First topic message reminder :

We have been letting our seaside apartment near Varna for the past six years (for short holiday lets) and this year is noticeably slower to get off the ground than any previous year. We are doing the same marketing as before, charging much the same prices (reduced them 2 years ago), and have first-class reviews from previous renters. Early days yet, but this is not looking very promising from where I am sitting! How are others finding things ?

glad you gave had a better year...its in a lovely spot...in fact when i go to K beach i plonk myself not far away from yours....often thought about renting it for a week or even long weekend if it was free sometime...but as i live not far away it seems daft.....on the other hand !!!

oddball wrote:

hoseman wrote:

Well another year has flown by...
This year we slashed prices again, but most of our bookings have been repeat business. Of the newcomers, three weeks have been booked at the last minute ( within 2 days of arrival) so we had to be flexible about payment on arrival with no prior deposit. This would have been unthinkable 5 years ago!
Anyway we are now fully booked through July and August, with barely time to change the bed linen between guests.
It's been a bit of a cliffhanger, but hey! - we are surviving!

:: Truly delighted for you hoseman Good to get positive news

Just for futures reference this is hosemans place - If I had remember this myself I too would have contacted you as we usually stay in a hotel in Varna every trip, but like VG said we could also make a long weekend of it every now and than. [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Thanks for the kind plug!
We are always happy to negotiate preferential terms with our forum friends, especially off season. Dates available from September!

Well. the bombshell last year was that the website we relied on for most of our custom was taken over by an American company (homeaway), who promptly put up their listing prices more than 500%.
Due to the short season, and rentals achievable, it was clear that this meant we had to decline to pay their fees and look elsewhere.
We are experimenting with booking.com but their system, which was originally designed for hotel rooms, is very cumbersome, and to me often completely inscrutable. Also, we have to be bound by their terms and conditions which are far less flexible and to my mind far more open to exploitation by renters who don't arrive and don't therefore pay.
We have three bookings for high season next year, but whether they will actually translate into euros remains to be seen.
Anyone here who wants to enquire about the odd weekend or any other period before July or after August, please email me.

Bulgaria Going Through Best Tourism Year Since 1998


The number of tourists to Bulgaria was 15% bigger between January and June compared to the same period of last year, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova announced.

As many as 3.1 million tourists visited the country in the first half of 2016, she told Focus Radio on Sunday.

Angelkova said the results for those six months were already making 2016 the most successful year for Bulgaria's tourism industry since 1998.

Although Bulgaria was expecting a good summer in terms of visitors to sea resorts and other places across the country, the average overall projections, of a 10% year-on-year increase as of December 2016, had not changed since the beginning of the year.

Good news for some I should think?

Roadworker wrote:

Bulgaria Going Through Best Tourism Year Since 1998


The number of tourists to Bulgaria was 15% bigger between January and June compared to the same period of last year, Tourism Minister Nikolina Angelkova announced.

As many as 3.1 million tourists visited the country in the first half of 2016, she told Focus Radio on Sunday.

Angelkova said the results for those six months were already making 2016 the most successful year for Bulgaria's tourism industry since 1998.

Although Bulgaria was expecting a good summer in terms of visitors to sea resorts and other places across the country, the average overall projections, of a 10% year-on-year increase as of December 2016, had not changed since the beginning of the year.

Good news for some I should think?

A nice refreshing story about the beautiful Black sea coast   [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]