffering compared with previous years. There are two possible explanations for this situation; the market is turning more and more to organised tour packages, or that the abnormally good weather this autumn has delayed winter holiday rentals.
With this in mind, we are pulling out all the stops for November and December.

You will have received a monthly rental statement since the beginning of October outlining all firm reservations against your property which along with this Newsletter aims to improve communication between the agency and our owners. Flaine Reservations will soon include a special “Owners Area” which will provide a further means of interaction. Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have any comments or ideas.
We are currently updating the inventories of all properties. Please can we ask that any changes be notified in writing to the agency to ensure that these are updated prior to the season.
Our key drive for the 2006/2007 winter season will be to build on all of these current initiatives and to assure improved ongoing management of all rental properties as well as a professional service to our clients. Even before the winter season starts, we are already looking to the future.
There is one area which we have not been able to satisfy in the past due to the way we have traditionally worked with our owners – this is to accept reservations from those who want to reserve well in advance. 
Traditionally, we have given owners until the 1st of September to provide their dates for private occupation of their properties, but the aim next year will be to bring this forward to the 1st of July. We know that we loose a good number of potential direct customers to other ski resorts and tour operators who are capable of accepting bookings earlier – this is why we are moving in this direction. We will contact you earlier than normal during June next year to ask for your dates. We appreciate that it may not be easy to give your dates this early, so we can propose the following alternatives:
•    Give us the dates that you are sure not to want and then release further weeks to us as you confirm your plans.
•    For those who really cannot confirm dates any earlier, reservations will only be taken from the 1st September.
Have a great winter and we look forward to seeing you in Flaine.

PROPERTY SALES

Dear Sir/Madam
Already a year has passed since the first issue of the Home International Newsletter! New this season – our FLAINE FORUM office – directly opposite the Tourist Office. We are now even better placed to ensure a superior service to our clients.
The national property market – and more specifically the regional market – is still going strong and here in Flaine we have definitely seen a continued upwards trend. We have plenty of demand and are always on the look out for further properties to sell! If you would be interested in receiving a no strings valuation of your property then please do not hesitate to contact us – I would be delighted to meet with you.
        Yours faithfully,
                Stéphane POSTOLLEC            00 33 (0)4 50 90 82 93 / 00 33 (0)6 20 17 29 51
                                    stephane@home-international.com