No doubt some places are taking the piss, but unfortunately the costs of running an accommodation business are just stupid these days - staff, licences, gas, water, leccy, food, VAT, repairs, commission (booking dot con takes 15%...). And there's no money in food (look at Clarkson's pub, 400+ covers a day and it lost four grand in a quarter).
Who knows what the future holds for my favourite place on this little planet.
Discount for tossers ?Totally agree, there is a danger that Scotland will price itself out of the market, and too many tourists, too little accommodation drives prices up, that's just business, even if it is slightly distasteful. I wouldn't mind if the £200 for Mrs McMiggins loft room represented real quality, but often it doesn"t... It's worth remembering that a lot of countries where VAT on accommodation is half what it is here, and tourist taxes are a euro or two per room per night, not £5 as the Highland council proposes.
FWIW we have a 9.7 rating on Booking and charge around £120 for our largest room.
If you’re in a perfect location, I suspect telling booking dot com to go fuck themselves might be an option.No doubt some places are taking the piss, but unfortunately the costs of running an accommodation business are just stupid these days - staff, licences, gas, water, leccy, food, VAT, repairs, commission (booking dot con takes 15%...). And there's no money in food (look at Clarkson's pub, 400+ covers a day and it lost four grand in a quarter).
If you want cheap go to a low cost low wage country (Asia, S America) not a high cost low wage one like Scotland.
Oh, and when we have to collect the tourist tax it will be treated as income, apparently, which will take a good few operators over the VAT limit.
And yes, I've done 34 years at the tourism coalface, so I do know of which I speak.
Surcharge! Grubby lot.
I could have written thatI stopped with West Coast holiday rentals, hotels, camping pods all far too expensive these days, perhaps I think back to the days long before NC500 was a thing.
When B&B was the only option other than fancy multi bed hotels, B&B was cheap around £30.00 a night with full breaky thrown in as free, not an extra charge, like now.
These days I still camp, seldom wild camp as I prefer a proper campsite shower and shave every morning, dips in the sea or small brook wont do it these days, too many sharp stones, or sharks!
Even the camp sites are trying to increase their nightly charges, but most are around £12-£15 per 2 man tent pitch, slightly more if requiring electric hook up.
I could afford the price of a hotel on an overnight stay, but to hell with booking a place months or a year in advance, no adventure in that.
So as long as I am still able, I will Tent Camp with the fun and chore that brings to a small adventure.
