Well, I never pretended to be anything else, did I?
We're having a glut of guests here at Our Luxor; five lots in 9 weeks! I can hardly believe it, to be quite honest. It's funny how advertising seems to go around in circles..........We first started advertising with an online bunch, whose name I just cannot bring to mind, sorry, and the advert brought in a fair number of enquiries and bookings. Then we found another couple of free sites, and advertised on them as well. One of them, which seemed to be a very professional site at the time, didn't bring even one enquiry, but, as the other new one started to bear fruit, the very first one began to die off. Very strange, I thought at the time.
It wasn't all that long before we discovered TripAdvisor, and an American rental site which was allied to TA. (TripAdvisor, that is.) At first we advertised with the American people, FlipKey, and later they began to place the advert on TA as well! Very good, we were the very first in Luxor to advertise on TA, and we did very well out of it, as far as rentals were concerned.
Then.......we came across a UK rental site, Holiday Rentals, which we registered with too, and they were (I think) taken over by TA also, and for a short while we had two identical adverts running simultaneously on the TA Luxor section. Queer!
Eventually, TA must have cottoned on, and they deleted one of the ads. But never mind, we were getting loads of enquiries, in fact, even though the availability calendar always stated that we had no vacancies over Christmas (as you know, Dear Reader, we are always at home for Christmas) one year we had to refuse 41 potential bookings for our Christmas holiday period. Our usual ratio was that for every booking we accepted, we had to refuse another five. We just couldn't cope!
Of course, the awful publicity which the first revolution engendered made an impact on the enquiries, although we only ever had one cancellation and were busy, still, until the second revolution when Mohamed Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood were deposed. After that, the world's press seemed to take against Egypt in a big way. Every little disturbance was blown out of proportion, and Egypt was projected as being a hotspot of terrorist activity, when in actual fact terrorism was having a whale of a time in Great Britain and other European places, and Egypt, Luxor in particular, was as quiet as the grave!
Never mind! Many Egyptians, and many more animals here, have died of malnutrition since then, but the world in general seems to have slowly started to realise that Egypt is not the most dangerous place in the world, and are starting once again to thirst for the adventure, romance and excitement which Egypt's ancient monuments evoke. Tourism is finally starting to pick up once again!!!
So, back to our advertising........ we haven't had an enquiry via TA for a long long time. Advertising fashions obviously change, and now all of our recent bookings have come via our latest ad on Airbnb. (Trumpet ready for the blowing of, Sir!)
Here are our latest reviews from the Airbnb site, I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.
From an American lady;
If insulation from your destination and a run-of-the-mill hotel is your idea of a perfect holiday, book yourself a tour. But since you're here you must be looking for something special. "Our Luxor" is something special. A beautifully decorated, immaculate, spacious & comfortable apartment, hosted by generous & knowledgeable people is what you'll find and I've never been treated as well in all my Airbnb years as I was by Freda & Edward. If you don't enjoy this apartment and its gracious owners, as my grandmother would say, you don't know what's good!
From an American couple;
During our very long trip through Egypt, we stayed in a variety of accommodations, including some of the grandest and most famous hotels in Egypt...and including 'Our Luxor.' Out of all the places we stayed, the only one that provided superlative cleanliness, thoughtful attention to detail, consistently excellent hospitality, and absolutely unparalleled value was Freda and Edward's place. We will always remember with gratitude the assistance they provided in helping to organize our sightseeing arrangements and every facet of our visit to Luxor. We are glad to give our very highest recommendation of 5 Stars to a place that really deserves at least 6.
From an Argentinian couple;
Don't loose your chance of staying at Edwar's. Amazing place and service, and the nicest people. Best place on Airbnb.
Who included a personal message too;
Hi Edward and Freda, Your place was simply the best we've ever been to. And you were amazing hosts.
Now tell me, in all honesty, who amongst wouldn't be as proud as Punch to receive such acclamation? Trumpet well and truly blown, I think!
See ya later, alligator.
We're having a glut of guests here at Our Luxor; five lots in 9 weeks! I can hardly believe it, to be quite honest. It's funny how advertising seems to go around in circles..........We first started advertising with an online bunch, whose name I just cannot bring to mind, sorry, and the advert brought in a fair number of enquiries and bookings. Then we found another couple of free sites, and advertised on them as well. One of them, which seemed to be a very professional site at the time, didn't bring even one enquiry, but, as the other new one started to bear fruit, the very first one began to die off. Very strange, I thought at the time.
It wasn't all that long before we discovered TripAdvisor, and an American rental site which was allied to TA. (TripAdvisor, that is.) At first we advertised with the American people, FlipKey, and later they began to place the advert on TA as well! Very good, we were the very first in Luxor to advertise on TA, and we did very well out of it, as far as rentals were concerned.
Then.......we came across a UK rental site, Holiday Rentals, which we registered with too, and they were (I think) taken over by TA also, and for a short while we had two identical adverts running simultaneously on the TA Luxor section. Queer!
Eventually, TA must have cottoned on, and they deleted one of the ads. But never mind, we were getting loads of enquiries, in fact, even though the availability calendar always stated that we had no vacancies over Christmas (as you know, Dear Reader, we are always at home for Christmas) one year we had to refuse 41 potential bookings for our Christmas holiday period. Our usual ratio was that for every booking we accepted, we had to refuse another five. We just couldn't cope!
Of course, the awful publicity which the first revolution engendered made an impact on the enquiries, although we only ever had one cancellation and were busy, still, until the second revolution when Mohamed Morsy and his Muslim Brotherhood were deposed. After that, the world's press seemed to take against Egypt in a big way. Every little disturbance was blown out of proportion, and Egypt was projected as being a hotspot of terrorist activity, when in actual fact terrorism was having a whale of a time in Great Britain and other European places, and Egypt, Luxor in particular, was as quiet as the grave!
Never mind! Many Egyptians, and many more animals here, have died of malnutrition since then, but the world in general seems to have slowly started to realise that Egypt is not the most dangerous place in the world, and are starting once again to thirst for the adventure, romance and excitement which Egypt's ancient monuments evoke. Tourism is finally starting to pick up once again!!!
So, back to our advertising........ we haven't had an enquiry via TA for a long long time. Advertising fashions obviously change, and now all of our recent bookings have come via our latest ad on Airbnb. (Trumpet ready for the blowing of, Sir!)
Here are our latest reviews from the Airbnb site, I hope you enjoy them as much as we have.
From an American lady;
If insulation from your destination and a run-of-the-mill hotel is your idea of a perfect holiday, book yourself a tour. But since you're here you must be looking for something special. "Our Luxor" is something special. A beautifully decorated, immaculate, spacious & comfortable apartment, hosted by generous & knowledgeable people is what you'll find and I've never been treated as well in all my Airbnb years as I was by Freda & Edward. If you don't enjoy this apartment and its gracious owners, as my grandmother would say, you don't know what's good!
From an American couple;
During our very long trip through Egypt, we stayed in a variety of accommodations, including some of the grandest and most famous hotels in Egypt...and including 'Our Luxor.' Out of all the places we stayed, the only one that provided superlative cleanliness, thoughtful attention to detail, consistently excellent hospitality, and absolutely unparalleled value was Freda and Edward's place. We will always remember with gratitude the assistance they provided in helping to organize our sightseeing arrangements and every facet of our visit to Luxor. We are glad to give our very highest recommendation of 5 Stars to a place that really deserves at least 6.
From an Argentinian couple;
Don't loose your chance of staying at Edwar's. Amazing place and service, and the nicest people. Best place on Airbnb.
Who included a personal message too;
Hi Edward and Freda, Your place was simply the best we've ever been to. And you were amazing hosts.
Now tell me, in all honesty, who amongst wouldn't be as proud as Punch to receive such acclamation? Trumpet well and truly blown, I think!
See ya later, alligator.
Happy to see you are back, I´m the fan from Finland who is putting the Finnish flag up in your chart! I already cancelled your blog from my bookmarks but went other day to look anyway and it was nice to see the pictures of the diggings. We have been to Luxor twice last year but have to give it a miss this year - missing the sunshine and good food. Keep up with your interesting stories.
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