Spanish pancakes

Pancake day (aka Shrove Tuesday) may be a uniquely Anglo-Saxon tradition but Spain loves pancakes too! Here’s some utterly useless but fun ways to give your pancake day a Spanish flavour:

1. Learn the lingo

Pancake in Spanish is normally a Crepe, or sometimes a Panqueque.

2. Don’t take your clothes off

Pancake day in Catholic countries, including Spain, is better known as Mardi Gras – or Fat Tuesday. It’s an ancient festival involving alcohol, dancing and not much clothing.

Spain doesn’t really do Mardi Gras but many regions do celebrate Jueves Lardero, normally the Thursday before Ash Wednesday.

It’s more of an omelette celebration than pancakes or booze but it shares the idea of clearing out the larder with our Shrove Tuesday.

3. Give your pancakes a Spanish twist

Fed up with lemon and sugar? Try this alternative pancake recipe which includes oranges and brandy:

1. Make some pancakes the way your mother taught you.
2. Melt 50g of butter and 50g of sugar in a pan.
3. Add orange rind and allow it to caramelise – do not burn it!
4. Add 5tbsp of cognac and the juice of one orange, allow mixture to reduce a little
5. Dip pancakes in your sauce, fold into quarters
6. Pop on a plate and drizzle a little more sauce on top for presentation

4. Watch viral sensation Julio

We spent minutes researching this article on Google and we couldn’t help tripping over videos of Julio, a nice man from Alcudia who has his own unique style of making pancakes. A lot of tourists seem to like filming him. Here’s Julio in action…

Web projects have a habit of taking far longer that you’d like, then they happen all at once. This has been a great week for getting some improvements nailed down. Here’s what we added:

Join us on Facebook!

We made enquiry data public – owners have to rely on their own enquiries or (worse) tittle tattle to figure out what’s really happening in the market. We decided to break the secret code of holiday rental websites by releasing our enquiry statistics. Public, live, honest and great for helping you target your campaigns – bookmark this page!

We got cuddly and social - we’re finally on Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus! It’s taken us a while to figure out how we wanted to approach social networking without being one of the lame sites who start a page, do three posts then disappear. We’re keen to “do social” in an honest, sustainable, chatty way so please come and say hi.

Car hire: Sorry it took 10 years! - about a zillion car hire firms have asked to partner with us over the years. Most had either patchy coverage or poor technology and we never found anyone we could heartily recommend. That all changed with this Car Trawler engine; it works beautifully on site and is producing some genuinely good deals. Apologies for the delay!

We’re plugging a competitor. Surely not?!

We think you’ll like this deal with HomeAway for $75 off their US listing fees. To grab the discount, follow this special link and enter the code FEB75 when you pay.

Before you think we’ve gone nuts, there’s a few good reasons we mentioned it:

1. There’s no need to whisper, we know most owners advertise on multiple rental sites.
2. HomeAway.com has great US coverage. They offer a way to expand your audience beyond Europe.
3. Our competitors charge twice what we do! We figure owners need all the help they can get.
4. If you insist on using another site (smirks), at least this will save you some cash and get us a small commission. Nice.

Get in quick – the offer expires 29th February!

The banned Ryanair ad

Other news this week

Illegal holiday homes to be regulated within three months – the Junta in Andalucia is taking their first step to clearing up the confusing mess that characterises Spanish property law. They’re hoping the regulation of 250,000 illegal homes will be complete by May (via The Olive Press)

Spain’s credit rating cut again by Moody’s – the Eurozone car crash continues and Spain is suffering badly. There’s no denying our favourite holiday destination is going to have a very tough few years ahead (via ThinkSpain)

Ryanair ad banned for being ‘sexist’ – the firm we all love to hate before grumbling and flying with anyway has got into hot water by using their famous air crew calendar girls in an advertising campaign. Luckily the ban created some nice cheap publicity (via TravelMole)

Why the delay? Because having seen so many firms go off half cocked and make a lash of it, we didn’t want to jump in until we knew exactly why and how we should use the big social networking sites.

Behind the scenes we’ve cogitated, experimented and planned before making these pages public in order to make them genuinely useful for our customers.

You can connect with España Breaks at:

• Facebook – www.facebook.com/espanabreaks
• Twitter - @espanabreaks
• Google+ (circle España Breaks)

Only the juicy bits

We believe social networks are about good conversation rather than a sales pitch so we’re keen to make these pages an informal hangout for news and chat with our customers.

We’re updating Twitter in realtime with breaking deals, brickbats, industry news and other developments as they happen. Facebook and Google+ are reserved for the best stuff to save over-filling your timelines. We want to talk and entertain – not bore!

Please come on over and say hello.

Happy renting!

Iberia move into Heathrow T5 – welcome news for travellers as Iberia moves into Heathrow’s newest state-of-the-art facility in time for the summer flight schedules (via Travel Weekly)

New routes from London City to Menorca – British Airways has announced new flights to Mahon (MAH) from London City airport, beginning 25th May (via Travelmole)

Scots have the most ‘family friendly’ airports – a poll by Skyscanner in time for the half term break has named Edinburgh, closely followed by Glasgow, as the UK’s most family friendly airports. Heathrow got the wooden spoon, coming in last (via Skyscanner)

NIE madness just got madder – the Spanish government is now insisting everybody has to attend in person to get their NIE number which is required by law to buy Spanish property. Rich foreigners aren’t struck on the idea of queuing for hours at police stations, and property developers selling to them aren’t happy either. An argument is well under way (via The Olive Press)

Monarch chief makes sharp exit - after less than 18 months in the post, Conrad Clifford has stepped down from his role as Chief Executive of Monarch. The company insisted it’s not a problem (via Travel Weekly)

And a nice video of Spain…

The Spanish tourist board made a nice video about world heritage cities. Government austerity measures left them short of cash for the sound track but the rest is a nice montage of beautiful places in Spain. Enjoy!

In the news

TripAdvisor rebuked over ‘trust’ claims – the Advertising Standards Authority has ordered travel review site TripAdvisor to rewrite some of its marketing claims, particularly those stating their reviews are ‘trusted and honest’ – on the basis some are probably faked. It was a bad week for the firm, who own HolidayLettings.co.uk, and for once they didn’t appreciate the national spotlight (via BBC)

Thousands stranded by Spanair failure – the Barcelona based operator left 20,000 passengers in the lurch after running out of financing options. Vueling, Easyjet and Ryanair are all on the prowl to pick up their routes (via TravelMole)

Only 1 in 10 Britons book with a travel agent – as many as that? We’re 100% web based so we rather liked this story. Apparently the 30 year decline for high street agents continues like a slow motion car crash. There is a nice mention for TripAdvisor in this piece; they are very popular with travellers – most of whom must have missed our first story (via Mail Online)

What guests really want on a self catering holiday – we came across a great blog this week with some excellent advice for owners. This piece discusses six interesting ideas for making guests happy. We also recommend following @LindsayInSpain on twitter. (via HolidayPropertyExpert)

Overseas holiday home owners warned to pay bills - Second home owners in Spain are being warned that they must remember to pay their bills and taxes in these financially challenging times or they risk losing their property.  The Perez Legal Group said that some owners don’t realise that they own local rates and can find themselves facing a large bill if they haven’t paid, citing a recent example of a couple from England who own an apartment in Marbella and were shocked to discover that they owed the town hall €11,000 in unpaid municipal rates and taxes (via Property Wire)

Quote of the week

John Bishop goes horse riding in Spain – a refreshing change from worthy but dull travel blogs, this cheeky scouse comedian gives his take on a recent riding holiday: ”Rule number one. You are on a horse, not a Chopper, so do not lean back hoping for a wheelie. You will look stupid”. So good, we photoshopped a tribute. (via The Guardian)

Sadly, 2012 doesn’t look like being a vintage year.

With an exciting update rolled out to España Breaks in time for the traffic rush, we were feeling pretty good.

The hard work was looking solid as our search improvements kicked in and bagged us even better exposure and ever higher visibility in the search engines.

The net result: Traffic dropped 10% on the same period last year and lead generation fell 8.5%. What on earth is going on?

The market has changed

This result wasn’t entirely unexpected. As January rolled, chatter in the travel industry wasn’t good. Analysts were reporting a sector-wide drop of 10-12% and for some it was far worse – Thomas Cook was reporting a 33% fall.

The primary reason is the ongoing squeeze on household spending – people are broke. This feeds into a general lack of confidence and, as we remarked before, until business starts hiring and investing, things won’t get any better. A drop in inflation and a resolution to this Keystone Cop-style Euro crisis would be a fine start.

The net result for ordinary people is that they’re clinging to cash and delaying their holiday decisions.

Click to read the full article at Hitwise

Experian Hitwise published some excellent figures this morning showing a general shift away from January being the peak season, as people defer booking until later in the year. For some it’s because they’re worried about the future. For others, they hope to get a better deal by leaving their bookings until later.

Save, save, Savecations!

It’s tongue in cheek but apparently savecation is the latest word to enter the travel lexicon. Silly – yes – but it does reflect what people want this year.

They want a deal. They want more for less. They are driving a hard bargain.

We know it can be pretty depressing for owners when lots of enquirers seem to start a conversation by beating you up on price. To save your sanity it is best to simply expect it from the outset and be proactive by running regular offers for selected periods. The rest of the travel market is already heavily discounting to shift inventory.

Our deals page, as ever, does a lot to elevate eyeballs on an advert. It’s well worth using.

What we’re doing next

We already had plans in place for 2012 and we’re certainly not getting distracted – we moved to a larger office for good reason.

In broad terms, 2012 will see us throw more resources into marketing the site. You’ll shortly see a whole new section packed with fun, fresh content actively spotlighting and promoting the greatest holidays in Spain. Writers are the new heroes of our business.

We’re also ramping up the way we handle deals and newsletters.

In an age of Twitter and Facebook, why an old fashioned newsletter? Because newsletters remain the strongest driver of traffic in an online business – and with 28,000 subscribers, we want to do it better. We’re combining this with consumer discount culture to create a new Daily Deals section; it’s topical, it works and it gets holidaymakers interested.

As ever, watch this blog for updates.

Happy renting!

Thomas Cook sees bookings fall 33% – we may be forgiven a little schadenfreude on hearing the problems this package holiday behemoth is experiencing, but the woes of Thomas Cook at an important time of the year highlight the fight for customers in 2012 (via The Guardian)

This month’s buzzword: ‘Savecation’ – new year, new buzz words. Know your praycation from your gaycation? Lots of amusing new ways to talk holidays have entered our lexicon but this year’s do highlight the drive for value in austere times (via Skyscanner)

Ryanair considers cutting routes to Canary Islands – last week it was Ibiza. This week the Canaries look like losing some flights if local politicians go ahead with proposals to cut subsidies (via tumbit Spain)

Spaniards have Mondays, too – stereotypes of a people besotted with sun, sea, fiestas and siestas may be wide of the mark. The Spanish work longer hours than most Europeans. Insightful and surprising read (via The Guardian)

Tony Blair agreed to give Gibraltar to Spain – allegedly. Peter Hain insists in his new book that the ex-PM gave the go ahead for Hain and Jack Straw to strike a deal with Spain over sovereignty of the island. (via The Olive Press)

King Juan Carlos made a pass at Princess Diana – ah, nothing to do with holiday villas. But it is a silly story about a womanising 74-year old King? We tittered. (via Mail Online)

Spain is happiest expat destination – for those of you living in Spain, this is probably no surprise. A poll showed over two thirds of Brits who made the move to Spain prefer their new home to the old. (via The Telegraph)

He explained the dilemma he has with the soaring costs of pool heating, a problem a lot of owners are having to deal with as energy prices climb.

To keep a pool permanently warm during a guest’s stay can be enormously expensive. The cost can also vary wildly depending on time of year, the weather or even guest taste. (We’ve all met the person who shivers in anything colder than a hot bath.)

The temptation with this issue is to make pool heating an “optional” extra and we agree the logic makes total sense when looking at your property budget.

But we think optional extras are the wrong approach.

Unavoidable extras annoy people

The point is widely proven in the rest of the travel industry. Lets think about some examples.

Think first about all inclusive holidays whose popularity is growing; they are popular because people like the simplicity and ability to budget for their break. Love ‘em or loathe ‘em – customers like the model.

Conversely the companies who attract holidaymakers’ ire year on year are low cost airlines.

Their unavoidable “extras” and opaque, tiered pricing annoys people to distraction. They only overcome the bad publicity with headline grabbing low rates and vast marketing machines, neither of which is a luxury the average holiday rental owner can afford.

Option 1: Go All Inclusive (recommended)

Customers like simple, transparent pricing. Period.

It makes you easy to book with and the lack of quibble over whether the pool will be warm or not avoids friction. A good relationship with guests is built right from their initial enquiry so it is paramount you get off to a good start.

The solution when calculating your rental prices is to assume your pool will be heated during every guest stay, then amortise the costs over the entire season. Build this into your prices to create a simple, all-in, price.

Option 2: Work backwards by discounting

This is messier but may offer a halfway house.

Calculate prices with heating costs built-in (as in option 1) then offer a discount when guests ask NOT to have the pool heated.

Why would anyone want this? People love discounts – that’s the reason they hate extras! So reverse the psychology by incentivising guests to reduce heating bills.

With this technique, some guests staying in the hottest periods can easily convince themselves heating isn’t really necessary when it’s 30 degress outside. Some will take the discount and ditch the heating. It’s the same result – better presented.

Happy renting!

(Thanks again to Lawrence, ever a hard working and inspiring owner, who’s made Villa Madera in Lanzarote a huge success.)

Statistic of the week

We did a post on the uplift we’ve seen from social networks but this stat illustrates it beautifully. This 1 bed apartment in Lanzarote turned a few shares into a deluge of eyeballs – their availability calendar looks pretty good too! Great work.

In the news

Spanish holidays provide best value for Britons – it’s been a good year so far for polls showing Spain is still a firm favourite for us Brits. This one’s from The Post Office’s annual Holiday Money Report (via The Telegraph)

Britons still holidaying but want more for less, shows study – more figures re-affirming our own predictions for 2012. People are still holidaying but with budgets under pressure, they are looking for value (via Travel Weekly)

Vueling to fly new routes out of Cardiff Airport – the Spanish low cost airline is adding three times-a-week services to Alicante and Palma, Mallorca, from June (via Wales Online)

Petition demands return of Ryanair Ibiza winter subsidy – a decision by the Balearic Islands tourism minister to withdraw a €365,000 winter flights subsidy has been met with a furious Facebook campaign (via Travel Weekly)

Wills and Harry hunt boar on secret holiday to Spain – the boys celebrate the end of Harry’s helicopter training in Cordoba (via Mail Online)

Lanzarote wine gets the thumbs up – an island famed for volcanoes is producing wine good enough to make it into the New York Times (via Lanzarote Information)

I tripped into the lifeboat, says Costa Captain – the Costa Concordia disaster hasn’t done much for the cruise market with the actions of the captain sounding increasingly suspect (via TravelMole)

SOPA protests working, PIPA still at large – this isn’t strictly a travel story but we’ll explain its importance to you: The US is considering two anti-piracy bills called SOPA and PIPA whose implications could be very damaging to the web. Should these laws pass, a single copyright infringing photo on a website could result in the entire site being de-listed from Google and, if based in the US, a complete shutdown.

How’s that affect you? Imagine another advertiser uploaded a photo in error that breached copyright – something we can’t police (but can react to if reported). The entire site could be knobbled, without due process or timely recourse. While the ideas behind SOPA/PIPA are laudible, it’s badly drafted law with horrendous implications for the web.

Lots of websites temporarily closed on Wednesday in protest, notably Wikipedia. It seems to be working. (via TechCrunch)

Meanwhile we couldn’t resist a gratuitous image of PIPA…

We’re now working on a site update allowing all owners to embed YouTube videos on their adverts. In the meantime here’s Ian’s guide to making a holiday rental video easily – it really is for mere mortals, you don’t have to be Spielberg!

Ian says…

1. My video is actually manipulating a series of “stills”. This can be done on any basic edit programme, such as the one supplied free on Windows. Mine was done in less than 2hrs in the edit!
2. To publish on YouTube is simple, and just requires registration of an Account with YouTube and Google. Both are free.
3. Adding an Audio track (music/effects) is simple too – just search the internet for “copyright free” music and/or effects. Or, as I did, just choose your music/effects and buy the copyright – it allows you to personally use it commercially. Many of the free ones don’t – so beware. It’s not expensive to buy copyright – mine cost me less than £20. (Don’t pick a popular artiste/composer!)
4. The video should be no longer than 2mins – visitors want a taster, not a documentary! You want the visitor to return to your listing pronto.
5. Important: Like the conditions for uploading photos on España Breaks, the video must only contain pictures and audio where the property owner holds the copyright, or has permission (written) and knowledge of their use, from the copyright owner.

While we beaver away on adding a facility to embed videos to our adverts, it’s fine to add a link to an existing video in your property description. (The latest update to España Breaks will automatically hyperlink it.)

Our thanks again to Ian for a great tip! You can see his Menorcan holiday villa right here