Every year, once our cycling season has finished, there’s a list of jobs to be done, especially relating to next season.We have to book all our hotels in France and Italy, for example, as early as we can, especially in hot spots like Provence, Tuscany and the Loire Valley.
But we can’t do that until we’ve had the chance to review all our customer feedback.We have to decide on dates, prices and update our booking forms.When we know if we’ve changed any routes or hotels, we still have to write and design a new brochure.Then we have to make sure The Chain Gang website is updated and get all the print sorted out.
There’s a lot to do to try and get ready for early January, but because nobody is chasing me in October and November it’s very easy to let a bit of time slip, and before you know it, it’s that December time again.All the French hotels are on fermeture
Annuelle, designers are going on holiday, and printers have all shut down for the year. And all this matters, because people are beginning to plan their holidays, and it feels such a disaster to send brochures out in February or March.I can hardly bear to think about it.
Not this year!We have our first bookings already, 6 of them, and it’s not even Christmas.2007 was our record year, but even so we’ve never received a booking before Christmas, and now we already have 6 of them.
Have we turned the corner?Could this be the start of something wonderful?Who knows, we may be on the verge of overnight success after 11 years.Wouldn’t that be something?
