Blog Dia 37: 20.21.22 what's the difference, other than balance?

We are now at the end of the year 2021 for Monte-Bougainvillea. We might still get a last minute booking here or there, but we already know by now how the year will measure up to the past, our expectations and our hopes.

The year started with us sharing in a unique atmosphere of planetary interconnectedness where all of humanity was united in one common and very focused desire: That 2021 would not be worse than 2020.

We opened Monte-Bougainvillea on 1st of April 2018. With only 2 seasons behind us prior 2020, visibility on the future post 2020 was fuzzy to say the least. The world definitely changed. That we know. How it would further impact us beyond being in one of the businesses that would likely suffer most, we had no clue.

Now we do.

At the time we didn't know though, so the best we could do was plan 3 targets: 1st stay afloat, 2nd do better than last year, and 3rd, if business picks up, do as good as 2019.

And we did.

Business did pick up, although quite late in the year, enough for us to reach total booking volumes and values very close to the best we've ever had, namely 2019. It started slow but is ending with quite a bang. This is a very nice surprise as we really didn't know what to hope for. Now to be honest, it's not just us. The whole of the Algarve is recording exceptional business volumes for October and November where in the past these were very slow months. This really helped a lot of us catch up on the lost spring months. Maybe this will not happen every year, but maybe some of the 1000's who came will go back and tell 1000's more about it, then maybe it starts happening year after year. We've had superb weather since the end of 2020, bar 6 days, total. I've said it before in a long ago blog: Depending on the type of holiday/ tourism you want to do, autumn and spring months can be ideal, and cheaper!

Now we can be modest, to a point. Quite logically our bookings are impacted by global conditions, but at the same time our business volumes are not as tightly correlated to the industry and region we are embedded in as one would imagine. Put simply, we have something to do with it too. Because we do better.

Last year we were awarded with a 9.6/10 score by Booking.com guests. This year we stand at 9.8 with the last 10 reviews giving us each a perfect score of 10/10. That's a long stretch of good news. On the other hand, we didn't get nearly as many bookings from Booking.com as we did prior 'you know what'. The world did change. Now the majority of our bookings are made directly. It means our reach is growing and in doing so we move from covering costs to making a living...maybe next year. Our Facebook followers have grown in parallel, Dixie & the Cats certainly get some credit, but surely, what we do has something to do with it.

In doing so we've seen about 75% of vouchers issued last year be honoured this year. This is more good news, because it's become old news. On the flip side it means our revenues this year are significantly less than the actual value of the bookings recorded. That was the deal to survive last year: kick it down the road and spread it over a few years. So the situation was to be expected, but to have already resorbed so much so fast, was not. Being fully booked for Christmas is quite unexpected and something we very much look forward to.

More surprising and even better news is that we now have what we call 'return boxes'. Boxes where we put and keep non-perishable & long dated items left by guests who plan to return, so that when they do, we put their things back. It's worth mentioning because it's gotten to a point where I have to plan shelving for the boxes, which have become numerous very quickly. A few will know, I'm keen on interesting statistics, the kind David Letterman used to call 'things that make you go 'hmmm''. Here's a kicker: 40% of bookings this year were return guests. The same few will know I'm very happy and quite capable of building more shelves if needed! Here's another kicker: 25% of our big hairy target for 2022 is already booked. Now a note of caution, we've been here before... at the end of 2019...and then...

It was also very interesting to start collecting country flags from visitors to our web-site based on their IP location. The web-site has been visited by people from 38 different countries, 15 American states and 3 Canadian provinces. How cool. The real time traffic data has helped us hone in what little marketing we do, then monitor the results to compare with what we are paying for. Did I hear a Hmmm?

Now then, 20, 21, 22...the difference is only 1 or 2 depending on count or view, but ultimately the formula comes down to what we do, minus irony plus luck. Because life is indeed what happens while you're busy making other plans. And we make them to measure how far off we can go without falling. The plan then is to maintain a balance.

Because although the numbers go up and down, day to day we live here, day by day. Of course we sell 'holiday' 'relaxation' 'sun' 'sea' & 'palm trees', and of course we like to post the prettiest pictures, broadcasting an aura of carefree easy living. There are no filters, we post it as we see it as we live it. What is filtered is what is not seen because it's not posted...hmmm, right. What I mean is life day to day is mostly work, very much mostly work. But that does not make pretty pictures. Doesn't matter though because it makes us prettier doing the work we love doing that consists for the good part in keeping everything pretty and prettier day by day for the day that you might arrive.

This, here, is the most luxurious work / life balance I could have ever imagined, yet we earn nothing other than that balance which mostly amounts to nil, by definition anyways.

We'll try to balance our books with bookings by turning the page on 2020 and updating all our pricing sheets. But please stay seated. There's still more good news. We are mostly flattening rates, yes even more. And seasons, yes again. And simplifying prices, yes, yes. Let me explain. We merge 'out of season' with 'low season' and call it all Low Season, then we price the new low season closer to what the out out of season was. Yep. We just created a lot of good deals. Then we further adjust our seasons to better reflect the...seasons, not your kid's holiday calendar, or airline rates. Then we price all the 1 bedroom apartments exactly the same, because they are all equally great even if for different reasons. Then we include the tax in all our pricing to make it like the rest: Included. Transfers, car, parking, sundries, welcome pack, Algarve tolls, Dixie's protective presence. Some even get a glance at one or more of the cats. All included. Now, the IVA tax is too. Simpler right? Thought so. Finally, to literally turn the page we must also change the words. What we called our Full Flex rate for guests with 3 or more stays we will now simply call VIP. We maintain our pledge and the price changes by exactly the tax. No more no less, only now it's included. We keep our offers where it still makes sense: Long bookings in Low season, Early bookings paid long in advance, VIP repeat guests.

To keep a good balance one must also work on his swing. What iron do you use when your course has no grass and your game has no balls? .. The idea is to make use of a big portion of the land Monte-Bougainvillea resides in. Half of it is considered 'rustic' / 'environmental reserve', meaning we cannot build on it. Ever since we bought the place I have been trying to find a way of using it as an added feature for our guests. Then I found out about a new thing called 'Disc Golf'. Around the time I had been reading Orwell's Animal Farm and one day while scrolling through FB's market place I saw a bird made out of recycled tires. And boom! The whole concept came in a flash: We will do it all! And we make the ornaments live by basing their story on an Orwellian twist to Animal Farm. So, the iron we first used was an Einhell brush cutter 9 mm nylon. Once on the green, we pulled out the 18" chain saw.

We'll be updating more on the Pretty Birds Disc Golf in the near future. In the meantime we can already offer what may be a bit of a spoiler if any neighbour reads this. Monte-Bougainvillea is part of a great community of mixed foreign origins, all set in a small, authentic village. It's an active network of what we consider friends. Through the years some traditions have taken root. We have Octoberfest at the Bavarian's villa. We have Christmas at the Welsh's, BBQ's at the Dutch or Swedes. And we had Halloween here. Mostly because I, a Canadian, had a lot of fun at Halloween as a kid, and later with my kids, living in a country that did not yet know about it but would adopt it very quickly. So we have a lot of stock in terms of costumes and decorations. The kids have grown fast, but the stock was still there. So we used it. And it was fun. For a few years. A good background for the murder mystery party we last hosted. But as I said, the kids have grown, as we. Halloween is not really a label we want to own for a yearly commitment. We wanted something more on balance for the adults we are, hehe.

And because we are not one to miss the opportunity to hit two birds with a single disc (growing inside humour), the answer is obvious because we will be celebrating our 5th season on the 1st of April 2022. That's our anniversary, that's our date. That's no joke, so don't be late.

April fools is when we'll celebrate', seriously, like adults :-) And 2022 the theme will be the PBDGA inauguration. It's just that they don't know about this yet, so I may be spoiling it. But that would be cool because it would mean someone actually read all the way to here.

So that's the news. If we put it all on the balance we'd say it's looking good and getting better.

The only thing left to say about 2021 is THANK YOU.